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Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Responses to Information Requests - Immigration and Refugee Board of... https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/country-information/rir/Pages/index.aspx?doc=4... Responses to Information Requests - Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada India: Treatment of Dalits by society and authorities; availability of state protection (2016- January 2020) 1. Overview According to sources, the term Dalit means "'broken'" or "'oppressed'" (Dalit Solidarity n.d.a; MRG n.d.; Navsarjan Trust n.d.a). Sources indicate that this group was formerly referred to as "'untouchables'" (Dalit Solidarity n.d.a; MRG n.d.; Navsarjan Trust n.d.a). They are referred to officially as "Scheduled Castes" (India 13 July 2006, 1; MRG n.d.; Navsarjan Trust n.d.a). The Indian National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) identified that Scheduled Castes are communities that "were suffering from extreme social, educational and economic backwardness arising out of [the] age-old practice of untouchability" (India 13 July 2006, 1). The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) [1] indicates that the list of groups officially recognized as Scheduled Castes, which can be modified by the Parliament, varies from one state to another, and can even vary among districts within a state (CHRI 2018, 15). According to the 2011 Census of India [the most recent census (World Population Review [2019])], the Scheduled Castes represent 16.6 percent of the total Indian population, or 201,378,086 persons, of which 76.4 percent are in rural areas (India 2011). The census further indicates that the Scheduled Castes constitute 18.5 percent of the total rural population, and 12.6 percent of the total urban population in India (India 2011). 1.1 Indian Caste System Dalit Solidarity [2] describes the caste system as a "rigid social order" (Dalit Solidarity n.d.a). In this system, caste is determined by birth (Dalit Solidarity n.d.a; India 19 Jan. 2018). According to Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Country Information Report on India, Hindu tradition divided society into hereditary groups associated with occupation, commonly called "castes". The caste system had four principal groups: Brahmin priests and teachers, Kshatriya warriors and rulers, Vaishya farmers, traders and merchants and Shudra labourers. Each group encompassed thousands of sub-groups within a hierarchy. While Hindu in origin, castes have become a cultural phenomenon that also exists within other religions and across India's many social, linguistic and religious communities. (Australia 17 Oct. 2018, para. 2.7) According to the same source, the Dalits fell outside the four principal groups, and were referred to as "Untouchables" as they were "historically associated with work seen as less desirable, including work involving cleaning or waste, and traditional taboos existed against 1 of 12 2/4/2020, 1:10 PM Responses to Information Requests - Immigration and Refugee Board of... https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/country-information/rir/Pages/index.aspx?doc=4... members of the four castes touching them" (Australia 17 Oct. 2018, para. 3.48). The report also indicates that "[m]any Dalits continue to work in occupations that include scavenging, street cleaning and handling of human or animal waste, corpses or carcasses" (Australia 17 Oct. 2018, para. 3.48). Similarly, the Navsarjan Trust Dalit organization [3] indicates that Dalits occupy employment such as "removing human waste (known as 'manual scavenging'), dragging away and skinning animal carcasses, tanning leather, making and fixing shoes, and washing clothes" (Navsarjan Trust n.d.b) and that "many Dalits are impoverished, uneducated, and illiterate" (Navsarjan Trust n.d.a). The same source explains that manual scavenging consists of responsibilities such as: "digging village graves, disposing of dead animals, and cleaning human excreta" (Navsarjan Trust n.d.a). According to the same source, discrimination for Dalits does not end if they convert from Hinduism to another religion. In India, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity (among other religions) maintain some form of caste despite the fact that this contradicts their religious precepts. As a result, dominant castes maintain leadership positions while Dalit members of these religions are often marginalized and flagrantly discriminated against. For example, Dalit Christ[ia]ns are provided sep[a]rate burial areas from non-Dalit Christ[ia]ns. (Navsarjan Trust n.d.a) Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response. 2. Treatment of Dalits 2.1 Prevalence of Untouchability According to the Indian Express, an English-language daily newspaper, in 2011-2012, the India Human Development Survey was carried out and conducted in over 42,000 households across India by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the University of Maryland; the survey results indicate that across India, 27 per cent [of] respondents agreed that they did practis[e] untouchability in some form. The practice was most prevalent among Brahmin respondents (52 per cent). 