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July 3 Global Day of Action on Caste
July 3
Global Day of Action on Caste
Protesting
India’s actions to block discussion of caste-based
discrimination in the WCAR Agenda
Thousands of
ordinary men, women and children as well as activists, lawyers,
politicians, unionists, migrant workers and students from many
nationalities and backgrounds joined together around the world in
July 3 to make one demand:
"ADDRESS
CASTE DISCRIMINATION IN DURBAN"
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In making this demand, it
was necessary to protest in particular against the stance
of the Indian government, which has gone to extreme
lengths to prevent any discussion of this issue. Their
opposition has come despite the findings of various UN
bodies that caste discrimination is a form of racial
discrimination that should be discussed at the UN World
Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Caste
discrimination means that a quarter of a billion persons
in South Asia, Japan and parts of Africa are excluded
from society because of the family they were born into.
Low caste persons are far more likely to have degrading
work conditions and pay, to die younger, to be victims of
extreme violence with impunity, to be trafficked for
prostitution, to be bonded labourers, to be illiterate
and to be politically and socially repressed.
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The
world has ignored this for far too long. Surely the international
community can’t hold yet another world conference designed
to address this form of discrimination without even mentioning
the word ‘caste’? The Global Day of Action is a way of
saying ‘wake up to this problem – and don’t let
the Indian government prevent us addressing it.’
Click here to
download the Global
Day of Action Report (MS Word format)
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