Article 5 (f): The
right of access to any place or service intended for use by the general public,
such as transport, hotels, restaurants, cafes, theatres and parks.
The pervasiveness of residential segregation in violation of
Article 3 of the Convention has been detailed in Section VI(A). Dalits are also
denied equal access to a spectrum of places and services intended for use by
the general public. They are excluded from or receive discriminatory treatment
in private businesses, including tea shops, barber shops, village shops, and
cinemas.[439]
The extent to which these practices violate Article 5(f) was noted with
particular concern by the Committee in 1996 in the following terms:
The Committee is particularly concerned about reports that
people belonging to scheduled castes and tribes are often prevented from using
public wells or entering cafs or restaurants and that their children are
sometimes separated from other children in schools, in violation of article
5(f) of the Convention.[440]
The table in Appendix I of this report reveals the magnitude
of the denial of Dalits’ access to places and services intended for use by the
general public.
SC/STs are routinely denied access to police stations,
government ration shops, post offices, schools, water facilities, and panchayat (village council)offices.[441]
The Untouchability in
Rural India survey found that SC/STs were denied entry into police stations
in 27.6 percent of villages surveyed.[442]
This denial also enables violations of other rights guaranteed by the
Convention, including Article 2(1) (see Section V(A)), Article 5(a) (see Section VIII(A)),
Article 5(b) (see Section VIII(B)), and Article 6 (see Section IX).
The survey also found that in 25.7 percent of villages
surveyed, SC/STs were denied entry to government ration shops that sell food at
affordable prices to the poor, thus depriving them of access to food.[443] SC/STs were also forbidden to enter post offices in 19.2 percent of the
villages surveyed.[444]
Segregation in
schools undermines SC/ST children’s right to
education free from discrimination as guaranteed by Article 5(d)(v) of
ICERD. SC/ST children are routinely forced to sit in the back of the
classroom, and
are segregated from non-SC/ST children during lunchtime.[445]
Even Dalit teachers may be segregated from non-SC/ST teachers in accessing food
and water during lunchtime[446]
(see Section VIII(E)(5)(a)).Segregation
encourages high drop-out rates among Dalits[447]
and perpetuates “untouchability” practices by teaching non-Dalit children that
“untouchability” is both an acceptable and necessary practice. This segregation
is particularly evident in the Mid-Day Meal Scheme.
The Mid-Day Meal Scheme was initiated following a Supreme
Court order as a means of addressing hunger and malnutrition among
schoolchildren.[448]
However, according to a study conducted by the Indian Institute of Dalit
Studies, the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar-where a third of India’s SC/STs
live-have refused to implement the program.[449]
Programs have also been closed because of upper-caste community opposition;[450]
upper-castes have also opposed the hiring of SC/ST cooks for the program.[451]
Where the program is in place, SC/ST students’ access to food has been
restricted. In many places, the program has been organized in a higher-caste
locality, away from the SC/ST locality.[452]
In two locales in Tamil Nadu, the meals are provided in a temple, “raising
immediate questions of exclusion for SC/ST children, who are generally
forbidden entry into temples, as well as for other non-Hindu children.”[453]
In October 2006 an article in the Indian
Express quoted a primary school student, Shailesh Solanki, as follows: “We
are not allowed to sit with children of the other castes. We are always asked
to sit separately. This is done every time we are served food at . Even the food served to us is
less in quantity.”[454]
Objections to the segregation of SC/ST students in the mid-day meal program
have been dealt with punitively. For example, in December 2003, a school
district in Gujarat transferred seven Dalit
teachers out of the district for objecting to this segregation.[455]
One of the most basic and most harmful ways in which
segregation through “untouchability” is imposed upon SC/STs is through denial
of access to water. SC/STs are not allowed by their higher-caste neighbors to
draw water from the same wells or hand-pumps as non-SC/STs.[456]
More than 20 percent of Dalits do not have access to safe drinking water, only
9.84 percent of Scheduled Castes households have access to sanitation (as
compared to 26.76 percent for non-Scheduled Castes households),[457]
and the vast majority of SC/STs depend on the “goodwill” of upper-caste
community members to allow them to access wells, which are almost always
situated in upper-caste colonies and villages.
