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Dalit legal advocacy
On the 8th of January 2008, Sudhir Kumar, a young Dalit man was beaten by a Hindu priest. His crime- trying to enter a temple in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
On the 1st of May 2008, a six year old girl was thrown onto a fire. The girl battled for her life in hospital, she eventually recovered but will be scarred for life. Her crime- playing on the land of a Brahman (higher caste) family.
On the 24th of October, a thirteen year old boy was chained to a tractor and dragged around his village, at one point going straight past the local police station. He was eventually killed. His crime- holding the hand of a non-Dalit girl.
These stories are not uncommon in India. What is common is that in each case the police waited hours or even days before intervening. Predictably, when the police did arrive, all the evidence had been destroyed and no one was prepared to speak up in defence of the Dalit victims. None of the cases were brought to trial and none of the Dalit families received justice or compensation.
One in five Indian people are born into the Dalit caste. The word Dalit originated from the Hindi word for oppressed peoples. Dalits face segregation and discrimination on a daily basis; very little is being done by the authorities to address the problem. The Indian constitution outlaws caste-based discrimination but Dalits are rarely able to enforce this law because the police and courts (usually run by higher caste people) are hostile or at best indifferent to their plight.
The Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) funded by Karuna works with the Dalit community in their search for justice. The HRLN currently has 200 trained lawyers from the Dalit community, half of whom are women. The Karuna grant was used to build two new Dalit Right’s Centres and relocate some of the lawyers into this new facility. The centres offer free legal services to all Dalits who have been discriminated against. HRLN has been responsible for brining a number of Dalit atrocity cases to the high court, one of the most successful cases was in village of Chauthi- as a result of a minor disagreement a number of Dalit families were assaulted and had their huts set on fire, the police prevented the victims from filing a complaint, instead, the attacker was allowed to lodge a counter case against the Dalit families. It looked as if it was going to be typical case of injustice for the Dalit victims. Instead, one of the Dalit families contacted the HRLN. The HRLN’s lawyers decided to fight the case, the police were pressurised into investigating the case of assault and arson. The Dalit families were able to lodge a criminal complaint against their attacker, he was arrested, tried and is now serving time in prison.
Without the help of the HLRN the Dalit families would have had no support, no justice and no compensation. HLRN are actively changing the culture of caste based discrimination, fighting for justice and equality on behalf of the Dalit community.