[1] Human Rights Watch, Broken People: Caste Violence Against India’s “Untouchables” (New
York: Human Rights Watch, 1999), pp. 1-2. [hereinafter Broken People]. According to the 2001 census, the scheduled caste
population comprises 16.2 percent of the India’s total population. India’s
Combined second and third periodic reports to CEDAW, October 19, 2005, CEDAW/C/IND/2-3,
para.92.

[2] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 2.

[3] Human Rights Watch, Politics by Other Means: Attacks Against Christians in India, Vol.
11, No. 6, September 1999.

[4] Human Rights Watch, We Have No Orders To Save You: State Participation and Complicity in
Communal Violence inGujarat, Vol. 14, No. 3(C), April 2002.

[5]Government of India,
Nineteenth Periodic Reports of States Parties due in 2006, CERD/C/IND/19, March
29, 2006, paras. 45-50.

[6] Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, “Consideration of Reports Submitted by State parties under
Article 9 of the Convention, Fourteenth Periodic Report of State parties due in
1996, India,” CERD/C/299/Add.3, April 26, 1996, http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/a035833a480e4514802565530037bf7e?Opendocument
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[7] Report of the Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination, Fifty-first session, A/51/18, 1996, http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/76ebd2611b2261d2c12563e90058d7d7/$FILE/N9625738.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007),
para. 361.

[8] National Human Rights Commission, “Report on
Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes,” 2004, [hereinafter “NHRC
Report”].

[9] Annual Report on The Protection Of Civil
Rights Act, 1955 For The Year 2002 (Twenty Second Report) Government Of
India,Ministry Of Social Justice And
Empowerment, New Delhi, http://socialjustice.nic.in/schedule/ar-pcr.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[10] Annual Report on The Scheduled Castes And The
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act, 1989 For The Year 2002
(Nineteenth Report) Government Of India, Ministry Of Social Justice And
Empowerment, New Delhi, http://socialjustice.nic.in/schedule/ar-poa.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[11] This report also relies on sources provided
by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), a network of Indian
NGOs that has worked on caste discrimination issues for the past eight years.
The report draws in particular from the case papers submitted in the National
Public Hearings held by NCDHR in 2000 and the NCDHR’s “Response to the Special
Rapporteur’s Questionnaire on Work and Descent Based Discrimination”
[hereinafter “NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s Questionnaire”]. This
report further draws information from a study published in 2006 on the forms
and prevalence of “untouchability” in rural India, which is based on an
extensive survey of 565 villages in 11 Indian states. See generally, Ghanshyam
Shah et al., Untouchability in Rural
India, (New Delhi:
Sage Publications, 2006). The report was co-authored by Ghanshyam Shah
(Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social
Sciences, Wassenaar), Harsh Mander (Centre for
Equity Studies, Delhi),
Sukhadeo Thorat (University Grants Commission, Delhi), Satish Deshpande (Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi),
and Amita Baviskar. The report is based on investigations conducted in
2001-2002 and was published by Action Aid India in 2006.

[12] The statistics to which the Government cites
in its October 2005 report to CEDAW are very dated, with 1971 to 1991 figures
for Dalit women’s literacy level and figures from 1999 to 2000 for the
incidence of poverty among Dalits. India’s Combined second and third
periodic reports to CEDAW, October
19, 2005, CEDAW/C/IND/2-3 para.110 (”The female literacy level
amongst SC [Scheduled Caste] women has improved markedly from 6.44 percent in
the year 1971 to 23.76 in the year 1991″) and Ibid., para. 211 (”Disparity on
the basis of caste shows that in 1991 as against an overall literacy rate of
52.2 percent that for the SCswas 37.4 percent”). See also Ibid., at para. 111 (”[T]he incidence of poverty amongst
SCs still continues to be very high with 36.25 percent in rural areas and 38.47
percent in urban areas, when compared to 27.09 and 23.62 percent respectively,
in respect of total population in 1999-2000″).

[13] Government of India, Fifteenth, sixteenth,
seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth periodic reports of the Republic of
India, due on January 4, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 submitted in one
document on January 26, 2006, CERD/C/IND/19, para. 16 (March 29, 2006).

[14] Ibid., para. 17.

[15] CERD, General Recommendation XXIX (2002) Article 1(1) regarding descent, para. 7.

[16] Report of the Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination, A/51/18, 1996, http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/76ebd2611b2261d2c12563e90058d7d7/$FILE/N9625738.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007),
para. 352.

[17]The attention of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance (”Special Rapporteur on
racism”) was
first drawn to the situation of Dalits in India in 1996 (E/CN.4/1997/71, para.
127). In 1999, The Special Rapporteur on racism [Mr. Maurice Gll-Ahanhanzo (1993 2002)] reported to the Commission on
Human Rights that specific attention should be given to the situation of
“untouchables” in India
(E/CN.4/1999/15, January 15, 1999, para. 100). For recent inclusions of caste
discrimination in the Special Rapporteur on racism’s reports, see e.g., [Mr. Doudou Dine (2002 present)] Updated
Study 2006 (62nd CHR session), Report para. 17 (E/CN.4/2006/54) (referring
generally to caste systems in Asia and Africa as hierarchical systems of discrimination
equivalent to racial discrimination), and Questionnaires to India, para. 17
(E.CN.4.2005/18) (citing a letter of allegation jointly sent by the Special
Rapporteur on racism and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women to
the Government of India concerning an alleged attack by a group of 200 people
on a Dalit settlement in Kalapatti village, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, on
May 16, 2004).

[18] CEDAW’s Concluding Observations: India, (2000),
para. 74.

[19]India’s Combined second and third
periodic reports to CEDAW, October
19, 2005, CEDAW/C/IND/2-3.

[20] Ibid., para.20.

[21] Ibid., para. 98.

[22] Ibid., para. 99.

[23] Ibid., para.
100.

[24] Ibid., para.
101.

[25] Ibid., para.
102.

[26] Convention on the Rights of the Child, “Consideration of Reports Submitted by States
Parties Under Article 44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations, India,”
CRC/C/15/Add.228, (2004),
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/35e5ebb72fcfadbac1256e83004a29a8/$FILE/G0440552.pdf,
para. 27 (accessed February
7, 2007).

[27] Special Rapporteur on the right to education,
Mr. V. Muoz Villalobos, Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights: Girls’ right to education (62nd session) February 8, 2006, paras. 82-85
(highlighting the double discrimination faced by Dalit girls and its impact on
their right to education).

[28] Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a
component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to
non-discrimination in this context, Miloon Khotari, Annual Report 2005 (61st
CHR session) March 3, 2005, para. 62 (concerned with the human rights
violations of Dalits because they “are prevented from owning land and are
forced to live on the outskirts of villages, often on barren land,” and “land
reforms intended to benefit the rural poor and Dalits have been ineffective due
to weak legislative provisions, inadequate implementation, and a lack of State
commitment”).

[29] Special Rapporteur on the right to food,
Report of Mr. Jean Ziegler (62nd CHR session), Mission to India, para. 11
(concerned that scheduled castes and tribes “suffer most from hunger and
malnutrition,” and discrimination forces Dalits into bonded labor, prevents
them from owning land and restricts them from using public facilities, like
village wells).

[30] Special Rapporteur on violence against women,
its causes and consequences, Report of Dr. Yakin Erturk (61st CHR
session), Communications to and from Governments (concerned with attacks on
Dalits by upper-caste persons). Report of Ms.Radhika Coomaraswamy (57th
CHR Session), January 23,
2001, para. 85 (concluding from reports she received that women
from certain castes and ethnic or religious minorities appear to be at risk of
being targeted by the police).

[31] Special Rapporteur on torture and other
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Report of Mr. Theo van
Boven (61st Session), March 30, 2005, pp. 773, 784, 1172 (reporting on instances
of police abuse of Dalits).

[32] See Discrimination Based on Work and Descent, Sub-Commission on Promotion &
Protection of Human Rights. Resolution 2000/4 (52ndSession), U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/SUB.2/RES/2000/4
(2000).

[33]Prevention of Discrimination and Protection
of Indigenous Peoples and Minorities: Working Paper by Mr. Rajendra Kalidas
Wimala Gooneskere on the Topic of Discrimination Based on Work and Descent,
Submitted Pursuant to Sub-Commission Resolution 2000/4, Sub-Commission on Promotion &
Protection of Human Rights (53rdSession), U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2001/16 (2001)
(indicating that:

Discrimination
based on work and descent is a long-standing practice in many societies
throughout the world and affects a large portion of the world’s population.
Discrimination based on descent manifests itself most notably in caste- (or
tribe-) based distinctions. These distinctions, determined by birth, result in
serious violations across the full spectrum of civil, cultural, economic,
political, and social rights.

The report also
provides numerous examples of such violations.

[34]Discrimination
Based on Work and Descent, Sub-Commission on
Promotion & Protection of Human Rights. Resolution 2004/17, 56th Session,
U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/L.8 (2004) (reaffirming Resolution 2000/4 and
appointing two Special Rapporteurs to prepare “a comprehensive study on
discrimination based on work and descent”), approved by U.N. Commission on
Human Rights, 61st Session (2005).

[35]NHRC Report, p. 111.

[36] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 32.

[37] Ibid., p. 33.

[38] NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 130.

[39] Vishwanathan, S., “A Tale of Torture,” Frontline, 2-15 August 2003.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2016/stories/20030815002504800.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007);
Vishwanathan, S., “Members of the denotified tribes
continue to bear the brunt of police brutality,” Frontline, June 8-21, 2002.

[40]Preventing
Torture: From Public Awareness to State Accountability (Grant Application Form)
p. 7 (on file with CHRGJ).

