The SC/ST Atrocities Act is impervious to data — and that’s the most important thing to understand about it, says researcher Dr. Sufiya Pathan.

Dr. Sufiya Pathan of the Centre for Scientific Social Studies traces her decade-long research journey into the Prevention of Atrocities Act (POA), from a 2017 co-authored paper questioning how NCRB data on caste violence can or cannot justify consensus narratives, to a now-expanded investigation into the Act’s origins, evolution, and international implications. Her central provocation: the notion of caste violence predates any data and is immune to data — making the POA a legal instrument driven by ideology as much as evidence.

The talk covers the Act’s 1989 enactment, 1995 implementation machinery, 2015 BJP-era expansion, and the 2018 Supreme Court controversy — while raising the alarming question of how India’s atrocity statistics read to UN bodies that classify atrocities alongside genocide and war crimes. A rigorous, dispassionate academic inquiry into one of India’s most politically charged legal instruments.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr. Pathan is a researcher at the Centre for Scientific Social Studies, supported by the Sarayu Foundation. Her work on caste systems and related legislation has sparked important conversations about data interpretation and policy effectiveness in India.