Christians are 6 per cent of the prison population
March 24, 2014 - The high number of prison inmates from India’s socio-religious minorities
"is due to the attitude of some states, which target the most vulnerable sections
of society," said a Christian social activist, himself a victim of prejudice and injustice.
Arun Ferreira, an activist for Christian Dalits and tribals, spoke to AsiaNews following
the release of the 2012 Prison Statistics report by the National Crimes Record Bureau
(NCRB). According to the report, Muslims, who are 13.4 per cent of India's population,
represented 28.02 per cent of the prison population in 2012. Christians are in the
same situation. Nationally, they are 2.3 per cent of the population but they constitute
6 per cent of the prison population. For the activist, "We get these percentages
because Dalits, Tribals, Muslims and Christians are often the victims of loopholes
and sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Accused of being a Naxalite (Maoist)
guerrilla, Ferreira was arrested in May 2007 in Nagpur. During his detention, he
was tortured and interrogated twice after being treated with a "truth serum," a psychoactive
drug that is now illegal. After four years and eight months in jail, he was released
on bail. "My experience in prison is that every state tends to target minorities,
showing some of its specific features," Ferreira told AsiaNews.
"In states
where Hinduism is strong, like Orissa (where the effects of anti-Christian pogroms
still linger), many innocent Christians have been arrested and thrown in prison, falsely
accused of being Naxalites. However, the same thing happened in Gujarat after the
2002 riots." "In Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, which are also under strong Hindu influence,
the authorities have overtly attacked the Christian community, treating its members
as the 'criminal' element in the Dalit and Tribal groups." All too often, Christians
fall into the clutches of the justice system on false evidence because they back causes
that embarrass the authorities. “In Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, some tribal
Christians were arrested on false accusations of terrorism," Ferreira noted, "when
in fact the problem was their struggle against large-scale mining projects that required
huge tracts of land to be expropriated." The same is true for Tamil Nadu, where Christians
have been charged with 'subversion' for opposing the construction of the Kudankulam
nuclear power plant. "Sadly, neither the government nor the NCRB recognise political
prisoners as a separate category, so there are no statistics about it." (Source:
AsiaNews )