For a full month Dalit women have marched in India to fight the vicious cycle of caste and gender discrimination that severely restricts the lives of Dalit women and subjects them to violence, rape and violations of their basic human rights in almost every sphere. They are marching to empower other Dalit women to stand up for themselves and join in the fight and they are demanding justice.
Urgent and sustainable relief is needed for Dalits residing in the Thar desert who are repeatedly struck by drought. Over 100 children have died in this last drought and the Pakistan Dalit Solidarity Network have issued a press release calling for action to address the cause of these humanitarian catastrophes in Thar and find sustainable solutions to protect Dalits from droughts in future.
Parliamentarians from India, Nepal and Bangladesh have formed the ‘South Asian Parliamentary Forum’ (SAPF) to combat caste discrimination, at the historic ‘South Asia Parliamentarians Conference on Dalit Concerns’ in Kathmandu 8-9th December.
A report just released by UNICEF and UNESCO on out of school children in India highlights that Dalit girls have the highest primary school exclusion rate in India. The report also finds that half of the Pre-School age Dalit children are not attending school.
Key humanitarian actors including UNDP, ECHO, the Asian Disaster Reduction & Response Network, USAID and DFID gathered in New Delhi for the launch of the report “Equality in Aid – Addressing Caste Discrimination in Humanitarian Response”.
Dalits in India have united to issue an urgent appeal to the Indian Government to take immediate action on passing pending legislation amending the Prevention of Atrocities act, meant to stop atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis (tribals) in India. They are also asking the Government to approve a bill to ensure the proper allocation and distribution of budgets for Dalits and Adivasis.
Descendants of prominent African American families, who led the civil rights movement, presented a Declaration of Empathy to the US congress. The declaration appeals to all Americans to stand in solidarity with the Dalits of South Asia to fight caste discrimination and caste-based slavery.
Dalit and Adivasi activists protested in front of the Indian Parliament Tuesday, to convey their anger that India’s ruling parties have broken their promise to table important budget bills, meant to benefit Dalits and Adivasis (SCP TSP Legislation) and amendments to the act meant to prevent atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis (the SC/ST PoA act).
India is introducing new manual scavenging legislation meant to eradicate the humiliating practice of manual scavenging, which perseveres despite being outlawed for decades. Indian civil society are welcoming the initiative to introduce new legislation, but are flagging that the proposed draft legislation is missing critical necessary aspects that must be included before legislation is introduced on the 6th December.
Dalits in India have had enough of clever Government tricks to divert money meant for Dalits – under the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan – to other areas unrelated to them. They are demanding new legislation, to ensure that this practice, which has prevailed for years, is stopped and money is returned to the scheduled castes that were meant to benefit from them.
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