244 entries found
The report states that young Dalit girls are recruited into Tamil Nadu’s textile and spinning mills from rural, underdeveloped areas and as migrant workers, often through contracts promising salary or end-of-contract payments that families may use for dowry. In the Tamil Nadu sample, SC respondents made up **33.6%** of the workers surveyed, the largest caste category reported in that state sample. The report also finds a statistically significant relationship between caste and daily income: only **56.9% of SC workers** received Rs. 500 per day, compared with **63.7% of General** and **91.7% of Forward caste** workers. Overall, the document indicates that caste is relevant to the recruitment and working conditions of girl workers, but it does not provide a detailed Dalit-specific discrimination analysis beyond these findings.
The UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Professor Nicolas Levrat, has urged Nepal to take stronger action to ensure that Dalits and minority communities can fully enjoy their rights after meeting with several IDSN members in Nepal.
During Nepal’s fourth-cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR), UN Member States’ recommendations called for stronger action against caste-based discrimination, “untouchability”, and related patterns of exclusion and violence affecting Dalits, including Dalit women and Dalit children.
With growing evidence of labour exploitation across South Asia—this report provides an evidence- based analysis to assist the European Commission in identifying high-risk sectors connected to EU supply chains and in enforcing due diligence in line with the EU Forced Labour Regulation.
Recycling sector workers are frequently exposed to dust, chemicals and dangerous machinery without proper protective gear. Evidence collected so far also suggests that this workforce’s proportion of child and migrant labourers, who are most prone to exploitation and abuse, is alarmingly high. The sector operates with little to no governmental regulatory oversight and is entirely non-unionised, meaning that risks and violations often go unaddressed. Other investigations of the textile recycling industry in Panipat came to the same conclusions, highlighting especially the severe health issues.7
On 14 February 2025, IDSN, Arisa and Homeworkers Worldwide hosted a side-session at the OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment and Footwear Sector. The discussion addressed the exploitation of Dalit workers in South Asia’s garment and leather industries that form part of global supply chains. The panel featured voices from the frontlines of labour rights, each offering insights into caste discrimination, forced and bonded labour and caste and gender-based violence at work.
This IDSN submission highlights the pervasive issue of child labour among Dalit children in South Asia, particularly in India, where caste-based discrimination and systemic poverty exacerbate their vulnerability. Children as young as five are subjected to bonded labour in brick kilns, hazardous work in agriculture, forced labour in the textile industry, and domestic servitude, often under exploitative schemes like the “Sumangali” system. The IDSN underscores that these children, especially girls, face compounded risks of trafficking, sexual violence, and early marriage, which further entrench their marginalisation. To address these issues, the IDSN calls for the strict enforcement of existing laws, the elimination of caste-based discrimination in education and public services, and the implementation of comprehensive social protection measures to support vulnerable families and prevent child labour.
Cottonseed survey found ” 87% of the families of working children came from lower castes such as tribal people and dalits … Cotton seed producers usually employed children on a long-term contract basis by paying advances or loans to their parents. A survey of 320 chil- dren working on cotton seed farms revealed that about 95% of the children were in debt bondage: the children were effectively working off their parents’ debts in conditions of near slavery”
factsheet on Caste-based Gender Violence against Dalit Women and Girls in India. The factsheet is based on data analysis of the National Crime Records Bureau of India. The analysis concludes that the rise in atrocities against Dalit women and minor girls indicates that the existing laws are not effectively or appropriately enforced.The data that is caste disaggregated reflects this grim reality, while there is still much crime data that remains to be disaggregated - masking even bigger issues. Additionally low conviction, lesser punishment and higher disposal of cases related to Dalit women and girls, are found to be important factors to consider while working for prevention of violence against Dalit women and girls. The report also highlights several concrete cases of violations and the miscarriage of justice.
The Working Group on the UPR reviewed India in November 2022 and the outcome report was adopted at the Human Rights Council 52 March session in 2023. This report includes recommendations on Dalits, caste, hate speech, racism, water and sanitation, women and girls' rights and many more.
The report is focused on contemporary forms of slavery affecting persons belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minority communities. In that context, the Special Rapporteur identifies the main causes of contemporary forms of slavery affecting these groups and the main manifestations, such as chattel slavery; forced and bonded labour; domestic servitude; sexual slavery; child and forced marriage; and child labour.
The Sindh Human Rights Commission organised a one-day consultation with key stakeholders at Hotel Avari Towers, Karachi, on August 18, 2022. The purpose of the consultation was to identify the gaps in the legislation covering labour rights of sanitation workers and build a consensus to gear efforts toward driving legislative interventions for the inclusion of sanitation workers in the labour laws. The event was organised in technical partnership with The Knowledge Forum.
How violation of the fundamental rights of a citizen dents our entire society is often ignored by the power structures in the country. This is especially so when it translates into marginalization in education of children belonging to persecuted communities that endure gross discrimination and systemic exploitation.
This report is an attempt by Dasra and the India Climate Collaborative to draw attention to the unique space that girls and women occupy in the climate crisis today.
Tomoya Obokata, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, today welcomed progress in strengthening Mauritania’s legal framework and building the political will to combat slavery, but cautioned that much work still lay ahead.
This is part of a 24-part series starting next week, covering the sanitation crisis in each Indian state. Each part will be accompanied by a visual documentary on the specific state, highlighting the effects of the Swachh Bharat Mission and the continuation of manual scavenging in India.
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.