[41]D K Basu v State of West Bengal(1997) 1 SCC 416. The Supreme Court of India laid down a series of guidelines in the D K Basu case designed to be
preventative measures against torture in all cases of arrest and detention
until such time as legislative provisions are made. The Court ordered that the
guidelines are to be strictly followed in all cases. The guidelines include:
(i) accurate, visible and clear
identification and designation of personnel making arrests; (ii) preparation of
a memo of arrest containing the time and date of arrest to be witnessed by a
member of the family of the arrestee or a respectable person of the locality
from where the arrest is made and countersigned by the arrestee; (iii) a right
of arrestees to have someone concerned with their welfare be made aware of the
fact of their arrest; (iv) a right to have the time, place of arrest and venue
of custody notified by the police where the next friend or relative of the
arrestee lives outside the district or town through the Legal Aid Organisation
in the District and the police station of the area concerned telegraphically
within a period of 8 to 12 hours after the arrest; (v) a right of arrestees to
be informed of the right to have someone informed of his arrest or detention as
soon as he is put under arrest or detained; (vi) a requirement to keep a record
of the name of the arrestee and the person informed of the arrestee’s
detention; (vii) a right of the arrestee to be physically examined upon his
request, to have his injuries recorded, and for the “Inspection Memo” to be
signed both by the arrestee and the police officer effecting the arrest and its
copy provided to the arrestee; (viii) examination of the detainee by a trained
doctor every 48 hours during custody; (ix) a requirement for copies of all
documents, including the memo of arrest, refereed to in the guidelines to be
sent to the Illaqa [District] Magistrate for his records; (x) a right of access
of arrestees to a lawyer during, though not throughout, interrogation; (xi) and
maintenance of a control room in all district and State headquarters, where
information regarding the arrest and the place of custody of the arrestee shall
be communicated by the officer causing the arrest, within 12 hours of effecting
the arrest and displayed on a conspicuous notice board in the control room.
Failure to comply with the requirements of the D K Basu guidelines renders the police officers concerned liable
for departmental action, and for contempt of court proceedings. The
requirements flow from Articles 21 and 22(1) of the Indian Constitution and
thus must be strictly followed according to the Supreme Court. Ibid.

[42] NHRC Report, Section VI, p.116.

[43] Ibid., pp.116-17.

[44] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 127.

[45] Ibid., p.154, see also NHRC Report, Section VI.

[46] Ibid., p.118.

[47] Ibid.

[48] Ibid., p.111 from National Campaign on Dalit
Human Rights, National Public Hearing, April 18-19, 20(X), Chennai, Vol. I -
Summary: Jury’s Interim Observations and Recommendations, pp. 309-317.

[49] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 43.

[50]Ibid., pp. 64-65.

[51] Ibid., p. 43.

[52] Ibid., p. 44.

[53] Ibid.

[54] “The Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2002 (POTA) allowed
the government to prosecute acts of terrorism largely outside the ordinary
rules of the regular criminal justice system.” Anil Kalhan, Gerald P. Conroy,
Mamta Kaushal, Sam Scott Miller, and Jed S. Rakoff, “Antiterrorism And Security
Laws In India: A Report To The Association Of The Bar Of The City Of New York
On A Research Project For The Committee On International Human Rights,” 2006,
page iv. While India
repealed POTA in 2004, many of the law’s provisions have been preserved in
other legislation and similar laws remain in place at the central and state
levels. Ibid.

[55]Ibid., p. 75. A fact-finding team of Indian
human rights advocates and the Indian news media examined the use of POTA in
Jharkhand in early 2003. According to the Association of the Bar of the City of
New York, the
fact-finding team found that:

In Andhra Pradesh, POTA was not invoked at all in the first year after
its enactment, but after that, approximately 50 cases were initiated, allegedly
involving between 300 and 400 individuals as of March 2004. In many of these
cases, the individuals charged appear not to have been involved in any criminal
activity at all, but rather have been targeted simply for their caste or tribal
status alone. In other cases, the allegations against these Dalit, other lower
caste, and tribal individuals under POTA appear to bear little relationship to
terrorist or insurgent violence.

Ibid.,
pp.76-77.

[56] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 153.

[57] Ibid., pp. 153-154.

[58] While the Supreme Court of India has ruled
that preventive detention cannot last for more than 24 hours, in many cases it
takes 15 to 30 days to get a lawyer. Moreover, while the charges are bailable,
arrested Dalits have no property or surety for the bail; as a result, they
remain in jail for long periods of time. Ibid., p. 73.

[59]Ibid., p. 96.

[60] NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 115, citing
National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, Chennai Hearing, op. cit., 267-269.

[61] Ibid.

[62]Vishwanathan, S., “A
Tale of Torture,” Frontline.

[63] NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 114.

[64] Ibid., 114 citing SAKSHI, op. cit., pp. 90-91;
National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, Chennai Hearing, op. cit., pp 73-76;
Human Rights Watch, op. cit., pp. 115-121.

[65]Vishwanathan, S., “A
Tale of Torture,” Frontline;”Dalit academic ‘manhandled’ in police custody,” The Hindu,August 1, 2001, p. 12;“Youth Alleges
Custodial Torture,”Financial
Times Information, June 20, 2005, p. 67; Sudhakar, P., Residents protest Dalit death, allege
torture,” The Hindu, June 17, 2003, p. 50; “India: Dalit’s death after
police torture alleged,” The Hindu, September 1, 2000, p. 16; Naqvi, Bobby, “Dalit tortured by cops for three days,” Hindustan Times,
September 11, 2000, p. 40; “Minor
dies, alleges sexual abuse in remand home,”Indo-Asian News Service, August 24, 2005, p. 39; Viswanathan, S., “Members of the denotified tribes continue to bear the brunt of
police brutality,” Frontline, June 8-21, 2002, p. 63.

[66]Vishwanathan, S., “A
Tale of Torture,” Frontline. In another notable incident, police officers allegedly poured petrol on a
50-year-old Dalit farmer in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, and burnt his private
parts after beating him continuously for three days. Naqvi, “Dalit tortured by cops for three days,” Hindustan Times. Bhim Dom, a 12-year-old Dalit boy
from Bhijpur, Bihar who was sent to a remand
home on charges of petty theft, committed suicide after alleging that he was
regularly beaten and sexually abused by officials. “Minor dies, alleges sexual
abuse in remand home,”Indo-Asian News Service,August 24, 2005, p. 39.

[67] NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 130.

[68] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 166.

[69] Ibid., p. 166.

[70] NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 116.

[71] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 166.

[72] NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 120.

[73] “Rape of Dalit Woman at Police Station,” Case
Papers: Summary Jury’s Interim Observations & Recommendations, National
Public Hearing, April 18-19, 2000, Chennai-Tamil Nadu, Vol. 1, p. 177.

[74]Human Rights Watch, Broken
People, p. 80. The prevalence of extortion is intimately related to the
fact that many police officers need to pay large bribes to secure their
position in the police force. As a result, many police officers begin their
careers in severe debt that they attempt to pay off by extorting money from
civilians or by engaging in outright acts of looting. Ibid., pp. 80-81.
Moreover, police officers often accept bribes from upper-caste perpetrators to
ignore their crimes against Dalits. NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 119.

[75] During a police raid on the village of Makarpur
in Jehanabad district, Bihar, in January 1998
the police arrested and illegally detained seven young men and then extorted a
sum of Rs. 5,500 (US$138) before releasing them. Ibid., p. 81. In another
incident in Nagwan village, in Patna
district, Bihar, two people were threatened
with criminal charges unless they agreed to pay Rs. 900 (US$22.50). Ibid.

[76] Ibid., p. 83.

[77] Ibid., p. 81.

[78] Rahul Chhabra, “Police clueless about
culprits behind Jhajjar killings,” The
Economic Times, October
19, 2002.

[79] “Cops arrested as man dies in custody,” The Economic Times, July 4, 2003.

[80] NHRC Report, Section IV, p. 45.

[81] FIRs (First Information Reports) are the
initial reports of a crime recorded by the police.

[82]NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 27 (citing the results of a study conducted by the Andhra
Pradesh-based NGO Sakshi).

[83] Annual Report On The Scheduled Castes And The
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act, 1989 For The Year 2002
(Nineteenth Report) Government Of India, Ministry Of Social Justice And
Empowerment, New Delhi, p. 4-5. http://socialjustice.nic.in/schedule/ar-poa.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[84] Annual Report On The Protection Of Civil
Rights Act, 1955 For The Year 2002 (Twenty Second Report) Government Of
India,Ministry Of Social Justice And
Empowerment, New Delhi, p. 2 http://socialjustice.nic.in/schedule/ar-pcr.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[85] National Commission on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes, Sixth Report, 1999-2000 & 2000-2001, New Delhi, p. xii, cited in NCDHR
Response to the Special Rapporteur’s Questionnaire, p. 4.

[86] NHRC Report, Section IV, p. 25 (referring to
the lack of registered cases under the Protection of Civil Rights Act).

[87] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 4; NHRC Report, Section IV, p. 45 (citing Information
gathered from the Senior Research Officer, National Commission for Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes).

[88] NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 118.

[89]There are numerous points in the processing of a
complaint at which the police can improperly affect the case outcome. These
include not registering the case; pressuring the complainant to compromise;
lodging false counter charges against victims; refusing to register cases under
the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989
or not citing the proper sections of the Act; registering the First Information
Report (FIR) but not arresting the accused; assigning a lower ranked police
officer against the specific stipulation of Rule 7(1); delaying the
investigation and filing of a charge sheet; and the granting of bail in
contravention to stringent Act requirements. NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 117
(citing National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, Chennai Hearing).

[90] Ibid., p. 117.

[91] Ibid., p. 117.

[92] Ibid., Section IV, p. 25.

[93]Human Rights Watch, Caste
Discrimination: A Global Concern, Earthquake in Gujarat:
Caste and its Fault-Lines, September 2001, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/globalcaste/caste0801-03.htm#P145_19883
(accessedFebruary 7, 2007), p. 6.

[94] “Relief and Discrimination after the Gujarat Earthquake,” Dalit Solidarity Network-UK &
Voice of Dalits International (VODI) (May 2001).

[95] Human
Rights Watch, Caste Discrimination: A
Global Concern, p. 6.

[96] Ibid.

[97] Human Rights Watch, After the Deluge: India’s Reconstruction Following the 2004 Tsunami,
Vol. 17, No. 3, May 2005, http://hrw.org/reports/2005/india0505/india0505.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007),
p. 25.

