A monitoring mission in Siraha district of Eastern Nepal has prompted human rights monitors to urge the government to act immediately to ensure access to justice for victims of caste and gender discrimination.
Manual scavengers from across India gathered at a mass rally in New Delhi Monday 1 November and demanded immediate government action to end manual scavenging once and for all, rehabilitate former manual scavengers and apologise for decades of suffering imposed on this group.
Caste discrimination, or casteism, was designated a sin and a “crime against humanity” at the Ecumenical Conference on Justice for Dalits held in New Delhi on 22-24 October.
This month's IDSN newsletter features information on Dalit issues from several caste-affected countries, including India, Bangladesh and Nigeria, as well as numerous stories with an international perspective.
The world will not achieve the eight major anti-poverty goals by 2015 unless Dalits, most of whom are poor, are included in the equation.
IDSN urges President Barack Obama to raise the issue of caste discrimination on his upcoming visit to India
A march – or ‘yatra’ - for the eradication of manual scavenging in India was launched on 29 September. During the next few weeks, buses will carry campaigners from five different corners of India to the capital.
Three Dalit veterans of the international struggle against caste discrimination were part of an IDSN delegation that met the Danish Minister for Development, Søren Pind, in Copenhagen on 8 September.
The President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, has said that relief work in his country should not be influenced by considerations of caste, creed or ethnicity. IDSN is urging the international community to incorporate measures against caste discrimination in disaster relief operations.
Two human rights groups, NCDHR and HLRN, have called for the prosecution of officials who illegally diverted funds from Dalit social welfare programmes to the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery