India's OutCastes Rally to Demand End to 'Unclean' Jobs
Thomson Reuters Foundation (Mumbai) — Members of India's low-caste Dalit community in Gujarat state have pledged to boycott the dirty jobs traditionally thrust upon them in protest over their treatment by upper-caste Hindus, said activists for the marginalized group.
Thousands of Dalits rallied on Sunday in the state capital Ahmedabad, blocking roads, local media reported.
Unrest in the state erupted last month after four Dalit men in the city of Una were tied to a car, stripped and flogged by Hindu vigilantes, who accused them of skinning a cow, a revered animal for Hindus.
"I urge all Dalits to discontinue the work of disposing dead animals ... (and) take a pledge of discontinuing the work of cleaning sewers," Jagdish Mevani, of a local Dalit rights group in Una, said at the rally.
"We no longer wish to do this work and want the government to allot agricultural land to us, so we can live a respectable life," he was quoted as saying by the Indian Express newspaper.
Landless Dalits are at the bottom of India's age-old social hierarchy, making them vulnerable to discrimination and attacks by upper-caste Hindus, including by hardline "gau rakshak" vigilantes who regard cows as sacred.
The slaughter of cows is banned in most Indian states including Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Dalits in the state have said they earn a livelihood from skinning cows and buffalos that die naturally.
The vigilantes chase trucks transporting cattle and raid slaughter houses. Several people accused of eating beef have also been attacked, including a Muslim man who was beaten to death last year by a mob in a town near New Delhi.
"What we observe in Gujarat is a measured outbreak against decades of impunity Dalits have suffered," said Paul Divakar, general secretary at the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights.
"One cannot force unclean occupations on Dalits for centuries and then abuse and assault them for doing those very occupations," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Opposition parties have criticized the government for its handling of the protests, and Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Monday said she would resign from her post.
Caste-based discrimination was banned in India in 1955, but centuries-old attitudes persist and low-caste Indians still face prejudice in every sector, particularly in rural areas.
Crimes against India's lower-caste communities rose by almost a fifth to 47,064 in 2014 from the previous year, according to national data.
In Gujarat, crimes against lower-caste communities, including indigenous people, had a conviction rate about six times lower than the national average, according to IndiaSpend, which analysed data over a 10-year period.
India has passed several laws to end manual scavenging - a euphemism for disposing of faeces from dry toilets and open drains by hand - which has long been a task carried out mostly Dalit women.
Yet Dalit communities continue to face threats of violence, eviction and withholding of wages if they try to give up the practice, human rights groups say.
(Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran, Editing by Ros Russell. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories.)
Thousands of Dalits rallied on Sunday in in Gujarat state, in protest over their treatment by upper-caste Hindus.
Landless Dalits are at the bottom of India's age-old social hierarchy, making them vulnerable to discrimination and attacks by upper-caste Hindus, including by hardline "gau rakshak" vigilantes who regard cows as sacred.
Unrest in the state erupted last month after four Dalit men in the city of Una were tied to a car, stripped and flogged by Hindu vigilantes, who accused them of skinning a cow, a revered animal for Hindus.
Caste-based discrimination was banned in India in 1955, but centuries-old attitudes persist and low-caste Indians still face prejudice in every sector, particularly in rural areas.
Crimes against India's lower-caste communities rose by almost a fifth to 47,064 in 2014 from the previous year, according to national data.
In Gujarat, crimes against lower-caste communities, including indigenous people, had a conviction rate about six times lower than the national average. Reuters
Link to Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-protests-caste-idUSKCN10C2RB
The National Campaign Against Torture (NCAT) in its “India: Annual Report on Torture 2019” released on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture stated that a total of 1,731 persons died in custody during 2019 i.e. deaths of about five persons daily. These included 1,606 deaths in judicial custody and 125 deaths in police custody.
Torture is perpetrated to extract confession or bribes and torture methods used in 2019 included hammering iron nails in the body (Bihar), applying roller on legs and burning (Jammu & Kashmir), ‘falanga’ wherein the soles of the feet are beaten (Kerala), stretching legs apart in opposite side (Kerala), hitting in private parts (Haryana), electric shock (Punjab and Uttar Pradesh), pouring petrol in private parts (Uttar Pradesh), applying chilly power in private parts (Kerala) beating while being hand-cuffed (Kerala), pricking needle into body (3-Year-old minor in Tamil Nadu), branding with hot iron rod (3-Year-old minor in Tamil Nadu), beating after stripping (Haryana and Assam), urinating in mouth (Uttar Pradesh), inserting hard blunt object into anus (Bihar), beating after hanging upside down with hands and legs tied (Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh), forcing to perform oral sex (Gujarat), pressing finger nails with pliers (Assam), beating with iron rods after victim is suspended between two tables with both hands and legs tied (Madhya Pradesh), forced to do Murga pose or stress position (Haryana), and kicking in belly of pregnant woman (Assam).
Indian police officers in the town of Nagina chased a group of Muslim teenagers into an empty house. They grabbed them and took them to a makeshift jail. And then, the boys and community leaders said, the officers tortured them.
Four of the boys, who ranged in age from 13 to 17, said that police officers used wooden canes to beat them and threatened to kill them.
Indian Police officers over the course of 30 hours terrorized them.
According to two of the boys, the officers laughed during beatings, saying, “You will die in this prison.”
More accounts are emerging of abuse meted out by police officers.
Almost all the violence has been directed toward Muslim residents. More people — at least 19 — have been killed!
Witnesses said that police officers opened fire on demonstrators with live ammunition, broke into houses and stole money, and threatened to rape women.
Police officers were encouraged by their superiors to kill protesters.
The Indian police have become a lynch mob! Inidan police officers having been given the green light by senior officials to use harsh measures against Muslims.
A 20-year-old Dalit man was allegedly burnt alive over his relationship with a woman from another caste, the killing causing his mother to die of shock.
The victim was beaten up, kept hostage in a house and set ablaze.
Locals rushed to the spot on hearing his cries and took him to a local hospital. He was referred to a Lucknow hospital but succumbed to injuries on the way.
India : Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Telangana2018-09-20
A father attacked his 20-year-old daughter and her newlywed husband in the heart of the city on Wednesday, chopping off her left forearm and slashing her jaw. The incident comes days after a Dalit youth was mercilessly murdered in front his pregnant wife in Nalgonda district.
Police said the father was upset over the inter-caste marriage — the woman an OBC (Other Backward Class), her husband, B Sandeep (22), a Dalit. Sandeep and Madhavi Chary, in a relationship for five years, secretly got married on September 12, despite stiff opposition from her father.
Madhavi was left with a 12-inch gash on her neck and jawline and her left forearm barely hung by the skin. She was in a 10-hour surgery at the time of going to print. Sandeep, in another hospital, received 10 stitches to close the deep wound at the angle of his mouth; the attending doctors said he was in deep shock.