[98]NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 17; Human Rights Watch, After
the Deluge, p. 2. Members of the fishing communities prohibited Dalits from
staying in common camps, from taking shelter in community halls or temples,
from using the drinking water tanks provided by UNICEF, and from accessing food
provided by relief organizations or the local community. NCDHR Response to the
Special Rapporteur’s Questionnaire, p. 17. Authorities in parts of Andhra
Pradesh and Tamil Nadu provided Dalits with less relief and support than other
victims, and Dalit areas were the last to have electricity and water supplies
restored during rehabilitation efforts. There were also allegations that
officials discriminated against Dalits in the provision of financial assistance
to the families of the deceased. “India End Caste Bias in Tsunami
Relief,” Human Rights Watch Press Release, January 14, 2005, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/14/india10019.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[99] CERD General Comment XX Non-discriminatory implementation of rights
and freedoms (Art. 5), para. 5.

[100] Governmentof India,
Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Periodic Reports
to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD/C/IND/19,
paras. 51-52.

[101] NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 125.

[102] Government of India, Fifteenth, sixteenth,
seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth periodic reports of the Republic of
India, due on 4 January 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 submitted in one
document on Jan. 26, 2006, CERD/C/IND/19, para. 101 (March 29, 2006).

[103] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 23. India’s policy of reservations is
an attempt by the central government to remedy past injustices related to
low-caste status. To allow for proportional representation in certain state and
federal institutions, the constitution reserves 22.5 percent of seats in
federal government jobs, state legislatures, the lower house of parliament, and
educational institutions for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Ibid., p.
40. An amendment to the Constitution also enables reservations for scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes in village councils and municipalities, and no less
than one-third of reserved seats to be allocated to scheduled caste and
scheduled tribe women. Constitution of India, Articles 243D and 243T.

[104] Sanjoy Majumder, “Indian Court Upholds Caste Quotas,” BBC News, Oct. 19, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6067504.stm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[105] NHRC Report, Section VII, p. 137.

[106] Ibid., p. 137.

[107]Majumder, “Indian Court Upholds Caste Quotas,” BBC News.

[108] NHRC Report, Section VII, p. 139.

[109] Ibid., p. 139.

[110] NHRC Report, Section VII, p. 141.

[111] “President’s No on Chhattisgarh Judges,” Indian Express, February 3, 2002.

[112] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 4 (citing National Commission for Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Highlights of Fourth Report (New Delhi, Government
of India, 1998)).

[113] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 20.

[114] Priyanka Bhardwaj, “India debates
private sector quotas”, Asia Times Online,
February 7, 2006. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HB07Df01.html
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[115] Dalit development programs have included the
Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes (mechanism for ensuring that states
allocate adequate resources to Dalit development), Special Central Assistance
to Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes (supplement to states’ efforts
by providing additional support to Dalit families to enhance their productivity
and income), and the Special Component Plan by the Central Ministries (plan in
which Central Ministries are to ensure that 15 percent of their Five Year and
Annual Plans goes toward Dalit development), as well as financial institutions,
employment generation programs, and welfare programs targeted toward Dalits.
NHRC Report, Section VIII, pp. 162-72.

[116] Ibid., pp. 173-74.

[117] Ibid., p. 175.

[118] Ibid., pp. 175-76.

[119] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 14.

[120] CERD General Comment XXV - Gender-related dimensions of racial
discrimination, para. 3.

[121] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
pp. 117-18. For example, in Kerala, Dalit women report that they are tasked
with breaking the roasted cashew nuts produced in factories-a job which over
time deforms and stains their palms and fingers. Ibid.

[122] Ibid. In Tamil Nadu, for example, Dalit women
report that the upper-caste families do not send their children to the
community centers that are run by Dalit women. Ibid.

[123] The study also reports that in the village of Telipalash (Kalahandi, Orissa), a Dalit
woman, Pralaya Senapti, is the auxiliary nurse-midwife-great achievement for a
Dalit woman. However, after administering medicines and immunizations to
upper-caste women and children in the non-Dalit hamlet,
her patients bathe and change their saris to purify themselves after she
leaves. They ask Senapti to come early in the morning so that they may deal
with her before their morning bath. If she must come later in the day, they
will not accept medicines directly from her hand. Senapti told the
survey-takers: “I do my work sincerely. I feel so insulted by this behavior.”
Ibid., p. 128. See also Section VIII(E)(4).

[124] NHRC Report, Section VIII, p. 160.

[125] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 15.

[126] NHRC Report, Section VIII, p. 161.

[127] For example, a large number of women engage
in the traditional Dalit occupation of manual scavenging. However, development
programs that have been targeted at families to eliminate manual scavenging
have been utilized by male family members to change occupations, leaving women
to continue manual scavenging to enhance household income. NHRC Report, Section
VIII, pp. 161-62.

[128] NHRC Report, Section VIII, p. 162. The
Government of India has recognized that:

the incidence of poverty amongst SCs [Scheduled Castes] still continues
to be very high with 36.25 percent in rural areas and 38.47 percent in urban
areas, when compared to 27.09 and 23.62 percent respectively, in respect of
total population in 1999-2000. This is primarily due to the fact that a large
number of SCs who are living below the poverty line are landless with no
productive assets, no access to sustainable employment and minimum wages. While
these figures reflect the picture for the entire SC population, the women
belonging to these groups suffer even more because of the added disadvantage of
being denied equal and minimum wages.

India’s Combined second and third periodic reports
to CEDAW, October 19, 2005,
CEDAW/C/IND/2-3.

[129] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 150.

[130] For example, the Karnataka state government
passed the Karnataka Devadasi (Prohibition of Dedication) Act in 1992, however,
not a single case has been booked against priests despite many complaints and
admonitions to that effect. NHRC Report, Section V, p. 61.

[131] “When a devadasi is raped, it is not
considered rape. She can be had by any man at any time.” Human Rights Watch
interview with Jyothi Raj, Rural Education and Development Society, Bangalore, July 26, 1998, in Human
Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 152.

[132] Jyothi Raj added that the law works to the
disadvantage of women because it criminalizes their actions and not the actions
of their patrons. Police will even go so far as to demand sex as a bribe: “They
will threaten to file charges under the act if the woman says no.”Ibid.

[133] Only a small number of devadasis have been identified for relief and rehabilitation. NHRC
Report, Section V, p. 62.

[134] Ibid.

[135]The Special Rapporteur on racism addressed the
issue of segregation in his 1999 Annual Report:

In the rural areas especially, the practice of
untouchability is said to be very much alive and is reflected in segregated
housing, with the Dalits forced to live at least 1/2 km from the rest of the
villagers, and in the prohibition for them to use the wells, the shared water
source. Segregation also reportedly exists in the schools, public services and
public places (shops, hairdressers and public transport; in restaurants, dishes
used by Dalits are sometimes separated from those used by the higher castes).

Mr.
Gll-Ahanhanzo, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human
Rights resolution 1998/26, January 15, 1999 (55th CHR Session)
E/CN.4/1999/15,http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0811fcbd0b9f6bd58025667300306dea/8a457423c0bd1f728025673c003460a9?OpenDocument#IIIF
(accessed February 7, 2007), para. 99.

[136] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 2.

[137] Government of India, Fifteenth, Sixteenth,
Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Periodic Reports to the Committee on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD/C/IND/19, March 29, 2006, paras.
53-56.

[138] “Anti Racism Summit Ends on Hopeful Note,”
Human Rights Watch news release, September 10, 2001, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2001/09/10/global3038.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[139] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 5.

[140] According to an activist working with Dalit
communities in 120 villages in Villapuram district, Tamil Nadu, all 120
villages have segregated Dalit colonies. Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 26.

[141] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 5.

[142] Ibid., pp. 5-6.

[143]Human Rights Watch, Broken People, pp. 26-27.

[144] Ibid., p. 26.

[145] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 65 (Table 2.1).

[146] Government of India, Fifteenth, Sixteenth,
Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Periodic Reports to the Committee on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD/C/IND/19, paras. 58-63.

[147] Illustrative of the discriminatory attacks
led by the VHP, on October 16, 2003, in Jhajjar district, Haryana, five Dalit
youths were lynched by a mob, reportedly led by members of the VHP in the
presence of local police officials, following false rumors that the Dalits had
killed a cow-an animal regarded as sacred in the Hindu religion. Nearly a month
later five people were arrested, prompting a backlash by villagers who pelted
police with stones and blocked off roads for nearly a week. The VHP reportedly
also forced shops, businesses, and schools to close in protest of the arrests.
A local leader of the VHP was widely quoted in stating that he had no regrets
over the incident and that the life of a cow was worth more than that of five
Dalits. Human Rights Watch, World Report
2003, p. 240, http://www.hrw.org/wr2k3/pdf/india.pdf (accessed February 7, 2007).

[148]The Sangh Parivar and the BJP’s Hindutva (Hindu
nationalism) ideology has also led these groups to conduct a campaign of hate
against Muslim and Christian communities, which has included the spreading of
discriminatory propaganda and violent attacks against Muslims and Christians.
See, e.g., Human Rights Watch, We Have No
Orders To Save You: State Participation and Complicity in Communal Violence in
Gujarat, Vol. 14, No. 3(C), April 2002, pp. 39-46. Christian institutions
and individuals have, for instance, been singled out and targeted for their
role in promoting health, literacy, and economic independence among Dalit and
tribal community members. A vested interest in keeping these communities in a
state of economic dependency is a motivating factor in anti-Christian violence
and propaganda. Human Rights Watch, Religious Intolerance and the Rise of Hindu
Nationalism, http://hrw.org/campaigns/sasia/india-religion.htm
(accessedFebruary 7, 2007). Discriminatory attacks
have also been carried out against minority religious communities in the name
of fighting religious conversions of Dalits. “Tod-Phod: A Credo that Works,” Times of India,July 2, 2000.

[149] Human Rights Watch, We Have No Orders To Save You: State Participation and Complicity in
Communal Violence inGujarat, Vol. 14, No. 3(C), April 2002.

[150] Human Rights Watch, India,
Compounding Injustice: The government’s
failure to redress massacres in Gujarat 2003, p. 58, http://hrw.org/reports/2003/india0703/Gujarat-10.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[151]Human Rights Watch, We
Have No Orders To Save You, p. 39.

[152] NHRC Report, Section IV, pp. 25, 45.

[153] Ibid.

[154] Ibid.

