RESPONSE FOR INFORMATION REQUEST ON DALITS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NEW DELHI 009078

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KIRF PHUM PREL SCUL KDEM ELAB IN
SUBJECT: RESPONSE FOR INFORMATION REQUEST ON DALITS

REF: A. STATE 208264

B. NEW DELHI 8266

C. NEW DELHI 4761


1. (U) This cable is a response to Reftel A requesting
information regarding the treatment of Dalits in India.
Please read Reftels B and C in conjunction with this cable
for a thorough picture of the issue. The following is posts
response to Paragraph 6 questions:


2. (U) Question 1: How is the Embassy addressing the Dalit
issue with the GOI, with the Indian private sector, and with
the broader public?

-- Response: Over the years, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates
have been working with Dalit individuals and organizations to
address human rights concerns that stem from caste
discrimination. The majority of these NGOs and individuals
address social evils such as child labor and caste
discrimination and promote equal rights for marginalized
groups. For instance, the Public Affairs office at Consulate
General Chennai facilitated a small grant to the NGO
Navajeevan Trust based in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.
Navajeevan Trust works towards eradication of child labor
from the Dalit community, and is a typical example of the
type of NGO we have worked with.

-- The Mission continued to reach out to the Dalit community
through the International Visitor's Program (IVP) and
nominated Dalit candidates with outstanding skills and
willingness to serve their community. Examples of such IVP
participants include: (1) a medical doctor by profession, Dr.
Krishnaswamy has emerged as a leader of the Dalits of Tamil
Nadu through his political party, Puthiya Thamilagam. The
only professional from a Dalit family, he has campaigned
against "untouchability" and other forms of social
oppression. (2) R. Ilango - a grassroots political/social
worker from a Dalit background resigned from a reputed
government engineering research institute to serve his Dalit
village and uplift villagers from poverty. His village,
Koothambakkam in Tamil Nadu has emerged as a model for other
Dalit villages in the state. (3) Henri Tiphagne, Executive
Director of People's Watch, one of the most professional
human rights NGOs in south India, and particularly active in
the area of Dalit rights.

-- The Embassy also supports Dalit NGOs and awarded a grant
of US$18,000 to the Center for Alternative Dalit Media
(CADAM) and partner NGO SWECHHA (We for Yamuna) to promote
environmental education and awareness related to the Yamuna
River, India's largest fresh water source.

-- On September 1-2, 2005 the Embassy organized a series of
lecture discussions for Dr. Brenda Flanagan, a writer and
professor of Caribbean and African American literature at
Davidson College in North Carolina, who emphasized the need
to bring multi-culturalism and diversity into literature.
Dalit audience members drew parallels between the U.S.
immigrant experience, the legacy of slavery, the U.S. Civil
Rights Movement, affirmative action, and the current state of
race relations in America, and commented that the lessons
learned could be well used in India.

-- As part of its 2005 Black History Month outreach, the
Embassy arranged a DVC program with Professor of Economics
William Darity from the University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill, who gave an overview of the history of affirmative
action in the United States. Darity's overview was followed
by remarks by Professor S.K. Thorat, an economics professor
from Jawaharlal Nehru University, who is currently the
Director of the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies. Professor
Thorat spoke about the condition of Dalits and untouchables
in India, noting that affirmative action is similar to the
policy of reservations for Dalits. Professor Darity then
answered questions about how affirmative action is enforced
in the United States. This program brought together an
eminent U.S. scholar on African American rights and a group
of prominent Dalit scholars who discussed similarities and
differences among the plight of African Americans and the
underprivileged castes in India and raised the awareness of
affirmative action and the civil rights movement in the
United States.

-- In February 2004, the Embassy organized a program with
Suzan Lori Parks, an award-winning African American
playwright and writer, and Professor Thorat during which they
compared the struggle of Dalits to that of African Americans.

-- Consulate Chennai also facilitated several visits of
various individuals and groups to a training center for Dalit
youths in Tamil Nadu. The Center is run by Henry Thiagraj,
the Managing Trustee of the Dalit Liberation Education Trust.
-- On several occasions U.S. Consulate Chennai officers spoke
with south Indian business leaders on the Dalit issue and on
private sector reservations in particular. Business leaders
unanimously opposed job reservations in the private sector on
the grounds that it would impede India's economic development
and ability to compete with other low labor cost countries.
(Comment: Post does not advocate private sector reservations
with the GOI, in that it would be contrary to our economic
liberalization agenda and hypocritical to press for programs
that experts agree would be ruled unconstitutional in the
U.S. End Comment.)

