“Social distancing also has a dark and ominous side. In South Asia, where it has unfurled into a spider’s web of practices, it also directs violence, exclusion and bigotry upon marginalised people whose only ‘sin’ is caste, occupation or descent.”
Manjula Pradeep, human rights activist and founder of Wayve Foundation on caste and women's labour speaks about the unique situtation of Dalit women in relation to labour and modern slavery.
A first-of-its-kind snapshot of the distribution of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes community in the city reveals a patchwork of caste-segregated neighbourhoods where socio-economically backward castes are ghettoised. In 40% of blocks, SC/ST community constitutes less than 5% of residents.
A local fined Prem Bahadur BK of Chhededaha Rural Municipality with Rs 2,000 for touching the former’s cowshed in Bajura. Rajendra Bahadur Singh of Chhededaha, Biradi fined BK the amount just for touching his cowshed during the door-to-door election publicity campaign on Friday.
A person from the Dalit community was thrashed mercilessly in Bode Barsain Municipality, Saptari, yesterday for entering a temple to perform puja. Liladhar Das (Tatma) of Bode Barasain Municipality was beaten black and blue by the local non-Dalits. According to eye-witness Laxmi Ram, locals Raj Kumar Yadav, Kasindra Yadav, Ramchandra Yadav and Sakaldev Yadav, among others, had attacked Das when he reached the local temple to perform Asare Puja.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, has released a report on housing in India. The report draws attention to the alarming state of Dalit houses and the need for Government action to improve housing and end discrimination.
On the outskirts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home city, the stench from cow carcasses littering the roadside is overpowering as India’s lowest social caste keeps up protests against deep-rooted discrimination.
Japan has a reputation of being a homogeneous, mostly harmonious society. There are few foreigners, linguistic differences are rare and on the surface class distinctions are largely absent. But, as Mike Sunda discovered, there is one, often hidden, exception: Japan's untouchables.
“My parents were bonded labourers. The women in my family belonged to the Devadasi tradition. We had to face oppression on both counts. I dropped out of school and helped my family for a while. I joined back a year after this incident,”
In a family of eight children, he was the youngest and he could only complete graduation with the support of his elders. “Even today, people living in my colony are restricted from entering temple and a community hall in the village. I and my family members have faced difficulty in getting houses for rent in places like Hassan. A few years ago, my sister’s family was forced to vacate the house within minutes, after the house-owner learnt about her caste. I too faced such ordeal, when I moved to Hassan after getting a job,” he said. He has narrated these incidents in his book. “These are not old stories, but happening every day. In my village, upper caste people do not have meals with Dalits. The upper caste people have to be served food in hotels, when they attend Dalit marriages,” he said.