NEW DELHI: In a bid to reduce crime rate and ensure faster trials of the culprits in cases of abuse against the weaker castes of society, the chief minister of Bihar, a state in Northern India, has decided to set up a special Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) police station at each of his district headquarters. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar made the announcement at a meeting called to discuss ways and means to prevent atrocities against the weaker classes of society. The phenomena which is rampant in most parts of India, which has steep divides between upper castes (social groupings based on trade/profession prevalent in India for several hundred years) which includes Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishyas, and on the other end of the spectrum, Shurdras. He said that all such police stations would be housed along with the district headquarters and in case any such police stations were housed separately, they would be shifted. Kumar also announced the setting up of special government lawyers, or prosecutors to deal with cases that involve atrocities against the SCs and STs to represent the state in subordinate judiciary and the high court cases. He has also directed to ensure the speedy distributing of compensation and take the initiative to victims of to victims of murder, carnage, rape and gang rape belonging to either the SC or ST communities. The state of Bihar is notorious for lawlessness to the point where it has become synonymous with the world lawlessness. It also has strong caste furrows that run deep in society and are adhered to even though modern education is making inroads into the state. Incidentally, the state also accounts for one of the highest number of Indian Administrative Service Officers (IAS) to the country's elite civil service. In India an offence against a member of the SC or ST communities is considered a serious non bail able offence.
