VIII. Article 5: Eliminate caste-based discrimination in the enjoyment of Fundamental Rights

The need for India to address violence and bodily harm by private actors has also been documented by the UN special procedures. On June 8, 2004, the Special Rapporteur on racism, jointly with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, sent a letter of allegation to India concerning a group of 200 people who attacked a Dalit settlement in Kalapatti village, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, on May 16, 2004.¹⁹⁷ According to the Special Rapporteur on racism’s 2005 Annual Report:

The Dalits’ homes were reported to have been attacked by upper-caste villagers using swords and other weapons. Allegedly, inter alia, they pushed the Dalits to the ground, stomped on them, used degrading caste names to refer to them, sexually assaulted the women and attempted to pull off their saris. Other specific incidents mentioned were that an 8-month-old baby was thrown against a wall, a 75-year-old man was attacked, and a middle-aged woman was hit on the head as she attempted to protect her son. Close to 100 houses were said to have been burnt, money and jewels were stolen, and cattle owned by the Dalits were reported to have been killed. In total, 14 Dalits were allegedly admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital. Many Dalits are said to have tried to escape but were prevented from leaving the settlement. Fears have been expressed for their security.¹⁹⁸

2.  Violence against Dalit women

The nature and extent of police abuse of Dalit women has been dealt with above in Section V(A)(1)(a)(iv). Dalit women are also especially vulnerable to violence by private actors who commit violent offenses with impunity. As the majority of landless laborers, Dalit women come into greater contact with landlords and enforcement agencies than upper-caste women, rendering them more susceptible to abuse.²⁰⁶ Landlords use sexual abuse and other forms of violence and humiliation against Dalit women as tools to inflict “lessons” and crush dissent and labor movements within Dalit communities.²⁰⁷ For example, upper-caste groups will engage in mass rapes of Dalit women or in retaliation against Dalits who strive for political empowerment or violate customary injunctions.²⁰⁸ In their attacks on Dalit communities, Ranvir Sena members committed acts of sexual violence against Dalit women. Human Rights Watch has documented a massacre of Dalits committed in Laxmanpur-Bathe, Bihar (see Section V(A)(1)(a)(i)), in which women were raped and mutilated before being killed.²⁰⁹ According to the Tamil Nadu Women’s Forum, Dalit women are butchered, raped, and killed during caste riots.²¹⁰ 

Dalit women also comprise the majority of victims of gang rapes in India.²¹¹ Human Rights Watch reported that on April 5, 2003, for example, four upper-caste men abducted a 14-year-old Dalit girl from her home just outside Jaipur, Rajasthan, and gang-raped her over a period of three days. Upon her return to her village, the village’s upper-caste community threatened to remove her family if they reported the incident.²¹² Dalit women are also singled out for other indignities, like being paraded naked, even for petty disputes.²¹³ These indignities have symbolic significance. For example, Human Rights Watch reported that on November 3, 2003, a Dalit woman in Kishanganj, Bihar, was paraded half-naked by a group of people who wanted to teach a lesson to her family for not relinquishing their claim to a piece of land.²¹⁴

Vulnerability to sexual violence also results from Dalit women’s lower economic and social status, leading many Dalit women to turn to prostitution for their survival.²¹⁵ Other forms of abuse result from superstitious beliefs, according to which Dalit women may be branded as witches and blamed for certain mishaps in the community. Aside from the humiliation of  being branded as a “witch,” Dalit women are also punished for these mishaps, for example by being made to eat feces and drink urine, by having their teeth pulled out, by having chili pepper put in their eyes, and by being beaten severely enough to result in death.²¹⁶

Both the root causes of this abuse and the resulting social, physical, and mental trauma Dalit women suffer²¹⁷ highlights the particular vulnerability of Dalit women which merits special protection by the State. However, rather than ensuring Dalit women’s development and protection, India has failed to punish perpetrators and in some instances, has even directly participated in abusive acts.²¹⁸ Cases documented by India’s National Commission for Women, by local and national non-governmental women’s rights organizations, and by the press, reveal a pattern of impunity for attacks on Dalit women.²¹⁹ However, due to uninterest, ignorance of proper procedure, or their own caste biases, the police have failed to register or properly investigate many cases of attacks against women.²²⁰ In all cases of attacks on women documented by Human Rights Watch, the accused state and private actors escaped punishment; in most cases, attacks were neither investigated nor prosecuted.²²¹

C.        Ensure Dalits’ political rights

Article 5 (c): Political rights, in particular the right to participate in elections-to vote and to stand for election-on the basis of universal and equal suffrage, to take part in the Government as well as in the conduct of public affairs at any level and to have equal access to public service.

While Dalits now exercise their franchise in greater numbers than upper-caste community members,²²⁶ their right to vote freely and to stand for election is still not fully guaranteed. These rights have repeatedly been impeded by booth-rigging and booth capturing, denial of access to polls, intimidation, and violence.

1.  Booth-capturing and denial of entry to polling booths

Dalits’ right of political participation is denied through the decades-old practice of “booth-capturing,” whereby ballot boxes are stolen by hired hands.²²⁷ For example, in the 1998 national parliamentary elections in Bihar, the Election Commission had to order re-polling in over 700 voting stations after more than 1,100 people were arrested for booth-capturing and tearing up of ballot boxes.²²⁸ The Untouchability in Rural India survey found that in some 12.3 percent of villages, Dalits are still denied entry to polling booths.²²⁹

2.  Intimidation and violence in voting, standing for election, and conduct of public affairs

The 1998 Bihar elections also demonstrate the role of violence and intimidation in elections: in the first phase of elections 15 people were killed and dozens more were injured going to the polls;²³⁰ seven more deaths and further intimidation was reported during the second phase.²³¹ The violence in Bihar serves as but one example of a widespread practice: according to a 1996 Associated Press report, armies formed by local politicians have intimidated villages during every election in the underdeveloped farmland of northern India.²³² The Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported that on August 6, 2006, seven Dalit women from a village in Bihar were allegedly raped at gunpoint by upper-caste landowners for refusing to vote for an upper-caste landowner’s wife in the local elections.²³³

Violence and intimidation are also used to prevent Dalits from standing for election. In October 2005 a Dalit woman, Prabhati Devi, was burned alive for contesting a panchayat (village council) election against an upper-caste candidate in Mirzapur district in Uttar Pradesh in defiance of a local politician’s warning not to contest.²³⁴ In June 1997 the Dalit leaders of the Melavalavu panchayat in Tamil Nadu—who were elected to seats constitutionally reserved for Dalits²³⁵—were murdered by members of the higher-caste Thevar community, signaling that the ceding of power would not be tolerated by those displaced from their positions on the council.²³⁶ Thevars also threatened Dalits with “economic sanctions” should any of them file for the position of panchayat president, a sanction that would effectively leave Dalits without employment or access to economic or social services in villages in that area.²³⁷

Those Dalits who are in positions of public office are often unable to properly discharge their public functions. For example, in November 2006 the Asian Human Rights Commission reported that Prem Narayan, a Dalit village head of Vajidpur village in Uttar Pradesh, had been facing discrimination, intimidation, threats, and physical violence in his attempts to discharge his duties as a village head.²³⁸

3.  Denial of entry to public offices

According to the Untouchability in Rural India survey Dalits are also denied entry to panchayat offices in some 14.4 percent of the 499 villages surveyed, which has the effect of denying them access and a right to be heard at the most immediate level of government.²³⁹

D.        Ensure Dalits’ other civil rights

1.  Ensure Dalits’ right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of the State

Article 5 (d) (i): The right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of the State.

