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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Ms Narkar is one of dozens of women Ms Pradeep has been training to help rape survivors - especially those from the Dalit community - get justice.
Dalit and transgender activist Grace Banu has broken the shackles of discrimination to inspire an entire generation
In the sea of “representation matters”, it is imperative to ask why the Indians taking up diversity-spaces in western and west-targeted media are all so insistently upper caste and often always North Indian?
A gift of a camera inspired Belmaya Nepali to rise above poverty and abuse to make documentaries
Journalists, filmmakers, writers – all of them have but one purpose: to tell stories. Sometimes it takes years to find the one medium that is able to embody a story to its fullest, giving power and contours to ideas. Other times, it is the story itself that chooses the best way to be told by its very own protagonists. This is the case of “I Am Belmaya”, directed by Sue Carpenter, a 14-years in the making documentary narrating Belmaya Nepali’s life through her own eyes and life experiences.
Most of the 100 Dalit representatives of the people in the three tiers of government, who have gathered in Kathmandu to share their four years of experience, have said that the discriminatory attitude towards the community still remains deeply rooted in society and this is affecting their performance.
The trial for the Rukum (West) mass murder is still underway, more than a year since the incident. The families of the victims are getting increasingly worried if justice will ever be delivered.
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.
A three-part report examining the challenges and opportunities available for the Dalit justice defenders’ community across South Asia in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India.
Dalit women human rights defenders across the country are working bravely and tirelessly to support survivors of sexual violence; sometimes at great risk to their own personal safety and security. Dalit WHRDs need to be supported by the government and other NGOs, and recognised for their exemplary work and struggle for social justice.