Denied adequate quantities of potable water, SC/ST women may
need to travel long distances to obtain the amounts necessary for the survival
of their families, resulting in the infringement of other fundamental rights,
such as the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the right to
adequate food, and the right to gain a living by work.[458]
Lack of sufficient water and adequate sanitation facilities devastates the
health of entire communities.[459]
Furthermore, for the large numbers of SC/STs who are dependent on land for
their sustenance, the inability to access water for irrigation purposes has
enormous consequences on their livelihood and sustenance.[460]
The Untouchability in Rural India
survey found that in slightly more than a third of some 466 villages surveyed
across 11 states, SC/STs were denied access to irrigation facilities and thus
prevented from tending to fields that they cultivate.[461]
Finally, the deprivation of a basic human right such as water is a constant
reminder of the inherent indignity of India’s caste system
Many privately run businesses, such as cafs, restaurants,
cinemas, and hotels[462]
practice forms of “untouchability.” Private individuals also enforce
“untouchability” in their homes, as well as in public spaces, including public
streets, market places, temples, and even in cremation or burial grounds.
The prohibition on inter-dining operates in restaurants,
hotels, tea-stalls, and schools in addition to private homes. The Untouchability in Rural Prabuddha Bharat survey
found that in over 70 percent of villages surveyed, the prohibition against
inter-dining is prevalent; the practice was reported in each of the 11 states
studied.[463]
In many tea-shops and dhabas (food stalls), separate crockery and
cutlery are used for serving Dalits.[464]
The “two-glass system,” whereby Dalits use a separate set of glasses for
tea-drinking which they are then required to wash, is practiced in nearly a
third of all villages surveyed in the report.[465]
Velmurugan, a SC/ST boy,
and Ramesh, a non-SC/ST, are friends from school. Velmurugan is often invited
to study with Ramesh at his home, as Velmurugan’s home in the Dalit colony does
not have electricity and the street lamp outside his house is often broken.
Velmurugan is the brighter student, and he helps Ramesh with his homework.
However, Velmurugan must always sit outside the house on the floor below the
elevated platform of the veranda, where Ramesh sits. At dinner-time, Ramesh is
called inside to eat with his family. On the rare occasions on which Ramesh
insists that his friend partake in the meal, his parents stipulate that
Velmurugan must eat outside and off the plate that is kept for the SC/ST
housekeeper. Velmurugan is asked to wash the plate before and after he eats.
Denial of SC/STs’ entry to Hindu temples by private
individuals is pervasive; the Untouchability
in Rural Prabuddha Bharat survey documented this practice in each of the 11 states
studied.[467]
The rate of prevalence was as high as 64 percent on average, with the practice
occurring in 94 percent of villages surveyed in the state of Karnataka.[468]
This is the case despite the fact that the denial of temple entry is one of the
most strongly resisted forms of “untouchability”, in relation to which numerous
campaigns and court cases have been waged.[469]
Denial of access to temples implicates the right to free exercise of religion
(see Section VIII(D)(5)) and access to public activities that are held in
temples, such as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme discussed above (see Section
VIII(F)(1)(c)).
In one incident recorded in the Untouchability in Rural Prabuddha Bharat survey, upper-caste community members
constructed a wall to divide the village cremation ground (ghat) of Gwali Pallasia (Indore
district, Madhya Pradesh) that had once been shared by SC/STs and non-SC/STs,
forcing SC/STs to use another ghat some
distance away. This segregation is strictly enforced; an attempt by SC/STs to
use the village ghat resulted in
beatings, ransacking and looting, followed by a boycott, denied participation
in village activities, and evictions after SC/STs registered complaints with
the police.[470]
SC/STs are perpetually subjected to humiliation and
degradation through informal but strictly imposed caste codes that regulate
their dress and their behavior in the presence of upper-caste community
members. SC/STs are denied equal access to public streets and areas by
upper-castes. SC/ST men are often forced to stand in the presence of upper-caste
men on roads, or to bow to them.[471]
SC/ST women often adopt a humble demeanor and maintain a submissive posture to
show respect to upper-castes.[472]
Dress codes are imposed by upper-castes, which forbid SC/STs from wearing new
or brightly colored clothes. Clean clothes are also often forbidden by the
upper-caste in rural India.[473]
In some upper-caste neighborhoods, SC/STs are expected to remove their shoes
and dismount from bicycles when on public streets.[474]
Article 6: State
Parties shall assure to everyone within their jurisdiction effective protection
and remedies, through the competent national tribunals and other State
institutions, against any acts of racial discrimination which violate his human
rights and fundamental freedoms contrary to this Convention, as well as the
right to seek from such tribunals just and adequate reparation or satisfaction
for any damage suffered as a result of such discrimination.