Dalits’ right to freedom of movement and residence within India is curtailed by residential segregation, by conditions which make Dalits vulnerable to migratory labor, and by the forced displacement of Dalits in the aftermath of episodes of caste violence. 

a.  Forced Migration of Dalits

For Dalits, among the poorest and least powerful of India’s inhabitants, the choice of where to live is rarely a choice in any meaningful sense. Because Dalits are rarely able to own land (see Section VIII(D)(4)) they are unable to produce their crops for their own consumption or sale in the market.²⁴⁰ Given the limited amount of jobs and resources in India, and other economic hardships such as droughts, Dalits are often forced to migrate in search of work.²⁴¹ 

b.  Forced displacement of Dalits

The right of Dalits to enjoy freedom of movement and residence is further eroded by large-scale forced displacements of Dalit communities following episodes of caste-based violence. In a typical scenario, Dalit villages are attacked by neighboring upper-caste villagers. Dalits are assaulted during the attack, while their homes and property are looted or destroyed.²⁴² Dalits then settle in and languish for months in temporary and inadequate homes on government property.²⁴³ The police offer little in terms of security in these cases, either ignoring Dalit calls for help, or actively participating in the violence and looting.²⁴⁴ Redress is not to be found from the local government either—aside from distributing nominal amounts in compensation or promising construction of new homes, little is done to help the displaced Dalits return home or to prosecute those responsible for the attacks.²⁴⁵ 

2.  Ensure Dalits’ right to leave any country, including one’s own, and to return to one’s country

Article 5 (d) (ii): The right to leave any country, including one’s own, and to return to one’s country.

Dalits’ right to leave India, while formally granted, is not substantively guaranteed, due to Dalits’ difficulty in acquiring relevant documents (such as birth certificates) and other proof necessary to get a passport.²⁵⁰

Dalits can suffer reprisal attacks against the families of those who are able to travel for employment abroad and send remittances back home. Caste-based prejudice has led to attacks against Dalits who become economically better off because of such remittances. Many Dalits in the village of Kodiyangulam, Tamil Nadu, for example, have been sending family members to work in Gulf states in an attempt to rise above their economic oppression at home. But according to the London paper The Guardian, on August 31, 2005, the Dalit villagers were assaulted by hundreds of rampaging policemen, who poisoned their well and destroyed the possessions accumulated over a lifetime of hard work.²⁵¹ In a similar episode in Tamil Nadu in 1999, Dalits returning with money from jobs in the Gulf states and elsewhere found themselves attacked by landlords and police when they tried to buy land for their families.²⁵²

3.  Ensure Dalits’ right to marriage and choice of spouse

Article 5 (d) (iv): The right to marriage and choice of spouse.

Rigid social norms of purity and pollution are socially enforced through strict prohibitions on marriage or other social interaction between castes, in violation of Dalits’ right to marry and choose their spouse. These prohibitions on inter-marriage are a hallmark feature of the caste system. Inter-marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits are frequently the flashpoint for conflicts and violence.

a.  Prohibitions on marriage between Dalits and non-Dalits

The Untouchability in Rural India survey concluded that “the most severely sanctioned public activity is a Dalit marriage procession passing through the village street.”²⁵³ Wedding processions in northern India are symbols of joy, prosperity, and power, and often include large parties of family and friends accompanied by musical bands and dancing.²⁵⁴ Dalit wedding processions were banned in more than 47 percent of villages surveyed, as were festival processions in more than 24 percent of villages.²⁵⁵ The same survey also reported that in at least one village in Alwar district in Rajasthan, no marriage ceremonies for Dalits had taken place in several years as the upper-castes refused to allow any baraats (wedding processions) to come to the village.²⁵⁶ Adding to Dalits’ humiliation, in 8.4 percent of villages surveyed in the study, Dalits must seek the permission of the upper-castes to marry, and in up to another 10 percent of the villages Dalits are compelled to seek blessings on their marriages from the upper-castes.²⁵⁷ These acts of public subordination—informal sanctions surrounding marriage activities which upper-caste members are freely permitted to carry on in public—are one of the most harshly enforced and widespread “untouchability” practices to continue today. As a result of the bans on marriage celebrations, many Dalit weddings are carried out quietly without the traditional forms of celebration.²⁵⁸

Condemnation for marriage between Dalits and caste members can be quite severe, ranging from social ostracism to punitive violence, including large-scale attacks on Dalit communities.²⁵⁹ Dalits who have married “above” their caste have reportedly been forced to break all ties with their families. In Attirpa, Kerala, a Dalit girl reported that although she was happy in her marriage she was no longer permitted to see her parents or her natal family.²⁶⁰ It seems that in instances where marriage between Dalits and caste-members is permitted, the caste family may condition it on rejection of contact with the Dalit family.²⁶¹

Marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits are frequent flashpoints for conflict. Upper-caste dominated panchayats (village councils) have been known to extra-judicially punish inter-caste marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits through public lynching of couples or their relatives, murder (of the bride, the groom, or their relatives), rape, public beatings, and other sanctions.²⁶² In May 2000 in Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh, a police constable enraged by his daughter’s marriage to a Dalit was joined by other relatives in shooting and killing four members of his son-in-law’s family.²⁶³ On August 6, 2001, also in Uttar Pradesh, an upper-caste Brahmin boy and a lower-caste Jat girl were dragged to the roof of a house and publicly hanged by members of their own families as hundreds of spectators looked on. The public lynching was punishment for refusing to end an inter-caste relationship.²⁶⁴

b.  Forced prostitution and rape of Dalit women as an impediment to marriage

The rape of Dalit women by landlords and the caste-based practice of prostitution (see Section V(B)(4)(b)) deny Dalit women the right to marry as there are strong social taboos in India against marrying a woman who has had previous sexual relations; once a woman has been raped, she becomes unmarriageable.²⁶⁵

c.  Child marriage

Although child marriage is illegal in India, the practice remains rampant, particularly in underdeveloped regions where economic pressure may force families into marrying off children at early ages in order to lighten the economic burden on families with daughters. This is often the case among Dalits. A 12-year old Dalit girl, Chenigall Suseela, was married off by her parents without her consent in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, in 2003.²⁶⁶ Two years later she ran away from her husband, whom she claimed abused her, and threatened to commit suicide if forced to return. Suseela desired to return to school and sought help from the police and appealed to village elders. After initial refusal by elders from both her and her husband’s village, Suseela’s persistence and determination resulted in what is thought to be the first annulment of a child marriage in India in June 2005.²⁶⁷ Suseela’s case is significant as she faced opposition to claiming her right to not be married in childhood and to choose her spouse due to her status as a Dalit and seemingly received little help from the police when she reported her situation.²⁶⁸ Sadly, there are many more Dalit children who are forced into early marriage by economic need and do not have the resources to demand their rights.

