Image Courtesy:pucl.org
Hub of 66.7 percent of India’s crimes against women by 2021, 28.6 percent crime rate against Dalits by 2019, 37 percent targeting of Muslim during police encounters in 2020, 443 judicial custody deaths in 2020-21, anti-Romeo squad and so much more – these are the accomplishments of the current Uttar Pradesh government that have worried national rights organisations since 2018. In particular, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) state chapter released a draft of demands listing all human rights violations and the redressal thereof to be considered by political parties planning to contest in 2022 elections.
Stating that 40 percent of India’s human rights abuses in 2021 occurred in Uttar Pradesh, the PUCL said, “UP is at the forefront of violence against women. In the case of Dalit atrocities, 25.8 percent of all Dalit atrocities in India are from Uttar Pradesh, which is the highest. During the current rule of the BJP’s ‘Yogi government’, cases of fake encounters increased unexpectedly, which raised deep concern amongst human rights organizations all over the world.”
As the Assembly elections draw closer, the organisation emphasised that people must choose a new government that has a deep concern of the plight of the economically-disadvantaged, the unemployed, Dalits and the condition of forest tribals and minorities. As such, it drew attention to various incidents of human rights violations over the years.
Crimes Against Women
BY 2019, crimes against women had already reached a 55.4 percent crime rate. The state ranked first in murder with sexual assault/gang rape, dowry deaths, miscarriage, acid attack, cruelty by husband or in-laws, kidnapping and abduction. It also ranked in the top 10 states for sexual assault, attempt to commit sexual assault, IPC crimes against women, POCSO offences (only in case of girls).
Between March 2020 and September 2020, the National Commission for Women (NCW) registered 5,470 complaints from UP, which is 53 percent of the entire country. This was also the time when India witnessed the condemnable attitude of the government towards the rape and murder of a Dalit girl first in Hathras and then in Allahabad’s Gohri.
“These figures are very shameful for any democratic state. It is the responsibility of the government to protect the rights of women in the society, so it is our demand from the upcoming government to secure and ensure the rights of women in the state,” said the PUCL.
Dalit atrocities in the state
As in the case of gender violence, the PUCL demanded that all electoral parties should aim to end caste oppression. It pointed out that the current government has not made any efforts to break this social evil despite provisions in the constitution to break it. Instead, activists claimed that caste-based crimes have nowadays become an institutional oppression.
Citing data, the PUCL said the state accounted for 25.8 percent of crimes against Dalits in 2019 – highest in the country. UP also reported 537 out of 3,486 cases of sexual assault of Dalit women in 2019, indicating the intersecting dangers of gender and caste violence.
“Remember these figures are based on officially registered cases. In many cases, FIRs are not even registered and the attitude of the police administration in such cases is very lax. NCRB data for 2020 also shows that Uttar Pradesh has reached at top place in Dalit and Adivasi oppression,” said the draft.
Crimes against minorities
From 1992 Babri Masjid demolition to the recent anti-CAA protests, crimes against minorities, especially Muslims have especially increased in the state. State police have developed an unnerving habit of arresting Muslims by accusing them of cow slaughter and targeting them due to their religion.According to the PUCL, 41 such cases sent to the High Court in 2020 turned out to be fake. 70 percent of these cases were quashed and the rest got bail easily. Still, the increasing number of fake cases threatens the right to life of this community.
Similarly, the percentage of under-trial Muslim prisoners in jails is about 29 percent, while their population in the state is only 19 percent and convicted prisoners account for 22 percent.“Even in Uttar Pradesh’s notorious fake counter, the communal mindset of the police is exposed by the figure that in 2020 – 37 percent of the victims were Muslims,” said the PUCL.
State oppression
Shortly after being elected in 2017, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath openly called upon police officers to “thump” criminals. Within 16 months, as many as 3,200 encounters were carried out with human rights organizations going to court. Even then, Adityanath maintained his call for force and announced ₹ 1 lakh on 26 January 2019 for officers carrying out police encounters.
