A new-born Indian can expect to live for 69 years, just three years short of the world average. But disparities in life expectancy - the average number of years that a person can expect to live - among India's social groups have lingered and widened, according to two new studies.
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.
India has approximately 100 million Dalit women. Sixty million of them are employed in domestic labour. 2006 Right Livelihood Laureate Ruth Manorama has dedicated her life to achieving equality and social justice for them, both at the national and international level.
Survey by the SR on contemporary forms of slavery
Many businesses, mainstream trade unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) alike, are not aware of caste and how it may relate to them if they operate in countries in South Asia. With a lack of knowledge on the realities of caste and its consequences, even progressive, responsible businesses may undermine their own efforts to protect workers’ rights and implement responsible business codes and the UNGPs.
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.
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.
The report captures the possible widening gap in educational attainment between the SC/ST students and others during the Covid 19.
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.
Narendra Jadhav, author of Untouchables: My Family’s Triumphant Escape from India’s Caste System, observes that every sixth human is an Indian and every sixth Indian is a Dalit. The simple fact that over 16% of India’s population were historically excluded by caste-based cruelty — one of the world’s oldest forms of discrimination — from holding power in society and were cruelly called and treated as “untouchables” is sufficient to value the importance of taking a Dalit perspective today.
The International Commission for Dalit Rights (ICDR), together with the National Coalition Against Caste Discrimination (NCACD) and other civil rights groups, have submitted a policy memo demanding the US Department of Justice recognize that civil rights laws prohibit caste-based discrimination in the United States and integrate and enforce this recognition into civil rights and non-discrimination guidelines.
Gerard Oonk, co-founder and former director of the National India Working Group (LIW), received a ribbon today from the mayor of Utrecht, Sharon Dijksma, during the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Arisa, formerly LIW.
Homeworkers, mainly women, are often engaged in informal tiers of apparel and footwear supply chains beyond the factory. Their precarious employment, out of sight of auditors and inspectors, combined with weak or absent legal protections, put them at risk of exploitation, and they have some of the worst pay and conditions of any workers in the value chain. The lack of visibility of homeworkers hampers the ability of international Brands and retailers to address the issues of homeworkers within their own supply chains. This is a toolkit to help businesses (and organisations working with them) improve transparency about homeworking within their supply chains.
A survey-based study by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR)'s Dalit Adhikari Andolan found that 56% of the surveyed students from the marginalised communities in the annual income group of Rs 20,000-40,000 were unable to access online classes. Further, 73% respondents from particularly vulnerable tribal groups were unable to access online classes in the COVID pandemic.
In connection with their participation in the 48 th Human Rights Council session, states are encouraged to consider the ongoing and systemic practice of discrimination based on work and descent, also known as caste-based discrimination, affecting more than 260 million people globally.
Father Stan Swamy, 84, a courageous and dedicated campaigner for the rights of India’s indigenous Adivasi community, has died from Covid-19 complications. He had been imprisoned on terrorism charges since October 2020