The prevalence of rape in villages also contributes to the greater incidence of child marriage in these areas. Early marriage between the ages of 10 years and 16 years persists in large part because of Dalit girls’ vulnerability to sexual assault by upper-caste men and by parents’ fear that their daughter will not be marriageable once she is raped.²⁶⁹ 

d.  Inequality of women in family law

India’s marriage and divorce laws still do not grant equality to women despite the Constitution’s guarantees to women of equal rights, liberty, justice, and the right to live with dignity.²⁷⁰

4.  Ensure Dalits’ right to own property alone as well as in association with others

Article 5 (d) (v): The right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

 The right to own property is systematically denied to Dalits. Landlessness—encompassing a lack of access to land, inability to own land, and forced evictions—constitutes a crucial element in the subordination of Dalits. When Dalits do acquire land, elements of the right to own property—including the right to access and enjoy it—are routinely infringed.²⁷¹ Land reform legislation is neither implemented nor properly enforced. Dalits’ efforts to secure land have been met with State violence or retaliation by private actors in the form of violence or economic sanctions.

a.  Landlessness: lack of access to land, inability to own land, and forced evictions

Denial of the right to own property is at the very core of the caste system. R. Balakrishnan, then-Chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes told Human Rights Watch:

The caste system is an economic order. It prevents someone from owning land or receiving an education. It is a vicious cycle and an exploitative economic arrangement. Landowning patterns and being a high caste member are co-terminous. Also, there is a nexus between being lower-caste and landlessness

The Special Rapporteur on housing has also expressed his concern with the extreme violations of Dalits’ human rights, including with respect to land and housing rights. The Special Rapporteur’s 2005 Annual Report notes: “A majority of Dalits are still prevented from owning land and are forced to live on the outskirts of villages, often on barren land.”²⁷³

Denial of the right to own property is also practiced through forced evictions.²⁷⁴ On February 2, 2003, for example, 7,000 Dalits were evicted from their residences at Belilious Park, in Calcutta, West Bengal.²⁷⁵ To make way for a development and beautification scheme envisioned for the park, an approximately 500-strong Rapid Action Force, accompanied by ambulances, fire brigades and two or three bulldozers, forcibly entered the Dalit community in Belilious Park, evicted 700 families, and demolished hundreds of brick houses, a school building, temples, and statutes.²⁷⁶ 

A lack of access to land keeps Dalits in a state of economic dependency. Most rural Dalits are agricultural laborers who are economically dependent on their employers and therefore less likely to report abuse.²⁷⁷ Economic dependency on agricultural jobs also makes Dalits more susceptible to seasonal migratory work patterns (see Section VIII(D)(1)(a)).

b.  Prevention of access to, and enjoyment of, own property

Even Dalits who do own land often do not have access to it, or are otherwise prevented from enjoying it. For example, a 1996 study by a NGO, which undertook a door-to-door survey of 250 villages in the state of Gujarat, found that, in almost all villages, many had no record of their land holdings, those who had title to land had no possession, and those who had possession had not had their land measured or faced illegal encroachments from upper-castes.²⁷⁸ 

c.  Failure of land reform legislation and efforts

Land reform laws that were intended to provide reparations for the historic landlessness of Dalits²⁷⁹ have failed due to a lack of political will and bureaucratic commitment, loopholes in the laws, the tremendous manipulative power of the landed classes, excessive interference of courts,²⁸⁰ and problems in ensuring that oral tenancies are truthfully recorded in land records so as to enable implementation of the land to the tiller policy.²⁸¹ The Special Rapporteur on housing has also attributed this failure to the government, noting “…weak legislative provisions, inadequate implementation, and a lack of State commitment.”²⁸² The evidence of this failure is clear; for example, Dalit landlessness is estimated at around 75 percent. Of surplus land collected pursuant to land reform laws, only 69.5 percent has been distributed, of which Dalits have received only 34.6 percent.²⁸³

d.  State suppression of movements requiring land reform and retaliatory violence and economic sanctions against Dalits by private actors

See Sections V(A)(1)(a)(ii); VIII(B) and VIII(E) respectively.

5.  Ensure Dalits’ right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion

Article 5 (d) (vii): The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Dalits in India face a number of restrictions on their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Caste-based human rights violations that are the subject of this report are often given religious sanction under the theory that Dalits must live segregated lives and perform menial occupations because they are born into a caste outside of the Hindu varna system. As a result, Dalits are routinely denied entry into Hindu temples (see Section VIII(F)(2)(b)). Dalits have responded to ill-treatment by upper-caste Hindus by converting en masse to Buddhism, Christianity, and historically to Islam. The loss of constitutional privileges upon conversion, however, serves as a serious impediment to their freedom to choose their religion. Additionally, most Dalits are ultimately unable to escape their treatment as “untouchables” regardless of the religion they profess.²⁸⁴ The introduction of anti-conversion legislation in several states has further made religious conversion extremely difficult if not impossible. Finally, Dalits may become targets of forced “reconversions” to Hinduism by sangh parivar groups.²⁸⁵ 

a.  Loss of constitutional privileges upon conversion

While the Indian Constitution grants certain constitutional privileges to Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh Dalits (see Section V(B)), the same benefits do not extend to those who convert to Christianity or Islam. Dalit Christians and Muslims lose their “scheduled caste” status even though they are unable to escape discriminatory treatment from Christians and Muslims. Many Dalit Christians must pray in separate or segregated churches, bury their dead in separate cemeteries, and endure discrimination by non-Dalit priests and nuns.²⁸⁶ 

Descendants of Dalit converts to Islam also face discrimination at the hands of Muslims who trace their ancestry to Arab, Iranian, or Central Asian origin.²⁸⁷ Descendants of indigenous converts are commonly referred to as ajlaf or “base” or “lowly.”²⁸⁸ Further, upper-caste Muslims often deny Dalit Muslims entry to graveyards for burial.²⁸⁹ The continued practice of “untouchability” against Dalit Christians and Muslims undermines the argument that these communities should lose constitutional privileges upon conversion, and have led to charges that the Indian government’s practice of assigning scheduled caste status on the basis of religion amounts to religious discrimination.²⁹⁰ Additionally, Dalit Christians and Muslims may be subject to multiple forms of discrimination on the basis of their caste and religion, a risk that has increased with the rise of Hindu nationalism in India.²⁹¹

b.  Anti-conversion legislation

Dalits’ right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion is explicitly denied through legislation that prohibits or impedes religious conversion. Seven states, a majority of them ruled by the Hindu nationalist BJP—Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu—have introduced legislation designed to make conversion difficult or virtually impossible.²⁹² Four of the anti-conversion laws explicitly stipulate harsher punishments where the convert is a Dalit, tribal, female, or a minor.²⁹³ Critics have argued that such bills represent a political move by Hindu nationalist groups to maintain their Hindu vote bank.²⁹⁴ Notably, mass “re-conversions” to Hinduism engineered by VHP, often using threats and coercion, are allowed under these laws.²⁹⁵

6.  Ensure Dalits’ right to freedom of opinion and expression

Article 5 (d) (viii): The right to freedom of opinion and expression.