-- Our business leader contacts told us that the currently
functioning reservation system for positions in institutions
of higher learning provides equal opportunity for members of
all groups to develop needed skills and knowledge, and that
the only criteria for selection for positions in business,
particularly positions in the high tech knowledge industry,
should be ability and knowledge brought to the job. Caste is
not a significant issue in India's IT sector.

-- The issue of discrimination against Dalits, as well as
other minority groups in the country, is a constant topic of
conversation between Mission officers and their
interlocutors. FSOs regularly attend meetings with Dalit
rights activists and conferences highlighting discrimination
against Dalits, such as the Center for Social Research's
April 2005 conference entitled "Dalit Women in Politics."
Also, the Annual Human Rights Report, describes in-depth the
discrimination faced by Dalits, and is closely read by GOI
officials.


3. (U) How much USAID funding benefits the Dalit community,
and has post heard of allegations of U.S. assistance being
directed away from some beneficiaries?

-- Response: USAID does not break down beneficiaries of its
programs by caste. The agency does have a number of programs
operating in regions with large Dalit communities, but does
not earmark programs by caste, race or ethnicity. USAID
programs are determined by need, poverty levels and
government priorities, and many such programs help Dalits, as
they often fit into these categories. The Embassy has
investigated reports that claim USAID funds have been
siphoned away from Dalits, specifically those relating to the
relief effort after the December 2004 tsunami, and found no
evidence to confirm such accusations.

-- The question of whether aid from the GOI was diverted away
from Dalits was raised in January 2005 shortly after the
tsunami. At the time Mission talked with a number of

SIPDIS
contacts and provided the following assessment:

-- UNICEF: UNICEF officials in Chennai deny having
encountered any discrimination by fishermen or by the local
government.

-- The Federation of Consumer Organizations in Tamil Nadu
(FEDCOT) - Cuddalore: According to FEDCOT, which is involved
in relief and rehabilitation work in 45 villages near
Cuddalore, the district administration did not discriminate
against backward Dalit or tribal castes. However, it noted
that some local fishing communities hindered the distribution
of relief materials to lower castes.

-- FEDCOT - Nagapattinam noted that there were a few isolated
cases in which the government and/or fishermen discriminated
against Dalits. However, with increased NGO and government
scrutiny, the situation is changing rapidly.

-- Nagapattinam District Collector: According to Mr.
Radhakrishnan, the government's initial relief packages were
destined to "homeless people," a designation that was
misinterpreted to mean only fishermen. This was because the
majority of the homeless were from fishing communities. Once
the government clarified that the package was for all those
who lost their livelihoods, there was no problem distributing
relief materials to Dalits.

-- People's Watch: According to Executive Director Henri
Tiphagne, "Dalits have experienced conscious discrimination
in relief camps. Village administrative officers have denied
relief materials to the people Dalits involved in inland
fishing."

-- Consulate Chennai reported that it is very likely that
higher-caste fishing communities have discriminated against
Dalit communities and have prevented them from receiving aid.
While isolated cases of government apathy or negligence may
exist, there does not seem to be any evidence of a systemic
plan to favor one community at the expense of another.


4. (U) Why do Dalits who convert to Christianity or Islam
not have access to reservations, when Dalits who convert to
Buddhism or Sikhism continue to be considered for
reservations?

-- Response: Our interlocutors told us that the reason
converts to Buddhism and Sikhism do not lose reservations is
that both these religions originated out of Hindu reform
movements and the legacy of caste discrimination remains
prevalent in the them. Once Dalits switch to Islam and
Christianity, whose fundamental tenets are guided by an
ideology of social egalitarianism, the concept of social
status and stratification determined by birth, and the
associated lack of social mobility, is no longer applicable.

-- It should be noted that caste/class discrimination is not
solely practiced by high-caste Hindus against the lower
castes and Dalits. The stratification within the Dalit
community results in extensive discrimination by higher-level
Dalits against lower-level Dalits. There is also extensive
discrimination within the Christian community by older,
ancestral Christians against Dalit Christian converts. There
have been a number of instances reported in the press in
which established Christians refuse to pray with Dalit
converts and bar them from entering their churches. Muslim
society in India also has an extensive caste structure,
including Dalits.