[155] Leaders of Hindu nationalists groups have
been engaged in a vilification campaign against the use of the Prevention of
Atrocities Act, 1989 since it was first passed. For example, members of both
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena have called for the repeal
of the act, the former on the ground that it was being used as a political
tool, the latter as part of an election strategy in 1995 in Maharashastra. In
Mulayam Singh Yadav, the head of the Samajwadi Party and the current Chief
Minister of Uttar Pradesh, spoke out against the use of the Act and accused the
then-Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh of casteism in enforcing the act. These
actions have a direct effect on the registration of cases-through state
governments withdrawing already registered cases, as the Shiv Sena did with
over 1,100 cases in Maharashastra in 1995, and an indirect effect by sending a
clear message to the police that cases are not to be registered and that the
Act is not to be taken seriously. NHRC Report, Section VI, pp. 113-114.

[156] Annual Report on the Prevention of Atrocities
Act for the years 2001-2002, p. 12.

[157] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 166.

[158] Ibid., p. 17.

[159] Ibid., p. 170 (citing Rupande Panala, “When a
Poor Woman Gets Raped,” Manushi (New
Delhi) September - October 1990, p. 36).

[160] Ibid., p. 172.

[161] Ibid., p. 170.

[162]Ibid., pp. 170-171 (citing National Crime
Records Bureau (Ministry of Home Affairs), Crime
in India
1994, as quoted in Sakshi, “Gender and Judges: A Judicial Point of View”
(New Delhi, 1996), p. 9).

[163] Ibid., p. 171 (citing National Crime Records
Bureau (Ministry of Home Affairs), Crime
in India
1994, as quoted in Sakshi, “Gender and Judges: A Judicial Point of View”
(New Delhi, 1996), p. 9).

[164] Ibid.

[165] Annual Report on the Atrocities Act for the
year 2002-2003, p. 37.

[166] Ibid., p. 43.

[167] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 175.

[168] Ibid., p. 176 (citing “In Brief: Recent Rape
Cases,” in Kali’s Yug (New
Delhi), November, 1996, p. 20).

[169] Ibid., p. 176 (citing K. S. Tomar,
“Atrocities Against Rajasthan women on the rise: Report,” The HindustanTimes, May 28, 1998).

[170] Kavita Srivastaya, a
women’s rights activist who has been at the forefront of the campaign to get
justice for Bhanwari Devi recently underscored the effects of judicial
discrimination in this case: “It’s the 10th year of that appeal and not a
single hearing has taken place yet. We twice appealed for an early hearing but
both were rejected.” Saira Kurup, “Four Women India Forgot,” Times of India,
November 20, 2006.

[171] Cited in R.D. Sharma, “Crime against Women,” The Hindu, May 15, 2001, http://www.sarid.net/religious-dimension/gender-and-religion/04-30-crime-agaist-women.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[172] A 1996 case involving the rape of a
three-year-old girl by her father provides a telling example of both the
tendency to blame women for the actions of men and the freedom with which
judges express overtly discriminatory sentiment in their opinions. In Shri Satish Mehra v. Delhi Administration and Another, the
Supreme Court found that there was insufficient evidence to proceed to trial,
remarking on the “seemingly incredulous nature of the accusations against a
father that molested his infant child”, and accusing the mother of leveling
false accusations as revenge for an unhappy marriage. The Supreme Court further
ignored the probative value of the mother’s testimony about the fact that the
father was an alcoholic and prone to inflicting severe physical violence on
her, finding instead that the testimony was proof of the mother’s “vengeful”
attitude. Human Rights Watch, Broken
People, p. 177, citing the Supreme Court of India, Criminal Appellate
Jurisdiction, Criminal Appeal No. 1385 of 1995, p. 6.

[173] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 27 (citing statistics from The National Commission on
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes - Fourth Report (2001-2002), p. 129).

[174] “President’s No on Chhattisgarh Judges,” Indian Express, February 3, 2002.

[175] Gospel for Asia,
“Facts about Dalits,” undated, http://www.gfa.org/gfa/dalit-facts
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[176] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 24 (citing “LS Concerned at “purifying” act by HC
judge,” Times of India (Bombay), July 23, 1998). The
resignation of Sushila Naggar, the first female Dalit judicial officer in
Rajasthan is also illustrative of the pervasiveness of caste and gender
discrimination among the judiciary. Sushila Naggar reported sexual harassment
from a colleague shortly after starting at her job, and was finally forced to
resign from the services in 2001, after her seniors continued the harassment by
leveling baseless charges against her. “Woman Judicial Officer Quits,” The Statesman (India), May 1, 2001.

[177] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 25 (citing statistics from The National Commission on
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes - Sixth Report (1999-2000 &
2000-2001) and Seventh Report (2001-2002), p. 128).

[178] CERD General Comment XXXI - Prevention of racial discrimination in the
administration and functioning of the criminal justice system, para. 19.

[179] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 26 (citing the National Commission on Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes Third Report (1996), pp. 211-13).

[180] Ibid., p. 26 (citing Dalits and the Law by
Girish Agrawal and Colin Gonsalves, Human Rights Law Network, 2005, New Delhi,
p. 13).

[181] Ibid., p. 26 (citing the National Commission
on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes - Seventh Report (2001-2002), p. 128).

[182] Ibid.

[183] Annual Report on the Prevention of Atrocities
Act for the years 2001-2002, p. 12.

[184] “Dalits safer in UP, says Govt Report,” CNN-IBN Live, Posted December 12, 2006, http://www.ibnlive.com/news/up-handles-atrocities-on-dalits-better/28242-3.html
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[185]According to the National Human Rights Commission,
“reports in the press about atrocities against persons belonging to these
groups and the frequency with which they occur is a cause for disquiet.” NHRC
Report, p. vii.

[186]Arya, Alka,
“Rights-India: Prosperity for Lower Caste Sharpens Animosity,” IPS-Inter Press Service, 19 September 2005 [p. 1]; “Caste Hindus, Dalits clash in Hassan
District,” The Hindu, October 13, 2005, p. 8; “Inquiry ordered into
molestation before cop,” The Statesman, December 20, 2004, p. 18;
Sainath, G., “Sarpanch paraded half-naked for confining ex-employee,” The
Hindu, July 7, 2004, p. 43; “Contractor tortures Dalit youths in medieval
age re-run,” The Statesman, June 26, 2003, p. 10; “Dalit academic,”
Vishwanathan, S., “A Tale of Torture,” Frontline, August 2-15, 2003, p.
61;Vishwanathan, S., “Members of the denotified tribes continue to bear
the brunt of police brutality,” Frontline, June 8-21, 2002, p. 63.

[187] Annual Report on the Prevention of Atrocities
Act for the years 2001-2002, pp. 9-10.

[188] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 41.

[189] Ibid., p. 29.

[190] Prevention Of Atrocities Act, 1989, Section
3.

[191] “Dalit leader
abused for daring to sit on a chair,” Indo-Asian News Service,July 10, 2006.

[192] “Dalit worker
beaten on suspicion of theft,”Indo-Asian News Service,June 23, 2006, Friday.

[193] “Dalit Lynched
While Gathering Grain,”Indian
Express,April 25,
2006.

[194] “Dalit beaten
for entering temple,”Indo-Asian
News Service,February
22, 2006.

[195] “UP Dalit girl
resists rape, loses arm as a result,”Hindustan Times,February 13, 2006.

[196] “Dalit tries
to fetch water, beaten to death,”Indo-Asian News Service,February 4, 2006.

[197] Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Annual
Reports to the Commission on Human Rights, 2005 (61st session) CHR, E/CN.4/2005/18/Add.1,
Summary of cases transmitted to Governments and replies received, para. 17.

[198]Report by the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms
of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Mr.
Doudou Dine, Addendum, Summary of cases transmitted to Governments and replies
received, February 23, 2005 (61st Session) E/CN.4/2005/18/Add.1, para. 17. No
reply to his communication had been received from the Government of India at
the time this report was finalized. The Special Rapporteur stated that he
intended to follow up on this case, and if no response was received from the
Government, he would no longer treat the case as a mere allegation but would
include it in his next general report.

[199] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 24.

[200] “Bant Singh can still sing!” Forum for
Democratic Initiatives. The attack on Bant Singh took place in January
2006.

[201] Thevars are a marginally higher-caste
non-Dalit community.

[202] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 85 (citing “Clashes in TN result of caste
disparities: Report,” The Statesman (Delhi), July 2, 1997).

[203] Ibid., p. 112.

[204] “Dalit girl burnt to death by man accused of
rape,” November 24, 2006,
http://www.dalitnetwork.org/go?/dfn/news/2006/11/
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[205]Tejeshwi Pratima, “Dalits Thrown Out of Their Village
For Raising Their Voice Against Discrimination,” June 29, 2006, http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?category=National&template=dalitatrocities&slug=Dalits+boycotted+for+raising+voice&id=89587&callid=1
(accessed February 7, 2007).
The incident took place in June 2006.

[206] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 166.

[207] Ibid.

[208] NHRC Report, Section VIII, p. 161.

[209] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 166.

[210] Ibid., p. 113 (Citing Human Rights Watch
interview with Burnad Fatima, Tamil Nadu Women’s Forum, Madras, February 14,
1998).

[211] Ibid., p. 167.

[212] Human Rights Watch, World Report 2003, p. 240.

[213] NHRC Report, Section VIII, p. 161.

[214] Human Rights Watch, World Report 2003, p. 240.

[215]NHRC Report, Section VIII, p. 161.

The National
Human Rights Commission has reported that Dalit women are forced to turn to
prostitution in times of extreme hardship, such as natural calamities, in order
for the family to survive. Moreover, in certain communities, prostitution is an
integral part of social survival for Dalit women.

[216] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 15.

[217] Ibid.

[218] Ibid.

[219] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 166.

[220] Ibid., p. 115.

[221] Ibid., p. 166.

[222] Ibid., p. 170.

[223] Ibid., p. 170.

[224] Yogesh Pawar, “Dalit killing: No action taken
against accused,” NDTV, November 4, 2006, http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?category=National&template=dalitatrocities&slug=Dalit+killing%3A+No+action+against+accused&id=95838&callid=1
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[225] Police Protect Rapist of Dalit Woman,
National Public Hearing, April
18-19, 2000, Chennai-Tamil Nadu, Case Papers: Summary Jury’s
Interim Observations & Recommendations, Vol. 1, p. 184.

