Dalit Muslims of India (Video – Al Jazeera)
In a bid to escape poverty and caste discrimination, some Hindu Dalits are converting to Islam and other faiths.
In a bid to escape poverty and caste discrimination, some Hindu Dalits are converting to Islam and other faiths.
The Dalit Women's Self-Respect movement is India’s largest historic challenge to caste-apartheid and caste-based sexual violence. The All India Dalit Women's Rights Forum (All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch) activists who have had enough of India’s epidemic of caste violence, jumped into jeeps, cars, bikes, and rickshaws traveling state to state in the largest freedom ride to demand an end to caste based violence in Indian history. At each stop activists comforted survivors, confronted perpetrators, and called out corrupt public officials and the State who are responsible for this violence.
This short film brings to light a handful of violations that those who continue to be treated as ‘untouchables’, are subjected to, focusing particularly on Dalit Women who must deal with multiple discrimination due to gender and caste. They also show how Dalit activists stand up for their rights and demand change. The film is a collage of video material from Dalit community video volunteers, documentary filmmakers, and NGOs. The film includes: Rape and sexual abuse: Dalit women describe how they are abused and raped by ‘upper castes’, often in retaliation for Dalit communities asserting their rights. Forced prostitution: A 14 year-old Dalit girl in Nepal works as a prostitute because it is prescribed to her caste and in India Dalit girls are made to work as temple prostitutes.
Despite caste based discrimination being illegal in Nepal, it continues to affect the country's 'untouchables'.
Despite laws preventing manual scavenging, the tradition of the lower caste people of removing human waste is still alive in India. Kavita presents us with the life of a manual scavenger and the hardships she faces https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jlU7SLZYmg.
Bulbul: song of the Nightingale -
Implementing Laws Prohibiting Manual Scavenging
The Indian Government should end manual scavenging says Human Rights Watch in the new report, Cleaning Human Waste: "Manual Scavenging," Caste, and Discrimination in India. The report was released together with this short video
"In the wake of a disturbing, high-profile rape and murder of two girls in Uttar Pradesh, a northern state with one of the highest occurrences of violent crime against women in India, UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay urges Prime Minister Modi to address the deep-rooted caste system that she deems responsible."