27.01.2004
WSF: Is the Dalit Issue a Local or International Concern?
Human Rights Networks Pressurize Governments, United Nations to Address Caste-based DiscriminationMUMBAI, India/GENEVA, 27 January 2004 (LWI) – When a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) representative at the Fourth World Social Forum (WSF) explained the LWF’s efforts to deal with violence against women worldwide, a young Indian man wondered whether sexual violence against Dalit women was not just a local issue.
“India’s caste system socially justifies the rape of a Dalit woman by an upper-caste man. How can this then be seen as an international issue?” asked Mr David Rajkumar Lawrence from Chennai, alluding to numerous reports about the rape of Dalit women by upper-caste men.
Ms Priscilla Singh, LWF executive secretary for Women in Church and Society (WICAS) explained that the LWF working document “Churches Say ‘No’ to Violence against Women” is an acknowledgement by the LWF and its member churches including Indian churches that violence against women is a reality in society and church worldwide. “This does not exclude sexual violence against Dalit women,” she said.
In India, caste is the factor that excludes and marginalizes one fifth of the total population by virtue of their work and descent. Dalits are at the bottom of the social hierarchy, excluded by the 'non-Dalits' in social and economic life. Caste imposes enormous obstacles to the universal enjoyment of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, which are guaranteed in the Indian Constitution. Dalits are deprived of education, employment opportunities, access to land, temples, hotels and shops. They are not allowed to drink from the same cups in tea stalls. Dalits have to do work which is considered polluting, and are themselves regarded as impure. They are forced to undertake demeaning work such as manual scavenging (the collection and removal of human faeces from dry latrines by hand). Many Dalits are bonded laborers in rural communities, finding themselves under the vicious cycle of debt bondage.
International Organizations Lobby at UN Commission on Human Rights but “That Is Not Enough”
The Dalit issue featured prominently at the WSF particularly at one well-attended seminar “From Frying Pan to Fire: The Future of Dalits and Descent-based Communities,” organized by the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN). One of the panelists, Mr Peter Prove, LWF Assistant to the General Secretary for International Affairs and Human Rights explained efforts by various international organizations and networks including the LWF, to internationalize the Dalit issue particularly in the United Nations human rights system. He noted that the 2001 World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa failed to address discrimination “based on work and descent”, an expression referring to caste-based and similar forms of discrimination.
The UN Commission on Human Rights, said Prove, has appointed a Special Rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, “but we are saying that is not enough.” The Commission and the international community must urge governments, including the government of India, to acknowledge and address the continuing prevalence of discrimination based on caste and to fully implement existing laws in order to make the right to equality and freedom a reality for people suffering from this form of entrenched exclusion.
In an interview with Lutheran World Information Mr Vincent Manoharan, one of two Dalit members of the WSF India Organizing Committee and convenor of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), explained that the Indian Constitution prohibits the practice of 'untouchability'. Parliament enacted the Protection of Civil Rights Act only in 1955, with nominal punishment for violations. After considering the Act’s inadequacy, the legislature enacted the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in 1989 but promulgated its rules only in 1995. There are special courts established under the new Act, but the conviction rate is still less than one percent of the cases registered. Despite formal protection in law, discriminatory treatment remains endemic and impunity continues to be enjoyed by most of those committing crimes against Dalits, said Manoharan. He noted however that there are 117 Dalit Members of Parliament in the 544-member legislative body.
For India’s estimated 200 million Dalits, the WSF remains a crucial forum to raise issues that the NCDHR and its international partners are advocating, according to Manoharan. “Economic liberalization, globalization’s main drive, is like a double-barreled gun for Dalit people: the caste system and untouchability touch on our human status, while globalization and capitalism touch on our livelihood, marginalizing us further,” he said.
Formed in 2000, the IDSN is a network of national solidarity networks from affected countries and international organizations concerned about caste discrimination and similar forms of discrimination based on work and descent. It campaigns against caste-based discrimination, as experienced by the Dalits of South Asia, Buraku people of Japan, Sab (low caste) groups of Somalia, the occupational caste people in West Africa, and others. Internationalizing the Dalit issue includes the establishment of national Dalit Solidarity Networks (DSNs) currently present in Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and United States of America. The aim is to give global visibility to the caste issue; enlist more like-minded groups; lobby with governments and at the UN level; and build DSNs in other countries.
“Certainly, another world is possible for the estimated 260 million people worldwide affected by discrimination based on work and descent,” noted Manoharan, referring to the theme of WSF 2004.
The NCDHR convenor is a member of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church and has studied liberation theology at the Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary. (911 words)
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