Give cash rewards to districts which record hight number of inter-caste marriages: Athawale

Voicing concern over the rising cases of atrocities against SCs and STs in the country, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale today suggested to state governments to give cash rewards of Rs 25 crore to the district which records highest number of inter-caste marriages.
Athawale, the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment further recommended giving jobs or land to couples who tie knots breaking the caste barrier.
"State government's should give cash reward of Rs 25 crore to the district which records highest number of inter-caste marriages or make a provision to either give a job or five acre of land to such couple in order to promote inter-caste marriage which in turn will help in combating incidents of atrocities.

The Minister also talked about setting up of Helplines at the state and district level and forming a designated team of policemen, led by a sub-inspector in each police station to deal with complaints of atrocities.
"There have been instances where complaints are made but police do not take cognisance. The victims keeps reporting about the threats that they receive but no action is taken. It is important to take action at the initial stage to avoid a tragedy," Athawale said.
The Minister said that he has made the recommendations to the states in a meeting of the Committee to review the implementation of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act held here today.

Athwale also stressed that periodic meetings of the High Power State Level Vigilance and Monitoring Committees under the chairpersonship of Chief Minister should be held in the states to ensure that the Act is implemented.

Pointing out that only 14 states have set up Exclusive Special Courts to speed up the trial of cases under PoA Act, Athawale urged States which have not set up such courts to follow the rule under the Section 14 of the amended PoA Act which calls for establishing of such courts in one or more districts.
Athawale said that increasing levels of awareness among people is resulting in increased number of complaints under the PoA Act.

India recorded 46,114 crimes against SCs and STs in 2013, 47,124 such cases in 2014 and 44,839 cases in 2015.
BJP-ruled Rajasthan has registered 23,861 cases under the amended Prevention of Atrocities (PoA) Act between 2013-15 while UP and Bihar have registered 23,556 and 21,061 cases respectively during the same span, according to government report.
Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil and Gujarat reported 14,016, 9,054, 8,084, 7,565, 6,546, 5,131 and 3,969 such crimes respectively during the years.