State Fourth In Number Of Riots Affecting SCs And STs

AHMEDABAD: The Una flogging incident in July has brought issues of scheduled castes (SCs) in Gujarat under sharp focus.

As reported by the state police, there has been a 122% rise in number of dalit vs non-dalit riots in 2015 as against 2014.

This was revealed by a report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 'Crimes in India 2015' published on Tuesday.

The report of the central agency shows that caste-based riots involving SC/STs more than doubled in the spat in the span of a year.

The National Crime Records Bureau report also showed Gujarat stood fourth in the number of riot cases in which rival groups were identified as 'SC/ST' and 'Non SC/ST'.

In 2014, there were only 31 riots where opposing sides were identified as 'SC/ST' and 'Non SC/ST'. In 2015, that number went up to 69 - a 122% rise. Number of victims of such riots rose from 56 in 2014 to 91 in 2015, the National Crime Records Bureau said.

Among cities, Rajkot and Vadodara each reported three such incidents followed by Ahmedabad (2) and Surat (1).

The report said that Gujarat police reported a higher rate of crimes against SC/STs than the national average.

The national average crime rate in such cases is 22.7, whereas in Gujarat it was 25.7. The crime rate is decided on the basis of cases per one lakh population.

In 2015, state police reported 1,046 cases involving SCs under sections of IPC and state and local laws with 1,111 victims. However, in this case, there was an improvement over 2014 as there were 1,130 cases in that year with a crime rate of 27.7.

However the number of cases involving crimes against SCs in past five years has remained over 1,000 in the state.

"Compared to other states, Gujarat has a lower crime rate pertaining to crimes against SCs and STs. The state ranks ninth in terms of total cases. Pendency of cases is also lower in Gujarat with deputy superintendent of police (DSP) level officer appointed in each district for investigating the incidents," said a senior state police official.

