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March 28, 2003
India's hidden apartheid
Another massive violation of human rights, on an enormous scale, is the fate of India's nearly 200 million Dalits, or "untouchables".
Indian Dalits are subjected to treatment similar to what blacks in the United States faced a century ago. Brutal lynchings, with the complicity of authorities, merely for being "uppity". Forced to drink water out of dirty wells, segregated public restrooms and facilities. Frequent use of forced labor and indentured servitude.
One shocking example:
A Scheduled Tribe woman, Prakash Kaur, was most painfully murdered in a village in Maharashtra province in May, 1995. Brutes from the Aryan Hindus (l) dragged her to the village temple; (2) shaved her head; (3) beat her with sticks, (4) inserted a stick into her private parts; (5) blackened her face; (6) put her on a donkey and paraded her in the market; and (7) continued to beat her till she died. When the dying woman asked for water, the killers poured hot water and kerosene in her mouth. Her only offence (?) was that her 12-year old son had entered the local Hindu temple. The place where the incident took place is very close to the local police station. The more painful aspect of the incident is that when the Home Minister of the state was contacted by the All India Democratic Women's Association, he refused to take any action in the matter saying that it was not a murder but a "reflection of mob anger".
Resources:
National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights
Dalit Media
Human Rights Watch report
Posted by Tyrone at March 28, 2003 09:21 AM