Precautionary and preventive measures to be taken by States

The law requires special measures to be taken by the State Governments to prevent atrocities against members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes,¹ such as:

• Identify areas where crimes and atrocities are likely to occur or reoccur.
• Schedule visits of the District Magistrate and police officer to identified areas for reviewing the law and order situation there.
• If necessary, cancel the arms license of any person in the identified area and have them deposit their arms in the government armory. Members of SCs and STs, their families and employees are exempted from this.
• Provide arms licenses to members of SCs and STs to ensure their safety and that of their properties, only if deemed necessary.
• Set up a vigilance and monitoring committee to suggest effective measures to implement the provisions of this special law.
• Set up awareness centres and organise workshops to educate people belonging to SCs and STs about their rights and protections available to them. This can also be done by encouraging NGOs to hold such workshops by providing them with financial and other assistance. 
• Deploy special police forces in areas identified as those where atrocities against members of SCs and STs are committed.

1. Rule 3, Scheduled Caste Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocity) Rules, 1995. [↩]