Dalit Christians launch advocacy campaign for equal rights

Chennai – The launch of a three–month national and international advocacy campaign by India’s 20 million Dalit Christians was marked by a daylong hunger strike and prayer service in Dindigal town recently.

The advocacy campaign comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to take up hearings of the cause of the Dalit Christians, beginning in August, on the petitions filed by the Public Interest Litigation Centre, New Delhi, and Christian groups seeking equal rights denied to the community by the Presidential Order of 1950.

South India Consultations on Dalit Christians Equal Rights held in Madurai, May 4, prompted the advocacy campaign that presses for equal rights under the Indian Constitution, which are presently enjoyed by Dalit Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.

More than sixty Dalit Christian leaders from the five southern states of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka participated in the consultation to consider mobilising national and international public opinion till the Supreme Court and the Parliament together ensured justice to the Dalit Christians who have been double victims of caste and religious prejudice.

In a resolution passed at the end of the meeting, the Christian Dalits expressed full solidarity with their brothers and sisters who have been denied justice in the recent panchayat (local bodies) elections in Tamil Nadu state. They demanded that the union and state governments take steps to ensure that Dalits elected to panchayat post are allowed to function without fear of the thugs hired by upper castes.

“We deplore continued caste violence in several states of the country against Dalits, especially the Dalit women who are targets of sexual and other violence while the authorities remain mute spectators and connive with the assailants,” they said. “We appeal to Christians of all denominations and communities, and to civil society at large, to join us in pressing our hope that the Constitution of India will once again ensure justice and equality to all, irrespective of race or religion, caste or creed.”

Welcoming the Union Government’s appointment of a National Commission to evaluate the economical and developmental standards of the Muslim community in India, the Christian Dalit leaders demanded that the commission also study the economic status of Dalit Christians who are among the poorest of the poor.

Earlier, briefing the gathering, National Integration Council member, Mr. John Dayal, said Christian leaders, led by United Christian Forum president, Archbishop Vincent Concessao of Delhi, had recently met Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and given him an unofficial ‘White Paper of Violence’ against the Christian community. The prime minister had assured the delegation that he would speak with Union Home Minister, Mr. Shivraj Patil and would also write to chief ministers of states where there has been a spurt in anti–Christian violence.

“One of our main objectives was to impress on the Prime Minister that the Government must support the cause of Christians of Dalit origin in the Supreme Court, which is deliberating on the matter. The government must also reintroduce the Bill, which the then Welfare Minister, Mr. Sitaram Kesri had laid down in the Lok Sabha in 1996,” John Dayal said.

Expressing concern that various Church agencies and non–governmental organizations have recorded up to 200 cases of attacks on Christians in the last three months, most of them in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, Mr. Dayal said that even the Christian communities of the otherwise religious tolerant states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala, have borne the brunt of sporadic violence.

Meanwhile, the advocacy campaign of the Dalit Christians received a shot in the arm when the Standing Committee of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), during its 100th meeting at New Delhi on 29 April 2005, resolved to request again the Government of India to extend Constitutional rights and statutory benefits and safeguards to the Christian Converts from the Scheduled Castes by suitably amending the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950.

Noting that the amendments to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 have been made to include Sikh and Buddhist Scheduled Castes in the list of the Scheduled Castes, the governing body of the Catholic Church in India voiced its concern that the Dalit Christians have been categorically left out though “the Scheduled Caste Converts to Christianity go through the same social, educational and economic disabilities on par with their counterparts in other religions.”