US protests trigger calls by India’s Dalits to end discrimination
Spurred on by the anti-racism protests in the United States, Dalits have called on India to acknowledge centuries of oppression they have endured. “We extend our solidarity because we feel them and we have faced discrimination ourselves,” said Omprakash Mahato, president of the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association, a Dalit organisation at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. ‘Good moment to challenge narrative’ “In India, people need to admit their role in everyday discrimination faced by Dalits and only then can a dialogue for change be initiated. “People need to understand that every life matters.” Dalits, who were sometimes forced to perform “unclean” tasks like disposing of corpses, and scheduled tribes – Indigenous peoples who are often isolated or disadvantaged – make up about a quarter of India’s population of 1.3 billion. “This is a good moment to challenge the narrative in India also and talk about the age-old repression of Dalits, which is visible even during the COVID-19 pandemic with discrimination denying people aid.” Dalits were among the worst-hit by India’s strict lockdown, often having to wait longer for their turn to receive food or financial aid at local distribution points, and even being turned away, she said.
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