Dalit group bats for rights at UN forum
: In a first, a Dalit women’s collective organised a side event and offered testimonies of caste-based gender violence, at the ongoing 38th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
The All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM), which works as an advocacy forum, released a report —Voices Against Caste Impunity: Narratives of Dalit Women — and showed a short documentary, #DalitWomenFight.
The film tells the story of a 17-year-old girl from a Scheduled Caste who was sexually assaulted and killed in Haryana in 2017. Her family is still waiting for justice.
This was one of the three testimonies presented by Asha Kotwal, AIDMAM general secretary.
The report quotes official data on caste-based gender violence and discrimination and puts it in context through several narratives of Dalit women and girls. The fourth National Family Health Survey shows that 33.2% women from Scheduled Castes face physical violence since the age of 15 compared to 19.7% in the ‘Other’ category. Between 2007 and 2017, there was a 66% rise in crimes against Dalits, as per National Crime Records Bureau.
“These figures should not be taken at face value. The number of cases registered is a fraction of the actual number of crimes that take place. In many instances, these crimes do not get reported due to non-cooperative police and judicial machinery, shame and social stigma, and the fear of retaliation by the dominant caste groups,” AIDMAM report said.
“Will the United Nations consider caste-based crimes as one of the most serious human rights crisis?” Kotwal asked. “Caste-based discrimination is a global issue, but India should take stronger initiatives as it has the largest Dalit population.”
A panel of experts, including Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, former special rapporteur of the UNHRC for minority issues; Dubravka Simonovic, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women; John Fisher, Geneva director of Human Rights Watch; and Vrinda Grover, Supreme Court advocate, spoke of ways in which Dalits are denied justice in India.
“Crimes are committed against Dalit women and girls in India with impunity because there have been no consequences for perpetrators,” said Grover, who joined the discussion over Skype. In 2016, Izsák wrote a report on caste-based violence faced by some 250 million people, concentrated in South Asia.
NEW DELHI