Re: Supreme Court declines to stop Mayawati's statue spree by IANS - Finally a sane voice, Good, I say !!

On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 12:43 AM, Feroze Mithiborwala <feroze.moses777@gmail.com> wrote:

WE WELCOME THE JUDGEMENT BY THE SUPREME COURT THAT HAS REFUSED TO HALT THE PROCESS OF DALIT EMANCIPATION.

Dear All, 

The judgement by the SC should now put an end to the anti-Mayawati tirade. The Brahmanical-Corporate media was behaving as if this was the first time that statues of leaders were being erected in this country.

Basically Behen Mayawatiji's project now poses the biggest challenge ever to the domination of the religio-cultural Brahmanical landscape in modern India. All these crocodile tears of Dalit's (Scheduled Castes, so-called Untouchables) being deprived of their share of the fruits of development is only a sham.

The pitiful media coverage given to the plight of the Dalit masses, the daily violence and discrimination, barely finds mention in the media. In fact what we have are articles that attack "Reservation" & support for "Merit". Outlandish mediocrity & criminal ignorance charecterise our media. The Dalit's, who comprise 15% of our population (in excess of 150 million) remain faceless in our newspapers, TV serials and news as well as our much touted Film industry, known more for it's romance, NRI's & trees (abroad), than it's commitment to social issues, as was the case in the past.

Thus the issue of the statues is linked to a sense of self-respect, pride and yes, an assertion - "We are here as well". 

Behen Mayawatiji's government like most governments has her flaws, but she is doing far more for the cause of Dalit emancipation, the Most Backward Castes as well as Hindu & Muslims OBC's, than most Congress, BJP or Left governments have ever done.

Unfortunately in the last few years, she got carried away by what she thought was the unflinching support of the upper caste Brahmin community of UP, who had merely aligned with her to counter the rise of the OBC's led by the Yadav's. But now that is clearly in the past & the illusion stands rent asunder. 

The shift of the Brahman vote in UP, towards the Congress was the story of this election, but the press did not refer to that shift as one of identity politics. The shift was back towrds the original Brahmanical party of India. Guess that applies only to the lesser mortals like Dalits, OBC's & Muslims, not the Chosen One's.

But any form of Dalit assertion of identity is attacked & ridiculed.

For all those who are opposing the entire project in terms of the costs incurred, first go and institute a study of all the Statues, Samadhis, Monuments and the like, erected to glorify upper caste leaders & then we will see.

The fact that the vision of Shri Kanshiram & Behen Mayawati have finally  borne fruit should be a matter of pride for all Indians committed to an egalitarian & casteless society. But that does not seem to be the case. The atmosphere is one of angst.

She has physically established the ideals of Gautama Buddha, Krantiveer Mhatma Jotiba Phule, Mahatma Gandhi, Savitri Bai Phule, Bharat Ratna Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Ahilya Bai Holkar & Shahu Maharaj onto the soil of North India, which is undoubtedly the most backward, castiest & Brahmanical region of our country.

It is only through caste struggle that we will attain a casteless society & our leaders above have shown us the way.

The Bahujan Elephant is on the march & the Buddha to is rising !!

Jai Bhim !!

In Solidarity with the Dalit Movement

Feroze Mithiborwala & Kishore Jagtap

98208-97517          /  93245-14101

(Also included below is an excellent article that details the struggles of the Dalit masses - do read the same & circulate widely)

Supreme Court declines to stop Mayawati's statue spree (Lead)

July 10th, 2009 - 10:20 pm ICT by IANS  -

New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) The Supreme Court Friday refused to restrain the Uttar Pradesh government from installing statues of its Chief Minister Mayawati, her political mentor late Kanshi Ram and the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) election symbol - the elephant.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam said it would not intervene into the matter.

"How can we intervene into the matter, when it has been approved by the the cabinet?" posed the bench, refusing to entertain a plea to restrain the Uttar Pradesh government from installing statues all over the state.

"We can intervene only if there are allegations of corruption or misappropriation of funds," said the bench, refusing to pass any prompt order on an interim application by Delhi-based advocate Ravi Kant, who wanted the court to at least stop the state government from installing statues in a Noida park on the Yamuna riverbed.

Ravi Kant made an interim plea pending the outcome on another lawsuit accusing waste of public money by the state government in installing statues largely of Mayawati and her political mentor Kanshi Ram.

Quoting information, procured under Right to Information Act, Ravi Kant told the court that installation of statues in Noida park alone is going to cost over Rs.1.87 billion.

He said the central plaza within the Noida park is to have an 18 feet tall statue of Mayawati, while there are plans also for statues of Kanshi Ram and B.R. Ambedkar.

Ravi Kant contended that the state government is set to spend over Rs.20 billion from the state exchequer to install these statues to further her partisan interests.

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VIII. Article 5: Eliminate caste-based discrimination in the enjoyment of Fundamental Rights

Article 5: In compliance with the fundamental obligations laid down in article 2 of this Convention, States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law…

India has failed in its duty to eliminate caste discrimination and ensure the full enjoyment of the fundamental rights and equality before the law of Dalits guaranteed by Article 5. This next section closely details the particular rights violations suffered by Dalits. As a general point, it is important to highlight that the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, and the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 (two of the most important pieces of legislation for the protection of Dalits), have been rendered increasingly ineffective in their ability to protect Dalits from fundamental rights' violations because of the failure of state governments to properly implement the acts.¹⁵² State governments have made no serious efforts to identify areas where the practice of "untouchability" is prevalent, have done very little to make public and known the provisions of the acts, and have failed to periodically survey the acts' effectiveness.¹⁵³ Moreover, the NHRC has concluded that there is virtually no monitoring of the acts' implementation at any level.¹⁵⁴ Political leaders have also played a significant role in hindering the implementation of the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989.¹⁵⁵

A.        Duty to ensure the right to equal treatment of Dalits before organs administering justice

Article 5 (a): Right to equal treatment before organs administering justice

Dalits are frequently the victims of discriminatory treatment in the administration of justice.  Prosecutors and judges fail to vigorously and faithfully pursue complaints brought by Dalits, which is evidenced by the high rate of acquittals in such cases. Dalit women suffer particularly as a result of the deficient administration of justice—rape cases are not prosecuted in good faith and Dalit women suffer both caste and gender discrimination in the courtrooms. Moreover, the number of Dalits appointed to judicial office remains low. Instances of "untouchability" and discrimination against Dalit judges by their non-Dalit peers have also been reported.

1.  Police

The failure of police to register or properly register crimes against Dalits (see Section V(A)(1)(a)(vi)) is a key way in which Dalits' right to equal treatment before organs administering justice is compromised at the outset.