[226] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 155. “Dalits increasingly exercise their franchise. They participate more
vigorously and in larger numbers compared to caste Hindus in the state assembly
and parliamentary elections.”

[227] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 56, fn. 121 (citing Arthur Max, “Private Armies,”
Associated Press, April 22, 1996).

[228] Ibid., pp. 55-56, fn. 120 (citing “Repoll in
700 booths in Bihar ordered,” Indian Express, February 19, 1998).

[229] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 71.

[230] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, pp. 55-56, fn. 120 (citing “EC cracks whip, scraps Patna polls,” INDOlink New from India, February 21, 1998.

[231] Ibid., pp. 55-56, fn. 120 (citing “Second
phase: 55% voting, nine deaths,” Indian
Express, February 23,
1998).

[232] Ibid., p. 56, fn. 121 (citing Arthur Max,
“Private Armies,” Associated Press, April 22, 1996).

[233]When men from the women’s community rushed to save
them, they were humiliated, beaten and threatened with being killed. Police
reportedly refused to register their complaint and downgraded the charges from
rape to assault. “Seven Bihar women
victims of rape seek justice,”Indo-Asian News Service,August 22, 2006.

[234] “Dalit woman burnt alive for contesting
panchayat elections,” Hindustan Times, October 23, 2005.

[235] In September 1996 the village of Melavalavu
was declared a reserved constituency under Article 243D of the Indian
constitution. This meant that there would be seats reserved for Dalits on the
Melavalavu panchayat (village
council), which covers eight villages and 1,000 Dalit families.

[236] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 90. As observed by Dr. George Mathew of the New
Delhi Institute of Social Sciences, who visited the area soon after the
murders: “[T]he violence was basically a result of a shift in the power
equations from the haves and the have nots.” Ibid. (citing “Melavalavu violence
due to shift in power equations,” The
Hindu, August 16, 1997).

[237] Ibid., p. 91 (citing “6 Dalits hacked,” Times of India. As reported in the Times of India, “they were warned that they would lose their jobs
as farmhands and not be allowed to graze cattle or draw water from wells
located on ‘patta’ [unutilized] land held by the dominant castes.”).

[238]“Dalit village head faces constant intimidation due to
caste discrimination in Uttar Pradesh,” Asian Human Rights Commission, Urgent
Appeal, November 22, 2006.

[239] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 70. (Table 2.2).

[240] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 10.

[241] Ibid.

[242] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 99.

[243] Ibid.

[244] Ibid. see
also infra Section V(A)(1)(a)(v).

[245] Ibid.

[246] Ibid., pp. 99-100.

[247] “NHRC to Probe Kaithal Dalits Issue”, Indian Express, June 5, 2003.

[248] Ibid

[249] People’s Watch and Dalit
Human Rights Monitoring fact-finding team report (2004), http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/pdf/kalapatti-fact-findings.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[250] Dalits in Pondicherry, for
instance, were unable to gain employment through the reservations policies
aimed at their rehabilitation because they were not able to produce birth
certificates relating to the pre-1964 period. “Bhim Sena Seeks Rehabilitation
of Displaced Dalit Workers,” The Hindu,
June 26, 2003.

[251] “Raid Hits ‘Uppity Untouchables,’” Suzanne
Goldenberg, The Guardian (London), October 19, 1995.

[252] “Brutality used to keep India’s
underclass down,” Suzanne Goldenberg, The
Guardian (London),
April 13, 1999.

[253] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 69.

[254] Ibid.

[255] Ibid. See
also Ibid., p. 65 (Table 2.1).

[256] Ibid., p. 63.

[257] Ibid.,p.
66 (Table 2.1); p. 85 (Table 2.7).

[258] Ibid., p. 81.

[259] Human Rights Watch, Caste Discrimination: A Global Concern, p.11.

[260] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 130.

[261] Ibid.

[262]Human Rights Watch, World
Report 2006: India, p. 2, http://hrw.org/wr2k6/pdf/india.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[263] Human Rights Watch, Caste Discrimination: A Global Concern, p 11. .; Ramdutt Tripathi,
“Arrests Over India Caste Deaths,” BBC
News,May 8, 2000,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_740000/740701.stm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[264] Stephanie Nolen, “Cross-caste teen lovers
brutally slain Families charged in torture, killing of Indian couple who defied
ingrained tradition,” Globe and Mail (Toronto), August 9, 2001.

[265] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 31.

[266] Omer Farooq, “Indian girl, 14, wins a
divorce: A 14-year-old girl in the
southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has won a battle to have her two-year
marriage to a teenage boy annulled,”BBC News, June 22, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4120238.stm (accessed February
7, 2007).

[267] Ibid.

[268]Chenigall Suseela received a national bravery award for
her courage in fighting her child marriage and for insisting on continuing her
education. See, “Bravery award for gutsy Dalit girl,” The Hindu, January
25, 2006, http://www.hindu.com/2006/01/25/stories/2006012521620500.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[269] Ibid., p. 31.

[270] Ibid., p. 39, fn. 55 and accompanying text.

[271] Ibid., p. 29.

[272] Ibid., p. 27.

[273] Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human
Rights on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard
of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Annual
Report 2005 (61st CHR session), Report E/CN.4/2005/48, para 62.

[274] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 99.

[275] OMCT/HIC-HLRN, “Joint Urgent Action Appeal:
Forced Eviction of 7,000 Dalits in India,” July 24, 2003, http://www.hlrn.org/cases_files/IND-FE%20%20240703.doc
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[276] Ibid.

[277] Human Rights Watch, India, Small Change: Bonded Child Labor in India,
Vol.15, No.2(C), January 2003, p. 42 [hereinafter Small Change].

[278] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 29.

[279] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 23.

[280] NHRC Report, Section V, p. 85.

[281] Ibid., Section VI, p. 125.

[282] Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human
Rights on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard
of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Annual
Report 2005 (61st CHR session), Report E/CN.4/2005/48, para. 62.

[283] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 23.

[284] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 27.

[285] In one notable incident in the state of
Orissa, seven Dalit women, who had embraced the Christian faith of their own
volition, were physically abused and forcibly tonsured before being forcibly
“reconverted” to Hinduism. http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2004/kilipal.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[286] In a village in Tamil Nadu, for instance,
discrimination on the basis of caste has been practiced by Christians for
decades. In the village’s church Dalit Christians are made to sit apart from
other Christians and must stand while talking to the priest. Like upper-caste
Hindus, Christians in this village mete out severe punishment against Christian
Dalits who question discriminatory traditions. In February 1999, when a Dalit
priest attempted to conduct a funeral procession for his late mother through
the main street of his town, Christians attacked the procession with guns, homemade
weapons, and stones and verbally abused the Dalits with derogatory caste
remarks and threats; more than 100 people were injured. Caste Christians
Discriminate against Dalit Priest, National Public Hearing, April 18-19, 2000, Chennai-Tamil
Nadu, Case Papers: Summary Jury’s Interim Observations & Recommendations,
Vol. 1, p. 259.

[287] Salil Kader, “Muslims Infected by Caste
Virus,” March 14, 2006,
http://www.indianmuslims.info/articles/others/salil_kader_muslims_infected_by_caste_virus.html
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[288] Yoginder Sikand, “The Dalit Muslims and the
All-India Backward Muslim Morcha,” December 16, 2004,
The South Asian, available at: http://www.thesouthasian.org/archives/2004/the_dalit_muslims_and_the_alli.html
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[289] Salil Kader, “Social Stratification Among
Muslims in India,”
June 15, 2004, Counter Currents, http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-kader150604.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[290] See Yoginder Sikand, “Muslim Dalit and OBC
Conference: A Report,” November
30, 2005, The Milli Gazette,
http://www.milligazette.com/dailyupdate/2005/20051130-muslim-dalits.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007)
(arguing that the Indian government’s practice of assigning scheduled caste
status on the basis of religion amounts to religious discrimination). See also Yoginder Sikand, “The Dalit
Muslims and the All-India
Backward Muslim Morcha,” December
16, 2004, The South Asian,
http://www.thesouthasian.org/archives/2004/the_dalit_muslims_and_the_alli.html
(accessed February 7, 2007).
For the same claim with respect to Christian Dalits, see Minority Rights Group, “India’s Dalit Christians face caste
discrimination and loss of government assistance,” March 3, 2004, http://www.minorityrights.org/news_detail.asp?ID=230
(accessed February 7, 2007); see alsoAppeal to Join Hands to End
Discrimination Against Dalits, All India Christian Council, http://www.aiccindia.org/newsite/0804061910/resources/appeal_to_join_hands.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[291] Human Rights Watch, We Have No Orders to Save You, pp. 39-40; see also Human Rights Watch, Politics
by Other Means: Attacks Against Christians in India, Vol. 11, No. 6,
September 1999.

[292] “Dalits to burn anti-conversion laws at Nagpur rally,” Indian Catholic, October 11, 2006, http://www.theindiancatholic.com/newsread.asp?nid=3859
(accessed February 7, 2007);
“Dalits in conversion ceremony,” BBC News,
October 14, 2006,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6050408.stm (accessed February 7, 2007).

