Manu Bheel is still being denied access to justice ten years after his family was kidnapped in the Sindh province of Pakistan

Photo: Jacob Carlsen

 

 

Manisha and Jhakondra’s families tried to deny them the right to marriage on free will in Nepal’s Far Western Province

Dhangadi, Far Western Province, Nepal November 2007 Non-Dalits consider Dalits to be ‘impure’ and ‘polluted’, so intercaste marriage is often perceived as a sin. Living only 200 meters apart, Jhakondra, 21, and Manisha, 19, did the unthinkable and fell in love. Following years of arguments and attacks by Manisha’s non-Dalit family, the couple ran away to India and got married shortly before this picture was taken. But they are lucky – young ‘mixed’ couples often pay with their lives since non-Dalit families sometimes resort to murder to avoid the shame and ‘pollution’ of the family.

Photo: Jacob Carlsen

 

Selected cases

Cases illustrating discrimination