2.  Prosecutors

a.  Poor quality of prosecution under the Protection of Civil Rights Act and the Prevention of Atrocities Act

One of the principal ways in which the right of Dalits to equal treatment before organs administering justice is being denied is through the poor quality of prosecutions under the Protection of Civil Rights Act and Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989. The Government of India has itself noted this failure in its 2001-2002 Annual Report on the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, which states that in 2002, only 2.31 percent of cases brought under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 had resulted in convictions.¹⁵⁶ The low rate of convictions, compared against the high number of atrocities reported against Dalits, speaks to the caste bias of prosecutors, as well as other organs of justice, including the judiciary.

b.  Failure to prosecute rape cases of Dalit women

Dalit women, occupying the bottom of both the caste and gender hierarchies, are both uniquely susceptible to violence and particularly vulnerable to the infringements of their right to equal treatment before organs administering justice. Cases documented by the National Commission for Women, Human Rights Watch, local and national women's rights organizations, and the press, overwhelmingly demonstrate a systemic pattern of impunity in attacks on Dalit women.¹⁵⁷ Dalit women are more likely to suffer violence and especially sexual violence, and are least likely to get redress in the courts. They are, in a sense, doubly victimized - first at the hands of their attackers, and then at the hands of judicial system that fails to offer them protection and redress.

A Dalit woman who is a survivor of rape will face significant obstacles in bringing her case to the attention of the police, and, in turn, the courts. She will likely face ostracism from her community and family, and she will have difficulty gaining access to the justice system.¹⁵⁸ Further, even if a woman is able to surmount all these obstacles and convince the police to lodge a FIR, she will face new roadblocks at every step of the way. A Dalit woman is likely to be confronted with any of the following impediments to the successful prosecution of her case: unsympathetic doctors¹⁵⁹ and police officers, difficulty in finding witnesses who are willing to risk their own safety by testifying, police officers and prosecutors who are bribed or pressured by the (usually more powerful) attackers, as well as having her case misfiled under more lenient sections of the Indian Penal Code or not being simultaneously filed under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989.¹⁶⁰ The combined effect of these hurdles is such that, even if her case is properly investigated, a Dalit woman will likely find that her attackers have been granted impunity.¹⁶¹

In fact, as statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau demonstrate, conviction in rape cases is not only extremely rare, but becoming rarer - out of the total rape cases in which trials were completed between 1990-1993, in 1990 41.5 percent ended in conviction; the figure dropped to 34.2 percent in 1991 and to 33.8 percent in 1993.¹⁶² The failings of the prosecutorial arm are further evident in the disproportionately large backlog of rape cases (on average, 80 percent of rape cases remained pending for trial in 1994¹⁶³) and the comparatively low levels of conviction for the crime of rape as compared with less serious crimes of burglary and theft.¹⁶⁴

Certain states have provided some compensation to Dalit rape victims. As per the 2002-2003 Annual Report on the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, during the year 2002-2003, the state government of Madhya Pradesh incurred an expenditure of Rs. 28.5 lakhs [US$63,808] for providing relief to rape victims¹⁶⁵, while the state of Maharashtra provided financial assistance in the amount of Rs. 19.68 lakhs [US$44,061].¹⁶⁶

It should be noted that the prosecutorial failure to investigate, file, and pursue cases involving rape against Dalit women has an injurious effect not just on the individual woman harmed in each instance of sexual violence, but more broadly on women and Dalit communities in general - prosecutorial failures empower potential perpetrators by signaling that crimes against Dalit women will be rewarded with impunity and also further disempowers marginalized communities by eroding their trust in the judiciary. Finally, prosecutorial failures in the context of cases involving rape against Dalit women encourage the use of rape as a tool to punish and silence Dalit communities.¹⁶⁷

3.  Courts

a.  Caste and Gender Discrimination by Judges

The prevalence of caste and gender bias among India's judges is another factor which imperils the right of Dalits to equal treatment before organs administering justice under Article 5 of ICERD. Such bias has resulted in improperly conducted trials, including acquittals that blatantly ignore evidence and witness testimony and entrench the system of impunity that greets perpetrators of violence against Dalits.

Box 2: The Bhanwari Devi Case

The case of Bhanwari Devi illustrates the role of caste and gender bias in India's justice system. A grassroots worker or sathin with the Rajasthan Government's Women's Development Programme (WDP), Bhanwari reported the child marriage of a 1-year-old girl. On September 22, 1992, in retaliation, members of the child's family gang raped Bhanwari in front of her husband. These individuals were acquitted, with the judge stating that since "rape is usually committed by teenagers, and since the accused are middle-aged and therefore respectable, they could not have committed the crime. An upper-caste man could not have defiled himself by raping a lower-caste woman."¹⁶⁸ The individuals also received significant political support from the local BJP.¹⁶⁹ In early 1996 an appeal of the acquittal was filed in the High Court, but as of November 2006, 14 years after the rape, the verdict remains.¹⁷⁰ A survey conducted by Delhi-based NGO Sakshi found that 64 percent of judges believe that "women themselves are partly responsible for the violence they face."¹⁷¹ Gender discrimination is also evident at the Supreme Court level.¹⁷²

 

b.  Lack of Dalit Judges

Dalits' right to equal treatment before the courts is further imperiled on account of the fact that Dalits themselves are poorly represented in the judiciary. Statistics presented in the Fourth Report of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes for the years 1996-97 reveal the magnitude of the problem. For example, while Dalits comprise roughly 16 percent of the population, in 1982, only four out of the 325 judges in all High Courts in India were Dalits (i.e. 1.23 percent of the judiciary). By 1993 the situation was only marginally better, with 13 out of 547 judges at the all India level being Dalits (i.e. 2.38 percent).¹⁷³ In 2002 the Supreme Court had one Dalit out of 26 judges, while the High Courts had 25 Dalits out of 625 positions.¹⁷⁴ Also illustrative of the lack of Dalit and lower-caste representation in the judiciary is the fact that Brahmins, who comprise just 5 to 9 percent of India's 1 billion people, fill 78 percent of India's judicial posts.¹⁷⁵

Caste and gender discrimination do not cease once a Dalit is appointed to a judicial position, as discriminatory attitudes prevail among judges themselves. The depth of anti-Dalit sentiment in the judiciary is particularly well illustrated by an incident that took place in July 1998 in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where, as the Times of India reports, an Allahabad High Court Judge had his chamber "purified with Ganga jal" (water from the River Ganges) because it had earlier been occupied by a Dalit judge.¹⁷⁶ 

c.  Large number of cases involving offenses and atrocities against Dalits still pending before the courts

The failures of implementing Article 5 of ICERD with respect to caste are further evinced by the disproportionately large numbers of pending cases involving offenses and atrocities against Dalits. The Sixth and Seventh Reports of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes reveal, respectively, that less than a sixth of such cases that reached trial stage in 1999-2000 were actually adjudicated, and that only 11 percent of the cases were disposed of during 2001-2002.¹⁷⁷ The large number of cases concerning Dalits that are still pending before the courts suggests non-compliance with the Convention; the Committee has made plain that "guarantee[ing] the victim a court judgment within a reasonable period" is something that "States parties should ensure [in their] system of justice."¹⁷⁸  

d.  High rate of acquittals

The failures of implementing Article 5 of ICERD with respect to caste are also evinced by the disproportionately high rate of acquittals in cases involving offences and atrocities against Dalits. The Third and Sixth Reports of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes reveal, respectively, that in 1996, the conviction rate in these cases was 15 percent,¹⁷⁹ while the acquittal rate was 85 percent, and that in 1999-2000 and 2000-2001, as much as 89 percent of cases resulted in acquittals.¹⁸⁰ The Commission additionally found that only 11 percent of cases were disposed of during the year. Of those, 51 percent resulted in convictions. The small percentage of cases that actually reached the trial stage is a cause for concern.¹⁸¹Additionally, the acquittal rates were still alarming in the states of Assam, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Karnataka, and Haryana, where acquittal rates were as high as 97 percent.¹⁸² According to the Government's 2001-2002 Annual Report on the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 only 2.3 percent of overall cases brought under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 resulted in convictions in 2002.¹⁸³ Recent statistics released by the Home Ministry in December 2006 reveal that the pattern of acquittals continues: of the 833 cases registered under the Act in the state of Maharashtra in 2005, only 6.3 percent ended in conviction. In 2004 689 cases were registered in the state, with only 4.8 percent ending in convictions. In Gujarat, in the 1,301 cases registered in 2005, the conviction rate was a poor 3.8 percent. The state of Uttar Pradesh fared better: of the 4,369 cases registered last year, nearly half the offenders were convicted.¹⁸⁴