Dalits’ right to freedom of opinion and expression is compromised by police abuse of Dalit activists (see Section V(A)(1)(a)(ii)), retaliatory attacks by private actors that are carried out with impunity (see Section VIII(B)), and social and economic boycotts against Dalits (see Section VIII(E)). These actions often result when Dalits refuse to carry out caste-based tasks or seek to defy the social order; they frequently entail punishment of entire communities.²⁹⁶ As the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes surmises: “Whenever Dalits have tried to organize themselves or assert their rights, there has been a backlash from the feudal lords resulting in mass killings of Dalits, gang rapes, looting and arsoning” of Dalit villages.²⁹⁷

7.  Ensure Dalits the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association

Article 5 (d) (ix): The right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Though the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association is enshrined in Article 19 of the Indian Constitution, Dalit protests are often met with police violence or arbitrary arrest and detention. Dalit activists have been detained and charged under draconian national security and anti-terrorism laws (see Section V(A)(1)(a)(ii)). In addition, police have made use of the Sedition Act, embodied under Indian Penal Code Section 124A, to prohibit peaceful meetings and protests.²⁹⁸ A number of such protests emerge in response to the desecration of statues of prominent Dalit Dr. B.R. Ambedkar by upper-caste community members resentful of these statues in public spaces.²⁹⁹ As one of the chief architects of India’s constitution and a Dalit leader, statues of Dr. Ambedkar represent to Dalits the potential for “education, success, contribution to the political world of India, courage, [and] empowerment through relationship to government…”³⁰⁰ When Dalits have protested such vandalism, the police and upper-caste community members have often responded with violent attacks and arbitrary arrests.³⁰¹

In November 2006 the entire state of Maharashtra was engulfed in protests by Dalits after upper-caste community members desecrated a Dr. Ambedkar statue in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.³⁰² While the mob violence, including the burning of a train, cannot be justified, the reprisals were extreme. In response to the protests, a Dalit youth was lynched, and the police opened fire in Osmanabad, killing two people.³⁰³ Moreover, a curfew was declared in four cities, where large-scale violence had erupted.³⁰⁴ In light of the violence, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting for the United Progressive Alliance-led government to review the progress of development projects for Dalits.³⁰⁵

E.         Ensure Dalits’ economic, social and cultural rights

Article 5 (e): Economic, social and cultural rights.

Dalits’ economic, social and cultural rights are routinely infringed by State and private actors with respect to all elements of the right to work (including in particular the right to free choice of employment and just and favorable conditions), the right to form and join trade unions, the right to housing (through segregation, discrimination in urban environments and limits on the right to own property), the right to access particular services  in a non-discriminatory manner, the right to education and training, and rights regarding equal participation in cultural activities, such as wedding processions.

1.  Ensure Dalits’ rights to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, to protection against unemployment, to equal pay for equal work, to just and favorable remuneration

Article 5 (e) (i): The rights to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, to protection against unemployment, to equal pay for equal work, to just and favorable remuneration.

The denial of the right to work and free choice of employment lies at the very heart of the caste system. Denial of free choice of employment and allocation of labor on the basis of caste are fundamental tenets of the caste system and are integral to sustaining caste inequality and hierarchy.³¹⁴ Dalits’ talents, merits, and hard work are of little consequence in a system where occupational status is determined by birth. Dalits are forced to work in “polluting” and degrading occupations such as manual scavenging and are subject to exploitative labor arrangements such as bonded labor, migratory labor, and forced prostitution. Dalit children are also vulnerable to child labor in these and other areas. Dalits are also discriminated against in hiring and in the payment of wages by private employers. Dalits’ attempts to enforce their rights are met with retaliatory violence (see Section VIII(B)) and social and economic boycott³¹⁵ (see Section VIII(E)).

In its combined Second and Third periodic reports to the CEDAW Committee, the Government of India reports that merely “stray cases [of bonded labor] are reported from time to time.”³¹⁶ This is in direct contradiction to the overwhelming amount of evidence of the Dalit community’s continuing vulnerability to bonded labor. The government neglects to even mention caste discrimination in discussing indebtedness among the Dalit community, instead pointing to their poverty and to alcoholism as one of the reasons for their continued indebtedness and exploitation.³¹⁷ Additionally, the effectiveness of the Government’s measures is not critically examined. While the government reports on the number of scavengers, bonded labors, and the like who have been “rehabilitated,” it fails to estimate the number of Dalits who remain victims to these dehumanizing practices. Still, the government does acknowledge that it “has a lot more to do to fulfill the Constitutional commitment of raising the status of [Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes] to that of the rest of the population.”³¹⁸

a.  Manual Scavenging

Manual scavenging is a practice by which Dalits remove excreta from public and private dry pit latrines and carry them to dumping grounds and disposal sites.³¹⁹ Though long outlawed, the practice of manual scavenging continues in most states,³²⁰ and will continue as long as dry latrines are used.³²¹ In 2002-03 the Union Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment admitted the existence of 6.76 lakh (676,000) manual scavengers in India and the presence of 92 lakh (9,200,000) dry latrines, spread across 21 States and Union Territories.³²² According to unofficial estimates, the number of manual scavengers in India may be as high as 1.3 million.³²³ Manual scavengers are employed by private and public employers, including the military engineering services, the army, the railways, and other organs of the state.³²⁴ 

The occupation of manual scavenging is both caste-based and hereditary.³²⁵ It is also the only economic opportunity available to many Dalit women hailing from scavenger sub-castes,³²⁶ with the result that more Dalit women and girls work as manual scavengers than Dalit men.³²⁷ Manual scavengers are at the very bottom of the caste hierarchy; they also face discrimination from other Dalits who treat them as “untouchables,” creating an unquestioned “‘untouchability’ within the ‘untouchables…’”³²⁸ The entrenched discrimination against manual scavengers makes it difficult to find alternative employment pursuant to government rehabilitation schemes, and even more difficult to convince scavengers that they are able to take on, or are “worthy of performing,” different occupations.³²⁹

Manual scavenging is characterized by hazardous working conditions and health hazards. A manual scavenger from Paliyad village, Ahmedabad district, Gujarat, described how in the rainy season, the “water mixes with the feces that we carry in baskets on our heads, it drips onto our clothes, our faces. When I return home, I find it difficult to eat food…. But in the summer there is often no water to wash your hands before eating. It is difficult to say which [season] is worse.”³³⁰ Manual scavengers are routinely exposed to both human and animal waste without the protection of masks, uniforms, gloves, shoes, appropriate buckets, and mops.³³¹ This has severe repercussions for their health; the majority of scavengers suffer from anaemia, diarrhea, and vomiting, with 62 percent suffering respiratory diseases, 32 percent suffering skin diseases, 42 percent suffering jaundice, and 23 percent suffering trachoma, leading to blindness. Many scavengers have also died of carbon monoxide poisoning while cleaning septic tanks.³³² In Mumbai, for instance, Dalits are lowered into manholes to clear sewage blockages—often without any protection.³³³ More than 100 workers die every year due to inhalation of toxic gases or drowning in excrement.³³⁴ The fear of being fired by municipality officials keeps manual scavengers from demanding higher wages or sanitary instruments.³³⁵

Manual scavenging is neither justly nor favorably remunerated, and several family members (usually women and girls) often have to be engaged to do the work assigned to one individual. As a result many families have to borrow money from their upper-caste neighbors and consequently go into bondage (see Section VIII(E)(1)(b)). In addition, almost no compensation has been delivered to the families of manual scavengers who are killed cleaning sewers.³³⁶

