Caste in Asia

Despite its constitutional abolition in 1950, the practice of ‘untouchability’ remains very much a part of rural India. Some 160 million dalits endure near complete social ostracisation. Their share in the development successes of the past 50 years is dismal.

India’s caste system finds corollaries in other parts of the sub-continent, including Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Discrimination against Buraku, sometimes known as eta (variously defined as ‘pollution abundant’ or ‘unclean’) persists in Japan.

Caste has migrated with the South Asian diaspora to firmly take root in East and South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, the Middle East, Malaysia, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, North America, and other regions.

National Research Seminars in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan

National research seminars were held in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan in April and May 2007 with the purpose of generating new knowledge and documentation on caste-based discrimination in these particular countries. The research findings have not yet been made available to the public, but click here to read brief summary reports of the findings from the seminars.

A regional research seminar will be held in late 2007 to follow-up on the national research seminars.

COUNTRY INFORMATION

INDIA

Public interest litigation filed on non-allocation and non-implementation of Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP) for Scheduled Castes (14-12-07)

NCDHR, along with Centre for Dalit Rights, Rajasthan, Social Watch Tamil Nadu, Safai Karmachari Andolan has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) on non-allocation & non-implementation of Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP) for Scheduled Castes in the Union and the State of Delhi Budget. The High Court of Delhi records a statement of Govt of Delhi that they have allocated full proportion of the SCSP resources and advises to approach respective High Courts and the Supreme Court for the implementation of the SCSP in states and the Union Budget respectively.

Read more here

Work, culture and and sociality in the Indian IT industry (17-07-07)

In a final report submitted to the Indo-Dutch Programme for Alternative Development, a sociological study of the Indian IT industry highlights the social profile of the IT workforce and the processes through which it is produced and recruited. The findings indicate that the workforce is less heterogeneous than is commonly assumed, and that the large majority of IT professionals come from middle class, educated, urban backgrounds, and from the upper castes. This is due to the fact that the industry requires well-educated employees.

"Given the nature of caste/class structures and the urban/rural divide in India, this means that the vast majority of lower caste, working class, and rural people cannot be absorbed by the IT industry. As discussed in detail in Chapter 4, this process of exclusion is not deliberately designed or pursued by the IT industry, yet it needs to be recognised that the use of supposedly neutral, job-related criteria for selection (the ‘merit only’ position) operates as an exclusionary mechanism because the cultural and social capital required by IT companies (as indeed by most white collar, managerial, and professional jobs in the private sector) is not evenly distributed throughout society." (page 158)

Click here to read the full report.

Indian People's Tribunal on Untouchability (21-05-2007)

The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) and Human Rights Law Network joined forces to bring together 56 national and state level organisations from across India, as well as activists and victims to discuss and address untouchability and to address cases and the individuals the legal system has so far failed on 12-13 May 2007 in New Delhi.  

Click here to read the observations and recommendations.

In the plenary sessions the Jury members heard depositions of Dalit victims/survivors and their relatives, and the result was a comprehensive documentation of the nature of untouchability and related violence found in the preliminary observations and recommendations (click on the link below). Moreover, the Tribunal lead to the submission of a Memorandum with general and specific demand for the proclamation of a “National Call to Eradicate Untouchability” which was handed over to India's President after the conclusion of the Tribunal.

Indian People's Tribunal (observations and recommendations)

Memorandum to India's President

The Scheduled Castes Federation of Pakistan (SCFD) presents clear demands in a petition to the Government. SCFD objects to the continued discrimination of Dalits and reports that most incidents of caste discrimination go unreported as violence against Dalits are treated marginally by the law enforcement institutions. At the same time, incidents of atrocities and caste based discrimination of Dalits are increasing because of growing awareness and assertiveness of Dalits. The SCFP demands, among other things, that one of the indicators to assess SAARC members' commitment to human rights should be governments' treatment of Dalits; state protection of scheduled castes against threats, exploitation, and vitimization by caste people by provision of access to legal remedies; allocation of seats in Parliament for scheduled castes as per their population ratio and establishment of a National Commission of Scheduled Castes. Sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/scfp2003/petition.html

The Dalit caucus at the World Conference against Racisme in Durban, 2003 raised international awareness about caste discrimination