B.        Ensure Dalits' right to security of person and protection by the State against violence or bodily harm, whether inflicted by government officials or by any individual group or institution

Article 5 (b): The right to security of person and protection by the State against violence or bodily harm, whether inflicted by government officials or by any individual group or institution.

India's obligation to ensure a person's right to security and to protect against violence or bodily harm applies to State and non-State actors. The nature and extent of abuse against Dalits by the police has been set out above in Section V(A)(1)(a). This section focuses on widespread violence against Dalits, including sexual violence against Dalit women, and the failure of Indian government to protect Dalits and ensure their security of person. 

1.  Widespread violence against Dalits

For Dalits, the right to personal security has been seriously undermined because of rampant attacks and violence committed against them.¹⁸⁵ Media, NGO, and government reports reveal that the police have systematically failed to protect Dalit homes and Dalit individuals from acts of looting, arson, sexual assault, torture, and other inhumane acts such as stripping and parading Dalit women and forcing Dalits to drink urine and eat feces.¹⁸⁶ For example, the government's Annual Report on the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 found that  30,022 cases were registered against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under the Act in 2001 and 27,894 were registered in 2002.¹⁸⁷ As staggering as these statistics are, they represent only a fraction of the violence committed against Dalits. A number of factors, including lack of police cooperation, fear of reprisals, and difficulty in gaining access to the judiciary contribute to a reluctance or inability on the part of Dalits to report crimes against them.¹⁸⁸ Systematic non-registration or improper registration of atrocities also accounts for under-reporting (see Section V(A)(1)(a)(vi)). Much like cases of police abuse against Dalits, attacks by private actors often take the form of collective punishment, whereby entire communities or villages are punished for the perceived transgressions of individuals who seek to alter village customs or demand their rights.¹⁸⁹ Retaliatory attacks for such challenges are rife (see Box 4).

Box 3: Offenses under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989

This violence or bodily harm against Dalits takes many forms. The offenses made punishable by the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 provide a glimpse into the types of retaliatory or customarily degrading treatment Dalits receive. The offenses include:

 Forcing members of a scheduled caste or scheduled tribe to drink or eat any inedible or obnoxious substance;

 Dumping excreta, waste matter, carcasses or any other obnoxious substance in their premises or neighborhood;

 Forcibly removing their clothes and parading them naked or with painted face or body;

 Interfering with their rights to land;

 Compelling a member of a scheduled caste or scheduled tribe into forms of forced or bonded labor;

 Corrupting or fouling the water of any spring, reservoir or any other source ordinarily used by scheduled castes or scheduled tribes;

 Denying right of passage to a place of public resort;

 Using a position of dominance to exploit a scheduled caste or scheduled tribe woman sexually.¹⁹⁰

Despite these offenses being criminalized under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 the systematic non-implementation of these provisions by the police (see Sections V(A)(1)(a) and V(A)(1)(a)(vi)) results in a continued pattern of violence, as is borne out in media reports. For example, a survey of Indian media during a six-month period in 2006 illustrates the extent and brutality of violent crimes against Dalits:

 "Dalit leader abused for daring to sit on a chair"¹⁹¹

 "Dalit worker beaten on suspicion of theft"¹⁹²

 "Dalit lynched while gathering grain"¹⁹³

 "Dalit beaten for entering temple"¹⁹⁴

 "UP Dalit girl resists rape, loses arm as a result"¹⁹⁵

 "Dalit tries to fetch water beaten to death"¹⁹⁶

The need for India to address violence and bodily harm by private actors has also been documented by the UN special procedures. On June 8, 2004, the Special Rapporteur on racism, jointly with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, sent a letter of allegation to India concerning a group of 200 people who attacked a Dalit settlement in Kalapatti village, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, on May 16, 2004.¹⁹⁷ According to the Special Rapporteur on racism's 2005 Annual Report:

The Dalits' homes were reported to have been attacked by upper-caste villagers using swords and other weapons. Allegedly, inter alia, they pushed the Dalits to the ground, stomped on them, used degrading caste names to refer to them, sexually assaulted the women and attempted to pull off their saris. Other specific incidents mentioned were that an 8-month-old baby was thrown against a wall, a 75-year-old man was attacked, and a middle-aged woman was hit on the head as she attempted to protect her son. Close to 100 houses were said to have been burnt, money and jewels were stolen, and cattle owned by the Dalits were reported to have been killed. In total, 14 Dalits were allegedly admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital. Many Dalits are said to have tried to escape but were prevented from leaving the settlement. Fears have been expressed for their security.¹⁹⁸

Box 4: Examples of retaliatory attacks against Dalits

When a Dalit man from the Dholapur district of Rajasthan, refused to sell bidis (hand-rolled cigarettes) on credit to the nephew of an upper-caste village chief, the upper-caste family retaliated by forcibly piercing his nostril, drawing a string through his nose, parading him around the village, and tying him to a cattle post.¹⁹⁹

When Dalit agrarian labor activist Bant Singh, whose daughter was gang-raped in 2002, defied landlords' threats and local upper-caste leaders in seeking prosecution against those who gang-raped his daughter, the landlords retaliated by violently attacking him, beating him so badly that both his arms and one of his legs had to be amputated; the remaining leg was permanently disabled.²⁰⁰

When Dalits from Amachiyarpatti village in Tamil Nadu resisted Thevars'²⁰¹ demand that they use coconut shells at tea stalls to prevent them from drinking out of the tea tumblers used by caste Hindus, Thevars retaliated by torching and burning Dalit houses in their village.²⁰²

When Dalits from the Dalit colony of Veludavur village in Villapuram district, Tamil Nadu, demanded their right to participate in a government auction of common properties in Veludavur, members of seven neighboring caste Hindu villages attacked their colony, destroying 400 huts, attacking women, children, and the elderly, and displacing 700 Dalit families.²⁰³

When a 16-year-old Dalit rape survivor from Sahalwada village in Madhya Pradesh, refused to withdraw the complaint she had filed against her attacker, he retaliated by pouring kerosene on her and setting her on fire.²⁰⁴

When a Dalit argued with an upper-caste farmer in Kothapally village in Andhra Pradesh, the upper-caste villagers attacked 80 Dalit families in retaliation. When the same Dalit man then went to the police to report the incident, a social boycott was imposed on all of the Dalits from Kothapally; they were thrown out of their village and denied every opportunity to earn their livelihood.²⁰⁵

