Rohit Vemula suicide; Una incident in Gujarat involving Dalit tanners; Rape and murder of a minor girl in Maharashtra, during Jat reservation , Dalits were attacked indiscriminately etc.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports a 44 per cent increase in violence against Dalits, up from 32,712 in 2010 to 47, 064 crimes in 2014.

Reasons for rising violence

• Response of the dominant communities over the Dalit’s assertion of their social, political and economic rights.
• Dalit communities as a whole are summarily punished for individual transgressions.
• Unemployment coupled with the growing resentment among the upper castes at having to increasingly share social, political and economic privileges with Dalits.
• Better reporting and registering also appears to be a reason for the rising numbers of crimes against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

Challenges that lie ahead

• Low conviction rate- Compared to a 45% conviction rate for all cases under the Indian Penal Code, no more than 28% of crimes against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes end in conviction, according to the data from the National Crime Records Bureau.
• Failure of the state to compensate and rehabilitate the victims, despite existing provisions like the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, and Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, etc.
• Discrimination by police to register cases.
• The embedded social caste structure till now existing in society

Way Ahead

• Caste discrimination can and should be eliminated, and it requires action on many levels – from the grass roots level to state and national level, as well as to the international level. Legislation, its implementation as well as the change in the people’s mindsets should be looked at.
• Caste discrimination is not a matter which only the state is obliged to act upon. Rather it is a human rights which acts against the universal principles of nondiscrimination, human dignity and equality.
• Encouraging inter-caste marriages.                                                                                                                                                                
• In December 2015, the Prevention of Atrocities Act was amended to establish special courts to try crimes against SCs and STs and rehabilitate victims.