If you chronicle the human rights atrocities of the last hundred years the inhuman treatment of the Dalit people in India has to make the list.

Human Rights Watch reported this week:

India has systematically failed to uphold its international legal obligations to ensure the fundamental human rights of Dalits, or so-called untouchables, despite laws and policies against caste discrimination, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. More than 165 million Dalits in India are condemned to a lifetime of abuse simply because of their caste.

The 113-page report, "Hidden Apartheid: Caste Discrimination against India's `Untouchables'," was produced as a "shadow report" in response to India's submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which monitors implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The committee will review India's compliance with the convention during hearings in Geneva on February 23 and 26. 

On December 27, 2006 Manmohan Singh became the first sitting Indian prime minister to openly acknowledge the parallel between the practice of "untouchability" and the crime of apartheid. Singh described "untouchability" as a "blot on humanity" adding that "even after 60 years of constitutional and legal protection and state support, there is still social discrimination against Dalits in many parts of our country." 

"Prime Minister Singh has rightly compared `untouchability' to apartheid, and he should now turn his words into action to protect the rights of Dalits," said Professor Smita Narula, faculty director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University School of Law, and co-author of the report. "The Indian government can no longer deny its collusion in maintaining a system of entrenched social and economic segregation." 

Dalits endure segregation in housing, schools, and access to public services. They are denied access to land, forced to work in degrading conditions, and routinely abused at the hands of the police and upper-caste community members who enjoy the state's protection. Entrenched discrimination violates Dalits' rights to education, health, housing, property, freedom of religion, free choice of employment, and equal treatment before the law. Dalits also suffer routine violations of their right to life and security of person through state-sponsored or -sanctioned acts of violence, including torture.

During a trip that I took to India in 2003 with a group from Eden Theological Seminary we spent time with many Dalits and heard their stories of oppression.  We talked with workers and children living in garbage dumps, talked to people denied health care because of their Dalit status, and heard horror stories about violence inflicted on Dalit people.  Dalits are considered sub-human by many and the poverty they endure is some of the worst in the world. 

The Rev. Raj Bharath Patta, a friend that I made during my visit to India, has been working as the executive secretary of the National Council of Churches In India Dalit Task Force.  That group reports:

Jesus in all his messages stressed "Set at liberty the oppressed". In an unbroken consistency this has been Jesus' message both in his Gospels and Ministry. The Church of Jesus in India has accepted this mandate and in a historical decision has unanimously agreed for a paradigm shift in mission - the liberation of the dalits even outside the walls of the Church to be the central mission objective of the Church. This has excited the Churches all over the world and have extended their solidarity to Indian Church's commitment to the cause of dalit liberation.

Spread the word about the Dalits.  Stress their cause when meeting with U.S. politicians on the campaign trail.  And pray for all those working for Dalit liberation.