5. (U) Does Embassy new Delhi have any information on the
Supreme Court Case reviewing the Presidential Order of 1950
which extends quotas only to Hindu Dalits?

-- Response: The Supreme Court has reported it will hear the
writ petition seeking review of the order in February 2006.
Also, the government convened the Justice Ranganath Misra
Commission to study the issue, which is slated to be
completed by April 2006.


6. (U) Are Dalits who convert to Islam or Christianity still
socially treated as Dalits?

-- Response: Many Hindus, Muslims, Christians and other
higher-strata Dalits still treat Dalit converts socially as
Dalits. Our interlocutors noted that caste-based
discrimination in urban areas is on the decline, but is still
quite prevalent in rural areas. They also stated that it
could take generations for these deep-rooted religious and
social beliefs to change, even with the concerted efforts of
the government and an active NGO community.


7. (U) What is the GOI's assessment of these concerns?

-- Response: The GOI views caste-based discrimination as
illegal and has a ministry (The Ministry of Social Justice
and Empowerment) tasked to combat the problem. However, in
many cases programs designed to benefit the Dalit community,
like many other GOI programs, often are not implemented due
to government apathy or bureaucratic inefficiency. For
example, a press report in the Times of India reported that a
program to eliminate human scavenging, the practice where
Dalits manually clean sewers and latrines, has been a
complete failure. The Central Government allocated Rps. 200
crore (USD 47 million) to the Ministry for Urban Employment
and Poverty Alleviation to convert latrines needing manual
cleaning to twin-pit latrines, which do not require humans to
carry away the excrement. The Times of India reported that
in three years, the Ministry only spent USD 4.4 million and
the funding is slated to be canceled due to lack of use.
This weak implementation exemplifies the problems that occur
throughout the Indian government, with a detrimental effect
on all of its citizens, Dalits included. The under-funding
and under-utilization of funds for education is also a major
problem. A large part of the government's strategy to
improve the livelihood of Dalits is focused on reservations
in the education system. However, many students,
particularly in rural areas, never have the chance to access
reservations in the university system because the lack of
adequate primary education.

-- The government is faced with the incredibly difficult
challenge of changing the cultural and religious perception
of caste. The caste system, developed over thousands of
years, pigeonholes Indians into specific occupations at birth
and restricts their social mobility. The belief by many in
the religious concept of Karma, that individuals' caste
ranking is determined by their actions in a prior life,
legitimizes this system because many Indians believe that the
lower castes have been punished for past wrongs. Higher
caste members often feel they are entitled to their position
because of honorable living or good deeds committed in their
past life. The other tenet of importance is Dharma, which
states that a person must do his/her duty in his/her societal
position to advance to a higher caste in the next life. In
the interpretation of many Indians, those that refuse to
uphold their Dharma by attempting to pull themselves up and
change their status in society during this life, will plummet
farther in the caste system in their next life. These
beliefs are tightly held by much of the Indian population,
including many individuals in government. Our interlocutors
noted that discrimination against Dalits will remain
prevalent in this society until there is a popular
re-examination of this deeply-rooted system. (Comment: The
popular perception is that Mahatma Gandhi called for the
eradication of the caste system upon Indian independence.
However, he did not call for the termination of the system,
but for the end of "untouchability" and discrimination based
on caste. Our interlocutors have told us that many Gandhians
have endeavored to implement his teachings by attempting to
implement a social "separate but equal" status for all
castes. End Comment.)


8. (U) In recent years, economic growth, land reform and
growing urbanization has helped some Dalits improve their
financial and social status. Dalits who grew up in urban
areas tend to have access to better schools, and as a result,
get a better education and are more likely to receive a
reserved seat in the university system. Dalits living in
urban areas are also more likely to escape caste restrictions
and ritual pollution and obtain access to higher paying and
better jobs. Also, interlocutors state that a "silent
revolution" is taking place and many Dalits are asserting
themselves in politics and are no longer afraid to confront
the ruling elite and vote them out. Political parties
dominated by higher castes have begun to realize that they
often cannot win elections without the support of low-caste
and Dalit parties, and therefore must respond to their
demands. Our interlocutors assert that India's active and
vibrant democracy and burgeoning economic growth and
corresponding urbanization could be the catalyst for a
gradual shift in the social equation in the coming decade,
away from caste discrimination and towards a more egalitarian
society.
MULFORD