PUDR expresses deep concern over the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015. On Human Rights Day, 10th December 2015, the apex court upheld five disqualifications laid down in the Act to particularly exclude those who are without specified educational qualifications, without a functional toilet in their homes, in debt, had arrears of electricity bills and had criminal charges framed against them, from contesting the elections to the Panchyati Raj.

On 22 May 2015, the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM), a student group namely Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle (APSC) was ‘derecognised’ by the Dean of Students following an  advisory note received from the Under Secretary to the Human Resource Development Ministry, Government of India. The note from the MHRD referred to an anonymous complaint that APSC created “hatred” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Hindus, and subsequently tried to justify the action in the garb of ‘misuse of privileges’.

Barely have the voices of the protests against sexual assault of four minor girls in Hisar district in Haryana subdued, another horrific display of sexual violence has occurred in Badayun district of Uttar Pradesh.  Two Dalit cousins – both minors – were brutally gang raped, murdered and hung from a tree on May 27, 2014. The hanging of the bodies from a tree in full display by dominant communities, which is reminiscent of the dark ages, is most condemnable. This is one among a growing number of incidents of sexual and caste violence.

In the past few months, parts of north-western India have witnessed incidents of outright Dalit assertion of their rights related to access to resources and to a life of dignity. This has, in all cases, met with retaliation by the dominant upper or intermediary castes. After the Hisar incident, where hundreds of Dalits from Bhagana village had to come all the way up to Delhi on foot to voice  the suppression of their rights to land and an equal life, similar acts of oppression have been witnessed in Ramgarh village of Dadri Tehsil, GautamBuddh Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh. 

PUDR brings to your attention that fifty or so Dalit men have been sitting on dharna in Jantar Mantar from 2nd July. They are here for an indefinite period till they get justice. They have marched to Delhi on foot in 44 degree heat, having left Hisar town on 27th June.