NCM urges justice for Dalit Christians and Muslims

A research conducted by the National Commission for Minorities acknowledges, "reservation status for Dalit Christians and Muslims inevitable."

Explicating how religion does not count to receive the SC status, the study noted, "They are Dalits first and then Muslims and Christians."

Professor Satish Deshpande of the department of sociology, Delhi School of Economics, along with Ms Geetika Bapn, who spearheaded the research says, "There is no compelling evidence to justify denying SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims.

"There is a strong case for according Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Muslims and Christians."

Although the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranganath Misra (Retd), affirmed that Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims be included in the reserved category, the Govt. has delayed in pronouncing judgment.

While the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhish Dalits have been granted every of their demands, and been included in the SC list, its only the Christians and Muslims fighting for equal rights and justice.

“If in 1999, Dalits converted to Buddhism were included in the SC category, why should not Dalit Christians and Muslims be included,” questions Christian activists.

Dalit Muslims are unquestionably the worst off among all Dalits, in both the rural and especially the urban sector, said the report, clarifying the need for fair justice.

Finding the current rule discriminatory, Professor Deshpande construed that “whether or not such discrimination can be proven in a court of law, it will surely weigh on the conscience of every fair–minded Indian.”

The term Dalit Christian is used to describe those Christians who have converted to Christianity from Hinduism and are categorized as Dalits in Hindu, Christian and Islamic societies in India and Pakistan.

Such people on conversion lose the privileges they were getting as a backward caste.