New Delhi: A Dalit woman in Buxar district of Bihar has been allegedly gang-raped, and her five-year-old child has died after the attackers threw the two of them into a canal, according to an NDTV report.
While the woman has been shifted to a hospital for treatment, the body of the child has been sent for post-mortem. Among the seven accused, the police have already identified two, and one has been arrested.
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“The woman’s medical examination is being done. An FIR (First Information Report) has been filed, while one accused has been arrested. The body of the child has been sent for post-mortem,” police officer K.K. Singh has been quoted by NDTV as saying. More details are awaited.
The incident comes to light amidst growing outrage over crimes against women, particularly from the Dalit community, after the brutal gang-rape and murder of a 20-year-old Dalit woman from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh.
Rising incidence of crime against women
On average, 10 daily cases of rape of Dalit women were reported in 2019 in the country, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Rajasthan reported the highest number of crimes against women with 554 cases in 2019, followed by Uttar Pradesh 537 and Madhya Pradesh 510 rape cases. The rate of such crimes (cases per lakh Dalit population) was 4.5 for both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Kerala with the rate of 4.6 cases per lakh population was first in the country.
The NCRB report also observes that crimes against Dalits, in general, have risen by 37% in the last one decade, while the conviction rate in such crimes increased by merely 2.5%.