2.  Violence against Dalit women

The nature and extent of police abuse of Dalit women has been dealt with above in Section V(A)(1)(a)(iv). Dalit women are also especially vulnerable to violence by private actors who commit violent offenses with impunity. As the majority of landless laborers, Dalit women come into greater contact with landlords and enforcement agencies than upper-caste women, rendering them more susceptible to abuse.²⁰⁶ Landlords use sexual abuse and other forms of violence and humiliation against Dalit women as tools to inflict "lessons" and crush dissent and labor movements within Dalit communities.²⁰⁷ For example, upper-caste groups will engage in mass rapes of Dalit women or in retaliation against Dalits who strive for political empowerment or violate customary injunctions.²⁰⁸ In their attacks on Dalit communities, Ranvir Sena members committed acts of sexual violence against Dalit women. Human Rights Watch has documented a massacre of Dalits committed in Laxmanpur-Bathe, Bihar (see Section V(A)(1)(a)(i)), in which women were raped and mutilated before being killed.²⁰⁹ According to the Tamil Nadu Women's Forum, Dalit women are butchered, raped, and killed during caste riots.²¹⁰ 

Dalit women also comprise the majority of victims of gang rapes in India.²¹¹ Human Rights Watch reported that on April 5, 2003, for example, four upper-caste men abducted a 14-year-old Dalit girl from her home just outside Jaipur, Rajasthan, and gang-raped her over a period of three days. Upon her return to her village, the village's upper-caste community threatened to remove her family if they reported the incident.²¹² Dalit women are also singled out for other indignities, like being paraded naked, even for petty disputes.²¹³ These indignities have symbolic significance. For example, Human Rights Watch reported that on November 3, 2003, a Dalit woman in Kishanganj, Bihar, was paraded half-naked by a group of people who wanted to teach a lesson to her family for not relinquishing their claim to a piece of land.²¹⁴

Vulnerability to sexual violence also results from Dalit women's lower economic and social status, leading many Dalit women to turn to prostitution for their survival.²¹⁵ Other forms of abuse result from superstitious beliefs, according to which Dalit women may be branded as witches and blamed for certain mishaps in the community. Aside from the humiliation of  being branded as a "witch," Dalit women are also punished for these mishaps, for example by being made to eat feces and drink urine, by having their teeth pulled out, by having chili pepper put in their eyes, and by being beaten severely enough to result in death.²¹⁶

Both the root causes of this abuse and the resulting social, physical, and mental trauma Dalit women suffer²¹⁷ highlights the particular vulnerability of Dalit women which merits special protection by the State. However, rather than ensuring Dalit women's development and protection, India has failed to punish perpetrators and in some instances, has even directly participated in abusive acts.²¹⁸ Cases documented by India's National Commission for Women, by local and national non-governmental women's rights organizations, and by the press, reveal a pattern of impunity for attacks on Dalit women.²¹⁹ However, due to uninterest, ignorance of proper procedure, or their own caste biases, the police have failed to register or properly investigate many cases of attacks against women.²²⁰ In all cases of attacks on women documented by Human Rights Watch, the accused state and private actors escaped punishment; in most cases, attacks were neither investigated nor prosecuted.²²¹

Box 5: Impunity and obstacles to prosecution of rape and killing of Dalit women

While women in India generally face obstacles in prosecuting rape, if a woman is poor, belongs to a lower-caste, and lives in a rural area, it is even more difficult for her to gain access to the justice system.²²² Those who are able to pursue cases of sexual assault face entrenched biases at every stage of the process.²²³ These obstacles exist whether the acts are carried out by mobs or by individuals.

For example,in October 2006, a mob of 60 upper-caste villagers stormed the Bhotmanges home as they were preparing dinner in Kherlanji village in Bhandara district. Fourty-four-year-old Surekha, her daughter Priyanka, and sons Roshan and Sudhir were dragged from their home, stripped naked, beaten and taken to the village square. At the village square, both women were raped for over an hour, after which all four family members were hacked to death. More than a month later, the police have yet to take action against the primary perpetrators of these crimes.²²⁴

Another case illustrative of the obstacles to justice was presented at the National Public Hearing held in 2000 by the NCDHR. In this particular case, Ms. Gangawati testified that after being raped at gunpoint in her own home, her unsuccessful attempts to get the local police to register her case required her to petition the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the NHRC. While the latter directed the district police to conduct an enquiry, the local police officer avoided filing her case for months, and even after her case was finally registered, no action was taken against her attacker.²²⁵

C.        Ensure Dalits' political rights

Article 5 (c): Political rights, in particular the right to participate in elections-to vote and to stand for election-on the basis of universal and equal suffrage, to take part in the Government as well as in the conduct of public affairs at any level and to have equal access to public service.

While Dalits now exercise their franchise in greater numbers than upper-caste community members,²²⁶ their right to vote freely and to stand for election is still not fully guaranteed. These rights have repeatedly been impeded by booth-rigging and booth capturing, denial of access to polls, intimidation, and violence.

1.  Booth-capturing and denial of entry to polling booths

Dalits' right of political participation is denied through the decades-old practice of "booth-capturing," whereby ballot boxes are stolen by hired hands.²²⁷ For example, in the 1998 national parliamentary elections in Bihar, the Election Commission had to order re-polling in over 700 voting stations after more than 1,100 people were arrested for booth-capturing and tearing up of ballot boxes.²²⁸ The Untouchability in Rural India survey found that in some 12.3 percent of villages, Dalits are still denied entry to polling booths.²²⁹

2.  Intimidation and violence in voting, standing for election, and conduct of public affairs

The 1998 Bihar elections also demonstrate the role of violence and intimidation in elections: in the first phase of elections 15 people were killed and dozens more were injured going to the polls;²³⁰ seven more deaths and further intimidation was reported during the second phase.²³¹ The violence in Bihar serves as but one example of a widespread practice: according to a 1996 Associated Press report, armies formed by local politicians have intimidated villages during every election in the underdeveloped farmland of northern India.²³² The Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported that on August 6, 2006, seven Dalit women from a village in Bihar were allegedly raped at gunpoint by upper-caste landowners for refusing to vote for an upper-caste landowner's wife in the local elections.²³³

Violence and intimidation are also used to prevent Dalits from standing for election. In October 2005 a Dalit woman, Prabhati Devi, was burned alive for contesting a panchayat (village council) election against an upper-caste candidate in Mirzapur district in Uttar Pradesh in defiance of a local politician's warning not to contest.²³⁴ In June 1997 the Dalit leaders of the Melavalavu panchayat in Tamil Nadu—who were elected to seats constitutionally reserved for Dalits²³⁵—were murdered by members of the higher-caste Thevar community, signaling that the ceding of power would not be tolerated by those displaced from their positions on the council.²³⁶ Thevars also threatened Dalits with "economic sanctions" should any of them file for the position of panchayatpresident, a sanction that would effectively leave Dalits without employment or access to economic or social services in villages in that area.²³⁷

Those Dalits who are in positions of public office are often unable to properly discharge their public functions. For example, in November 2006 the Asian Human Rights Commission reported that Prem Narayan, a Dalit village head of Vajidpur village in Uttar Pradesh, had been facing discrimination, intimidation, threats, and physical violence in his attempts to discharge his duties as a village head.²³⁸

3.  Denial of entry to public offices

According to the Untouchability in Rural India survey Dalits are also denied entry to panchayat offices in some 14.4 percent of the 499 villages surveyed, which has the effect of denying them access and a right to be heard at the most immediate level of government.²³⁹

D.        Ensure Dalits' other civil rights

1.  Ensure Dalits' right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of the State

Article 5 (d) (i): The right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of the State.

