One Full Vote and Half a Life

In April 2018, more than a dozen Da lits lost their lives when they descended on the streets to protest a Supreme Court order, diluting certain provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

With no credible research data to back its assertion, the court had, in its concluding observation, referred to "misuse" of the Act by "vested interests". An order, passed on March 20, 2018, had set guidelines to prevent said misuse, banning, for example, a provision that allowed arrest on complaint, and allowing anticipatory bails for the accused. For Dalits, this was a low blow.

They had not expected this from the country's highest court, especially when they had never veered from the path of non-violent, constitutional methods of resistance, as advocated by their guiding spirit Dr B.R. Ambedkar. In early October