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

I. Summary List of the Critical Issues Pertaining to India’s Periodic
Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination
Human Rights Watch and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New
York University School of Law submit the following information to the Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Committee or CERD) for consideration in its review of
India’s fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth periodic reports under
the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
(Convention or ICERD). This joint-submission is based on in-depth Human Rights Watch
investigations on caste discrimination in India and the findings of Indian governmental and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on caste-based abuses.
Discriminatory and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of over 165 million people in
India has been justified on the basis of caste. Caste is descent-based and hereditary in
nature. It is a characteristic determined by one’s birth into a particular caste, irrespective of
the faith practiced by the individual. Caste denotes a traditional system of rigid social
stratification into ranked groups defined by descent and occupation. Caste divisions in
India dominate in housing, marriage, employment, and general social interaction—divisions
that are reinforced through the practice and threat of social ostracism, economic boycotts,
and physical violence. This report focuses on the practice of “untouchability”—the
imposition of social disabilities on persons by reason of their birth in certain castes. This
practice relegates Dalits, or so-called untouchables (known in Indian legal parlance as
scheduled castes), to a lifetime of discrimination, exploitation and violence, including
severe forms of torture perpetrated by state and private actors in violation of the rights
guaranteed by the Convention. Although the practice has been condemned by many Indian
leaders, including most recently by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, unless the
government accepts responsibility to end the widespread prejudice, crimes against Dalits
will continue. India has consistently cited its numerous legislations and government
policies as a measure of compliance with its obligations to end caste-based discrimination,
choosing to ignore its failure to implement these measures which has resulted in continued,
and sometimes enhanced, brutalities against Dalits.
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