Dalits' right to freedom of movement and residence within India is curtailed by residential segregation, by conditions which make Dalits vulnerable to migratory labor, and by the forced displacement of Dalits in the aftermath of episodes of caste violence. 

a.  Forced Migration of Dalits

For Dalits, among the poorest and least powerful of India's inhabitants, the choice of where to live is rarely a choice in any meaningful sense. Because Dalits are rarely able to own land (see Section VIII(D)(4)) they are unable to produce their crops for their own consumption or sale in the market.²⁴⁰ Given the limited amount of jobs and resources in India, and other economic hardships such as droughts, Dalits are often forced to migrate in search of work.²⁴¹ 

b.  Forced displacement of Dalits

The right of Dalits to enjoy freedom of movement and residence is further eroded by large-scale forced displacements of Dalit communities following episodes of caste-based violence. In a typical scenario, Dalit villages are attacked by neighboring upper-caste villagers. Dalits are assaulted during the attack, while their homes and property are looted or destroyed.²⁴² Dalits then settle in and languish for months in temporary and inadequate homes on government property.²⁴³ The police offer little in terms of security in these cases, either ignoring Dalit calls for help, or actively participating in the violence and looting.²⁴⁴ Redress is not to be found from the local government either—aside from distributing nominal amounts in compensation or promising construction of new homes, little is done to help the displaced Dalits return home or to prosecute those responsible for the attacks.²⁴⁵ 

Box 6: Instances of Forced Displacement of Dalit Villagers

The 1997 displacement of Dalit villagers from Mangapuram, Virudhunagar district, Tamil Nadu, illustrates the general pattern of Dalit displacement following caste-based violence. Prior to 1997 Mangapuram was home to 3,000 higher-caste Thevar and 250 Pallar (Dalit) families. On March 7, 1996, Thevars attacked Pallars, 150 Pallar houses were set on fire, and a Pallar man was burned alive. Pallars later destroyed several Thevar houses. In retaliation, Thevars threw petrol bombs into the Pallar residential area. On June 10, 1997, the deputy superintendent, a Thevar, attempted to force Pallars out of the village, colluding with hundreds of Thevar villagers who attacked the Pallars and set their houses on fire. The displaced Pallars took refuge in nearby villages, with 300 individuals housed in 250 poorly constructed huts, and another 200 housed in 70 huts. No action was taken against the Thevar police officials or villagers responsible for the attacks and the ensuing displacement.²⁴⁶

In 2003 a mass displacement of all 275 Dalit families from Harsola village in Haryana's Kaithal district followed an attack on the village by upper-caste men.²⁴⁷ Congress leaders who brought the case to the attention of the NHRC cited the "irresponsible" statements of local officials, such as those indicating that Dalits "were enjoying the situation and were not interested in returning to their homes."²⁴⁸

A fact-finding report by People's Watch-Tamil Nadu and Dalit Human Rights Monitoring revealed that in 2004 the Dalits of Kalapatti village in Tamil Nadu were forced to flee after an attack by upper-caste Hindus in which over 100 Dalit homes were burned and other property was destroyed.²⁴⁹

2.  Ensure Dalits' right to leave any country, including one's own, and to return to one's country

Article 5 (d) (ii): The right to leave any country, including one's own, and to return to one's country.

Dalits' right to leave India, while formally granted, is not substantively guaranteed, due to Dalits' difficulty in acquiring relevant documents (such as birth certificates) and other proof necessary to get a passport.²⁵⁰

Dalits can suffer reprisal attacks against the families of those who are able to travel for employment abroad and send remittances back home. Caste-based prejudice has led to attacks against Dalits who become economically better off because of such remittances. Many Dalits in the village of Kodiyangulam, Tamil Nadu, for example, have been sending family members to work in Gulf states in an attempt to rise above their economic oppression at home. But according to the London paper The Guardian, on August 31, 2005, the Dalit villagers were assaulted by hundreds of rampaging policemen, who poisoned their well and destroyed the possessions accumulated over a lifetime of hard work.²⁵¹ In a similar episode in Tamil Nadu in 1999, Dalits returning with money from jobs in the Gulf states and elsewhere found themselves attacked by landlords and police when they tried to buy land for their families.²⁵²

3.  Ensure Dalits' right to marriage and choice of spouse

Article 5 (d) (iv): The right to marriage and choice of spouse.

Rigid social norms of purity and pollution are socially enforced through strict prohibitions on marriage or other social interaction between castes, in violation of Dalits' right to marry and choose their spouse. These prohibitions on inter-marriage are a hallmark feature of the caste system. Inter-marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits are frequently the flashpoint for conflicts and violence.

a.  Prohibitions on marriage between Dalits and non-Dalits

The Untouchability in Rural India survey concluded that "the most severely sanctioned public activity is a Dalit marriage procession passing through the village street."²⁵³ Wedding processions in northern India are symbols of joy, prosperity, and power, and often include large parties of family and friends accompanied by musical bands and dancing.²⁵⁴ Dalit wedding processions were banned in more than 47 percent of villages surveyed, as were festival processions in more than 24 percent of villages.²⁵⁵ The same survey also reported that in at least one village in Alwar district in Rajasthan, no marriage ceremonies for Dalits had taken place in several years as the upper-castes refused to allow any baraats (wedding processions) to come to the village.²⁵⁶ Adding to Dalits' humiliation, in 8.4 percent of villages surveyed in the study, Dalits must seek the permission of the upper-castes to marry, and in up to another 10 percent of the villages Dalits are compelled to seek blessings on their marriages from the upper-castes.²⁵⁷These acts of public subordination—informal sanctions surrounding marriage activities which upper-caste members are freely permitted to carry on in public—are one of the most harshly enforced and widespread "untouchability" practices to continue today. As a result of the bans on marriage celebrations, many Dalit weddings are carried out quietly without the traditional forms of celebration.²⁵⁸

Condemnation for marriage between Dalits and caste members can be quite severe, ranging from social ostracism to punitive violence, including large-scale attacks on Dalit communities.²⁵⁹ Dalits who have married "above" their caste have reportedly been forced to break all ties with their families. In Attirpa, Kerala, a Dalit girl reported that although she was happy in her marriage she was no longer permitted to see her parents or her natal family.²⁶⁰ It seems that in instances where marriage between Dalits and caste-members is permitted, the caste family may condition it on rejection of contact with the Dalit family.²⁶¹

Marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits are frequent flashpoints for conflict. Upper-caste dominated panchayats (village councils) have been known to extra-judicially punish inter-caste marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits through public lynching of couples or their relatives, murder (of the bride, the groom, or their relatives), rape, public beatings, and other sanctions.²⁶² In May 2000 in Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh, a police constable enraged by his daughter's marriage to a Dalit was joined by other relatives in shooting and killing four members of his son-in-law's family.²⁶³ On August 6, 2001, also in Uttar Pradesh, an upper-caste Brahmin boy and a lower-caste Jat girl were dragged to the roof of a house and publicly hanged by members of their own families as hundreds of spectators looked on. The public lynching was punishment for refusing to end an inter-caste relationship.²⁶⁴

b.  Forced prostitution and rape of Dalit women as an impediment to marriage

The rape of Dalit women by landlords and the caste-based practice of prostitution (see Section V(B)(4)(b)) deny Dalit women the right to marry as there are strong social taboos in India against marrying a woman who has had previous sexual relations; once a woman has been raped, she becomes unmarriageable.²⁶⁵

c.  Child marriage

Although child marriage is illegal in India, the practice remains rampant, particularly in underdeveloped regions where economic pressure may force families into marrying off children at early ages in order to lighten the economic burden on families with daughters. This is often the case among Dalits. A 12-year old Dalit girl, Chenigall Suseela, was married off by her parents without her consent in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, in 2003.²⁶⁶ Two years later she ran away from her husband, whom she claimed abused her, and threatened to commit suicide if forced to return. Suseela desired to return to school and sought help from the police and appealed to village elders. After initial refusal by elders from both her and her husband's village, Suseela's persistence and determination resulted in what is thought to be the first annulment of a child marriage in India in June 2005.²⁶⁷ Suseela's case is significant as she faced opposition to claiming her right to not be married in childhood and to choose her spouse due to her status as a Dalit and seemingly received little help from the police when she reported her situation.²⁶⁸ Sadly, there are many more Dalit children who are forced into early marriage by economic need and do not have the resources to demand their rights.

The prevalence of rape in villages also contributes to the greater incidence of child marriage in these areas. Early marriage between the ages of 10 years and 16 years persists in large part because of Dalit girls' vulnerability to sexual assault by upper-caste men and by parents' fear that their daughter will not be marriageable once she is raped.²⁶⁹ 

d.  Inequality of women in family law

India's marriage and divorce laws still do not grant equality to women despite the Constitution's guarantees to women of equal rights, liberty, justice, and the right to live with dignity.²⁷⁰

4.  Ensure Dalits' right to own property alone as well as in association with others

Article 5 (d) (v): The right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

 The right to own property is systematically denied to Dalits. Landlessness—encompassing a lack of access to land, inability to own land, and forced evictions—constitutes a crucial element in the subordination of Dalits. When Dalits do acquire land, elements of the right to own property—including the right to access and enjoy it—are routinely infringed.²⁷¹ Land reform legislation is neither implemented nor properly enforced. Dalits' efforts to secure land have been met with State violence or retaliation by private actors in the form of violence or economic sanctions.

a.  Landlessness: lack of access to land, inability to own land, and forced evictions

Denial of the right to own property is at the very core of the caste system. R. Balakrishnan, then-Chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes told Human Rights Watch:

The caste system is an economic order. It prevents someone from owning land or receiving an education. It is a vicious cycle and an exploitative economic arrangement. Landowning patterns and being a high caste member are co-terminous. Also, there is a nexus between being lower-caste and landlessness

The Special Rapporteur on housing has also expressed his concern with the extreme violations of Dalits' human rights, including with respect to land and housing rights. The Special Rapporteur's 2005 Annual Report notes: "A majority of Dalits are still prevented from owning land and are forced to live on the outskirts of villages, often on barren land."²⁷³

Denial of the right to own property is also practiced through forced evictions.²⁷⁴ On February 2, 2003, for example, 7,000 Dalits were evicted from their residences at Belilious Park, in Calcutta, West Bengal.²⁷⁵ To make way for a development and beautification scheme envisioned for the park, an approximately 500-strong Rapid Action Force, accompanied by ambulances, fire brigades and two or three bulldozers, forcibly entered the Dalit community in Belilious Park, evicted 700 families, and demolished hundreds of brick houses, a school building, temples, and statutes.²⁷⁶ 

A lack of access to land keeps Dalits in a state of economic dependency. Most rural Dalits are agricultural laborers who are economically dependent on their employers and therefore less likely to report abuse.²⁷⁷ Economic dependency on agricultural jobs also makes Dalits more susceptible to seasonal migratory work patterns (see Section VIII(D)(1)(a)).

b.  Prevention of access to, and enjoyment of, own property

Even Dalits who do own land often do not have access to it, or are otherwise prevented from enjoying it. For example, a 1996 study by a NGO, which undertook a door-to-door survey of 250 villages in the state of Gujarat, found that, in almost all villages, many had no record of their land holdings, those who had title to land had no possession, and those who had possession had not had their land measured or faced illegal encroachments from upper-castes.²⁷⁸ 

c.  Failure of land reform legislation and efforts

Land reform laws that were intended to provide reparations for the historic landlessness of Dalits²⁷⁹ have failed due to a lack of political will and bureaucratic commitment, loopholes in the laws, the tremendous manipulative power of the landed classes, excessive interference of courts,²⁸⁰ and problems in ensuring that oral tenancies are truthfully recorded in land records so as to enable implementation of the land to the tiller policy.²⁸¹ The Special Rapporteur on housing has also attributed this failure to the government, noting "…weak legislative provisions, inadequate implementation, and a lack of State commitment."²⁸² The evidence of this failure is clear; for example, Dalit landlessness is estimated at around 75 percent. Of surplus land collected pursuant to land reform laws, only 69.5 percent has been distributed, of which Dalits have received only 34.6 percent.²⁸³

d.  State suppression of movements requiring land reform and retaliatory violence and economic sanctions against Dalits by private actors

See Sections V(A)(1)(a)(ii); VIII(B) and VIII(E) respectively.

5.  Ensure Dalits' right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion

Article 5 (d) (vii): The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Dalits in India face a number of restrictions on their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Caste-based human rights violations that are the subject of this report are often given religious sanction under the theory that Dalits must live segregated lives and perform menial occupations because they are born into a caste outside of the Hindu varna system. As a result, Dalits are routinely denied entry into Hindu temples (see Section VIII(F)(2)(b)). Dalits have responded to ill-treatment by upper-caste Hindus by converting en masse to Buddhism, Christianity, and historically to Islam. The loss of constitutional privileges upon conversion, however, serves as a serious impediment to their freedom to choose their religion. Additionally, most Dalits are ultimately unable to escape their treatment as "untouchables" regardless of the religion they profess.²⁸⁴ The introduction of anti-conversion legislation in several states has further made religious conversion extremely difficult if not impossible. Finally, Dalits may become targets of forced "reconversions" to Hinduism by sangh parivar groups.²⁸⁵ 

a.  Loss of constitutional privileges upon conversion

While the Indian Constitution grants certain constitutional privileges to Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh Dalits (see Section V(B)), the same benefits do not extend to those who convert to Christianity or Islam. Dalit Christians and Muslims lose their "scheduled caste" status even though they are unable to escape discriminatory treatment from Christians and Muslims. Many Dalit Christians must pray in separate or segregated churches, bury their dead in separate cemeteries, and endure discrimination by non-Dalit priests and nuns.²⁸⁶ 

