The recent controversy around actor-comedian Vir Das’s show ‘I come from two Indias’ sparked a debate around the perception of India on the international front. While Vir talked about various issues in the 6-minute monologue, he did not utter a single word against the darkest reality of India – caste dominance.
Prem Pariyar worked with the student government association representing the 23 colleges in the California State University system as they passed a resolution to ban caste discrimination. He said he was involved in efforts at the University of California, Davis to do the same.
Harvard University is the latest U.S. school to add measures protecting caste-oppressed students following a push from graduate workers and a national organization.
Students worked to get their university to officially recognize caste — a millennia-old concept that assigns people their social statuses at birth — as a source of discrimination on the Northern California campus.
What do Indians think of love and marriage? Journalist Rukmini S draws on data to piece together a picture of the socio-political realities that underpin marriage and companionship in the country.
The report captures the possible widening gap in educational attainment between the SC/ST students and others during the Covid 19.
On 14 November the Alderbugh Cinema DocFest invited the IDSN Executive Director to speak about Dalit women human rights defenders and caste in South Asia at the screening of the award winning documentary Writing with Fire.
NHRF arranged an event on the situation of Afghanistan at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo. The panel discussion was opened by Professor Peris Sean Jones from the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, and the panel consisted of Horia Mosadiq, Afghan human rights defender and founder of Safety and Risk Mitigation Organization (SRMO), Meena Varma, Executive Director of International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN) and Liv Kjølseth, Secretary General of the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee. NHRF’s Executive Director Ingeborg Moa moderated the panel.
Sanitation workers in Mumbai were declared ‘volunteers’ under a dubious privatisation plan, and denied their rightful wages. A protest led to further injustice.
The links between caste and hazardous forms of sanitation work were highlighted by speakers at the Sanitation Workers Forum 2021 from 29 November – 2 December. Participants at the forum urged that immediate steps are taken to ensure the safety and dignity of millions of sanitation workers worldwide – and ensure social protections.
Following his visit to Sri Lanka last week, the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Tomoya Obokata, raised concern over caste-based discrimination in Sri Lanka affecting the lives and opportunities for oppressed castes in the country.
Brief and recommendations in relation to the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights – 29 November- 1 December The rape and murder of a 20-year-old Dalit factory worker has attracted attention to poor working conditions and caste- and gender-based inequalities in India’s garment industry.
IDSN participated in the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights from 29 November – 1 December, learning and drawing attention to the urgent need to address caste discrimination and violence in global supply chains.
The most recent Global Multidimensional Poverty Index includes caste as an important indicator of poverty in India. According to this method of measuring poverty, progress has been made, but Dalits and Adivasis are still disproportionately poor and women and girls are lagging behind.
Following his visit to Nepal that started on 29 November, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, Olivier De Schutter, released a statement highlighting the persistent interconnections between caste and poverty in Nepal. The Rapporteur also raised issues of caste violence and the need to do more to ensure meaningful political representation of Dalit women in Nepal.
Economic, social and labour rights were the thematic headlines of this year’s EU-NGO Human Rights Forum, where three Dalit human rights defenders were featured as panellists, facilitated by IDSN. Caste-related barriers to healthcare in Pakistan, post-covid economic and social recovery for Dalit workers in South Asia and building corporate accountability to respect human rights were among the key topics covered by the panellists.
The alleged gang rape, murder and forced cremation of a nine-year-old Dalit girl by the accused at Nangal village in Delhi's Cantonment area have sparked outrage.
A 13-YEAR-OLD Dalit girl from West Delhi was allegedly raped and killed by a relative of her landlord, according to the victim’s parents and an FIR registered by police. The relative has been arrested and police said they are investigating the alleged involvement of the landlord and his wife in the case.
I witnessed firsthand the drastic change in people’s personalities before & after joining the community library. That sparked an idea that changed my life- could I replicate this in my village?
In a recent report the National Council of Women Leaders, a coalition of women activists from marginalised communities across India, make recommendations for assemblies, governments and constitutional commissions to end sexual violence against Dalit women and girls.