Highlights
- Payment of pension as additional relief to victims of rape, gang-rape or murder, provided for under the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, are rarely ever adhered to.
- District Collectors have no clue about it, and letters to the government seeking clarity have evoked no response, say activists.
- In case of atrocities including murder, death, massacre, rape, gang-rape, permanent incapacitation and dacoity, the Act entitles the victims or their kin to a basic pension amounting to Rs.5,000 a month, with admissible dearness allowance and employment to one member of the deceased’s family, provision of agricultural land and house.
- The pension provision is never adhered to, alleges Dalit Sthree Sakthi, an NGO providing legal aid to SC/ST victims.
- In many instances, inclusion of sections of SC/ST Act itself becomes a challenge.
- A case in point is Renuka of Budige Jangala caste, who committed suicide in Ranga Reddy district reportedly due to harassment and humiliation by her teachers.
- Though a case was filed in 2010 immediately after her suicide, the police invoked SC/ST Act provisions only five years later.
- The police fell in line only after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took suo motu cognisance of the case, learning about it through The Hindu newspaper.
- In its camp sitting at Hyderabad in 2015, NHRC ordered for inclusion of the relevant sections.
- Renuka’s case, for instance, has not come for trial until now.
- Eight years is a long fight endured by Hanumanthu, her father, who ekes a livelihood by begging.
- Another SC girl, a minor, was gang-raped and murdered in 2010.
- Eight years later, the accused are out on bail, while her two brothers, attacked by the rapists, are incapacitated for life.
- No compensation has been paid to the brothers, though the Act entitles them to it.
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