These problems have not been alleviated by the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, or its rehabilitation program. For example, an increase in the number of dry latrines since 1989,³³⁷ ineffectiveness in the training program³³⁸ and a lack of co-ordination among responsible ministries³³⁹ mean that despite the fact that the Act was intended to be fully implemented by October 2, 2002,³⁴⁰ only 151,930 out of the total 676,009 manual scavengers identified as of 2004 by the NHRC have been retrained and 394,638 have been rehabilitated.³⁴¹ These failures reflect a fundamental lack of political commitment in the effort to eliminate manual scavenging.³⁴² They have necessitated the filing of a public interest litigation petition on behalf of manual scavengers before the Supreme Court in 2003 seeking the enforcement of the Act.³⁴³ This petition alleges that manual scavenging still exists, including in public sector undertakings, and urges the Court to issue time-bound directions to the Government of India and to state governments to take effective steps to eliminate the practice and to simultaneously formulate and implement comprehensive rehabilitation plans.³⁴⁴ The lack of political will of state governments to implement the Act was evidenced in 2004 when the Supreme Court requested the court presence of Secretaries of seven states for failure to file responses to the petition.³⁴⁵ In response to the Supreme Court order, many states reported to the Court that no dry latrines existed in their states.³⁴⁶

b.  Bonded Labor

There are an estimated 40 million bonded laborers in India, of whom 15 million are children.³⁴⁷ The vast majority of these laborers are Dalits or tribals.³⁴⁸ Bonded labor is sustained by the caste system, in particular through the traditional expectation of free labor and/or inadequate remuneration for work, the lack of Dalit ownership of land, social and economic boycotts levied by upper-caste community members (see Section VIII(E)),³⁴⁹ police extortion and looting (see Section V(A)(1)(a)(v)), and by acts or threats of violence that prevent Dalits from reporting abuses against them (including that they are being held in bondage).³⁵⁰

Bonded labor also results from indebtedness to employers or moneylenders on whom Dalits must rely because of inadequate wages³⁵¹ and because of the reluctance of institutional agencies to lend to the poor in general and to Dalits in particular. Under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, payment of less than minimum wage for the purposes of working off a debt also amounts to bondage. Most agricultural laborers Human Rights Watch interviewed for a report published in 1999 were paid between Rs. 15 and Rs. 25 (US$0.38 to $0.63), or two to three kilograms of rice, per day, well below the minimum wage prescribed in their state.³⁵² In 2002 Human Rights Watch interviewed Dalit villagers in Uttar Pradesh who weave saris on looms owned by traders and who are forced to labor on agricultural lands. “We have very little land, less than five acres,” a Dalit woman told Human Rights Watch. “Yes, of course we work on the landlords’ land.”³⁵³ In exchange for a day’s labor, a worker receives five kilograms of wheat, worth about Rs. 40 (U.S.$0.83).³⁵⁴ “They don’t even measure the five kilograms,” one man complained. “They just fill up a sack and bring it out to us.”³⁵⁵Another man explained that they couldn’t survive on the money earned from this and from sari weaving, so they had to take loans from the traders.³⁵⁶ 

While the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 seeks to abolish all agreements and obligations arising out of the bonded labor system,³⁵⁷ the extent to which bonded laborers have been identified, released, and rehabilitated in the country is negligible.³⁵⁸ For example, out of the 3000 cases filed under the Act in Punjab since 1998, only 10 have completed the judicial process.³⁵⁹ Debt relief legislation has been similarly ineffective, with the NHRC concluding that “the beneficial provisions of law, which could at least reduce debt burden of Scheduled Castes [,] have not been made use of to reduce the incidents of atrocities against Scheduled Castes related to indebtedness.”³⁶⁰ Rehabilitation programs for individuals who have been released from bonded labor are not successful due to their failure to ensure substantial alternative employment,³⁶¹ implement rehabilitation immediately after release,³⁶² and ensure timely provision of benefits.³⁶³

c.  Forced Migratory Labor

The susceptibility of Dalits to forced migration for work has been outlined in Section VIII(D)(1)(a). Migrant laborers are particularly susceptible to abuse and exploitation; they are seldom paid the minimum wage, work long hours, live in subhuman conditions, and suffer physical abuse if they try to escape their place of work.³⁶⁴ These dangers have not been addressed by the Inter State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Service Conditions) Act, 1979. Rather, the NHRC has identified this Act as the least successful of all labor laws.³⁶⁵ The NHRC attributes this failure to legal loopholes and to the apathy of political leaders in both sending and receiving states.³⁶⁶

d.  Forced Prostitution – the Devadasi System

Dalit girls and women are additionally vulnerable to exploitative labor in the form of forced prostitution (see Section V(B)(4)(b)). 

e.  Child Labor

While a survey conducted by India’s National Sample Survey Organization between 1999 and 2000 calculated 10.4 million working children, unofficial estimates reach 100 million.³⁶⁷ A majority of these children are Dalits.³⁶⁸ Dalit children are more likely to end up as child laborers due to their extreme poverty, the discrimination they face in schools,³⁶⁹ and the need to support their families, including after episodes of violence in which their families’ economic assets have been destroyed.³⁷⁰ 

A number of factors make Dalit children especially vulnerable to the types and effects of exploitative labor described above. For instance, migratory labor is especially pervasive amongst Dalits, and children are often expected to work alongside their parents in day-labor jobs.³⁷¹ Dalit children also perform bonded labor. Fourteen-year-old Ashish M. working in the silk industry told Human Rights Watch that he could not leave his loom owner because he was paying off an advance, which in two years he had reduced from Rs. 2,500 (U.S.$25) to Rs. 475 (US$9.90). “The owner pays, but deducts for the advance,” he said. “He deducts but won’t write off the whole advance…We only make enough to eat.”³⁷² Dalit children, and girls in particular, are also exposed to the risks associated with manual scavenging both because of the hereditary nature of the work, and because they often must step in to assist their parents with their jobs.³⁷³ The health risks for child manual scavengers are manifest (see Section VIII(E)(1)(a)). Health risks are also endemic to the practice of devadasi which is directed at the prostitution of Dalit girls (see Section V(B)(4)(b)). 

While child labor laws (in particular the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986) are generally not sufficiently enforced, Dalit children remain especially vulnerable to bonded and other exploitative labor arrangements. The NHRC has found that, at least in Andhra Pradesh, there is a lack of credible efforts by political leadership to ensure exemplary punishment of employers who use child labor.³⁷⁴ This lack of accountability results from a number of factors, including the fact that upper-caste community members dominate local political bodies, the police and the judiciary, bonded labor vigilance committees, and child labor committees responsible for  enforcing relevant laws.³⁷⁵ Apathy and corruption also contribute to a denial of the problem by many government officials.³⁷⁶ In some cases, the violations against Dalit children result from gaps in the law. For example, Dalit children are forced to work in industries considered “polluting,” such as the leather industry, which is outside the Act because the Act does not cover home-based work or consider the leather industry hazardous.³⁷⁷ Rehabilitation programs³⁷⁸ accompanying the Act also fail to adequately address child labor because they suffer from a lack of political commitment, non-enforcement, and weaknesses inherent in the Act itself.³⁷⁹

f.  Discrimination in hiring and wage payments

Private employers routinely discriminate against Dalits both in hiring and in the payment of wages. This discrimination is felt acutely by Dalit women (see Section V(B)(4)(a)). The Untouchability in Rural India survey revealed that in 36 percent of the villages studied, Dalits were denied wage-paid employment in agriculture and in one-third of the villages were excluded from construction labor on the grounds that upper-caste community members did not want Dalits to “pollute” their homes. In 25 percent of the villages, Dalits received less than the market wage rate for their labor. According to NCDHR, “untouchability” was also practiced in the payment of wages such that “the Dalits received wages in cash or kind from a respectable distance so that physical touch of a Dalit was avoided.”³⁸⁰ Even well-educated Dalits are not immune from discrimination by private employers.³⁸¹ 