24 per cent of non- Brahmin forward caste respondents admitted to it - lower, interestingly, than OBC [Other Backward Class] respondents, 33 per cent of whom confirmed its prevalence in their homes. 15 per cent of Scheduled Caste and 22 per cent of Scheduled Tribe respondents admitted to the practice. Broken up by religious groups, data from the survey shows almost every third Hindu (30 per cent) admitted to the practice, followed by Sikhs (23 per cent), Muslims (18 per cent) and Christians (5 per cent). … Spatially, untouchability is most widespread in the Hindi heartland, according to the survey. Madhya Pradesh is on top (53 per cent), followed by Himachal Pradesh (50 per cent), Chhattisgarh (48 per cent), Rajasthan and Bihar (47 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (43 per cent), and Uttarakhand (40 per cent). West Bengal appears to be the most "progressive" - with only 1 per cent of respondents confirming they practi[c]ed untouchability. Kerala comes next in the survey, with 2 per cent, followed by Maharashtra (4 per cent), the Northeast (7 per cent), and Andhra Pradesh (10 per cent). (The Indian Express 29 Nov. 2014) 2 of 12 2/4/2020, 1:10 PM Responses to Information Requests - Immigration and Refugee Board of... https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/country-information/rir/Pages/index.aspx?doc=4... In correspondence with the Research Directorate, the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN), a Copenhagen-based international advocacy network for Dalit human rights (IDSN n.d.), explained that [u]ntouchability practices in India remain widespread in both urban and rural settings. These include dominant castes not touching Dalits, not letting them use the same mugs, utensils etc., not entering Dalit houses, not allowing their children to play with Dalits or to be in a relationship with a Dalit. There are thousands of variations of untouchability practices and the severity and prevalence vary depending on location. (IDSN 25 Apr. 2019) According to Navsarjan Trust, [u]ntouchability is present in nearly every sphere of life and practiced in an infinite number of forms. At the village level[,] Dalits are barred from using wells used by non-Dalits, forbidden from going to the barber shop and entering temples, while at the level of job recruitment and employment[,] Dalits are systematically paid less, ordered to do the most menial work, and rarely promoted. Even at school, Dalit children may be asked to clean toilets and to eat separately. As an instrument of casteism, Untouchability also serves to instill caste status to Dalit children from the moment they are born. Kachro (filth), Melo (dirty), Dhudiyo (dusty), Gandy (mad), Ghelo (stupid), Punjo (waste) are just some of the names given to Dalit boys in Gujarat. Of course, names with similar meanings are given to Dalit girls too. This shows the debilitating effect of Untouchability, as it becomes a conscious act of cooperation between two individuals of distinct caste or sub-caste identity. The person treated as untouchable submits himself or herself to untouchability practices because of a generational integrated belief that it is right, justified, religious and natural. (Navsarjan Trust n.d.b) In a telephone interview with the Research Directorate, a professor of anthropology at the William Paterson University of New Jersey, who has been studying and publishing research on issues of caste in India for the past twenty-five years, explained that segregation between castes is more prevalent in rural areas, with "discriminatory practices" in seating arrangements, access to food, housing and water, and prevention of burying or burning their dead happening with "increasing impunity" (Professor 19 Apr. 2019). 2.2 Access to Housing According to Navsarjan Trust, [Dalits] are supposed to reside outside the village so that their physical presence does not pollute the "real" village. Not only are they restricted in terms of space, but their houses are also supposed to be inferior in quality and devoid of any facilities like water and electricity. (Navsarjan Trust n.d.b) The IDSN similarly noted that Dalits in India are demarcated and confined to ghettos largely outside of a village community landscape with deliberate and engineered social systems designed to deny them rights over natural resources like water, agricultural farms, etc. and shunning them out to participate in societal-cultural transaction within the village mainstream. (IDSN 25 Apr. 2019) The UN Special Rapporteur's 2017 report on adequate housing adds that 3 of 12 2/4/2020, 1:10 PM Responses to Information Requests - Immigration and Refugee Board of... https://irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/country-information/rir/Pages/index.aspx?doc=4... [a]ccording to the 2011 census, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have, on average, lower quality housing, made with inadequate materials, with only 22 per cent of households of scheduled tribes made with brick or concrete walls. Figures concerning the lack of access to latrines were more alarming than for the general population, with 66 per cent of members of scheduled castes lacking access to latrines, and 77 per cent of scheduled tribes.
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