The PUCL also cited the Indian Express story of ‘Operation Langra’ wherein sacks were tied to the accused’s knees. An estimated 3,302 people were made lame through this, said the report.The rights organisation appealed that the electoral parties take legal action against the police personnel and people involved in such fake encounters, compensate victims, and devise methods to avoid such abuse in future.
Custodial deaths
The PUCL urged parties to question the growing instances of police and judicial custody. In 2020-21 UP recorded 11 police custody deaths and 443 judicial custody deaths. While this is less than the 12 police custody deaths and 452 judicial custody deaths of 2018-19, the data still indicates an upward trend of such oppression during a global pandemic.
Year | Deaths in Police Custody | Deaths in Judicial Custody |
2018-19 | 12 | 452 |
2019-20 | 3 | 400 |
2020-21 | 11 | 443 |
As an example, the PUCL cited the incident of Kasganj city’s youth Altaf’s death in Kotwali. The police called a suicide but the scene raised questions of custodial death by hanging.
Ban on demonstrations
Despite the protection of the constitution in Article 19 of the Constitution, the right to demonstrate has faced severe repression under an authoritative regime. In the last few years, the state government severely and very brutally suppressed every demonstration by employees, students, farmers and minorities for raising rights issues.
Rather than a dialogue, the government has resorted to police repression through lathis and guns and abuse of Section 144 amidst a pandemic.
“During first and second pandemic the governments have suppressed the people in the most brutal manner which can’t be found in near past history,” said activists.
They cited the most recent attack on students, who were forced out of their rooms simply for joining protests demanding jobs. As such, the PUCL demanded that all political parties make announcements in their manifestos to provide adequate jobs to jobless.
Unconstitutional laws
Over the years, the BJP regime introduced various contentious laws like the introduction of the ‘Anti-Romeo Squad’ that sanctioned the feudal and communal mindset that girls and boys cannot be friends. Between March 22, 2017 and November 30, 2022, the state DIG office said that the ‘Anti Romeo Squad’ arrested 14,454 boys. Meanwhile, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data showed that cases against women increased from 153 per day before 2017 to 164 per day in 2019.
Other such dubious laws are Unlawful Religious Conversion Prohibition Act 2021, the Population Control Bill 2021, UP Public and Private Property Damage Recovery Act 2020.
Proposal to abolish labor laws
In line with the BJP-regime plan to abolish labour laws, Adityanath issued an ordinance that abolished all labor laws for three years and reduced working hours to 12 hours. International labor organizations wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi which put the matter in cold storage. However, labor laws are still under threat in Uttar Pradesh.
Right to Health and dignity in death
The abysmal medical state of UP since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic is shameful for human history, said the PUCL. People struggled to avail medicine, treatment, oxygen, beds and even the basic right to ask for help at a point.
“It seemed that there was no government in the state. The death of people due to lack of medical care is a serious question of human rights and the status of development. According to government data, the number of deaths due to corona in the state was only 23,073 deaths but later the hair-raising pictures of dead bodies coming out on the banks of the Ganga river said these figures were around lakhs,” said PUCL.
It reminded how even after death, people could not get a respectable funeral, an extension of the right to life. Families and municipal vehicles threw unclaimed dead bodies on the ghats. Even those not suffering from Covid-19, could not avail medical services because there was no arrangement for them in hospitals.
“PUCL demands that after the formation of their government, parties will make special efforts towards making the medical system easily accessible to everyone. Considering the deaths during the Corona period as government negligence, they will give proper compensation to the families of those who died during the Corona period,” it said.
Environmental damage
Lastly, in acknowledgement of the woes of Adivasi communities, the PUCL demanded that the new government should give serious consideration to environmental rights. It asked that the government take the consent of the invested public before implementing sanctioning development projects.
Similarly, the Forest Conservation Act should be strictly followed. Ponds should be made in every village to conserve rain water, or old ponds should be retained. The use of machines for sand mining from rivers should be stopped.
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