[293] Daniel Blake, “100,000 Dalit Christians to
Attend ‘World Religious Freedom Day’ Rally in India,” Christian Today, October
11, 2006, http://www.christiantoday.com/article/100000.dalit.christians.to.attend.world.religious.freedom.day.rally.in.india/7943.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[294]One such bill was the controversial Prohibition of
Forcible Conversion of Religion Bill, passed in the state of Tamil Nadu on October 31, 2002. The law
was widely criticized for making it more difficult for poor people, persecuted
minorities, and those ostracized under the caste system to convert to another
religion. Human Rights Watch, World
Report 2003, p. 240. The law nevertheless found support with the BJP-led
federal government (Ibid.), and remained in force until June 7, 2006, when it
was repealed by the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion
(Repeal) Act, 2006 (Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion
(Repeal) Act, 2006 - www.tn.gov.in/acts-rules/law/ACT_10to12_131_07JUN06.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007). More recently, on September 19, 2006, the
state of Gujarat passed a law that classifies Jainism and Buddhism
as branches of Hinduism, even though the Indian constitution classifies
the two
as separate religions. The new law makes conversion from Hinduism to
Buddhism
or Jainism easier, because the conversion is deemed to be an
“inter-denominational” one. However, the purpose of the bill, according
to
government critics, is to ensure that Dalits do not convert to Islam or
Christianity, and that those who convert to Buddhism or Jainism remain a
part
of Hinduism and thus remain likely to vote for the Hindu nationalist
BJP, which
heads the state of Gujarat. The leader of Gujarat’s opposition Congress
party said that the BJP-led
government of Gujarat was using the law as a
“tool” to maintain its bedrock of votes. Rajeev Khanna, “Anger Over
Gujarat
Religion Law,” BBC News, September 20, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5362802.stm
(accessed February 7, 2007).
Dalit leader Udit Raj, chairman of the All India Confederation of SC/ST
Organization poignantly asserts: “[Hindu extremists are trying to assimilate]
Buddhism and Jainism into Hinduism. Where is the freedom to choose your own
faith?” “Dalits to Burn Anti-Conversion Laws at Nagpur Rally,” The Indian Catholic, October 11, 2006.

[295] “VHP orchestrates mass reconversion in
Orissa,” Deccan Herald, May 2, 2005, http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may22005/national13399200551.asp (accessed February 7, 2007).

[296] Human Rights Watch, Caste Discrimination: A Global Concern, p. 20. A June 1997
fact-finding mission by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, India’s largest
civil rights organization, found that in caste clashes in Madurai district,
Tamil Nadu, “Dalits were the worst affected in terms of property loss and
physical injuries sustained… due to violent attacks on them” and that it was
their “increased political consciousness…regarding their fundamental social,
political and economic rights expressed in terms of demands for social equality
[and] equitable distribution of resources” that played a major role in the
attacks against them. Human Rights Watch, Broken
People, p. 85 (citing People’s Union for Civil Liberties, “Final Report of
the PUCL-Tamil Nadu Team that Inquired Into Caste Disturbances in Southern
Districts of Tamil Nadu,” (Madras: PUCL, 1997)).

[297] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 29 (citing National Commission for Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Highlights
of the Report of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes for the Years 1994-95 & 1995-96 (New Delhi, Government of India,
1997), p. 2).

[298] Ibid., p. 161.

[299] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 150. The late Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the
architect of the Indian constitution and a Dalit, is seen as a champion of
Dalit rights and is a hero to many Dalits.

[300] Dalit groups mobilize to get local
authorities to allocate land for statues of Dr. Ambedkar, and even poor Dalits
will contribute the little they have to build memorials of him. Ibid.

[301] See, e.g., Ibid., pp. 150-51 (describing one
such incident beginning in 1994 in Karanai village in Chengai district, Tamil
Nadu, which resulted in ongoing conflict between Dalits and non-Dalits that
lasted until 1997); Human Rights Watch, Broken
People, p. 127; “What makes Dalits angry?” IBN Live, December
1, 2006, http://www.ibnlive.com/news/what-makes-the-dalits-of-maharashtra-angry/27440-3.html#
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[302] “What makes Dalits angry?” IBN Live, December 1, 2006, http://www.ibnlive.com/news/what-makes-the-dalits-of-maharashtra-angry/27440-3.html#
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[303] Ibid.

[304] Ibid.

[305] Mukesh Ranjan, “UPA to review progress of
projects for SC/STs on Dec 9,” Financial
Express, December 3,
2006, http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=148015
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[306] NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 116.

[307] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 127.

[308] Ibid., p. 135.

[309] Ibid., p. 129.

[310] Ibid., p. 129 (citing “Dalit woman Stripped
and paraded naked, says IPHRC report,” The
Times of India (Bombay),
November 1, 1997).

[311] Ibid. A commission of inquiry, established almost immediately after the killings,
determined that the police firing on the mob was “indiscriminate, unwarranted,
unprovoked and unjustified.” “Gundewar Commission Report Submitted,” Indian
Express,August 8, 1998.
Nevertheless, the
Police Sub-Inspector, who ordered the firing, was not criminally charged until
four years later, in 2001; the charge against him was culpable homicide not
amounting to murder. “Kadam will be Prosecuted in Ramabai Nagar Case,” Times
of India,August 25, 2001. While he was finally arrested in 2002, he was
released on bail in January 2003. “Sessions Court Grants Bail to Manohar
Kadam,” Economic Times,January
5, 2003. There have been no
publicly available reports on his case since then.

[312] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 30.

[313] Directions for relief were made only after
the intervention of the NHRC. Social Boycott in Devalia, National Public
Hearing, April 18-19, 2000, Chennai-Tamil Nadu, Case Papers: Summary Jury’s
Interim Observations & Recommendations, Vol. 1, pp. 252-54.

[314] Human Rights Watch, Small Change, p. 41.

[315] Ibid., p. 43, citing Human Rights Watch
interview with Joy Maliekal, Mysore,
Karnataka, March 30, 2002.

[316]India’s Combined second and third
periodic reports to CEDAW, Oct.
19, 2005, CEDAW/C/IND/2-3, para. 101.

[317] Ibid. para. 104.

[318] Ibid para. 113.

[319] Massachusetts Institute of Technology, From Promise To Performance: Ecological
Sanitation As A Step Toward The Elimination Of Manual Scavenging In India,
September 2006, p. 6, http://mit.edu/phrj/dalit_report_final.pdf (accessed February 7, 2007).

[320] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 141.

[321] According to Bejawada Wilson, national convener
of the Safai Karamchari Andolan: “as long as dry latrines remain in existence,
the scavengers to clean the same will also remain.” Annie Zaidi, “India’s shame,”
Frontline, vol. 23, issue 18, September 9-22, 2006.

[322] Ibid.

[323] Ibid.

[324] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 24.

[325] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 142. C. Narayanama, working in Anantapur
municipality, Andhra Pradesh, explained how she inherited her job of manual
scavenging:

My elder sister, Mariyakka married C. Kadirappa, but had no children.
She brought me from Itukalapalli (my native place) and made me marry her
husband. She died after three years due to severe whooping cough. (Could it
have been due to the practice of manual scavenging?) I had to adopt her work of
manual scavenging because of heredity. My sister adopted the work of manual
scavenging from her mother-in-law.

“Safai
Karamcharis in Anantapur District,” Case Papers: Summary Jury’s Interim
Observations & Recommendations, National Public Hearing, April 18-19, 2000,
Chennai-Tamil Nadu, Vol. 1, pp. 39-40. See
also: As Meena, a manual scavenger in her mid-twenties, explained to Frontline in 2006:

This is what we’ve been doing for generations and nobody gives us other
work. In fact, my mother was married to my father based upon the fact that he
lived in a busy, crowded area and there was that much more to carry.

Annie Zaidi, “India’s shame,” Frontline.

[326] Massachusetts Institute of Technology, From Promise To Performance: Ecological
Sanitation As A Step Toward The Elimination Of Manual Scavenging In India,
September 2006, p. 6, http://mit.edu/phrj/dalit_report_final.pdf (accessed February 7, 2007).

[327] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s Questionnaire,
p. 15.

[328] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, pp. 145-46 (citing Human Rights Watch interview with
Bejawada Wilson, Bangalore, July 26, 1998, in which Wilson told Human Rights
Watch, “Even other scheduled-caste people won’t touch the safai karamcharis
[manual scavengers]. It is ‘untouchability’ within the ‘untouchables,’ yet
nobody questions it.”).

[329] Ibid., p. 142 (citing a Human Rights Watch
interview with Martin Macwan, New
York, October 15, 1998. Martin Macwan is founder of Navsarjan,
an NGO that has led the campaign to abolish manual scavenging in the western
state of Gujarat describing what happens when
Navsarjan had attempted to rehabilitate scavengers).

[330]Ibid., pp. 142-43, (quoting Leelaben of
Paliyad village from Mari Marcel Thekaekara, “A continuing social outrage,” Frontline,
October 417, 1997).

[331] Massachusetts Institute of Technology, From Promise To Performance: Ecological
Sanitation As A Step Toward The Elimination Of Manual Scavenging In India,
September 2006, p. 20, http://mit.edu/phrj/dalit_report_final.pdf (accessed February
7, 2007).et al.,

[332] Annie Zaidi,
“India’s Shame,” Frontline.

[333] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 141.

[334]Kamdar Swasthya Suraksha Mandal files PIL in 2001, http://www.amrc.org.hk/5304.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[335] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 146 (citing Human Rights Watch interview,
Ahmedabad district, Gujarat, July 23, 1998, “When we ask
for our rights from the government, the municipality officials threaten to fire
us. So we don’t say anything. This is what happens to people who demand their
rights”).

[336] Kamdar Swasthya Suraksha Mandal files PIL in
2001, http://www.amrc.org.hk/5304.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[337] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 24.

[338] For example, the training program it
establishes is ineffective because it offers a low stipend and an inadequate
period of training. A shortage of training instructions and lack of viable
training programs further compound the problem. NHRC Report, Section V, p.
55.

[339] Ibid.

[340] Ibid., p. 54.

[341] Ibid., p. 54.

[342] Ibid., p. 126.

[343] Safai Karamchari Andolan filed a public
interest litigation petition in the Supreme Court in 2003. Viswanathan, S. ,
“Exposing An Abhorrent Practice,” Frontline,
February 15, 2006,
http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-viswanathan150206.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[344] Ibid.

[345] Venkatesan, J. , “Manual Scavenging: Court
Summons Principal Secretaries”, The Hindu,
September 14, 2004,
A2004091410E-933F-GNW.

[346] Viswanathan, S. , “Exposing An Abhorrent
Practice,” Frontline, February 15, 2006, http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-viswanathan150206.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).
Petitioner-organizations countered such claims by Tamil Nadu with evidence that
manual scavenging was still prevalent in the state. Due to such conflicting
reports, the Supreme Court ordered the Government of India and state
governments in April 2005 to “verify the facts and indicate within six months a
time-bound programme if the existence of manual scavenging is confirmed.” Ibid.
At this writing, the petition was still pending before the Supreme Court.

[347] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 139.

