ASIA/INDIA - No to religious discrimination of dalit, Bishops say

New Delhi (Agenzia Fides) – Work and education should be a right and an opportunity for all Indian citizens, without discrimination and differences of any kind. This is what the Bishops of India are telling the government, lamenting a system that especially lays prejudices against Christian Dalit. In a statement sent to Fides, the Bishops' Conference of India has once again raised a question of social justice, deploring the practice of reserving privileges in employment and education on the basis of religious creed.
Instead, the Bishops say, there is an urgent need to offer Dalits - Christian and Muslim - equal opportunities for education and access to basic social services, as a fundamental matter of social and economic rights to be guaranteed to all citizens of India.
The issue of equal civil rights for Muslim and Christian minorities, especially the Dalit, has been for years a the Church's strong point. In fact, there has been a request for the lifting of a presidential decree of 1950 which excludes "outcasts" converted to Christianity from the reservation quota of government jobs. The same rule - which also affects those who have become Muslims - does not apply to Dalit Hindus, Buddhists, or Sikhs.
In December 2009, the National Commission on Religious and Linguistic Minorities has opened a historic debate on the proposed amendment to that law, regarded as "unfair and discriminatory": for the first time the subject has emerged on the agenda for discussion in the Indian Parliament. According to experts, there should be a break of the status of Dalits from religion and the creation of social group of "Scheduled Castes," completely independent of the religious factor, as is the case of “Scheduled Tribes.” " (PA) (Agenzia Fides 22/01/2010)