Descendants of Dalit converts to Islam also face discrimination at the hands of Muslims who trace their ancestry to Arab, Iranian, or Central Asian origin.²⁸⁷ Descendants of indigenous converts are commonly referred to as ajlaf or "base" or "lowly."²⁸⁸Further, upper-caste Muslims often deny Dalit Muslims entry to graveyards for burial.²⁸⁹ The continued practice of "untouchability" against Dalit Christians and Muslims undermines the argument that these communities should lose constitutional privileges upon conversion, and have led to charges that the Indian government's practice of assigning scheduled caste status on the basis of religion amounts to religious discrimination.²⁹⁰ Additionally, Dalit Christians and Muslims may be subject to multiple forms of discrimination on the basis of their caste and religion, a risk that has increased with the rise of Hindu nationalism in India.²⁹¹

b.  Anti-conversion legislation

Dalits' right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion is explicitly denied through legislation that prohibits or impedes religious conversion. Seven states, a majority of them ruled by the Hindu nationalist BJP—Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu—have introduced legislation designed to make conversion difficult or virtually impossible.²⁹² Four of the anti-conversion laws explicitly stipulate harsher punishments where the convert is a Dalit, tribal, female, or a minor.²⁹³ Critics have argued that such bills represent a political move by Hindu nationalist groups to maintain their Hindu vote bank.²⁹⁴ Notably, mass "re-conversions" to Hinduism engineered by VHP, often using threats and coercion, are allowed under these laws.²⁹⁵

6.  Ensure Dalits' right to freedom of opinion and expression

Article 5 (d) (viii): The right to freedom of opinion and expression.

Dalits' right to freedom of opinion and expression is compromised by police abuse of Dalit activists (see Section V(A)(1)(a)(ii)), retaliatory attacks by private actors that are carried out with impunity (see Section VIII(B)), and social and economic boycotts against Dalits (see Section VIII(E)). These actions often result when Dalits refuse to carry out caste-based tasks or seek to defy the social order; they frequently entail punishment of entire communities.²⁹⁶ As the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes surmises: "Whenever Dalits have tried to organize themselves or assert their rights, there has been a backlash from the feudal lords resulting in mass killings of Dalits, gang rapes, looting and arsoning" of Dalit villages.²⁹⁷

7.  Ensure Dalits the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association

Article 5 (d) (ix): The right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Though the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association is enshrined in Article 19 of the Indian Constitution, Dalit protests are often met with police violence or arbitrary arrest and detention. Dalit activists have been detained and charged under draconian national security and anti-terrorism laws (see Section V(A)(1)(a)(ii)). In addition, police have made use of the Sedition Act, embodied under Indian Penal Code Section 124A, to prohibit peaceful meetings and protests.²⁹⁸ A number of such protests emerge in response to the desecration of statues of prominent Dalit Dr. B.R. Ambedkar by upper-caste community members resentful of these statues in public spaces.²⁹⁹ As one of the chief architects of India's constitution and a Dalit leader, statues of Dr. Ambedkar represent to Dalits the potential for "education, success, contribution to the political world of India, courage, [and] empowerment through relationship to government…"³⁰⁰ When Dalits have protested such vandalism, the police and upper-caste community members have often responded with violent attacks and arbitrary arrests.³⁰¹

In November 2006 the entire state of Maharashtra was engulfed in protests by Dalits after upper-caste community members desecrated a Dr. Ambedkar statue in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.³⁰² While the mob violence, including the burning of a train, cannot be justified, the reprisals were extreme. In response to the protests, a Dalit youth was lynched, and the police opened fire in Osmanabad, killing two people.³⁰³ Moreover, a curfew was declared in four cities, where large-scale violence had erupted.³⁰⁴ In light of the violence, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting for the United Progressive Alliance-led government to review the progress of development projects for Dalits.³⁰⁵

The Ramabai Killings

The Ramabai killings of July 1997 are a notorious example of the use of excessive force by the police in response to peaceful and democratic protests.³⁰⁶ On July 11, police opened fire on a crowd of Dalits protesting the desecration of a statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in their settlement in Bombay.³⁰⁷ According to Human Rights Watch's investigations, the firings—in which 10 people were killed and 27 were injured—were both unprovoked and caste motivated.³⁰⁸ The incident led to significant unrest throughout the state of Majarashtra, including rioting and social boycotts against protesting Dalits.³⁰⁹ According to the Times of India, "the people owing allegiance to the ruling alliance parties had made determined efforts to terrorize and punish the Buddhists [converted Dalits] for having dared to protest against the shameful act of desecration of the Ambedkar statue."³¹⁰ In one such instance, a Dalit woman was stripped and paraded naked around Karanja-Ghadge village in Wardha district, and later allegedly framed for murder by the police after she complained of her ill-treatment.³¹¹

E.         Ensure Dalits' economic, social and cultural rights

Article 5 (e): Economic, social and cultural rights.

Dalits' economic, social and cultural rights are routinely infringed by State and private actors with respect to all elements of the right to work (including in particular the right to free choice of employment and just and favorable conditions), the right to form and join trade unions, the right to housing (through segregation, discrimination in urban environments and limits on the right to own property), the right to access particular services  in a non-discriminatory manner, the right to education and training, and rights regarding equal participation in cultural activities, such as wedding processions.

Box 7: Use of economic and social boycotts against Dalits

One practice that particularly influences the overall enjoyment of economic and social rights is the upper-caste imposition of social and economic boycotts against Dalits as a form of retaliation for assertion of rights. These boycotts are reinforced by thepanchayat (village council) who levy fines against upper-caste individuals who refuse to participate.³¹²

In April 1998 upper-caste community members—reportedly angered by the election of a Dalit to the local panchayat and by Dalit attempts to increase their participation in village politics and activities—imposed a complete social boycott against Dalits in a village in Gujarat. Upper-caste community members were instructed not to supply anything, even basic necessities, to Dalits, and landowners were told to fire Dalit farmhands. Any upper-caste person found to be in violation of the boycott was fined and threatened. When Dalits tried to file a complaint for authorities to intervene, they were told that political pressure on police meant that a complaint could not be registered. Dalits continued to be denied basic necessities such as access to potable water, milk, and other daily needs even after the cases were filed.³¹³

1.  Ensure Dalits' rights to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, to protection against unemployment, to equal pay for equal work, to just and favorable remuneration

Article 5 (e) (i): The rights to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, to protection against unemployment, to equal pay for equal work, to just and favorable remuneration.

The denial of the right to work and free choice of employment lies at the very heart of the caste system. Denial of free choice of employment and allocation of labor on the basis of caste are fundamental tenets of the caste system and are integral to sustaining caste inequality and hierarchy.³¹⁴ Dalits' talents, merits, and hard work are of little consequence in a system where occupational status is determined by birth. Dalits are forced to work in "polluting" and degrading occupations such as manual scavenging and are subject to exploitative labor arrangements such as bonded labor, migratory labor, and forced prostitution. Dalit children are also vulnerable to child labor in these and other areas. Dalits are also discriminated against in hiring and in the payment of wages by private employers. Dalits' attempts to enforce their rights are met with retaliatory violence (see Section VIII(B)) and social and economic boycott³¹⁵ (see Section VIII(E)).

