Author: A Compilation
Publisher: Books for Change
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 291
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187380578
Description
This Human Rights Watch report documents the government’s attempts to criminalize peaceful social activism through the arbitrary arrest and detention of Dalit activist, and its failure to abolish exploitative labor practices and implement relevant legislation.
Some 160 million people in India live a precarious existence, shunned by much of society because of their rank as untouchable or Dalits – literally meaning broken people –at the bottom of India’s caste system. Dalits are discriminated against, denied access to land, forced to work in degrading conditions, and routinely abused, even killed, at the hands of the police and of higher-caste groups that enjoy the state’s protection. Dalit women are frequent victims of sexual abuse. In what has been called India’s hidden apartheid, entire villages in many Indian states remain completely segregated by caste. National legislation and constitutional protections serve only to mask the social realities of discrimination and violence.
A loss of faith in the state machinery and increasing intolerance of their abusive treatment have led many Dalit communities into movement to claim their rights. In response, state and private actors have engaged in a pattern of repression to preserve the status quo.
Contents
Glossary
Summary
Recommendations
The Context of Caste Violence
The Pattern of Abuse: Rural Violence In Bihar and the States’ Response
The Pattern of Abuse : Southern District Clashes In Tamil Nadu and the State’s Response
The Ramabai Killings
Discrimination and Exploitative Forms of Labor
The Criminalization of Social Activism
Attacks on Dalit Women: A Pattern of Impunity
Failure to Meet Domestic and International Legal Obligations to Protect Dalits
Conclusion
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
Appendix F
Appendix G