Everyone knows there are 160 million people in India but the conditions of enslavement, marginalization and oppression that is all too prevalent remains unknown to much of the international community. India is the “World’s Largest Democracy” but its system of freedoms have failed ever since its independence from Britain. They have not succeeded in breaking the social ties of the caste system that condemns millions of people to apartheid which fuels daily violence, enslavement and extreme poverty.
They prefer to call themselves “dalits” (oppressed) instead of “untouchables” which is the name given to them by Indian. The self-imposed name change is a response to the ban on touching them, a simple human act can make upper class people impure. Their social status is so low that they don’t even belong to human society and they are considered so unclean that their shadows are said to be contaminated.
They perform traditional works considered “dirty” or degrading (burning of carcasses, cleaning toilets, etc.) which they are very poorly paid for. They do work involving physical contact with blood, excrement and other bodily fluids. Besides their association with impurity, untouchables are ostracized, insulted and driven from public places. They are also forbidden from collecting water from the wells used by the upper castes.
It’s clear that discrimination based on caste was a construct of the “higher” classes to create and maintain their control of intellectual capital (knowledge and education), social capital and political and material wealth.
However there has been significant progress in creating awareness of “hidden apartheid” which was unknown until recently. The result of these efforts was the passing of a resolution in August 2002 by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination condemning caste discrimination openly and identifying it as a flagrant violation of human rights.
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