Phoolan Devi and other Dalit (Untouchable caste) women say that it is common for women to be simply grabbed and raped or otherwise sexually abused by upper-caste men. These incidences are testimony to the lowly status and casual disregard of the human dignity of Dalit women in Bihar.
Govind Kelkar writes that"It is common practice to force a Dalit, agricultural labourer woman to have sexual relations with a Rajput landlord. If the woman declines, her husband, brother or father is implicated in false criminal cases."
One incident which was much-reported in Indian newspapers describes how a Dalit woman was str-ipped by upper-caste men, paraded naked through her village, then gang-raped and killed.
"Dalit women have suffered large-scale neglect under the feudo-patriarchal rule of landlords. Nevertheless, they have showed an unparalleled militancy and strength in fighting landlord oppression and in struggling for improved wages and their right to land and other resources," writes Kelkar.
Though atrocities committed against Dalits are occasionally reported in the Indian press and government documents, convictions are very rare. Despite the thousands of cases reported by the Indian government, Amnesty international, Asia Watch, and even the Indian press, little action is taken. The complicity of corrupt government officials & politicians in some of these killings and other human rights violations, though reported, remains uninvestigated by the government.
