305 entries found
The report Dalit Women’s Long Road to Justice: Monitoring 10 Years of SDG 5 in India through Caste, Gender and SRHR Lens, by All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch - AIDMAM, offers an evidence-based assessment of progress and persistent gaps in achieving gender equality for Dalit women in India over the past decade. Drawing on official data, existing research and primary interviews conducted in 2025 in Bihar, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Telangana, the report shows how caste-based patriarchy continues to shape discrimination, violence, harmful practices, barriers to justice and unequal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
This report presents a rigorous analysis of the last five years of data from the National Crime Records Bureau (#NCRB), exposing alarming trends in caste-based atrocities and revealing persistent gaps in the implementation and enforcement of the SC/ST (PoA) Act. It highlights systemic failures across stages of justice delivery ; from FIR registration and investigation to prosecution and conviction, raising serious concerns about institutional accountability. Beyond documenting the scale and patterns of caste-based violence, the report advances urgent and actionable policy recommendations aimed at strengthening monitoring mechanisms, fixing accountability at every level of governance, improving the implementation of legal safeguards, and ensuring meaningful access to justice for Dalit communities across India. It calls for structural reforms that move beyond symbolic commitments toward measurable, time-bound change.
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.
During the 4th Cycle of the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of India, the country received recommendations on caste, including the need to ensure implementation of legislation to protect Dalits from discrimination and violence, develop an action plan to prevent caste discrimination in labour, protect Dalit women and girls from violence and sexual abuse, ensure equal access to services, and to step up efforts to end caste discrimination.
International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN) and Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) echo the call by National Campaign on DalitHuman Rights (NCDHR) and Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union (TTCU) on garment brands to negotiate a binding agreement to end systemic gender-based violence that leverages caste discrimination at global supplier factory Natchi Apparels (SF. No:470/2 Kaithayan Kottai, Vedasandur 624711, Dindigul), after a 21-year-old Dalit garment worker was murdered by her dominant caste factory supervisor earlier this year.
Recommendations for the prevention of sexual violence against Dalit women and girls (August 2021)
A number of recent cases of rape and murder against Dalit women and girls in India have attracted attention from the media as well as politicians. But all too often, violence against Dalit women remains unreported – in India as well as in other caste-affected countries.
A 17-year-old Dalit boy was allegedly forced to lick spit and drink urine for eloping with a girl from Kadhauna village of Gaya district, around 125km south of Bihar’s capital Patna.
On 1 January, Jeyasri Kathirvel, a 21-year-old garment-factory worker from Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul district, was murdered. Jeyasri, who is Dalit, was working in the district’s Kaithayankottai village, at the Natchi Apparel factory—a unit of Eastman Exports, India’s fourth-largest garment-export company.
INDIA, July 19, 2021: Working in collaboration with Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network (DHRD-Net), Equality Labs, and Equality Now, NCWL is launching a national campaign running from July 19th to August 31st 2021, which will draw much-needed public attention to how Dalit women and girls are being deliberatly subjected to widespread sexual violence and harrassment stemming from severe, pervasive and intersectional discrimination tied to their gender, caste and class. Vulnerably positioned at the bottom of these social structures, the socio-economic vulnerability and low political status of Dalit women and girls increases their exposure to human rights violations, while simultaneously reducing their ability to escape harm or access justice.
As India went into a nationwide lockdown to fight the Coronavirus pandemic, caste animosity continued its rampage and destroyed the lives of thousands of Dalit persons across the country. The book "No Lockdown on Caste Atrocities: Stories of Caste Crimes during the COVID-19 Pandemic" produced by Dalit Human Rights Defenders network (DHRDNet) tells stories of 60 such cases of caste crimes that took place while the country was under lockdown in order to deconstruct the psycho-social and legal dynamics that perpetuate caste violence.
Disclosing that several actions that post-conflict countries are mandatorily required to accomplish remain unaddressed in Nepal, the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), a leading human rights organization in the country, documented 5,543 victims of human rights violations in 2020.
Caste references in Human Rights Watch's World Report 2020.
EU Special Representative for Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore and India and Nepal desk representatives of the European External Action Service (EEAS) met with IDSN and Dalit women activists from the Feminist Dalit Organisation – Nepal (FEDO) and All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM-NCDHR) to discuss caste-based violence against Dalit women in their respective countries. The meeting was held online on 24 November and Mr. Gilmore assured the women that the EU remained committed to working to end caste-based violence and discrimination.
A petition by DHRD to call for the the United Nations to Build Forward Better on Descent and Caste-Based Discrimination.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday said the four accused in the gangrape and torture of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras in September were formally charged with the crimes, reported NDTV. The development in the case came more than three months after the incident, which sparked a countrywide outrage.
Rape culture in India. A social environment where sexual violence is normalised, impunity is widespread, and victim-blaming rife; meaning rape becomes increasingly common.
Dalit Voices is a video series that seeks to keep the discussion of caste-based gender violence alive after the Hathras gang rape and murder of September 2020. We bring you Dalit womxn activists from India and around the world to talk about what is urgently required in the work towards ending caste atrocities in India.
The ongoing conversations on gender and caste in the feminist discourse emphasise on the importance of Dalit women’s voices. The lives and stories of women from marginalized sections of the society are important starting points for understanding this intersection of gender and caste. One such strong and resilient voice is the voice of Manisha Mashaal. Manisha Mashaal is a grassroots anti-caste activist, an orator and a singer.
The life of a Dalit woman in Punjab is a true picture of the intersectional reality of caste, class and gender. Their experiences represent clear evidence of widespread exploitation, violence and indecent inhumane treatment.
