Caste abuse akin to racism: Amnesty

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JULY 26. The campaign to raise the issue of caste-based discrimination at the United Nations conference against racism in South Africa next month got a boost after Amnesty International on Wednesday released a report on caste ``abuse'' in India equating it with racism.

An Amnesty International official here told The Hindu today that it ``fully'' supported the campaign and its representatives at the Durban conference would press for treating casteism as a form of racial discrimination. ``We believe that racism as defined in the International Covenant for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination covers discrimination based on caste and this should be mentioned in the final declaration of the conference,'' said Ms. Julia Deponte.

The Amnesty, in its report on Racism and the Administration of Justice, recalled that two years ago ``hundreds'' of human rights groups gave a petition, signed by 2.5 million people, to the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, demanding an end to caste prejudices and urging the U.N. to take seriously the issue of ``caste-based abuse and discrimination''. It referred approvingly to the move by the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights to highlight it as a case of ``hidden apartheid''.

``The Indian Government, however, has consistently refused to concede that caste-based discrimination should be discussed within the context of racial discrimination,'' the report said.

It named India among the countries accused of human rights violations. There was a lack of ``political will'' in India to implement the laws designed to protect Dalits with the result that despite well-meaning legislation, caste ``abuse'' was widely prevalent. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act had ``failed'' to provide relief to the victims of caste discrimination and there was ``disinclination'' among officials to acknowledge the existence of social injustice, it said alleging widespread caste bias in the criminal justice system.

The report, released by Ms. Kate Gilmore, a senior Amnesty executive, alleged that lower caste members were victims of torture, rape, arbitrary arrests and other forms of harassment. It catalogued instances of caste abuse and harassment highlighted at the National Public Hearing on Dalit Human Rights in Chennai last year. Dalits from all over India recounted their experiences, and some of the more harrowing tales came from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra.

The evidence collected at the hearing was seen to reflect the Indian Government's failure to protect the rights of its Dalit population, and Amnesty supported the view that the U.N. should respond to the issue. An Amnesty official said a number of human rights groups had come together under the banner of International Dalits Solidarity Network to step up the campaign to pressure the U.N. into recognising caste discrimination as racism.

The report also came down heavily on Britain for what it regarded as its less than satisfactory record on protecting the rights of its minority groups. ``The Government in the U.K., including its police force, in Amnesty International's view, falls below the standards that every citizen could reasonably expect of it,'' it said. The Home Office, however, maintained that Britain had some of the most comprehensive race relations legislation in Europe.

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Section  : International
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