CONFERENCE '98

Organized by the Ambedkar Center for Justice and Peace

June 6, 1998 Toronto, Canada

Presidential Address by Yogesh Varhade, President of Ambedkar Center for Justice and Peace

"INTERNATIONAL ADVOCACY AND THE ROLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS AND CIVIL SOCIETY"

On the Occasion of the celebration of 50 years anniversary of the United Nations Universal Human Rights Declaration, along with the 107^th birth anniversary celebration of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

The Hindu Caste System has divided the Hindus, (80% of India's population), into watertight compartments. The Caste System remains in tact today, after 3000 years of social injustice. The Caste System can best be explained by using a Pyramid as a description. The Brahmin (priest) are at the top, below them are the Kshatriya (ruling caste), below them are the Vaisha (business caste), below them are the Shudras (menial) caste, and at the bottom are the Untouchables or Out-castes (5^th caste) at the bottom. The power is in ascending order and the contempt is in descending order. There are no stairs to go from one caste to another (the Caste that one is born is the caste that they die as). After 50 years of independence in India, there is only a small leak in the compartments. But this hasn't changed the system at all. According to the Hindu Religion ALL HUMAN BEINGS ARE NOT BORN EQUAL!

The Manu Code of Laws (the revered book of Hindus) stated 2000 years ago :

"No collection of wealth was to be made by Shudras (low caste) even though he /she may be able to do it, for a Shudra who has acquired wealth gives pain to Brahmin, and that a Brahmin may appropriate by force the property of Shudra" (Manu Smriti X, 129)

"Sri Brahma (God the Creator) had intended from eternity that the Untouchables should be born slaves, live as slaves and die as slaves" (Manu Chapter 19, #413).

During the discussion of the India Report on July 24-25, 1997 at the United Nations Human Rights Committee, when asked by one of the committee members "The Caste System contravenes the United Nations fundamental human rights and why should it not be abolished?" Attorney General of India, Mr. Ashok Desai replied that "There is no demand for the abolition of the Caste System. In fact it empowers the marginalized people".

Now in the year of the 50^th Anniversary of India's Independence, there is a lot of attention on India and its democracy. Mr. Ramaswamy (a Supreme Court Judge) and Mr. K.R. Narayanan (President of India) are both from the untouchable caste. It made zero difference in the lives of millions of our people.

India's constitution make and the first law minister Dr. B.R Ambedkar (himself an untouchables leader) wrote : "Turn in any direction you like, Caste is a monster that crosses your path. You cannot have economic reform unless you kill this monster" (Annihilation of Caste).

This was true 3000 years ago, this was true before independence and it is still true today. Let us look at some facts on India :

• The total population is 980 million. The Untouchables and Tribals are between 250 and 300 million. That is equal to the population of North America or the combined populations of Germany, France and Great Britain. Of the total population, 80% still live in villages.
• Dalit Shiksha Andolan Samiti, NGO, states in its report that as of the 1991 census, the literacy rate Untouchables is 38.3%. For Tribals this decreases to 29.6%. This is nearly 45 years after the national literacy has reached 47.5%. The Indian Government has spent very little on literacy of its people.
• The World Bank report "Primary Education in India" says: 67 million children attend primary school. Of these 22 million drop out, only 45 million complete their primary education. Thirty-two (32) million children do not attend school at all. These children when combined to the 22 million that dropped out, means that 54 million children in India do not attend / complete their basic education. The drop out rate for untouchable girls is 75% and that of tribal girl is 60%.
• The Indian Government spends 1.6% of the GDP on elementary education. Making the country full literate the World Bank estimates would cost $3 billion is needed. As per the National Council of Applied Economic Research, India needs $6.5 billion for full literacy.
• On Defense alone, India spends more than 10 times that of elementary education. State Governments do not give importance to the education of poor children. For example, the West Bengal Communist Government has not started a single new primary school in last ten years.

The Human Rights Watch Report from September 1998 (a Washington based Human Rights Think Tank) says: there are 115 million children in Child Slavery in India. Of these 20 million are in bonded labour and are working in hazardous working conditions, most of them are from Untouchable and tribal backgrounds. The ILO and the UNDP India endorse this.

Thousands of Untouchable female children (between 6 and 8 years) are forced to become MAIDENS OF GOD (Devdasi, Jogin a Hindu religious practice in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka State, Maharashtra, Orrisa State, to mention only a few). They are taken from their families, never to see them again. They are later raped by the temple priest and finally auctioned secretly into prostitution and later die from AIDS. It is estimated by NGO's that 5,000 to 15,000 girls are auctioned secretly every year.

Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was formed in 1990, as a statutory body is basically a recommending body without any judicial powers for implementing the constitutional provisions for the protection and advancement for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The commission reported that human rights violations recorded for 1992 were 11,119 and for 1994 were more than 6200. The prosecution rate is less than 3.5%.

Since 1994 Maharashtra Government of Hindu Fundamentalist Parties (BJP-SHIV SENA) has withdrawn more than 6,000 criminal cases charged under Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989. The federal government of India has done nothing to stop this.

