There is an India that does not often make headlines, and for good reason. India operates on a three-thousand year old Hindi caste system. A person is born into his or her caste, and remains there until death. Only a life of good deeds will move that person to a higher caste in his or her next life. At the bottom of the caste system are a group called the Dalits. The Dalits, also known as untouchables, are excluded from the formal caste hierarchy.
Discrimination against a Dalit is outlawed by India's constitution, but this legislated equality does not translate into reality. This is especially pronounced in India's rural areas. More shocking, is that the Dalits comprise 25% of India's population -- an estimated TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION people. To put this in perspective, the current US population is quoted at 303 Million. An Indian Dalit faces hardships at every level. Dalits are denied access to basic services, such as 
education, employment, food, water, shelter and safety. Dalits are shunned, insulted, banned from temples and higher caste homes, made to eat and drink from separate utensils in public places, and—in extreme but not uncommon cases—are raped, burned, lynched, and gunned down. Human Rights Watch recorded 100,000 such atrocities in 2006. Seventy percent of Dalits live below the poverty line. Abuses of Dalit women and children are the most heartbreaking. The human trafficking industry is thriving in India - there are upwards of 1 Million Indian children missing, most of them Dalits, and largely as a result of sex trade. Statistics show that every 2.5 hours a child under 13 is raped. Dalit women are also frequently abused and sold into prostitution, forced to eat human defecation, paraded around naked, and even gang raped. Only 2% of Dalit women can read and write. In one survey, 60% of Dalit mothers admitted to killing a newborn daughter to spare her the life that awaited her as a female Dalit.
education, employment, food, water, shelter and safety. Dalits are shunned, insulted, banned from temples and higher caste homes, made to eat and drink from separate utensils in public places, and—in extreme but not uncommon cases—are raped, burned, lynched, and gunned down. Human Rights Watch recorded 100,000 such atrocities in 2006. Seventy percent of Dalits live below the poverty line. Abuses of Dalit women and children are the most heartbreaking. The human trafficking industry is thriving in India - there are upwards of 1 Million Indian children missing, most of them Dalits, and largely as a result of sex trade. Statistics show that every 2.5 hours a child under 13 is raped. Dalit women are also frequently abused and sold into prostitution, forced to eat human defecation, paraded around naked, and even gang raped. Only 2% of Dalit women can read and write. In one survey, 60% of Dalit mothers admitted to killing a newborn daughter to spare her the life that awaited her as a female Dalit.I can only imagine the outrage at these atrocities occurring in the US. CNN would sensationalize any one of these into a string of headlines that would move us to swift corrective action. Yet a group whose size rivals the population of the United States endures constant oppression, at a level beyond that which is imaginable. Does being born into a different country with a different value system reduce your worth as a human being? Our founding fathers didn't think so. William Wilberforce and Abraham Lincoln didn't think so. Our Creator certainly does not think so.
For most of my life, I was not aware of the plight of the Dalits. I avoided the weight of my conscience by a lack of knowledge. A few years ago, I heard of the Dalits through a local grassroots organization promoting social justice for this group of people, and I could not be still any longer. I was drawn to the Dalit movement that is happening in India. I wanted to be a part of it. I can't wait to meet them.
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1 comment:
why are you an accountant? i think words like you better than numbers.
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