DISCRIMINATION IN INDIA

A suffocating patriarchal shadow hangs over the lives of women throughout India. From all sections, castes and classes of society, women are victim of its repressive, controlling effects. Those subjected to the heaviest burden of discrimination are from the Dalit or “Scheduled Castes”, known in less liberal democratic times as the “Untouchables”. The name may have been banned but pervasive negative attitudes of mind remain, as do the extreme levels of abuse and servitude experienced by Dalit women. They experience multiple levels of discrimination and exploitation, much of which is barbaric, degrading, appallingly violent and totally inhumane.

Women and “Untouchables”

The divisive caste system – in operation throughout India, “Old” and “New” – together with inequitable gender attitudes, sits at the heart of the wide-ranging human rights abuses experienced by Dalit or “outcaste” women.

“Discriminatory and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of over 165 million people in India has been justified on the basis of caste,” according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Caste refers to a traditional Hindu model of social stratification, which defines people by descent and occupation. It is defined as

a system of graded inequality in which castes are arranged according to an ascending scale of reverence, and a descending scale of contempt… i.e. as you go up the caste system, the power and status of a caste group increases and as you go down the scale the degree of contempt for the caste increases, as these castes have no power, are of low status, and are regarded as dirty and polluting.

Hence the term “untouchable”.

Despite what Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, states as India’s “far-reaching constitutional guarantees and laws which prohibit caste-based discrimination”, Dalit women are the victims of a collision of deep-rooted gender and caste discrimination, resulting in wide ranging exploitation. They are “oppressed by the broader Indian society, men from their own community and also their own husbands and male members in the family”, according to the UN. Practices like Devadasi, whereby girls as young as 12 years of age are dedicated to the Hindu goddess Yellamma and sold into prostitution; honour killings; sexual abuse, including rape; appalling working conditions; and limited access to basic services such as water, sanitation and employment are commonplace.

Although all women in India face discrimination and sexual intimidation,according to the UN the “human rights of Dalit women are violated in peculiar and extreme forms. Stripping, naked parading, caste abuses, pulling out nails and hair, sexual slavery and bondage are a few forms peculiar to Dalit women.” These women live under a form of apartheid: discrimination, and social exclusion is a major factor, denying them access ”to common property resources like land, water and livelihood sources, [causing] exclusion from schools, places of worship, common dining, inter-caste marriages”.

The lower castes are segregated from other members of the community, prohibited from eating with “higher” castes, from using village wells and ponds, entering village temples and higher caste houses, wearing sandals or even holding umbrellas in front of higher castes; they are forced to sit alone and use different crockery in restaurants, prohibited from cycling a bicycle inside their village and are made to bury their dead in a separate burial ground. They frequently face eviction from their land by higher “dominant” castes, forcing them to live on the outskirts of villages often on barren land.

This plethora of prejudice amounts to apartheid, and it is time – long overdue – that the “democratic” government of India enforced existing legislation and purged the country of the criminality of caste- and gender-based discrimination and exploitation.

Professors Smita Narula and Jayne Huckerby listen as an IHRC student speaks at the launch of CHRGJ’s report, “Hidden Apartheid”

More than 165 million people in India continue to be subject to discrimination, exploitation and violence simply because of their caste. In India’s “hidden apartheid,” untouchability relegates Dalits throughout the country to a lifetime of segregation and abuse. Caste-based divisions continue to dominate in housing, marriage, employment and general social interaction—divisions that are reinforced through economic boycotts and physical violence.

Working in partnership with the International Dalit Solidarity Network, India’s National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, and the Gujarat-based Dalit grassroots organization Navsarjan, IHRC works to hold the Indian government accountable for its systematic failure to respect, protect, and ensure Dalits’ fundamental human rights.

In 2007, for instance, the IHRC issued a series of statements and a report based on its analysis of India’s failure to uphold its international legal obligations to ensure Dalit rights, despite the existence of laws and policies against caste discrimination.  The report Hidden Apartheid—which was produced in collaboration with Human Rights Watch—was released as a “shadow report” in response to India’s submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which monitors implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.  IHRC also participated in proceedings related to the Committee’s review of India’s compliance with the Convention and presented the report’s findings.

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