Question

Re-read the story on Rathnam as well as the provisions of the 1989 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Now list one reason why you think he used this law to file a complaint.

Answer 1

Rathnam used the 1989 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to file a complaint because on his refusal to perform a degrading ritual, the Dalit man was ostracized from his community, his hut set on fire and he was forced to move out of his village. These were all atrocities committed on a caste bias and humiliation forced down upon the Dalits. The 1989 Act lists modes of humiliation, actions dispossessing Dalits and Adivasis of their meagre resources and crimes against Dalit and tribal women as crimes