Neither the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, nor the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, sufficiently guard against these disparities. Specifically, the NHRC has concluded that the objectives of relevant laws have been soundly defeated by an inadequate and unresponsive enforcement machinery, the dominant social and economic position of the employer, a dilatory and ineffective adjudication process, the lack of alternative employment opportunities, and the absence of government support.³⁸² Additionally, gaps in protection derive from the fact that the Minimum Wages Act does not apply to employers who employ less than 1,000 workers³⁸³ and employers do not need to pay the minimum wage in cash if their payment of wages in kind have been customary and their continuance is necessary.³⁸⁴ The latter provision is particularly problematic for agricultural laborers, a majority of whom are Dalits.³⁸⁵ Dalits seeking the protection of these labor laws also risk retaliation, including being fired or physically assaulted.³⁸⁶

2.  Ensure Dalits’ right to form and join trade unions

Article 5 (e) (ii): The right to form and join trade unions.

Dalits’ right to form and join trade unions may be jeopardized in several ways. First, the Registrar of Cooperatives, the government agency in charge of overseeing the administration, working, and development of cooperatives,³⁸⁷ has been unwilling to register a cooperative whose workers are illiterate—which Dalits often are, and in disproportionately greater numbers than the rest of the population (see Section VIII(E)(5)(c)).³⁸⁸ Second, the Registrar will often “suspect” economic activities where no product is manufactured, and are unlikely to register such cooperatives.  This negatively affects the millions of Dalits who are employed in various service-oriented occupations as rag-pickers, manual scavengers, cleaners, day laborers and the like.³⁸⁹ Finally, Dalit workers are often excluded from the government’s employment classificatory schemes, which define “worker” as someone with an employer.³⁹⁰ Dalits who do not have employers are not classified as workers, and are therefore unable to form or join any unions.

3.  Ensure Dalits’ right to housing

Article 5 (e) (iii): The right to housing.

Despite the Committee’s clarification that States Parties must “[t]ake measures against discriminatory practices of local authorities or private owners with regard to residence and access to adequate housing for members of affected communities,”³⁹¹ Dalits’ right to housing is continuously undermined by deeply entrenched segregation, discrimination in housing in urban environments, and violations of their right to own property. 

a.  Segregation

See Section VI(A).

b.  Discrimination in housing in urban environments

In urban environments, Dalits’ right to housing is compromised by caste discrimination. For example, the unwillingness of upper-caste urban dwellers to live near or with Dalits means that Dalits seeking housing in urban areas will typically face a litany of questions from potential landlords seeking to determine their caste status.³⁹² Similarly, housing developments built by Dalits or occupied by Dalit residents fare adversely in comparison with the demand and price for comparable housing.³⁹³

c.  Violations of Dalits’ right to own property

See Section VIII(D)(4).

4.  Ensure Dalits’ right to public health, medical care, social security, and social services.

Article 5 (e) (iv): The right to public health, medical care, social security and social services.

Caste-based occupations that Dalits are made to perform, such as manual scavenging (see Section VIII(E)(1)(a)), and forced prostitution, routinely expose Dalits to serious and sometimes fatal health hazards, including exposure to HIV/AIDS. In addition, Dalits are frequently refused admission to hospitals and denied access to health care and treatment. 

Being refused admission to hospitals, health care and treatment is a key way in which the Dalits’ right to public health and social services is denied. The Untouchability in Rural India survey found that Dalits were denied entry into private health centers or clinics in 74 out of 348 villages surveyed, or 21.3 percent of villages.³⁹⁴ Overall, the study found that in 30-40 percent of the villages surveyed, public health workers refused to visit Dalit villages.³⁹⁵ In 15-20 percent of villages, Dalits were denied admission to public heath clinics, or if admitted received discriminatory treatment in 10-15 percent of the villages.³⁹⁶

The study also reported that Dalit women deal with government officials most frequently in attempting to access healthcare for themselves and their children and often encounter discrimination from auxiliary nurse-midwives and anganvadi workers (community development workers).³⁹⁷ Dalits are denied entry to clinics, charged fees for services that should be free, and anganvadi workersmay even refuse to visit Dalit hamlets.³⁹⁸ 

In Uttar Pradesh, anganvadis (community centers) are known to practice “untouchability” and as a result pregnant women are forced to go without health care.³⁹⁹ Doctors at the local hospital in Pandalam Thekkekara, Kerala, are seen to spend much more time treating upper-caste women than the Dalit women.⁴⁰⁰ In Attirpa, Kerala, a non-Dalit anganvadi workerreportedly discriminated against her Dalit colleague.⁴⁰¹

The general discrimination against Dalits in health care can also contribute to or exacerbate serious health problems such those associated with HIV/AIDS. Although HIV/AIDS affects a heterogeneous group of people in India, some of the risk factors (particularly “migration and mobility” and “low status of women”)⁴⁰² point to a disproportionate impact on marginalized groups such as Dalits.⁴⁰³ Dalit women and girls who are forced to become devadasis are at particular risk of contracting HIV.⁴⁰⁴ Existing inequities and the stigma that accompanies HIV/AIDS also mean that Dalits infected by HIV/AIDS are vulnerable to increased social stigma and discrimination in access to education, health care, and other services as compared both with other Dalits and with non-Dalits who are HIV-positive.⁴⁰⁵

5.  Ensure Dalits’ right to education and training

Article 5 (e) (v): The right to education and training.

Dalit children face considerable hardships in schools, including discrimination, discouragement, exclusion, alienation, physical and psychological abuse, and even segregation, from both their teachers and their fellow students.⁴⁰⁶ CERD has also noted the effects of this type of disparagement in stating “that the degree to which acts of racial discrimination and racial insults damage the injured party’s perception of his/her own worth and reputation is often underestimated.”⁴⁰⁷ Caste discrimination persists even in institutions of higher education. Dalit children’s right to education is further eroded by their poverty and the generational repetition of under-education.⁴⁰⁸ A majority of Dalit children must work to help ensure their families’ economic survival. In addition their parents are far more likely to be illiterate.⁴⁰⁹

While the Constitution requires free and compulsory education for all children until age 14, the right to education free from discrimination is not secured for Dalit children. 99 percent of Dalit students are enrolled in government schools with substandard facilities that lack basic infrastructure, classrooms, teachers, and teaching aids.⁴¹⁰ Dalit schoolchildren also face discrimination and discouragement from higher-caste community members who perceive education for Dalits as both a waste and a threat.⁴¹¹ Their hostility toward Dalits’ education—which includes discrimination against Dalit teachers—is linked to the perception that Dalits are not meant to be educated, are incapable of being educated, or if educated, would pose a threat to village hierarchies and power relations.⁴¹²

a.  Segregation in classrooms and discrimination by teachers

Dalit children’s right to education free from discrimination is constantly undermined by the treatment they receive at school. Teachers maintain and impart discriminatory attitudes in their classrooms, forcing children to sit in the back of the room, segregating Dalit children from non-Dalits during lunchtime,⁴¹³ forbidding non-Dalit children from sitting next to Dalit children or touching their plates (see Section VIII(F)(1)(c)), expressly limiting Dalit student participation in class, requiring Dalit children to take on additional custodial duties, subjecting them to verbal abuse, and grading them with unjustifiably low marks.⁴¹⁴

