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

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.

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.

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.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The golden crop: How turmeric is transforming women's lives in tribal India

By Vikas Meshram* When the lush green fields of turmeric sway in the tribal belt of southern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, it is not merely a spice crop — it is the golden glow of self-reliance. In villages where even basic spices once had to be bought from the market, the very soil today is yielding a prosperity that has transformed the lives of thousands of families. At the heart of this transformation is the initiative of Vaagdhara, which has linked turmeric with livelihoods, nutrition, and village self-governance — gram swaraj.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

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".

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.

False claim? What Venezuela is witnessing is not surrender but a tactical retreat

By Manolo De Los Santos The early morning hours of January 3, 2026, marked an inflection point in Venezuela and Latin America’s centuries-long struggle for self-determination and independence. Operation Absolute Resolve, ordered by the Trump administration, constituted the most brutal and direct military assault on a sovereign state in the region in recent memory. In a shocking operation that left hundreds dead, President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped from Venezuelan soil and transported to the United States, where they now face fabricated charges in a New York federal detention facility. In the two months since this act of war, a torrent of speculation has emerged from so-called experts and pundits across the political spectrum. This has followed three main lines: One . The operation’s success indicated treason at the highest levels of the Bolivarian Revolution. Two . Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the remaining leadership have abandone...

Search This Blog