[348] According to one estimate 83.2 percent of
bonded laborers belong to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. NHRC Report,
Section V, p. 64. Almost all bonded children interviewed for a 2003 Human
Rights Watch report on bonded child labor in the silk industry were either
Dalit or Muslim. Human Rights Watch, Small
Change, p. 6.

[349] Human Rights Watch, Small Change, p. 9.

[350] Ibid., p. 10.

[351]Ibid., p. 43 (citing Human Rights Watch group interview
with Dalit villagers, Varanasi District, Uttar Pradesh, March 14, 2002).

[352] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 140.

[353] Human Rights Watch, Small Change, p. 42. (citing Human Rights Watch group interview
with Dalit villagers, Varanasi District, Uttar Pradesh, March 14, 2002).

[354] Ibid. According to a local activist, workers
in the community were receiving five kilograms of wheat solely because they had
organized themselves; elsewhere workers received only two kilograms. Human
Rights Watch, Small Change, p. 42
(citing Human Rights Watch interview with Lenin Raghuvanshi, People’s Vigilance
Committee for Human Rights, Varanasi District, March 14, 2002).

[355] Ibid.

[356] Ibid.

[357] The Act aims to release all laborers from
bondage, cancel any outstanding debt, prohibit the creation of new bondage
agreements, and order the economic rehabilitation of freed bonded laborers by
the state. It also punishes attempts to compel persons into bondage with a
maximum of three years in prison and a Rs. 2,000 (US$50) fine.

[358] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 140.

[359] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 24.

[360] NHRC Report, Section V, p. 89.

[361] Ibid., p. 67.

[362] While the process of rehabilitation is
supposed to immediately follow the release of a bonded laborer, this is rarely
the case. In some cases the Certificate of Release from bonded debt is not
issued, and there is a huge time lag between release and rehabilitation
operations, resulting in many released laborers being unable to survive after
their release and being forced to return to their captors. NHRC Report, Section
V, p. 67-68.

[363] Ibid., p. 67.

[364] NHRC Report, Section V, p. 78.

[365] NHRC Report, Section V, pp. 79-80.

[366] According to the NHRC, “Political leadership
has shown no concern for the plight of migrant labourers. In the recipient
States, it is directly responsible for virtually freezing the law on migrant
labour in collusion with powerful land owners and other employers. In the home
States, the political leadership has shown total apathy as it has not taken
their case with the recipient States for enforcement of law and has also taken
no steps to stop distress migration.” Ibid., Section VI, p. 125.

[367] Ibid., Section V, p. 72.

[368] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 12. In the Bellary
district, Karnataka, for example, 70 to 80 percent of the child labor
population in iron ore and granite mines are Dalits. NCDHR Response to the
Special Rapporteur’s Questionnaire, p. 13.

[369] Human Rights Watch, Small Change, p. 43.

[370] Ibid. Child labor, especially in domestic and
hotel work, also increases following upper-caste raids on Dalit villages. Human
Rights Watch interview with Gilbert Rodrigo, Director, Legal Resources for
Social Action (LRSA), Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, March 20, 2002. Ibid., p. 43.

[371] “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for
Dalits in India:
Case Study on Primary Education in Gujarat,” WoodrowWilsonSchool
of Public and International Affairs, p. 18.

[372] Human Rights Watch, Small Change, p. 31. (citing Human Rights Watch interview with
14-year-old boy, Varanasi,
Uttar Pradesh, March 13,
2002).

[373] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 148.

[374] NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 125.

[375] Human Rights Watch, Small Change, p. 42.

[376] Ibid., p. 6.

[377] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 12. Domestic labor and restaurant jobs were recently banned
under the 1986 law, but predictably, a lack of implementation has made little
difference. While a bill on providing benefits to unorganized labor, including
domestic labor, may soon be tabled in Parliament, it is unclear whether or not
this bill will increase the protection afforded by child labor legislation.
Oineetom Ojah, “Govt may table unorganised sector Bill in winter session,” TheFinancial
Express, November 21,
2006, http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=146944
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[378] NHRC Report, Section V, p. 73. Rehabilitation
programs involve the establishment of special schools to provide non-formal
education, vocational training, supplementary nutrition, a stipend, and health
care; further, over 100 national rehabilitation projects are under
implementation.

[379] NHRC Report, Section V, p. 74. In 2005, the
Supreme Court issued notice to the Central government regarding the present
Child Labour Act which it considers to be unconstitutional in the light of the
right to education. “Notice issued to
Centre on pleas against child labour,” The
Hindu,December 13,
2005, http://www.hinduonnet.com/2005/12/13/stories/2005121301720900.htm
(February 7, 2007).

[380] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
pp. 94-95.

[381] Despite earning a Masters degree in economics
from GujaratUniversity, the best job 24-year-old
Arvind Vaghela could get was as a road sweeper. Vaghela’s story underscored the
experience of many other university-educated Dalits. In his city of Ahmedabad, “[n]early 100
of its council sanitation workers have degrees in subjects ranging from
computing to law, but cannot get better jobs because they are Dalits.” Dalit
sweeper, Prakash Chauhan, had been hired by an accounting firm, but the firm
subsequently fired him upon learning his caste from his school certificate.
Chauhan, 32, expressed the frustration that Dalits with his educational
achievements share: “Our parents had a dream that education would mean we would
not have to do the jobs they did. It did not turn out that way.” Randeep
Ramesh, “Untouchables in new battle for jobs,” The Observer, Oct.
3, 2004, http://www.netphotograph.com/bartholomew.tv/PDF/obs_041003_new_26_3413213.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[382] NHRC Report, Section V, p. 84.

[383] Minimum Wages Act, 1948 [Act No. 11 of Year
1948, dated 15th. March, 1948] Section 3(1A) cited in NHRC Report, Section V,
p. 81.

[384] Ibid.

[385] NHRC Report, Section V, p. 81.

[386] Ibid., p. 83.

[387] Krishan K. Taimni, “Cooperatives in the new
environments: Role of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies in South Asia,” Sustainable
Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
February 9, 1998, http://www.fao.org/sd/rodirect/ROre0010.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[388] “On the Magic of Being Work Sisters,”Business Line,February 18, 2006.

[389] Ibid.

[390] Ibid.

[391] CERD General
Comment XXIX - Article 1(1) regarding
descent, para. 39.

[392] “Identity crisis for educated dalits?” The Hindu, April 14, 1999.

[393] For example, Gaurav Apartments, a housing
development in a middle-class neighborhood in east Delhi, offers two or three bedroom apartments
that would normally appeal to professionals seeking housing in the area.
However, because the development was built by Dalits and because 60 to 70
percent of it is occupied by Dalits, the demand for the units and their price
is significantly lower than it is for comparable units in the area. The price
of a unit in Gaurav Apartments is Rs.1.7 million (US$38,041) whereas a comparable apartment in the neighborhood costs
around Rs.2 million (US$44,749).
“No takers for homes in Dalit apartments,” Indo-Asian
News Service, October 3,
2004. As a Dalit property dealer from the area explains: “Many
clients have declined to buy or even rent a flat soon after looking at the huge
portrait of B.R. Ambedkar at the entrance.” “No takers for homes in Dalit
apartments,” Indo-Asian News Service,
October 3, 2004.

[394] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 104 (Table 2.9).

[395] Ibid., p. 65 (Table 2.1).

[396] Ibid.

[397] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 127.

[398] Ibid.

[399] Ibid.

[400] Ibid.

[401] Ibid.

[402] The World Bank, HIV/AIDS South Asia- India; Risk Factors, updated December 2006, http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/EXTSAREGTOPHEANUT/EXTSAREGTOPHIVAIDS/0,,contentMDK:20288516~menuPK:568874~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSitePK:496967,00.html
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[403]NESA
Life with Dignity, HIV/AIDS Sector Support Team, http://www.nesauniverse.org/focusarea/hivf
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[404] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 151.

[405] Human Rights Watch, Future Forsaken: Abuses Against Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in India,
(Human Rights Watch, July 2004),
pp. 8-9 (explaining that several groups that already experience
discrimination, including sex workers, children of sex workers, street
children, children from lower-castes and Dalits, are vulnerable to increased
discrimination when tested HIV-positive.) http://hrw.org/reports/2004/india0704/FutureForsaken.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007). See also
Stigma and HIV/Aids- A Pervasive Issue, The
Synergy Project, December 2004, p. 2, http://www.synergyaids.com/documents/BigIssues_StigmaRevDec04.pdf
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[406] NCDHR response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 10.

[407] CERD General Comment XXVI - Article 6, para. 1.

[408] “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for
Dalits in India:
Case Study on Primary Education in Gujarat,” WoodrowWilsonSchool
of Public and International Affairs, p. 18.

[409] NCDHR response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 10.

[410] “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for
Dalits in India:
Case Study on Primary Education in Gujarat,” WoodrowWilsonSchool
of Public and International Affairs, p. 14. Dalit schoolchildren are by and
large poorer than other students, and cannot afford either private tutoring or
access to private education, which is generally of better quality. Ibid.

[411] NCDHR response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 10.

[412] Ibid., citing A.R. Vasavi, et al., “Blueprint
for Rural Primary Education: How Viable?” p. 3184, Economic and Political Weekly, 1997.

[413] “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for
Dalits in India:
Case Study on Primary Education in Gujarat,” WoodrowWilsonSchool
of Public and International Affairs, p. 17.

[414] Ibid., p. 16.

[415]The Special Rapporteur on education also noted, “Other
studies have documented absenteeism, irregular attendance and negligence by
teachers, who have in addition used Dalit and Adivasi children to do work for
them, corporal punishment and fear of teachers - one reason cited by parents
for not sending their children to school.” Report submitted by the Special
Rapporteur on the right to education, Mr. V. Muoz Villalobos, February 8, 2006 (62nd CHR
session) E/CN.4/2006/45, paras. 84-85.

[416] NCDHR response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 10. A study of Dalit schoolchildren in Rajasthan revealed
that fear of teachers as well as corporal punishments are factors that parents
(especially of Dalit children) cite as constraining regular school attendance.
Mona Jabbi and C. Rajyalakshmi, “Education of Marginalized Social Groups in
Bihar,” in A. Vaidynathan and P.R. Gopinathan Nair (Eds.), Elementary Education
in Rural India: A Grassroots View, Sage Publication, New Delhi, 2001.