Additionally, Dalit children are often subjected to corporal punishment by their teachers. As the Special Rapporteur on the right to education noted in his report before the 67^th session of the then-Commission on Human Rights, “teachers have been known to declare that Dalit pupils ‘cannot learn unless they are beaten.’”⁴¹⁵ These practices serve to discourage and alienate Dalit children, contributing to their high drop-out rates.⁴¹⁶ Even more perniciously such practices serve to instill and reinforce Dalit children’s sense of inferiority, erode their sense of personal dignity and force them to internalize caste distinctions.⁴¹⁷

b.  Low enrollment and high drop-out rates of Dalit students

As a result of their discriminatory treatment, large numbers of Dalit children drop out of school, especially in the early elementary stages. Though the Committee has made clear that States Parties should “[r]educe school drop-out rates for children of all communities, in particular for children of affected communities, with special attention to the situation of girls,”⁴¹⁸ the statistics for the enrollment of Dalit children, especially girls, are a cause for distress. According to the 2002 India Education Report, school attendance in rural areas in 1993-1994 was 64.3 percent for Dalit boys and 46.2 percent for Dalit girls, compared to 74.9 percent among boys and 61 percent for girls from other social groups.⁴¹⁹ According to a 2001-2002 report prepared by the Indian government, “the drop-out rate in Scheduled Castes during 1990-91 was as high as 49.35 percent at primary stage and 67.77 percent at middle stage and 77.65 percent at secondary stage.”⁴²⁰ The statistics for higher education are no less alarming—the same government report states that enrollment of Dalit students at graduate, post-graduate and professional/research/PhD levels is “abysmally low,” at 8.73 percent, 8 percent, and 2.77 percent respectively.⁴²¹

Discrimination in schools and the resulting drop-out rates for Dalit children are intimately linked to child labor.⁴²² A social worker in Karnataka told Human Rights Watch: “A child will say to his or her parents, ‘The teacher told me not to come tomorrow, that I am no good for studying.’ Instead of asking why the teacher has said this, the parents will send the child to work.”⁴²³

c.  Low literacy rates for Dalits

Low literacy rates for the Dalit population are a clear indication of the ways in which the school system fails Dalit children. The 2001 population census shows that the literacy rate among Dalits is 54.70 percent compared to 68.81 percent among others.⁴²⁴ Illiteracy in turn results in a lack of gainful employment options for Dalits.⁴²⁵ 

d.  Labor patterns (migratory and child labor) affect Dalits’ access to education

Migratory labor serves as a hindrance to education in that it prevents Dalit children from being able to continuously attend school and, ultimately, from being able to advance with their class (once students miss 18 days, they are no longer allowed to advance in the same grade).⁴²⁶ Dalit parents generally take their children with them while searching for labor, and older boys and girls are expected to either work alongside their parents or stay at home to care for younger siblings.⁴²⁷ Though the attendant problems of migratory work are visited on non-Dalit agricultural workers as well, they are especially pervasive among Dalits, who are overwhelmingly landless and engaged in agricultural work, and thus uniquely susceptible to forces that push them into migrant labor⁴²⁸ (see Section VIII(D)(1)(a)).

e.  Discrimination in Higher Education

Caste bias erodes Dalit students’ right to education even in institutions of higher education. In September 2006 allegations of caste-based discrimination and intimidations surfaced at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, India’s premier medical institute. In written complaints submitted to the director of the Institute, two first-year Dalit students complained of casteist remarks and various forms of harassment and intimidation from senior upper-caste students.⁴²⁹ The complaints were accompanied by a memorandum signed by 40 students, recounting similar incidents of harassment and intimidation.⁴³⁰ Similarly, Dalit doctors at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital have written about a “biased attitude towards reserved category junior residents.”⁴³¹ The incidents of caste-based discrimination in institutions of higher learning are illustrative of the depth and breadth of anti-Dalit sentiment in education, and show that such biases transcend the rural/urban divide and affect the entirety of the education system, from elementary schools to universities. 

f.  Discrimination against Dalit teachers

Like Dalit students, Dalit teachers also face rampant discrimination; they too are segregated for purposes of food and water consumption.⁴³² Discrimination against Dalit teachers has at times turned violent. In December 2005 Satyanarayan Prasad, a Dalit teacher, was assaulted in a village in Bihar by members of the dominant caste who could not accept the fact that their children were being taught by a Dalit. Prasad suffered serious head injuries as a result of the assault. When she attempted to lodge a complaint with the police, the police termed the incident as “insignificant.”⁴³³

6.  Ensure Dalits’ right to equal participation in cultural activities

Article 5 (e) (vi): The right to equal participation in cultural activities.

a.  Dalits prohibited from taking part in religious and cultural rituals and festivals

The denial of Dalits’ right to equal participation in cultural activities is a core component of the caste system. The very fact of being a Dalit signifies being in a subordinate position vis–à-vis the rest of Hindu society, and exclusion from cultural activities is a clear way of demonstrating this separateness. Consequently, Dalits are routinely prevented from taking part in religious and cultural rituals and festivals, with clashes ensuing if they chose to disobey the prohibitions.⁴³⁴ The various ways in which the marriage ceremony is circumscribed are illustrative of such prohibitions; Dalit bridegrooms are not permitted to partake in the marriage tradition of riding a mare through the village, and Dalit marriages in general must be performed very quietly, without the public pomp and processions that usually accompany upper-caste weddings.⁴³⁵ The Untouchability in Rural India survey found that out of the 483 villages surveyed, a ban on marriage processions on roads was in place in 47.4 percent of villages, while a ban on festival processions on public roads was in place in 23.8 percent of villages.⁴³⁶

b.  Compulsory, exploitative, and degrading nature of rural Dalits’ participation in cultural activities

On the rare occasions when Dalits are included in village ceremonies and festivals, the compulsory and degrading manner of their participation also speaks to the inequality they suffer. For example, during the Marama village festival in Karnataka state, upper-caste Hindus force Dalits to sacrifice buffalos and drink their blood, and to then mix the blood with cooked rice and run into the village fields without their chappals (slippers).⁴³⁷ Also, the participation of Dalits in the ceremonies of their villages often amounts to little more than exploitation, as village custom mandates that Dalits render free services in times of death, marriage, or any other village function.⁴³⁸

F.         Ensure Dalits’ right of access to any place or service intended for use by the general public

Article 5 (f): The right of access to any place or service intended for use by the general public, such as transport, hotels, restaurants, cafes, theatres and parks.

The pervasiveness of residential segregation in violation of Article 3 of the Convention has been detailed in Section VI(A). Dalits are also denied equal access to a spectrum of places and services intended for use by the general public. They are excluded from or receive discriminatory treatment in private businesses, including tea shops, barber shops, village shops, and cinemas.⁴³⁹ The extent to which these practices violate Article 5(f) was noted with particular concern by the Committee in 1996 in the following terms:

The Committee is particularly concerned about reports that people belonging to scheduled castes and tribes are often prevented from using public wells or entering cafés or restaurants and that their children are sometimes separated from other children in schools, in violation of article 5(f) of the Convention.⁴⁴⁰ 

The table in Appendix I of this report reveals the magnitude of the denial of Dalits’ access to places and services intended for use by the general public.

