Inaugurating the conference, noted dalit thinker Pancham Lal said that progressive laws have little effect if the mindset of the society does not change and a massive campaign to arouse the consciousness should be initiated. He lamented that even after 20 years of being promulgated, rate of conviction in the SC/ST Act remains dismally below five per cent.
Sunit Singh, social scientist of GB Pant Social Sciences Institute, while addressing the gathering on the fallout of implementation of national rural employment guarantee scheme stated that due to lack of social audit and effective monitoring, the corrupt bureaucrats in connivance with gram pradhans were making hay while the rural employed continued to live in pitiable conditions. Earlier, social activist and advocate of Allahabad High Court, KK Roy welcomed the delegates.
On the occasion, a two-day training workshop on dalit related laws passed a resolution to build a dalit advocates and activists network for effective implementation of legal provisions. Additional chief standing counsel of the state government Vipin Bihar was the chief guest on the occasion.
A resolution was also passed to make a representation to the state government for extending strict punishment to those police personnel who refuse to lodge First Information Report (FIR) and fail to submit the chargesheet within 30 days as specified in the SC/ST Act.