What is the Caste system ?

India's caste system has four levels. In descending order, they are : the priestly caste (Brahmins), the ruling caste (Kshatrya), the merchant caste (Vaishya) and the servant caste (Shudra). Untouchables and Tribals fall below the Shudras, and as such, fall into the fifth or Out cast (Dalit). They are among the most marginalized peoples in the world.

As one of the last vestiges of institutionalized social apartheid, the caste system in India condems some 250 million Dalits to a life of abject poverty and social inequality, and legitimizes the daily violence visited upon them.

For the past 3,000 years, basic human rights have been denied to Dalits who have been enslaved in perpetual bonded labour and extreme poverty and subjected to constant torture, rape - and often death.

Although India is a signatory to many international agreements such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination, the rights of 250 million of its citizens are violated on a daily basis.

The struggle of Dalits to improve their lot through education has only exacerbated the fury of the upper castes who revert to open forms of violence when other means fail to dissuade Dalit efforts. This has been justly called the "hidden" or "forgotten" apartheid.

The main reason of these serious human rights violations of Dalits, even after 50 years of India's independence, is less than 15% of high caste Hindus controls 85% of nation's wealth, power and bureaucracy, 99% judiciary and 100% media.

India has been called the "world's largest democracy". It is merely a democracy of the few, by the few, and for the few.