1.  Denial of access to state-run places or services

Dalits are routinely denied access to police stations, government ration shops, post offices, schools, water facilities, and panchayat (village council)offices.⁴⁴¹

a.  Denial of Entry to Police Stations

The Untouchability in Rural India survey found that Dalits were denied entry into police stations in 27.6 percent of villages surveyed.⁴⁴² This denial also enables violations of other rights guaranteed by the Convention, including Article 2(1) (see Section V(A)), Article 5(a) (see Section VIII(A)), Article 5(b) (see Section VIII(B)), and Article 6 (see Section IX). 

b.  Denial of Entry to Government Ration Shops & Post Offices

The survey also found that in 25.7 percent of villages surveyed, Dalits were denied entry to government ration shops that sell food at affordable prices to the poor, thus depriving them of access to food.⁴⁴³ Dalits were also forbidden to enter post offices in 19.2 percent of the villages surveyed.⁴⁴⁴

c.  Segregation in schools

Segregation in schools undermines Dalit children’s right to education free from discrimination as guaranteed by Article 5(d)(v) of ICERD. Dalit children are routinely forced to sit in the back of the classroom, and are segregated from non-Dalit children during lunchtime.⁴⁴⁵ Even Dalit teachers may be segregated from non-Dalit teachers in accessing food and water during lunchtime⁴⁴⁶ (see Section VIII(E)(5)(a)).Segregation encourages high drop-out rates among Dalits⁴⁴⁷ and perpetuates “untouchability” practices by teaching non-Dalit children that “untouchability” is both an acceptable and necessary practice. This segregation is particularly evident in the Mid-Day Meal Scheme.  

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme was initiated following a Supreme Court order as a means of addressing hunger and malnutrition among schoolchildren.⁴⁴⁸ However, according to a study conducted by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar—where a third of India’s Dalits live—have refused to implement the program.⁴⁴⁹ Programs have also been closed because of upper-caste community opposition;⁴⁵⁰ upper-castes have also opposed the hiring of Dalit cooks for the program.⁴⁵¹ Where the program is in place, Dalit students’ access to food has been restricted. In many places, the program has been organized in a higher-caste locality, away from the Dalit locality.⁴⁵² In two locales in Tamil Nadu, the meals are provided in a temple, “raising immediate questions of exclusion for Dalit children, who are generally forbidden entry into temples, as well as for other non-Hindu children.”⁴⁵³ In October 2006 an article in the Indian Express quoted a primary school student, Shailesh Solanki, as follows: “We are not allowed to sit with children of the other castes. We are always asked to sit separately. This is done every time we are served food at noon. Even the food served to us is less in quantity.”⁴⁵⁴ Objections to the segregation of Dalit students in the mid-day meal program have been dealt with punitively. For example, in December 2003, a school district in Gujarat transferred seven Dalit teachers out of the district for objecting to this segregation.⁴⁵⁵  

d.  Denial of access to water and irrigation facilities

One of the most basic and most harmful ways in which segregation through “untouchability” is imposed upon Dalits is through denial of access to water. Dalits are not allowed by their higher-caste neighbors to draw water from the same wells or hand-pumps as non-Dalits.⁴⁵⁶ More than 20 percent of Dalits do not have access to safe drinking water, only 9.84 percent of Scheduled Castes households have access to sanitation (as compared to 26.76 percent for non-Scheduled Castes households),⁴⁵⁷ and the vast majority of Dalits depend on the “goodwill” of upper-caste community members to allow them to access wells, which are almost always situated in upper-caste colonies and villages.

Denied adequate quantities of potable water, Dalit women may need to travel long distances to obtain the amounts necessary for the survival of their families, resulting in the infringement of other fundamental rights, such as the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the right to adequate food, and the right to gain a living by work.⁴⁵⁸ Lack of sufficient water and adequate sanitation facilities devastates the health of entire communities.⁴⁵⁹ Furthermore, for the large numbers of Dalits who are dependent on land for their sustenance, the inability to access water for irrigation purposes has enormous consequences on their livelihood and sustenance.⁴⁶⁰ The Untouchability in Rural India survey found that in slightly more than a third of some 466 villages surveyed across 11 states, Dalits were denied access to irrigation facilities and thus prevented from tending to fields that they cultivate.⁴⁶¹ Finally, the deprivation of a basic human right such as water is a constant reminder of the inherent indignity of India’s caste system

2.  Denial of entry to privately run places or services intended for use by the general public

Many privately run businesses, such as cafés, restaurants, cinemas, and hotels⁴⁶² practice forms of “untouchability.” Private individuals also enforce “untouchability” in their homes, as well as in public spaces, including public streets, market places, temples, and even in cremation or burial grounds.

a.  Prohibition on Inter-Dining between Dalits and non-Dalits

The prohibition on inter-dining operates in restaurants, hotels, tea-stalls, and schools in addition to private homes. The Untouchability in Rural India survey found that in over 70 percent of villages surveyed, the prohibition against inter-dining is prevalent; the practice was reported in each of the 11 states studied.⁴⁶³ In many tea-shops and dhabas (food stalls), separate crockery and cutlery are used for serving Dalits.⁴⁶⁴ The “two-glass system,” whereby Dalits use a separate set of glasses for tea-drinking which they are then required to wash, is practiced in nearly a third of all villages surveyed in the report.⁴⁶⁵

b.  Denial of Dalits’ Entry to Temples

Denial of Dalits’ entry to Hindu temples by private individuals is pervasive; the Untouchability in Rural India survey documented this practice in each of the 11 states studied.⁴⁶⁷ The rate of prevalence was as high as 64 percent on average, with the practice occurring in 94 percent of villages surveyed in the state of Karnataka.⁴⁶⁸ This is the case despite the fact that the denial of temple entry is one of the most strongly resisted forms of “untouchability”, in relation to which numerous campaigns and court cases have been waged.⁴⁶⁹ Denial of access to temples implicates the right to free exercise of religion (see Section VIII(D)(5)) and access to public activities that are held in temples, such as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme discussed above (see Section VIII(F)(1)(c)).

c.  Untouchable even in death

In one incident recorded in the Untouchability in Rural India survey, upper-caste community members constructed a wall to divide the village cremation ground (ghat) of Gwali Pallasia (Indore district, Madhya Pradesh) that had once been shared by Dalits and non-Dalits, forcing Dalits to use another ghat some distance away. This segregation is strictly enforced; an attempt by Dalits to use the village ghat resulted in beatings, ransacking and looting, followed by a boycott, denied participation in village activities, and evictions after Dalits registered complaints with the police.⁴⁷⁰

d.  Discrimination in public streets and market places

Dalits are perpetually subjected to humiliation and degradation through informal but strictly imposed caste codes that regulate their dress and their behavior in the presence of upper-caste community members. Dalits are denied equal access to public streets and areas by upper-castes. Dalit men are often forced to stand in the presence of upper-caste men on roads, or to bow to them.⁴⁷¹ Dalit women often adopt a humble demeanor and maintain a submissive posture to show respect to upper-castes.⁴⁷² Dress codes are imposed by upper-castes, which forbid Dalits from wearing new or brightly colored clothes. Clean clothes are also often forbidden by the upper-caste in rural India.⁴⁷³ In some upper-caste neighborhoods, Dalits are expected to remove their shoes and dismount from bicycles when on public streets.⁴⁷⁴