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The need for more attention to be paid to intersectional caste and gender discrimination and for transforming mindsets through human rights education and awareness raising, was highlighted at the UN multi-stakeholder hearing ‘Accelerating the Realization of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of all Women and Girls’ on 21 July. The hearing was organised by the President of the General Assembly, with the support of UN Women.
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Dangerous working conditions, debt bondage and below minimum wages are some of the findings of the study ‘Between a rock and a hard place‘ released by the Dutch-based human rights NGO Arisa.
In the quarries surveyed in Rajasthan, it was found that over 60% of the workers were Adivasis or Dalits
IDSN welcomes the study and urges companies to address the issues identified urgently, including looking at the marginalisation of Dalits and Adivasis as a key contributor to their exploitation in the sector.
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The federal lawsuit by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), alleges that 2 dominant caste managers at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters campus, which employs a predominantly South Asian workforce, harassed, discriminated, and retaliated against an engineer because he is a Dalit. At the end of this newsletter there are number of press clippings on this case.
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A collection of testimonies has been published that were received in response to Ambedkar King Study Circle’s call to record and share individuals’ experiences of casteist practices in the USA. They document the feelings of discomfort, exclusion, shock, pain, and humiliation experienced by those that are subjected to various casteist practices at school, at the workplace, in their neighborhood, at social gatherings, and in their lives as parents.
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IDSN Members continue to respond to the extremely vulnerable situation of Dalits during the Covid-19 lockdown and pandemic. We have collated some examples of reports, relief and other initiatives undertaken by IDSN members over the past two months.
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Photo by FEDO
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“Socio-economically deprived and landless, Dalits with Disabilities are at high risk of hunger and starvation owing to the multiple barriers to accessing basic services … During the COVID-19 pandemic, a few Dalits with Disabilities were provided with some food items as part of relief packages. However, many more were left behind in accessing these benefits due to the lack of information and the need for formal documents.”
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A new study by Ashwini Deshpande and Rajesh Ramachandran looks at the disproportionate effect of Covid19 related job losses on Dalits and the need for increased support to these communities. The study finds that while dominant caste jobs declined by 6.8 % the probable job loss for Scheduled Castes (Dalits) was 14% higher than for dominant castes in April 2020.
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“Dalit women who carry the double burden of gender and caste, and are one of the most socially undervalued in India, are therefore under constant pressure to project an acceptable version that mimics the savarna ideal. In a romantic pursuit or a partnership, we are expected to operate along a behavioural band that is far narrower than what is required of a non-Dalit woman.”
From the excerpt of ‘Swipe Me Left, I’m Dalit’, by Christina Dhanaraj in the book 'Love is not a word: The culture and politics of desire' edited by Debotri Dhar.
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Amnesty International (AI), Front Line Defenders (FLD), Human Rights Watch (HRW), IDSN, Minority Rights Group International (MRG), Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) issued a joint letter calling on the EU to specifically address serious concerns for the safety and rights of human rights defenders in India.
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Selected News Headlines:
Delhi’s shame: The complete failure of rehabilitation of the manual scavengers (Dalit Camera)
”I have seen the men of my neighbourhood die doing this. They have slowly vanished in the sewer one after the other. One goes and the other follows. I saw Ravi die in front of me.”
This NGO is taking internet and classrooms to Dalit and Adivasi colonies in Kerala (The News Minute) Under its Bhim Online Classroom project, RIGHTS has set up smart classrooms in Dalit and Adivasi colonies.
Indian Church denies discrimination against Dalit Christians (ucanews)
“Qualified and deserving Dalit candidates are ignored due to the compulsions of caste-mindedness and are purposely neglected. There is only one person from the Dalit community among 17 Catholic bishops in Tamil Nadu.”
12 Reasons Why Dalits Have Been Killed In India (ScoopWhoop)
Thought provoking photo feature depicting some of the reasons Dalits have been killed in India.
Police reluctant to invoke SC/ST Act in rape cases involving Dalits (The Federal)
“Abirami Jotheeswaran, director, All India Dalit Women Adhikar Manch, says due to negligence of police, many rape cases against Dalit women go unreported. This is a problem not restricted to Tamil Nadu alone, it is the same story all over the country”.
Social distancing being used to reinforce caste bias (twocircles.net interview Ramesh Nathan)
“The sudden enforcement of the strict lockdown led to chaos, fear and loss of livelihood of the daily wage earners, mainly Dalit, Adivasi, Muslim community members … There have been cases where the Dalit and other marginalized communities have had very less or no access to rations … the situation has further pushed the Dalit and Adivasi communities into vulnerability due to “non-availability or accessibility of essentials.”
America's 'untouchables': the silent power of the caste system (The Guardian)
“We cannot fully understand the current upheavals, or almost any turning point in American history, without accounting for the human pyramid that is encrypted into us all: the caste system.”
It is time to end caste discrimination in the tech industry (Al Jazeera)
“In the US IT sector and especially the Silicon Valley, where tech companies employ thousands of Indian immigrants and Indian Americans, caste discrimination in the workplace is a daily reality for many … The caste discrimination case against Cisco should be a wake-up call for Silicon Valley companies”
Silicon Valley Has a Caste Discrimination Problem (VICE News)
Dalit Indians working at U.S. tech companies tell VICE News they try to hide their identities to avoid caste-based discrimination they thought they had left behind.
The Evidence Is Clear, Caste Hurts Corporations In India And Abroad (Huffington Post)
“Exclusion of caste from discrimination policies makes companies caste-blind. Emerging research suggests caste-based losses to companies are similar to those due to a lack of gender and race diversity.”
Dear Indian Diaspora, We Need to Talk About Caste (Varsity)
Satyajit Amin argues that the Indian diaspora needs to confront widespread casteism in their communities and renew efforts to pass anti-discrimination legislation.
Dalit Women in Corporate India are Being Left Behind (The Wire)
“While companies are increasingly aware of the need for a 'feminist' narrative within the organisation, the corporate sector as a whole ignores the reality of caste and the effect this has on the workplace.”
India’s oppressed groups had high hopes from Internet. But ‘upper’ castes got in there too (The Print)
“The Oxfam-News laundry report shows how upper castes dominate Indian newsrooms. But journalists like Rajat Sharma, Sudhir Chaudhary and Rahul Kanwal have also emerged as influencers on digital space.”
The Specter of Caste in Silicon Valley (New York Times)
“In the backdrop of caste supremacy in the Indian diaspora in the United States, when higher-caste Hindus often describe and demonize Dalits as “inherently lazy/ opportunistic/ not talented,” even apparently innocuous practices like peer reviews for promotions (Cisco and several other tech companies operate on this model), can turn into minefields, ending in job losses and visa rejections for Dalits.”
Caste bias in Silicon Valley: India’s unwanted export (BBC)
BBC podcast looks at how caste bias has become an uncomfortable reality for many Indians migrating to the US.
Anti-Dalitness is how we learned anti-blackness. How South Asia’s caste system is fueling anti-Black racism (The Independent)
“To truly overcome anti-black racism, we must also challenge South Asia’s caste system.
The history of colourism can be traced back to the ideology of the Indian caste system, an occupational division of people, which still exists in South Asian communities today.”
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