As many as 1,89,945 cases of crime against Dalits were registered in four years beginning 2018, the Union government told Parliament on Tuesday, citing a National Crime Records Bureau report published in 2021.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra shared the data in response to a query by Bahujan Samaj Party MP Girish Chandra, who had asked for statistics on the number of incidents of attacks on Dalits in the last four years. He had also asked if there was any mechanism to monitor such incidents.

Mishra, however, could not provide figures for last year, saying that the latest report by the National Crime Records Bureau, which compiles statistical data on crimes, was published in 2021. The report is titled “Crime in India”.

In these four years, 27,754 persons have been convicted for crimes against Dalits, data shared by the minister in the Lok Sabha showed. The highest number of cases for crime against Dalits have been registered in Uttar Pradesh, with 11,924 in 2018, 11,829 in 2019, 12,714 in 2020, and 13,146 in 2021.

Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported zero cases of atrocities against Dalits throughout the last four years.

“Police and public order are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India,” Mishra said in its reply. “The responsibilities of maintaining law and order, protection of life and property of the citizens, including Scheduled Castes, rest with the respective state governments and the state governments are competent to deal with such offences under the extant provisions of laws.”

Mishra added that the Ministry of Home Affairs have been issuing advisories to states and Union Territories from time to time for effective implementation of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.