NCDHR

khairlanji (Maharashtra) one of the  latest incidents of gruesome violence against Dalits where all in  a family except one  was brutally killed by uppercastes

undertakes daily monitoring of secondary media sources (newspapers, internet, etc.) in order to find all reported Dalit Human Rights violations that have taken place in the 14 states in which we operate.  These findings are compiled on the basis of district and type of violence.  After compiling the cases, necessary actions like fact-finding missions, contact with concerned authority, advocacy, and court follow-up are taken up depending upon the gravity of the issue.
NCHDR conducts its fact finding by visiting the places where the violation/atrocity has taken place and collecting first hand information regarding the incident.  The fact finding team is formed of trained staff members and other human right defenders, lawyers, and members of local organizations.  After collecting first hand information, the members of our Monitoring desk and legal team prepare the fact-finding report. This fact-finding report gives feedback to the government, duty bearer, NGOs, movements, and national and international human rights bodies regarding the incident, indicating steps taken by the duty bearer, and recommendations for bringing justice to the Dalit victims.
Our Legal desk assists in cases of Dalit atrocities and human rights violations, carrying out legal empowerment through legal aid and interventions in formal courts and criminal administration mechanisms, as well as meetings with various mandals, lawyers, activists, and members of commissions and NGOs who can help bring justice.

RESEVATION  AND  DALITS

Reservation policy has been one of the corner stones of Dalit  empowerment. But it   has been implemented half heartedly from the beginning .The Dalit job force   in the country concentrated   largely either on the   traditionally assigned   degraded low paid jobs or to low class sweeper jobs in  govt and supported services.
 15% of the  jobs in   state  and  state  supported departments to be  reserved for  the Dalits  according to the  existing  rule considering the population strength 16.5%  (Census report   , 2001). But  the vast private  sector  is  excluded despite  repeated  and long  demands from the  Dalit organization  to include it also  within the purview of  reservation .
Privatization of  public  sector units   have  already  pushed  majority of  the  Urban   Dalits  to  casual  labor  with the decline  of  salaried jobs
 By sticking  on    formal methods of recruitments, the   large  private sector  which opts for  higher education and  technical skills excludes the  majority of  the deprived sections.
This reinforcement of  past job  discrimination resulted in the over  representation of  Dalits   in the poorly paid dead end  jobs.
Whenever they tried to  shift  to  some  better  occupation    were  abused  or  beaten up by the  uppercastes. The prescribed   15% of  jobs  in all classes of jobs falls short  particularly in  higher class jobs.
 Dalits  are over represented in low class jobs like sweepers in public sector indicating  the caste based occupational  allocation 
The  back log of  SC/ST  appointment in  states  service is 25,000 and  10,00,000 in central govt Some vacancies under   reservation is not  filled  since  1978.About  54.30%in central govt departments,45.10% in public sector banks  and 88.18%  in public sector  enterprises.(National   Commission  for  Scheduled  Castes  and  Scheduled  Tribes Report  1996-97 &97 –98 , quoted in  A  Irudayam,Balck Paper1999.)

CASE STUDIES

1 Sexual  assault  and  forced labour

Sundarmmal,Muthunagar village,Coimbatore  district,Tamilnade

 Dalit cultivators in the village   were forced to become bonded laborers by the upper castes in the village. They were made to work for long hours on poor wages. Sundarammal and her husband thus became bonded laborers in the   godown owned by  upper caste  Varada Raj. He  never  paid them decently and the family  was in debt  .So they decided  to seek work under other  persons. But  Varadaraj  along with his community people  attacked the couple  and tried to  rape her on  January  27,2007.When  she  filed  complaint  she   was  again tortured to with draw the  case.

2 A Dalit employee in a public  School has  been  underpaid  since  he was hired in  1974.
Kedar  Ram .Senior Basic  School ,Ghazipur  ,Uttar Pradesh

 Kedar  Ram  was appointed as  safai worker in  govt aided  Senior Basic  School  in  Ghazipur in 1974.He  was drawing only  7 rupees  for  the first three years and then  13  rupees per month. In October 1991 it  was increased to Rs. 30/ . In  1998 it  was  increased  to Rs. 150/.The minimum wages  fixed  for an  unskilled  employee  is Rs.2600 / month