Assistance under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act

What is the assistance under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act in Puducherry?

Assistance under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act is a scheme of the Adi Dravidar Welfare and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Department, Government of Puducherry. The department states the objective in two short lines: "To provide immediate relief to the victims of S.C. atrocities" and "Payment of relief, compensation for loss and rehabilitation."

The scheme is the union territory's implementation of the relief machinery under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and the Rules made under it. That is important to understand at the outset, because it changes how the scheme works compared with the department's other programmes.

Most schemes run by the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department: scholarships, house site distribution, house construction subsidy, marriage assistance for poor brides, sanitary latrine assistance, begin with an application form. This one begins with a criminal offence being reported to the police. Relief follows the case; it does not stand on its own.

The department's own list places this scheme alongside the distribution of free house sites, house construction subsidy for Scheduled Caste people, financial assistance to poor Scheduled Caste pregnant and lactating women, marriage assistance for poor Scheduled Caste brides, supply of dhotis and sarees, civic amenities in Scheduled Caste areas, funeral rites assistance, sanitary latrine assistance and the issue of washing machines to Scheduled Caste families.

Who is eligible for the assistance, and who is not?

You are eligible if:

• You belong to a Scheduled Caste and hold a community certificate. The department's published eligibility note is exactly this: "Scheduled Caste person affected by atrocities."
• You have been affected by an atrocity. An offence of the kind the Prevention of Atrocities Act covers.
• A case has been registered in respect of the offence.
• You are a resident of the union territory of Puducherry, where the offence falls within its jurisdiction.

You are not eligible if:

• You do not belong to a Scheduled Caste. The Act's protection is defined by community, and relief under it follows that definition. Scheduled Tribe victims are covered by the same Act and the same department, and the department's published note for this particular scheme refers to Scheduled Caste persons.
• No offence under the Act has been reported. Relief cannot be claimed on an unreported grievance.
• The offence, though serious, is not one the Prevention of Atrocities Act covers. Ordinary offences between persons of the same community, for instance, fall outside this framework. The general criminal law and victim compensation schemes apply instead.

Dependants of a victim who has died are covered where the relief for that offence provides for them, and they claim with the death certificate and legal heir certificate.

How much relief is paid, and when?

This is where readers must be told plainly what is and is not published.

The Adi Dravidar Welfare Department's own page for this scheme does not publish a rate card. It states the objective — payment of relief, compensation for loss and rehabilitation, and the eligibility, and nothing more.

What can be said accurately about the framework is this. Relief under the Prevention of Atrocities Rules is scaled by the offence: the graver the offence, the larger the relief, with the highest amounts reserved for offences causing death and for the gravest offences against women. Relief is not paid as a single lump sum. It is released in stages tied to the progress of the case, a first instalment once the FIR is registered and the medical examination or post-mortem is complete, a further instalment when the charge sheet is filed in court, and the balance on conviction by the trial court.

Beyond the monetary relief, the framework provides for rehabilitation, which in practice can include help with alternative accommodation, restoring a livelihood, education for the children of a victim, and travelling and maintenance expenses for attending the trial.

Do not rely on a figure quoted by a third-party website. Ask the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department, or the investigating officer, for the scale applicable to the specific offence registered in your case. That is the only reliable source, and the department is obliged to tell you.

How to apply for relief under the Prevention of Atrocities Act

The order of steps here matters more than in an ordinary scheme.

1. Report the offence to the police immediately. Go to the police station with jurisdiction and insist that the FIR record the offence under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and not only under the general penal provisions. If the Act is not invoked in the FIR, the relief machinery does not start.
2. Get a copy of the FIR. You are entitled to it free of cost. Keep it safe; every subsequent step refers to it.
3. Get medical examination done at a government hospital where there is injury, and collect the medico-legal record. Where there has been a death, the post-mortem report is part of the relief file.
4. Record the loss. Where property, crop, cattle or a house has been damaged, ask for a panchanama and take photographs. Compensation for loss depends on this being documented at the time, not reconstructed later.
5. Approach the Adi Dravidar Welfare and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Department with the FIR copy, your community certificate, identity proof, medical records and a copy of your bank passbook. Ask for the relief to be processed and for the scale applicable to the offence.
6. Take a dated acknowledgement, and follow up as the case progresses; when the charge sheet is filed and again after judgment; since further stages of relief attach to those events.

How do you check the status of a relief claim?

• Follow up at the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department, quoting the FIR number, the police station and the date of the offence. The FIR number is the file's real reference in this scheme, not an application number.
• Keep in contact with the investigating officer, since the department's releases are keyed to investigation milestones.
• Relief is credited to the bank account of the victim or dependant, so check the passbook.
• The department publishes orders and circulars on its notice board and orders pages at adwelfare.py.gov.in.

What commonly goes wrong, and how do you prevent it?

• The Act is not invoked in the FIR. The single most damaging failure. If the police record only general offences, take it up at once with the Superintendent of Police and with the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department.
• Community certificate not available. Obtain it from the competent revenue authority; the whole framework rests on it.
• No medical examination at a government hospital. Injuries treated only privately are harder to establish. Get a government medico-legal record.
• Loss not documented at the time. Photographs and a panchanama taken on the day are worth more than any later valuation.
• Losing touch with the case. Because relief comes in stages tied to the FIR, the charge sheet and the judgment, a victim who stops following the case often never receives the later instalments.
• Bank account problems. Give an active account in the victim's or dependant's own name.

Where do you get help?

• Contact the Adi Dravidar Welfare and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Department, Government of Puducherry, at its Puducherry office, or the departmental office in Karaikal or Yanam.
• Approach the Superintendent of Police where an FIR is not being registered properly under the Act.
• The National Commission for Scheduled Castes can be approached where relief and protection are being denied.
• An unresolved grievance can be lodged on CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in against the Government of Puducherry, Adi Dravidar Welfare Department.

Relief under this framework is a statutory entitlement. No fee is payable to anyone for it, and no agent is needed. Any demand for money in connection with a relief claim should be reported to the department and to the police.