Dalit status important for Christians: NCM

The National Commission for Minorities (NCM), last week, cleared its stand in the Dalit issue, strongly suggesting the Scheduled Caste status among Dalit Christians and Muslims, whom it identified as socially backward communities.

A report based on a study conducted by the NCM said, the SC status is very important and needed for the Dalit Christians and Muslims, who are socially known and treated as distinct groups within their religious communities.

Nor is there any room for disputing the fact that they are invariably regarded as social inferiors by their co–religionists. "In short, in most social contexts, DMs and DCs are Dalits first and Muslims and Christians only second," the report said.

The report further debunked theories of the anti–Christian organizations, stating there was no valid evidence to justify denying SC status to the Dalit Chrsitians and Muslims.

Finding the current rule discriminatory, Professor Deshpande of the department of sociology, Delhi School of Economics, construed that “whether or not such discrimination can be proven in a court of law, it will surely weigh on the conscience of every fair–minded Indian.”

"There is a strong case for according Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Muslims and Christians."

Although the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranganath Misra (Retd), affirmed that Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims be included in the reserved category, the Govt. has delayed in pronouncing judgment.

Since March 27, 2008, the Supreme Court of India has repeatedly delayed the hearing on lawsuits by Dalit Christians and Muslims requesting restoration of full Constitutional rights.

The court, and India’s central government, continues to uphold 58 years of religious–based discrimination through their inaction.

The Christians now hope that the NCM reports and suggestions will play a major role in the success of the case.