New Delhi ( Fides Service) - In the coming weeks during four public sessions organised by the All India Catholic Union, AICU, Christian Dalits will speak of their difficulties and the situation of social discrimination in which they live. The AICU is a pro human rights organisation. These public sessions organised in collaboration with civil organisations will involve intellectuals, magistrates, personalities of the world of culture, politics and the Church. Dalits have no caste and stand on the lowest step of the social ladder in India.
The sessions will discuss a 1950 controversial presidential Order which excluded Sikh, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist Dalits from a series of social and civil rights. After lengthy protests Sikh and Buddhist Dalits regained their rights but for Muslim and Christian Dalits the situation remains unchanged.
The aim of the sessions, according to AICU, is to bring the situation of discrimination of Dalits to the attention of India’s President, Parliament, Supreme Court and National Human Rights Commission .
AICU said that even many Dalits are not aware of their rights. They have the right to be educated and instructed and pressure must be made at the institutional level to eliminate discrimination .
Christian Dalits who will take part in the sessions say they are denied education, health care and other services offered by the state or public institutions. Even their freedom of conscience is manipulated and very often Dalits are denied the right to change their religion.
Christians in India have always defended the rights of Dalits and worked for their human, social and cultural development, often triggering violent reaction from Hindu fundamentalist groups. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 16/12/2004 righe 36 parole 378)