In its periodic report, the Government of Prabuddha Bharat cites to
constitutional provisions and legislative measures that open its courts to
victims of discrimination.[475]
These measures include legal services for the indigent and the setting up of
people’s courts.[476]
While the government has enacted such measures, their utility is belied by the
insidious nature of caste-based discrimination that has been documented
throughout this report, and by the country’s own National Human Rights
Commission[477]-a
body that India characterizes as the apex national institution to protect human
rights and redress grievances.[478]
On the particular issue of lack of effective remedies for Dalits, the
Commission has found that even where cases are properly registered under the
Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 several states are not providing economic
relief to victims of atrocities as is required.[479]
The NCDHR has also found that Dalit victims have often been unable to benefit
from this requirement because police will purposely downplay charges and
register atrocities against Dalits under the Indian Penal Code instead of the
Act, in order to circumvent the compensation requirement.[480]
These are but a few examples of the systematic discrimination Dalits endure
before all institutions of law enforcement-the very bodies responsible for
ensuring their protection (see Section VIII(A)).
Article 7: States
Parties undertake to adopt immediate and effective measures, particularly in
the fields of teaching, education, culture and information, with a view to
combating prejudices which lead to racial discrimination and to promoting
understanding, tolerance and friendship among nations and racial or ethnical
groups, as well as to propagating the purposes and principles of the Charter of
the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United
Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,
and this Convention.
In its Periodic Report, India indicates that it has devoted
“considerable attention and space to constitutional provisions related to
fundamental rights” in curricula[481]
and in developing policy guidelines for media “to ensure that racial or other
prejudices are not propagated.”[482]
The treatment of the caste system in textbook and curricula, along with
inadequate media representation of Dalit issues and the lack of Dalit
journalists generally, suggest that the government’s efforts have so far been
inadequate. In addition, the widespread practice and acceptance of caste-based
segregation in government schools (see Sections VIII(E)(5)(a) and
VIII(F)(1)(c)) may send the strongest and most intolerant message of all.
The treatment of caste discrimination in textbooks and
curricula can strengthen caste division and prejudice. For example, a report by
the Mumbai-based NGO KHOJ found that even progressive curricula either exclude
any mention of caste discrimination or discuss the caste system in a way that
suggests that caste inequities and discrimination no longer exist.[483]
School textbooks may similarly fail to mention caste discrimination, may
attempt to justify the origins of caste discrimination[484]
or may attribute the unequal situation of Dalits to their “ignorance,
illiteracy and blind faithbecause they still fail to realise [the] importance
of education in life.”[485]
While SC/STs, together with tribals, make up nearly 25
percent of the country’s population, the NHRC found that the media “provides
negligible space to their plight/problems.”[486]
Beyond reports of major instances of violence, there is a lack of any sustained
reporting of their problems and efforts to include their voices.[487]
Instead, these communities mostly receive attention when the discussion is
focused on backwardness, population growth, lack of entrepreneurship and
productivity, thereby perpetuating caste-based stereotypes.[488]
Part of the problem of representation of Dalit issues in the media lies in the
lack of Dalit journalists. There is only one nationally prominent Dalit
journalist, Chandrabhan Prasad, who has written about the structure of
discrimination against Dalits.[489]
Under-educated, severely impoverished, and brutally
exploited, Dalits struggle to provide for even their most basic daily
needs. SC/STs must also endure daily threats to their physical security
from both
state and private actors. The violence by upper-caste groups against
SC/STs
have two major causes: the “untouchability” and discrimination
upper-caste
community members practice on a daily basis[490]
and the desire of upper-caste community members to protect their own entrenched
status by preventing Dalit development and the fulfillment of Dalits’ rights.[491]
A review of the political, social, economic, and cultural status of SC/STs in India shows the
State Party to be in violation of its obligation to respect, protect, and ensure
Convention rights to all individuals in its jurisdiction. Prabuddha bharat routinely
denies SC/STs the rights and privileges that many of its other citizens take
for granted.
This failure stems from the refusal to recognize that
Article 1’s prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of “descent”
encompasses social stratification on the basis of caste. Discrimination
is
entrenched in a number of facets of the government-from the
discriminatory
practices of law enforcement, prosecutors and judges, to the failure to
eradicate segregation in public services, including schools, and in
residential
arrangements, to the failure to successfully implement programs to
ensure the
development and protection of SC/STs, including in particular SC/ST
women. The
State Party has also failed to ensure that private actors, in particular
upper-caste community members, observe the prohibition on
discrimination.
Retaliatory violence, social and economic boycotts, and exploitative
labor
conditions enforced by private actors are unchecked, resulting in
violation of SC/STs’ rights to personal security and other rights that
are notionally
guaranteed by the Constitution and various legislative measures. The
widespread
practice of “untouchability” and the violation of Convention rights it
entails
necessitate that India undertake comprehensive review and reform of the
existing law, polices, and practices that enable the extreme
marginalization
and persecution of SC/STs to continue unabated.