#DLM- caste, creed, and politics

Exactly two months ago, a young girl in Hathras, Bihar was brutally assaulted and killed and the police had nothing to do or say about it. Apart from the appalling sexism in India, this particular issue unraveled into the overruled casteism that has affected the country for centuries. 

The details of this case are so ghastly that even talking about it is brutal for a person. To imagine a young girl, close to our age, going through a living nightmare like that just because someone deemed her “lowly” centuries ago is a grave matter that questions the very nature of democracy in India. The first right of an Indian citizen is the ‘Right to Equality’ and there are videos of this right being denied to a human being in spite of her critical condition. Even after she went through this frightening ordeal, the police refused to rush her to the hospital or take notice of her state. They refused to believe her allegations and blatantly ignored her pleas. The enforcers of the law, the protectors of the citizens, refused to do their job and deliver justice to the dying girl. And all this why- because they felt that she didn’t deserve it. The rules didn’t apply to ‘someone like her’. Being a woman in this country is hard enough on us, but being a minority, a social minority that were and still are considered ‘untouchables’, caused a young girl misery and pain until her last breath. 

The heartbreaking aspect of this case is that it revealed that 10 Dalit women are raped on a daily basis in our country. Our country, one that preaches unity in diversity, one that preaches democracy and claims its pillars to be equality and justice, has such terrifying statistics. When the Black Lives Matter movement caused such an uproar in the United States, our country stood for the rights of all colored men and women in that country, and everywhere else. What is sad is that while that movement became a worldwide outrage, the Dalits in our country do not receive the same justice. People say that all lives matter, and one should not discriminate. It comes down to one simple fact- All lives will matter as soon as the afflicted ones start mattering. All lives will matter as female lives start mattering. All lives will matter as soon as Dalit Lives Matter. 

– Siya Girisaballa