Payment of compensation under atrocities Act: Gujarat govt fails to move despite murder of Dalit in Bhachau

Navsarjan's Dalit campaign

By A Representative
Top Gujarat human rights organization, Navsarjan Trust, has protested against the Gujarat government’s failure to pay compensation to the nearest kin of Premjibhai Palabhai Dafda, a Dalit farmer of Bhachau in Kutch district, aged 46, who was murdered in broad daylight on August 11. Senior activist Kantibhai Parmar, who rushed to Bhachau on hearing the gruesome murder, told this corrspondent that under the prevention of the atrocities Act, Dafda’s family should have been paid 75 per cent of the compensation they are entitled to – which is Rs 5 lakh in case of the murder is of an earning family member.
“Social justice and empowerment department officials visited Dafda’s family six days after the murder, on August 17, and only when family members raised the issue of compensation did they say it would be paid. Under the Act, 75 per cent of the compensation should be paid within 24 hours of the murder. However, the state government has just refused to move, showing up its inertia”, Parmar said, speaking from Bhachau.
Enhanced monetary relief in the case of atrocities against scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) was announced by the Government of India through a notification in December 2011. Under the notification, as per the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities (Amendment) Rules 2011, which came into effect from December 23, 2011, compensation in case of murder of an earning SC/ST member was revised to Rs five lakh from Rs two lakh. As for a non-earning member, the compensation was revised from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh.
Dafda was reportedly overrun by a car following a brawl with Kanaksinh Zala, aged 28, the chief accused, who has been arrested under section 302 (murder). “The brawl took place because of a minor incident, in which Dafda was riding on a motorbike and refused to allow the car to move ahead. This led to a brawl, which was also settled. However, in no time, Dafda was brutally attacked and run over by the same car. It was not an accident. It was an act of murder, in the presence of all present, between 1.00 and 2.15 pm”, Parmar reported the incident on the basis of his talk with the victim’s family members.
Parmar alleged, “The accused is known as a bootlegger of Bhachau, and is terror in the town, and the police had been going soft towards him till now. Only three months back, riding a bike, he attacked someone in a similar incident, badly injuring the person, even a police complaint was lodged. However, the police did not do anything because he holds lot of influence.” He added, “Had police taken action against him at that time, things would not have deteriorated so badly.”
Dafda belonged to a relatively well-to-do Dalit family, with an ownership of 30 acres of land. Bhachau has in all 400 Dalit households, suggesting they hold considerable influence in the small town, which was the worst victim of the killer quake of January 26, 2001. Zala, a Rajput by caste, feel locals, was feeling the pinch of increasing might of the Dalits in the region, one reason why he acted the way he did. “He behaved in a very odd manner even after the murder. After overrunning Dafda, he first ran away, and then sent someone to pick up the car”, Parmar said.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.

Search This Blog