In its combined Second and Third periodic reports to the CEDAW Committee, the Government of India reports that merely "stray cases [of bonded labor] are reported from time to time."³¹⁶ This is in direct contradiction to the overwhelming amount of evidence of the Dalit community's continuing vulnerability to bonded labor. The government neglects to even mention caste discrimination in discussing indebtedness among the Dalit community, instead pointing to their poverty and to alcoholism as one of the reasons for their continued indebtedness and exploitation.³¹⁷ Additionally, the effectiveness of the Government's measures is not critically examined. While the government reports on the number of scavengers, bonded labors, and the like who have been "rehabilitated," it fails to estimate the number of Dalits who remain victims to these dehumanizing practices. Still, the government does acknowledge that it "has a lot more to do to fulfill the Constitutional commitment of raising the status of [Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes] to that of the rest of the population."³¹⁸

a.  Manual Scavenging

Manual scavenging is a practice by which Dalits remove excreta from public and private dry pit latrines and carry them to dumping grounds and disposal sites.³¹⁹ Though long outlawed, the practice of manual scavenging continues in most states,³²⁰ and will continue as long as dry latrines are used.³²¹ In 2002-03 the Union Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment admitted the existence of 6.76 lakh (676,000) manual scavengers in India and the presence of 92 lakh (9,200,000) dry latrines, spread across 21 States and Union Territories.³²² According to unofficial estimates, the number of manual scavengers in India may be as high as 1.3 million.³²³ Manual scavengers are employed by private and public employers, including the military engineering services, the army, the railways, and other organs of the state.³²⁴ 

The occupation of manual scavenging is both caste-based and hereditary.³²⁵ It is also the only economic opportunity available to many Dalit women hailing from scavenger sub-castes,³²⁶ with the result that more Dalit women and girls work as manual scavengers than Dalit men.³²⁷ Manual scavengers are at the very bottom of the caste hierarchy; they also face discrimination from other Dalits who treat them as "untouchables," creating an unquestioned "'untouchability' within the 'untouchables…'"³²⁸ The entrenched discrimination against manual scavengers makes it difficult to find alternative employment pursuant to government rehabilitation schemes, and even more difficult to convince scavengers that they are able to take on, or are "worthy of performing," different occupations.³²⁹

Manual scavenging is characterized by hazardous working conditions and health hazards. A manual scavenger from Paliyad village, Ahmedabad district, Gujarat, described how in the rainy season, the "water mixes with the feces that we carry in baskets on our heads, it drips onto our clothes, our faces. When I return home, I find it difficult to eat food…. But in the summer there is often no water to wash your hands before eating. It is difficult to say which [season] is worse."³³⁰ Manual scavengers are routinely exposed to both human and animal waste without the protection of masks, uniforms, gloves, shoes, appropriate buckets, and mops.³³¹ This has severe repercussions for their health; the majority of scavengers suffer from anaemia, diarrhea, and vomiting, with 62 percent suffering respiratory diseases, 32 percent suffering skin diseases, 42 percent suffering jaundice, and 23 percent suffering trachoma, leading to blindness. Many scavengers have also died of carbon monoxide poisoning while cleaning septic tanks.³³²In Mumbai, for instance, Dalits are lowered into manholes to clear sewage blockages—often without any protection.³³³ More than 100 workers die every year due to inhalation of toxic gases or drowning in excrement.³³⁴ The fear of being fired by municipality officials keeps manual scavengers from demanding higher wages or sanitary instruments.³³⁵

Manual scavenging is neither justly nor favorably remunerated, and several family members (usually women and girls) often have to be engaged to do the work assigned to one individual. As a result many families have to borrow money from their upper-caste neighbors and consequently go into bondage (see Section VIII(E)(1)(b)). In addition, almost no compensation has been delivered to the families of manual scavengers who are killed cleaning sewers.³³⁶

These problems have not been alleviated by the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, or its rehabilitation program. For example, an increase in the number of dry latrines since 1989,³³⁷ ineffectiveness in the training program³³⁸ and a lack of co-ordination among responsible ministries³³⁹ mean that despite the fact that the Act was intended to be fully implemented by October 2, 2002,³⁴⁰ only 151,930 out of the total 676,009 manual scavengers identified as of 2004 by the NHRC have been retrained and 394,638 have been rehabilitated.³⁴¹ These failures reflect a fundamental lack of political commitment in the effort to eliminate manual scavenging.³⁴² They have necessitated the filing of a public interest litigation petition on behalf of manual scavengers before the Supreme Court in 2003 seeking the enforcement of the Act.³⁴³ This petition alleges that manual scavenging still exists, including in public sector undertakings, and urges the Court to issue time-bound directions to the Government of India and to state governments to take effective steps to eliminate the practice and to simultaneously formulate and implement comprehensive rehabilitation plans.³⁴⁴ The lack of political will of state governments to implement the Act was evidenced in 2004 when the Supreme Court requested the court presence of Secretaries of seven states for failure to file responses to the petition.³⁴⁵ In response to the Supreme Court order, many states reported to the Court that no dry latrines existed in their states.³⁴⁶

b.  Bonded Labor

There are an estimated 40 million bonded laborers in India, of whom 15 million are children.³⁴⁷ The vast majority of these laborers are Dalits or tribals.³⁴⁸ Bonded labor is sustained by the caste system, in particular through the traditional expectation of free labor and/or inadequate remuneration for work, the lack of Dalit ownership of land, social and economic boycotts levied by upper-caste community members (see Section VIII(E)),³⁴⁹ police extortion and looting (see Section V(A)(1)(a)(v)), and by acts or threats of violence that prevent Dalits from reporting abuses against them (including that they are being held in bondage).³⁵⁰

Bonded labor also results from indebtedness to employers or moneylenders on whom Dalits must rely because of inadequate wages³⁵¹ and because of the reluctance of institutional agencies to lend to the poor in general and to Dalits in particular. Under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, payment of less than minimum wage for the purposes of working off a debt also amounts to bondage. Most agricultural laborers Human Rights Watch interviewed for a report published in 1999 were paid between Rs. 15 and Rs. 25 (US$0.38 to $0.63), or two to three kilograms of rice, per day, well below the minimum wage prescribed in their state.³⁵² In 2002 Human Rights Watch interviewed Dalit villagers in Uttar Pradesh who weave saris on looms owned by traders and who are forced to labor on agricultural lands. "We have very little land, less than five acres," a Dalit woman told Human Rights Watch. "Yes, of course we work on the landlords' land."³⁵³ In exchange for a day's labor, a worker receives five kilograms of wheat, worth about Rs. 40 (U.S.$0.83).³⁵⁴ "They don't even measure the five kilograms," one man complained. "They just fill up a sack and bring it out to us."³⁵⁵Another man explained that they couldn't survive on the money earned from this and from sari weaving, so they had to take loans from the traders.³⁵⁶ 

While the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 seeks to abolish all agreements and obligations arising out of the bonded labor system,³⁵⁷ the extent to which bonded laborers have been identified, released, and rehabilitated in the country is negligible.³⁵⁸ For example, out of the 3000 cases filed under the Act in Punjab since 1998, only 10 have completed the judicial process.³⁵⁹ Debt relief legislation has been similarly ineffective, with the NHRC concluding that "the beneficial provisions of law, which could at least reduce debt burden

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