New Delhi: The United Christian Forum (UCF), a Delhi-based civil society organisation focused on Christian issues, has said in a press release that the first 2.5 months of 2024, ahead of the general elections, have witnessed “a large-scale erosion of basic fundamental rights and protection of Indian Christians”.
“January witnessed 70 incidents of violence against Christians followed by 62 incidents in 29 days of February and 29 incidents in 15 days of March, 2024,” the UCF has said. This comes to a total of 161 incidents in 2.5 months.
The incidents include violence, attacks on churches or prayers meetings, harassment of those following their faith, ostracisation and limiting access to community resources, and false allegations, particularly those pertaining to ‘forced conversions’.
Ostracisation of Christians for following their faith continues in Chhattisgarh, according to the press release. “Christians are being denied access to water from the community-bore-well of the village. In this state, sadly, even dead Christians are not spared as many were denied burial as per Christian rituals. Local villagers have been threatening to cremate the bodies as a final act of Gharwapasi. As in the Christmas period of 2022, Christians are again being chased out of their own homes. Locals are physically assaulting, threatening their lives and vandalizing their homes,” UCF has said.
In Uttar Pradesh, which saw the second highest number of incidents after Chhattisgarh, there is “clear evidence of state- sponsored harassment of Christians” as “the police files false allegations of conversion against the pastors even for praying in birthday parties and other social gatherings”, the release continues.
“In all, there are 19 states in India wherein Christians are facing threat to their lives for practicing their faith. There are 122 Christians who have either been detained or arrested on the false allegation of conversions in just 75 days of 2024. As UCF, we request our leadership to put an end to this violence by taking strict action against perpetrators of all such crimes, and we hope and pray for a peaceful and fair election,” the group has stated.
The Wire has reported how attacks on Christians have seen a steep rise in the last 14 years, particularly since 2017. “Most of the time, FIRs are filed against the victims of violence, while the perpetrators are allowed to go scot-free,” A.C. Michael, national convenor of the UCF, told The Wire then. “Otherwise the police usually tries to pacify the victims, saying if you file a case then they [the attackers] may become more aggressive, and then your life will be more dangerous.”
