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The police complaint in Salem district, Tamil Nadu, alleges that the victim rejected the advances of the accused, triggering a violent reaction.
"The girl was brutally murdered.The investigation is ongoing and the accused has been arrested," said Ponkarthik Kumar, senior police chief in the district.
The police charged him under the law criminalizing caste-based violence. The law has existed in India since 1989.
Lower castes, also known as Dalits, constitute one of the most marginalized groups in India's complicated caste system – a community of people formerly known as the untouchables, to whom the right to Education and employment is often denied by discrimination and systemic abuse.
Despite numerous laws and court decisions that have tried to create a level playing field, deep-seated biases have often hindered progress, activists said.
"Why does the establishment not show this strength?" Such incidents happen constantly. "When advocating for advocacy, political will must be questioned, or lack of political will must be questioned. "said Radhika Ganesh, a political activist. advocates the rights of Dalits for years.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the total number of crimes against people belonging to lower castes rose to more than 47,000 in 2016.
"The reason for the violence is the high level of politicization of caste-based politics, which is why there are many abuses of political power," said Ganesh.
Protests against caste-based violence
According to Tamil Nadu's official statistics, crimes against women covered by the law represent only 5% to 8% of the total number of crimes against lower caste members, said Jayna Kothari, executive director of the Center for Research on Human Rights. law and policies. Kothari explained that some offenses against them that should be included are instead classified as ordinary offenses.
"This data is a source of great concern, and the question is whether … should it be registered as a crime of gender or a crime of lower caste?" It should be both. to examine violence in a cross-sectoral way, isolate it, "said Kothari.
Earlier this year, in an ongoing case, the Supreme Court overturned an important provision of the Scheduled Caste and Tribe Act (preventing atrocities). The court ruled that the police could not immediately arrest a person accused of a crime against a low caste person.
The law aims to protect people belonging to lower castes from retaliation or intimidation that could arise after filing a complaint and orders the immediate arrest of the accused as a countervailing measure.
Violent demonstrations organized by Dalit groups broke out all over the country and the Indian government was forced to pass a decree in order to avoid the adoption of the Supreme Court's decision and to annul their changes.
On Wednesday, activists in the Tamil Nadu capital, Chennai, staged a protest called Violence of Silence, which saw 300 people march in torrential rain to protest the latest list of injustices.
"Caste is a kind of accepted open practice in Tamil Nadu, everyone is silent about it, and silence is about creating violence around it," Ganesh said.
