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Message: <blockquote data-quote="uguduwa" data-source="post: 3489656" data-attributes="member: 75642"><img src="http://www.newint.org/features/2005/07/01/dalit-stan-thekaekara.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />                                                                                                                                                  No entry – Pujamma has sat outside the temple begging for 40 years. Because she is a Dalit she will never be allowed inside. Stan Thekaekara                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The 1970s brought a new breed of activists, young people who sought not to dispense charity, but to fight injustice. For three or four decades now, all over India, Dalit human-rights defenders have consistently taken on the State, fighting the police, feudal landlords and exploitative employers at individual, regional and national levels. They support ordinary Dalits trying to assert their rights in rural areas in spite of violent reprisals from the dominant castes and the police. The situation, however, remains dire in North India and particularly hopeless in the state of Bihar. Hope must be won from the Dalit people’s ability to mobilize themselves. To take pride in their identity, build up their self-esteem, assert their dignity and demand their rights both privately and in public spaces. From now on, it is Dalits who will determine their future. Paul Divakar, Convener of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) in India, explains: ‘We don’t expect easy solutions or quick results. We need to go through certain processes to free ourselves from the ‘Brahminical mindset’. Whereas in the early 1950s we fought visible forms of untouchability which spun around concepts of self-respect, now NCDHR has decided to fight for land rights. Land is central to eradicating untouchability. On paper, 80 per cent of rural Dalits have access to land but the moment they try to assert control over this land they are harassed.’ In politics too, there has been change. The fact that a Dalit, K R Narayanan, was elected as President in 1997 was no small victory. The last decade has seen the rise of strong Dalit political parties. While these parties are just as corrupt as all the others, their emergence gives the community crucial bargaining power and political space. More recently, the success of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights in the build up to the World Conference Against Racism, held in South Africa in 2001, has given a new impetus to the grassroots Dalit movement. Public hearings were held in many state capitals in India, where Dalits spoke from the heart, revealing the harrowing experiences they had been through. Ordinary people were often visibly moved. Many wept openly. After an intensive advocacy campaign, the Dalit question finally received United Nations recognition. In March 2005, two Special Rapporteurs were appointed to work on it. They will submit a yearly audit on ‘discrimination based on work and descent’, and track governments’ action and indictment record against those who perpetrate atrocities.   Discrimation in detail <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In India, Brahmins, who are 3.5 per cent of the population, hold 78 per cent of the judicial positions and approximately 50 per cent of parliamentary seats.1</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mass rapes often form part of the tactics of intimidation used by upper-caste gangs against lower castes. The Home Ministry reported that, between 2000 and 2001, there was a 16.5 per cent increase in reported rape cases.1</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Each year, inter-caste violence claims hundreds of lives; in 2001 it was especially pronounced in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh.1</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In India, among the millions of bonded labourers (estimates range widely between 20 to 65 million for 2001), the Government found 85 per cent to be Dalits or from lower castes. These included a large number of children.1</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dalits and adivasis (indigenous peoples) form the largest proportion of those who drop out of school. In rural areas, between the ages of five and nine, 36.1 per cent of Dalit boys and 48.4 per cent of Dalit girls dropped out.2</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">About 75 per cent of Dalit communities live below the poverty line.3</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Two-thirds of the Dalit population is illiterate.3</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Half are landless agricultural labourers.3</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Only seven per cent have access to safe drinking water, electricity and toilets.3</li> </ul>    <ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">1 India Human Rights Report, <a href="http://www.ncbuy.com/reference/country/humanrights_toc.html?code=in" target="_blank">www.ncbuy.com/reference/country/humanrights_toc.html?code=in</a></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">2 National Sample Survey Organization, India 1997.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">3 Dr J Muthumary, University of Madras ‘Dalit women in India’ <a href="http://www.ambedkar.org/Worldwide" target="_blank">www.ambedkar.org/Worldwide</a>Dalits/dalitwomeninIndia.htm</li> </ol></blockquote>

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