President Obama should highlight oppressive and inhuman caste system-culture in India

President Obama should highlight oppressive and inhuman caste system-culture in India & pay homage to Indian Lincoln Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Founding father of modern India on his visit to India in November 2010

Indian Lincoln Dr. Ambedkar—father of modern India and the Indian constitution, graduate of Columbia University, Oxford-educated scholar, and the first law minister of India after its independence—was from a Dalit community and so created constitutional rights for these poor people. This Indian constitution guarantees equality, liberty, fraternity, and social justice; however, the subsequent state and federal governments have utterly failed to protect Dalits by not following the constitutional codes.
 Every hour in India, two Dalits (untouchables of South Asia) are brutally assaulted.
 Every day, three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and two Dalit homes are burned.
 37% of Dalits live below the poverty line in India.
 More than half (54%) of Dalit children are undernourished in India.
 85 per 1,000 children born in Dalit communities die before their first birthday.
 45% of Dalits do not know how to read or write in India.
 Dalit women bear double discrimination (gender and caste) in India.
 About one-third of Dalit households do not have basic facilities, such as toilets.
 90% of the villages do not have burial ground for the dead.
 There are more children forced into labor in India than throughout the whole world put together.
 Human trafficking and prostitution of poor people are rampant

(Source: Ministry of Welfare of the Government of India, Annual Report 1992–1993)
Crimes against Dalits increase yearly (135,771 cases were reported in 1999; 137,492 cases were reported in 2000). More than 28,000 incidents of crime against scheduled caste/scheduled tribe (SC/ST) Indians were committed in 2005, according to the National Crimes Records Bureau. There are numerous massacres, and Dalit carnages take place under the nose of state governments and law enforcement officials.

REGISTERED ATROCITIES IN INDIA, 1999–2004
Year FIRs filed & Cases Registered under SC/ST Act Poor Conviction rate in the Courts FIR Cases Regist-
ered under PCR Act Con-viction
in the Courts under PCR Total FIR Cases Registered on Atrocity Total Convic-tion in Courts % of Convictions
1999 25093 655 4450 45 29543 700 2.36
2000 23742 901 3958 81 27770 982 3.54
2002 27894 3748 526 150 28420 3898 13.71
2003 22603 2727 651 13 23254 2740 11.78
2004 23629 3259 126 34 23755 3293 13.86
Total 122961 11290 9711 323 132672 11613 8.75

* Data for 2001 are not available.
(Source: Annual Report of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of India)
The conviction rate under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act is 15.71%, and as much as 85.37% of cases are pending. The Indian government enacted the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act in 1989. Unfortunately, it has proved to be lame duck legislature. Nothing has improved, or even changed, for the Dalits. Many atrocity cases remain unreported by the casteist police, so the judicial system does not register the crimes. The caste-dominated newspapers also do not report atrocities.

A recent study of untouchability in rural India that covered 565 villages in 11 states found the following:
 Public health workers refused to visit Dalit homes in 33% of villages.
 Dalits were prevented from entering the police station in 27.6% of villages.
 Dalit children had to sit separately while eating in 37.8% of government schools.
 Dalits did not get mail delivered to their homes in 23.5% of villages.
 Dalits were denied access to water sources in 48.4% of villages.
 Half of India’s Dalit children are undernourished and 21% are severely underweight.
 Literacy rates for Dalit women are as low as 37.8% in rural India.

Untouchability in schools has contributed to drop-out and illiteracy levels for Dalit children far beyond those of the general population, with the “literacy gap” between Dalits and non-Dalits hardly changing since India’s independence. Democracy does not mean anything to Dalits, as they are treated below animals in Hindu society.

Dalit women, who alongside “tribal” women are the poorest of the poor in India, face double discrimination on the basis of caste and gender in all spheres of life. They are subjected to gross violations of their physical integrity, including sexual abuse by dominant castes, and are socially excluded and economically exploited.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has observed substantial under allocation and under expenditure of the allocation for Dalit welfare and development under the government’s Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes. Dalits are subjected to bonded and forced labor and discriminated against in a range of markets, including the labor, housing, consumer, capital, and credit markets. They are paid lower wages and subjected to longer working hours and delayed wages. Verbal and physical abuse takes place in broad daylight in public, at times in front of the police.

Brahmin, Shatriya, and Vaishya castes make up 15% of the population, yet claim about 65% of the upper-level jobs (see the following table). This is another form of casteism and discrimination.
Caste Population Politics Employed Commerce Land Education
Brahmin 3.5 41.0 62 10 5 -----
Shatriya 5.5 15.0 12 27 80 -----
Vaishya 6.0 10.5 13 60 9 -----
Total 15 66.5 87 97 94 78
SC 15.0 11.0 4 0.1 0.5 6
ST 7.5 7.6 1 0.1 0.5 2
OBC 52.0 8.0 7 0.8 4.0 2
Minorities 10.5 3.0 1 2.0 1.0 2
Total 85.0 33.5 13 3.0 6.0 22
(Source: Mahanayak, Marathi daily newspaper from Bombay, P1, Head News, 4-30-2006)

Dr. Ambedkar, who fought for civil rights struggle for abolishing caste and untouchability, made the new India possible. Imagine an India that has no dalit/adivasi or minority participation in the administrative, bureaucratic and knowledge structures. Imagine no dalit participation in the higher echelons of the nation in this century. Dalits constitute 16.5 per cent of Indian population and President Obama, as a first black President to visit India, should ideally take note of this.

As we know about Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Americans should also know about Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. President Obama has done a lot to popularize Gandhi, and he could also do the same for Dr. Ambedkar if he visits Nagpur Deekshabhoomi or Chaityabhoomi, Mumbai. The Deekshabhoomi does not represent just Ambedkar’s idea of India but also the secular Buddhist tradition of the nation.
The Bahujan communities (85%, Schedule Castes, Schedule tribes and other backward castes (OBC) and minorities) would be happy if he also pays homage to Dr B R Ambedkar. This will make his visit a historic event. As such, they are looking forward to President Obama’s visit as he symbolizes the hope of freedom for oppressed people across the world. As President Obama emerged out of the historic struggles of the blacks in the US, his visit could also inspire the movement for the abolition of caste, the Indian variety of slavery. Dr. Ambedkar is the best historical link between the Indian oppressed communities and also the blacks of America.

Dr. Ambedkar was not only the father of the constitution of India but also the liberator of all oppressed people. The ruling classes do see the similarities between Dalit-Bahujan struggles and the black struggles the masses can make out that historical linkage. The religious minorities also look up to Dr. Ambedkar as a Buddhist. President Obama, being a Christian, shares the blood of a Muslim father. If he pays homage to a Buddhist Ambedkar, he will be respecting the multi-cultural tradition of India. This will also attract global attention to Dr. Ambedkar’s legacy, life and philosophy.

India as a nation has the Buddhist cultural & tradition as Buddha was born/grew up and built his spiritual and social Sangha system in India. No other icon than Dr. Ambedkar can represent that cultural heritage in the modern period.

Will our ruling class ensure that President Obama at least lays a garland on the statue of Ambedkar in parliament premises? Such a deviation from protocol will respond to the changing needs of the nation and will be positive and desirable.

President Obama was keen to learn about the plight of the untouchables during his student years. And interestingly, both he and Dr. Ambedkar were educated at Columbia University. It could also turn out to be an occasion for the country to come to terms with the caste and untouchability problem in the international arena. The stance of caste denial taken by the Indian government in the United Nations had done some damage.