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| Related Articles: United Nations and Caste Issue http://www.sikhnet.com/sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/7379f71784a3662487256a46005640f4!OpenDocument ******************************************************************************** Human Rights Watch calls on India to end "hidden apartheid" http://www.sulekha.com/politics/messages/11121.html NEW DELHI, March 21 (AFP) - The international pressure group Human Rights Watch called on India Wednesday to end the "hidden apartheid" which exposes lower caste Hindu "untouchables" or Dalits to caste-based discrimination. Smita Narula, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch said in a statement released here that Dalits in India should be acknowledged as a group subject to "perennial and persistent forms of abuse." "Although South Africa's apartheid was challenged by the international community, South Asia's hidden apartheid continues to condemn Dalits or untouchables to a lifetime of slavery, exploitation and violence," said Narula. She said New Delhi should highlight the situation of Indian Dalits at the upcoming world conference against racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia scheduled to take place in South Africa from August 31 to September 7. "This conference is a significant opportunity for the international community to address the situation of South Asia's 240 million Dalits," said Narula. "The situation of Dalits stands alone as the only issue to have been systematically cut out of the conference's inter-govermental process so far," she added. The international rights group said that although India had enacted progressive legislation to tackle caste-related problems of bonded labour and untouchability, much of the legislation, however, remained unenforced. "Laws are openly flouted and state-complicity in attacks on Dalit communities has become a well-documented pattern," said the Human Rights Watch statement. "Caste-based abuse is also rampant in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Japan and parts of Western Africa," it added. Although the caste system is supposed to have been abolished in India and discrimination on the grounds of caste is illegal, it continues in many forms. Upper caste Hindus and feudal landlords often use private armies to terrorise poor peasants and lower-caste Hindu Dalits so that they stay at the bottom of the socio-economic scale. Under the traditional Hindu social system, so much as the shadow or touch of a lower caste Hindu was considered unholy and dirty. They were barred from entering temples and sharing water or food with those higher up the social ladder. |
 | Caste - India's Hidden Ap... (Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia - 9.May.01) |
| . . Caste - Hidden Apartheid ... (Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia - 10.May.01) | |
| . . Caste is a Variety of Rac... (Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia - 10.May.01) | |
| . . Re: Caste - India's Hidde... (Js Singh - 14.May.01) |
