Caste Discrimination against India's “Untouchables” - Human Rights ...

III. Scope of the Report
This report focuses solely on the issue of caste discrimination in India in response to its
conspicuous absence in the Government of India’s combined report to CERD. The practice of
“untouchability”—the imposition of social disabilities on persons by reason of their birth in
certain castes—discriminates against more than one-sixth of India’s population. 1 Dalits, or
so-called untouchables (known in Indian legal parlance as scheduled castes), are denied
access to land, forced to work in degrading conditions, and routinely abused at the hands
of the police and of higher-caste groups that often enjoy the state’s protection. 2 In what has
been called India’s “hidden apartheid,” entire villages in many Indian states remain
completely segregated by caste. In focusing on caste discrimination in India, this report
acknowledges, but does not explore, the other pervasive practices of discrimination in India,
including those that target religious minorities. In particular, Human Rights Watch has
extensively documented human rights violations against India’s Christian 3 and Muslim
community, including the state-sponsored massacre of over 2,000 Muslims in the state of
Gujarat in 2002. 4
While the Government of India’s periodic report cites specifically to Constitutional
provisions prohibiting discrimination by the State—including on grounds of a person’s
caste—and generally to the existence of legislation enacting these provisions, 5 this
elaboration of its de jure prohibition on caste discrimination does not reflect the daily
reality of the continued practice of “untouchability” and persecution of Dalits in India. Dalits
are systematically discriminated against and abused by public authorities and private
actors, who act without any fear of punishment as they rarely face sanctions for their
violations of Dalits’ fundamental rights.
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 in Gujarat, 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.
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