#LockdownCasteAtrocities – A Social Media Campaign by Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network (DHRDNet) in collaboration with Public Bolti.
The Covid pandemic further illustrated the glaring social and economic disparity prevalent in India. The poor were left hungry, migrant laborers were beaten up by the police as they made their way home on foot to avoid starvation and homelessness, workers were fired by companies and factories… All this while the rich stayed home. Safe. Sanitizing even the vegetables brought from the market.
As for the Dalits, who find themselves most represented among the poor, we fought double marginalization as casteism bore its fangs raping us, beating us up, denying us dues for our labour, the most basic price for our crops, leaving us out of government entitlements, shoving us into prisons for raising our voices against injustice. While we watched videos of communities sing together to beat the lockdown blues, the videos that came from India were of police brutalities, government officials refusing to enter Dalit colonies to deliver entitlements, dominant caste men raping Dalit girls and women (setting them ablaze), the police arresting Dalit intellectuals and journalists. Then there were the funny videos of well meaning savarna folks saying ‘see we practiced social distancing way before it became a thing. Its in our culture to resist corona’. Go corona go indeed!
As the atrocities took place, the police and administration did not take any action or were negligent towards their duties right from registration of FIR, arresting the accused, investigating the case. There was also no possibility of the Police providing protection to the complainant and the affected Dalits. On the other side, there were incidents where the Dalits faced police brutality leading to serious injuries and also deaths. There were dominant castes and representatives of political parties who framed false cases against Dalits.
Sexual violence against Dalit women and girls continued even during the pandemic. There were cases where young Dalit women and girls were not provided proper medical treatment.
In an attempt to bring light to these very issues DHRDNet has prepared a report on atrocities that took place during the pandemic lockdown. The aim is to investigate these incidents of extraordinary violence to expose the structural conditions that enable persecution of Dalit in India. n order to build a conversation around the issues exposed in the report, DHRDNet has collaborated with Public Bolti (A citizen journalism and media advocacy platform) to run a social media campaign #LockdownCasteAtrocities prior to the release of our report shedding light on 30 cases. The campaign will focus on 30 cases for 30 days, each case presented by artists from varied disciplines like writers, dancers, rappers, graphic designers from Bahujan communities.
The campaign will be launched officially under #LockdownCasteAtrocities on 11th of October, 2020 from DHRDNet official social media handles. We request our allies in the media to amplify the campaign. Our team will help you get in touch with Dalit Human Rights Defenders on ground for you to write in-depth pieces, op-eds and more. Journalists who write on culture can focus on the artwork presented in the campaign and feature the Bahujan artists who are presented in the campaign.
For queries, reach out to Manjula Pradeep, Head of Campaigns, DHRDNet at manjula.hp@gmail.com or whatsapp (before calling) at +91 9898515090.
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About DHRDNet:
Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network (DHRDNet) is a coalition of over 1000 Dalit human rights defenders from different states of India. DHRDNet mostly concentrates its work in five states – Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