[417] “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for
Dalits in India:
Case Study on Primary Education in Gujarat,” WoodrowWilsonSchool
of Public and International Affairs, pp. 15-17.

[418] CERD General
Comment XXIX - Article 1(1) regarding
descent, para. 45.

[419] “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for
Dalits in India:
Case Study on Primary Education in Gujarat,”
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, p. 14 (citing India Education Report — A profile of Basic
Education, Ed. by R. Govinda, Publishers: Oxford University Press, Delhi. March 2002).

[420] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 10 (citing Report, National Commission for Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes, pp. 151-183, Government of India, New Delhi, 1999-2000
& 2000-2001).

[421] Ibid.

[422] Joy Maliekal, director of the Rural Literacy
and Health Programme and national convenor of the Campaign against Child Labour
told Human Rights Watch: “It is important to make the link between child labor
and discrimination in school. In our experience, Dalit children are made to sit
in the back and are asked to do work [i.e. chores rather than schoolwork].”
Human Rights Watch, Small Change, p.
44.

[423] Ibid.

[424] Dalits and Primary Education, p. 3.

[425] Ibid., p. 14.

[426] “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for
Dalits in India:
Case Study on Primary Education in Gujarat,” WoodrowWilsonSchool
of Public and International Affairs, p. 19.

[427] Ibid.

[428] Ibid.

[429] In the complaint, one of the students
recounts the nature of the harassment he suffered at AIIMS:

I have been subjected to mental and physical torture from my very first
day in this institute…I was abused on my caste and…in the last few days my
room had been locked from outside because of which I was unable to attend
classes.

Abantika Ghosh, “Dalit students ‘abused’ at
AIIMS,” The Times of India, September 12, 2006.

[430] Ibid.

[431] As a member of Medicos Forum for Equal
Opportunities said:

Students and doctors of the reserved category are now being forced to
stay in isolated groups and are increasingly feeling unsafe in an environment
where there is discrimination and a failure of the local administration and the
Health Ministry to redress specific instances of caste discrimination.

Bindu Shaja
Perappadan, “Reserved Category Medicos Facing Discrimination,” September 19, 2006, http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/16/stories/2006091616430400.htm
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[432] “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for
Dalits in India:
Case Study on Primary Education in Gujarat,” WoodrowWilsonSchool
of Public and International Affairs, p. 17. In the village of Kumbhana
in Gujarat, for instance, a Dalit teacher
named Jignasha was told by the school principal to keep her water pot separate
from the water pots of other teachers. Ibid. Such segregation results from the
belief held by non-Dalit teachers that Dalits are “polluted” and will therefore
“pollute” their food and water.

[433] Prakash Singh, “Dalit teacher assaulted in Bihar village,” NDTV,
January 19, 2006,
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?category=National&template=dalitatrocities&slug=Dalit+teacher+assaulted+in+Bihar+village&id=83877&callid=1
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[434] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 7.

[435] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 25; NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 7.

[436] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 8 (citing Shah, et al., Untouchability
in Rural India).

[437] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 27.

[438] Ibid., p. 27.

[439] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 76.

[440] Consideration of Report by India to the
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD/C/304/Add.13, September 17, 1996, para
23.

[441] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 6.

[442] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 71.

[443] Ibid.,
p. 70 (Table 2.2).

[444] Ibid.

[445] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 26; “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for
Dalits in India:
Case Study on Primary Education in Gujarat,” WoodrowWilsonSchool
of Public and International Affairs, p. 17.

[446] “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for
Dalits in India:
Case Study on Primary Education in Gujarat,” WoodrowWilsonSchool
of Public and International Affairs, p. 17.

[447] NCDHR response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 10 (citing Report, National Commission for Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes, pp. 151-183, Government of India, New Delhi, 1999-2000
& 2000-2001, “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”).

[448]As a result of public interest litigation on the right
to food, the Supreme Court of India directed State Governments and UnionTerritories
to implement a scheme providing every child in every government and
government-assisted primary school with a prepared mid-day meal. See Right to
Food Campaign, Mid-Day Meals, http://www.righttofoodindia.org/mdm/mdm_scorders.html
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[449] NCDHR response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 10; See also Joel
Lee & Sukhadeo Thorat, Dalits and
Right to Food: Discrimination and Exclusion in Food Related Government Programs,
unpublished document on file with World Prout Assembly, September 2005,http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2005/09/dalits_and_the.html
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[450] Additionally, in a village in Tamil Nadu, the
program was closed down because upper-caste community members opposed the
scheme because it would benefit Dalit and tribal children. Lee, et al., Dalits and Right to Food.

[451] A working paper by the Indian Institute of
Dalit Studies explains the repeated acts of discrimination Dalit cooks in the
mid-day meals program face:

First, when local administrators
are putting the MMS [mid-day meal scheme] into place, dominant caste community
members intervene to block the hiring of Dalit cooks, favoring dominant caste
cooks instead. Where a Dalit cook has been hired, dominant caste parents then
begin sending their children to school with lunches packed at home, or require
their children to come home for lunch, in any case forbidding their children to
eat food prepared by the Dalit cook. In the third stage, dominant caste parents
or community members pressure the local administration to dismiss the Dalit
cook, on any pretext, and hire a dominant caste cook instead. Where this is
ineffective, or sometimes without the intervening step, the dominant caste
parents campaign to shut down the MMS in the village school altogether.
Finally, some dominant caste parents react to the hiring and keeping of a Dalit
cook by withdrawing their children from the school, and sometimes admitting
them in a different school where the cook is not Dalit.

Lee, et al., Dalits and Right to Food.

[452] NCDHR response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 10; See also Lee,
et al., Dalits and Right to Food.

[453] Ibid.

[454] “Discrimination Divide Untouchability Still
Alive in Gandhi’s Land,” Indian Express,
October 5, 2006.

[455] “These Kids Told: You Are Dalit, Go Eat
Elsewhere,” Indian Express, December 16, 2003.

[456] Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 25

[457] NHRC Report, Section VIII, p. 159.

[458] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, General Comment 15 - The right to water (arts. 11 and 12 of
International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), paras 4
and 6.

[459] For the effects of water deprivation on
individuals and communities, see Committee
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 15 - The right
to water (arts. 11 and 12 of International Covenant of Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights), para. 6.

[460] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 98.

[461] Ibid. See
also Ibid., p. 104 (Table 2.9).

[462] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 6.

[463] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 90.

[464] National Commission for Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes, Highlights of the Report for the Years 1994-95 &
1995-96 (New Delhi: Government of India, 1997), p. 2; Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 26, fn 22.

[465] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 79.

[466] This case study was reported in Shah, et al.,
Untouchability in Rural India, p. 90.

[467] Ibid., pp. 84-5.

[468] Ibid.

[469] Overall, the average occurrence of this
practice was 64 percent in the 11 states included in the study. Ibid., p. 87.

[470]Ibid.,
p. 89.

[471]Ibid.,
p.65 (Table 2.1).

[472] Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India,
p. 124.

[473] Ibid., p. 83.

[474] Ibid.

[475] Government of India, Fifteenth, Sixteenth,
Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Periodic Reports to the Committee on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD/C/IND/19, paras. 134-55.

[476] Ibid.

[477] The NHRC has additionally recommended to the
Central Government that it review its facilities like legal aid, implicitly
concluding that Dalits are not necessarily the beneficiaries of such services,
despite the fact that the vast majority of Dalits are poor. NHRC Report, Section
IV, p. 27 (citing recommendations from National Commission on SCs and STs - A
Report on the problem of Untouchability, January 1989).

[478] Government of India, Fifteenth, Sixteenth,
Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Periodic Reports to the Committee on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD/C/IND/19, para. 156.

[479] The Commission found that even if cases are
properly registered under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 several states
have failed to provide compensation to victims under the Act. Even though this
scheme is sponsored by the Central Government, funding to states is conditional
on the states’ ability to contribute 50 percent of the funding. Due to
budgetary constraints and lack of political will, states do not contribute the
required amount and thus, lose central funding. Consequentially, the NHRC has
concluded that several states are not providing economic relief to victims of
atrocities, as the funds spent in these states under the Prevention of
Atrocities Act, 1989 bears no relationship to the number of atrocities taking
place in the states. NHRC Report, Section IV, p. 50.

[480] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 25.

[481] Government of India, Fifteenth, Sixteenth,
Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Periodic Reports to the Committee on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD/C/IND/19, para. 159.

[482] Ibid., para. 161.

[483] Central AdvisoryBoard of Education (CABE) sub-Committee
on “Regulatory Mechanisms for Textbooks and Parallel Textbooks Taught in
Schools Outside the Government System,” pp. 8-9.

[484] CABE sub-Committee on “Regulatory Mechanisms
for Textbooks and Parallel Textbooks Taught in Schools Outside the Government
System,” pp. 8-9. See for example a Social Studies text approved for use by the
Gujarat State Board, which describes the varna (caste)
system as a “precious gift” given by the Aryans to the world and extols the
virtues of the caste system for socially and economically organizing society on
the basis of labor. Ibid., p. 42.

[485]CABE sub-Committee on “Regulatory Mechanisms for
Textbooks and Parallel Textbooks Taught in Schools Outside the Government
System,” p. 43.

[486] NHRC Report, Section VI, p. 134.

[487] Ibid.

[488] Ibid.

[489]Chandrabhan Prasad, “India’s Hall of
Shame,” The Pioneer,http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=prasad%2Fprasad179.txt&writer=prasad
(accessed February 7, 2007).

[490] NCDHR Response to the Special Rapporteur’s
Questionnaire, p. 4.

[491] NHRC Report, Section I, p. 1.

[492] Reproduced from: Shah, et al., Untouchability in Rural India, p.
65 (Table 2.1). The survey investigated the extent and incidence of
untouchability in different spheres of life in contemporary rural India. It
examined 565 villages in 11 major states of India, including the states of
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala in south India; Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan in central and western India; Punjab and
Uttar Pradesh in north India; and Orissa and Bihar in eastern India. The states
selected account for 77 percent of India’s total Dalit population and
cover a substantial and representative portion of India’s territory and overall
population. See Ibid., pp. 48-49.