Welcome Change: Ending Casteist Policing

Casteist discrimination in India was codified into law in 1871 by the British colonial authorities when they enacted the Criminal Tribes Act branding several nomadic and tribal communities as “hereditary criminals” – criminals by birth, enforced through the institution of policing. Though this law was repealed in 1952, the devastating taint of criminality for these communities has persisted through vague laws and casteist policing. Lawyer and social entrepreneur Nikita Sonavane founded the Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project in Bhopal, India to end the disproportionate targeting of oppressed caste communities by the criminal justice system.