CHENNAI: The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data on prisons show that Dalits and Tribals continue to be jailed in numbers disproportionate to their share of the population, unlike OBCs and those belonging to the general category.
According to the National Crime Record Bureau report titled ‘Prison Statistics India 2021’, around 30 per cent of all the convicts, 29.54 per cent of undertrials and 37 per cent of detenues in Tamil Nadu’s prison are Dalits who constitute 21 per cent of the state’s population.
At the end of 2019, tribals made up 3.20 per cent of all convicts in jails across the country. The share of Scheduled Tribes among undertrials languishing in jails stood at 2.97 per cent. The 2011 census put the tribal population in the state at 1.10 per cent.
This disparity has long been cited by activists as proof of widespread discrimination against vulnerable communities. However, the NCRB study provides no reason for the high rate of Dalit convicts, undertrials and detenues.
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