Dalit Christians must be empowered through sound education, jobs: Seminar

Bangalore – Empowering Dalit Christians with sound education and dignified jobs is as important as securing them equal rights, a seminar, organized by the Dalit Christian Federation that drew more than 500 participants from the city of Bangalore and surrounding rural areas, has concluded.

Speaking in the inaugural session, Mr. V.V. Augustine, member, National Minorities Commission, said, “education is an important means to improve the status of downtrodden Christians. Our educational institutions must give top priority to Dalit Christians and financially support them in higher education so that they can join the public service. Dalits should strive to rise in all fields.”

“Seventy per cent of Christians in India are poor; they have no proper employment and shelter. Most of them are labourers doing menial jobs in the fish industry and on agricultural farms,” he said.

Mr. Augustine also urged politicians to help these masses, warning them that they will be “committing a crime” if they failed in this endeavor.

C. Narayanaswamy, a former Member of Parliament and senior leader of the Janata Dal (JD) Party, said that his party had tried to improve the situation of Dalit Christians, especially when its leader Mr. Deve Gowda was the Prime Minister of India. However, the draft legislation that was aimed at empowering the Dalit Christian community and was tabled before the Parliament did “not see the light of the day because the government lost power.”

“Christian Dalit struggle is more than half a century old since the presidential order of 1950 robbed them of their rights after 3,000 years of caste tyranny,” ASIANews has quoted Mr. John Dayal, secretary general, All India Christian Council (AICC), as saying.

“We have fought,” he noted, “and often lost this battle in court, [but it] continues at the Supreme Court level. Before the court, are civil society groups, Protestants and Catholics, and opposing them are men from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).”

“The battle also continues in parliament and state legislatures,” and “internationally,” he stressed. “I have personally raised it in the UN, the US Congress, the European Union, and in Durban's International Congress on Racial Discrimination.”

“Similarly, we raise the matter in the Church too. While some Protestant churches are entirely Dalit and their bishops and hierarchy are Dalit too, other Churches have different racial and cultural roots,” he explained.

Agreeing with Mr. Augustine about the need of empowering Dalit Christians, Mr. Dayal said, “I see no reason why the church cannot help Dalits to the extent it can—in employment in institutions, scholarships and preferential admission to schools with special hostels where necessary, micro financing to help Dalits in farming and entrepreneurship.”

Caste, a social stratification rooted deep in Hinduism, organizes people by a combination of descent and employment. The lowest group in the caste system is the Dalits. While atrocities against the Dalits have been practiced for thousands of years, caste–based atrocities are reaching new heights and are causing tension across many areas.

A 1950 Presidential Order excluded Dalit convert to Christianity from the quota system that reserved jobs to members of the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes in the public service. The same exclusion applies to those who convert to Islam but not to those who become Hindu, Buddhist or Sikh.

However, in a significant step, the Supreme Court in February this year decided to consider afresh the crucial constitutional issue of affirmative action in the public sector for Dalit converts to Christianity, refuting the government plea that it be treated as a legislative problem.

The matter, originally fixed for hearing on August 25, has been adjourned several times and it is expected that the apex court will take up the hearing early next year.

An estimated 70 percent of India’s 26 million Christians belong to the socially discriminated Dalit groups, who need social and educational support to come to the mainstream of society.