Most of the untouchables and tribals are landless labourers in villages, million of them are bonded labor barely surviving and thus their children end up in Bonded Child Labour. The Government has failed to provide basic survival means. In a recent example in the district Amaravati, Melghat area of Maharashtra State, since 1993 tribal children have been dying due to Malnutrition. So far more than 1,100 children have died and still there is no action being taken by the government.

United Nations Report 1996 states that South Asia has nearly half of the world's population below poverty line. Out of which 300 million are at the starving level and their income is less than $1 a day. Obviously most of these people are from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and live in rural India.

Component Plan Funds meant for economic development for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are not utilized and instead they are diverted to other projects to benefit vested interest or returned to the Federal Government.

The constitutional provisions for job reservations for Class-I and Class-II are 22.5%. In practice in 47 years Class-I positions filled are 2.1% and Class-II positions filled are less than 10%. There is no reservation for judiciary in High Court and Supreme Court, military and private sector. There are hardly few Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes judges at that level.

The laws that India has on the books are :

1. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986. Supreme Court Judgement: M.C. Mehta v/s State of Tamil Nadu and others #465 of 1986. Delivered on December 10, 1996
2. Bonded Labour Abolition Act., 1976
3. Karnataka (Prohibition of Dedication) Act on Devdasi problem
4. Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes (Atrocities Prevention) Act 1989

Even after 50 years of independence more atrocities are being committed on untouchables and tribals, because the younger generations are fighting back for their human rights. More of then are getting killed. Less than 15% of the high caste Hindus control 85% of the wealth and power and therefore it will take for 50 to 100 years, before Dalits can participate as equal partners in the so-called democracy in India. By bringing an international understanding through civil society and through different United Nations committees, this is the only last resort. We think that this apartheid of South Asia will need the same remedies as those used to dismantle the apartheid in South Asia several years back. Since the will of the government has been missing all these years to implement the provisions of World Bank and International Monetary Fund need to be tied to the improvement of the human record of India. In the meantime the Civil Society and the United Nations need to start to discuss the issue and recommend the solutions through the UN mechanism to avoid the future sanctions.

REMEDIES :

United Nation Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and Human Rights Committee criticized India that just the laws on the books are not good enough unless they are implemented to the fullest extent.

1. As per CERD Report # CERD/C/304/Add.13, 17 September 1996. "Continuing Campaign to educate the Indian population on human rights, in line with the constitution of India and with the universal human rights instruments including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. This should be aimed at eliminating the institutionalized thinking of high-caste and low-caste mentality". This should be with UN help by designing, teaching and monitoring human rights education and it should be evaluated every six months for the next 20 years, for its effectiveness and improved when necessary.
2. Child Labour and Bonded Labour to be abolished in practice immediately by a presidential order and full rehabilitation, re-education and vocational training guaranteed by adequate funding needs to be implemented. Culprits must be punished according to recent Supreme Court judgment. Time to be eradicated by the year 2003.
3. Implement Devdasi Prohibition Act to release the children and women that have been forced into prostitution. These women must be rehabilitated, re-educated and vocational training provided with full budget provisions. Time frame by the year 2003.
4. Commission for Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes should be given high court judicial powers to function as a monitoring and implementing body with non-political head, functioning as per the constitutional provisions with annual reports and implementation time frames. Fill all Class-I and Class-II backlogs, within next 2 years.
5. Reservation in Judiciary at the High Court and Supreme Court levels as per constitutional quota of 22.5 %. Effective immediately and to be filled within a two year period.
6. Landless labour to be rehabilitated, re-educated and made self-sustaining through micro-financing for their independence from economic and social slavery by the end of the year 2003.
7. Compulsory free education up to the age of 14. This is a constitutional obligation. Effective immediately and to be fully operation by the year 2003.
8. Reservation in Private Sector in proportion to constitutional provision should be provided immediately since 90% of the new jobs are created in the private sector, to be fully implemented by the year 2003.
9. National Finance Corporation for Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes has to provide adequate funding for economic independence of the people, simplify the procedure and direct state governments for full utilization per year. To be implemented and operating by the year 2003.
10. UN monitoring on all these time bond implementation, including sending a team of special rapportuers on Racism, Minority Rights, Child Right, Child Prostitution and Women's Rights to study the situation and submit the report to UN for dismantling this Apartheid of South Asia within the next three years.

ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENTS IN THE WEST

India is sitting on a ticking time bomb of social unrest, which can explode at anytime with unimaginable consequence. These include the following, but are not limited to these:

1. Civil war will be uncontrollable
2. Global insecurity
3. Western investments (in the area of billions of dollars) will be lost
4. Refugees in the millions will flood Western Countries causing a strain on the economies of these countries

Therefore, it is imperative that the West must come to the assistance of the Untouchables and Tribals in India to make sure this ticking time bomb is dismantled. Pressure must be applied to India through international finance and loans to implement its constitutional provisions fully.