Recognising Caste-Based Violence Against Women

Context: By repeatedly setting aside convictions under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (PoA Act), courts bolster allegations that the law is misused.

Understanding Intersectional Discrimination faced by women in India

• Intersectional discrimination: Women in India face intersectional discrimination, As the identity of a woman intersects with her caste, class, disability, sexual orientation etc. and
  • Thus, she may face violence and discrimination due to two or more grounds.
  • “Intersectionality” was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, which takes into account multiple overlapping identities (like gender, religion, language, sexuality etc.) that can oppress a person or a group of people.
  • In the Patan Jamal Vali v. State of Andhra Pradesh case, Supreme Court addressed the intersectionality of caste, gender and disability (where the victim of sexual assault was a blind 22-year-old Dalit woman).

Judicial reluctance in acknowledging Intersectional Discrimination

• Practice of setting aside the conviction under Prevention of Atrocities Act (PoA):
  • In Patan Jamal Vali v. State of Andhra Pradesh case, the verdict confirmed conviction and punishment for rape under IPC but set aside the conviction under PoA Act.
  • Same precedence was followed in judgments of Ramdas and Others v. State of Maharashtra case (2006), Dinesh Alias Buddha v. State of Rajasthan case (2006), and Khuman Singh v. State of Madhya Pradesh case (2019).
• Burden of proof: In all the above judgments, the court held that there was no evidence to show that the accused committed sexual assault on the ground that the victim was a member of an SC/ST community.
  • 2015 amendments to PoA Act mandates that “knowing that such person (victim) is a member of SC/ST” amounts to crime under PoA Act, as against “on the ground that such person is a member of SC/ ST”.
  • Thus, the only evidence that can be led is that the victim was from an SC/ST community and that the accused was aware of that.

Conclusion

• The repeated setting aside of convictions under the PoA Act bolsters the allegations that the law is misused and amounts to the erasure of caste­based violence faced by women.
  • As stated in the recent Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on Atrocities and Crimes against Women and Children, that the “high acquittal rate motivates and boosts the confidence of dominant and powerful communities for continued perpetration”.
• We need to stop hiding behind smokescreens of hyper-technicality of evidence and recognise caste­based violence against women when it stares us in the face.