Church delegation presses for India’s Dalit Christian rights

A Church delegation has urged a federal government-appointed panel to extend India’s affirmative action benefits to socially poor Dalit Christians, whose ancestors were considered untouchable in the country’s caste-based society.

A 15-member Church delegation met a commission headed by retired chief justice of India K. G. Balakrishnan and apprised “it about the plight of our Dalit Christian brothers and sisters,” said Father Anthony Raj Thumma, a delegation member.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2022 appointed a three-member commission to study if Dalit people who have converted to Christianity and Islam can be given social welfare benefits enjoyed by Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs belonging to Dalit communities.

“The commission patiently listened to us and sought several clarifications from us,” Father Thumma, secretary of the Indian bishops’ Office for Ecumenism, told UCA News on Oct. 14.

Thumma said the Church delegation, led by Montfort Brother Jos Daniel, met the commission on Oct. 12 in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum expressing their concerns.

Out of India’s 1.4 billion people, 201 million belong to the Dalit community, and nearly 60 percent of India’s 25 million Christians trace their origin to Dalit and tribal communities.

The Dalits were considered outside the four-tier caste system and untouchable. A 1955 law made untouchability a punishable offense, but its social expressions continue in different forms of discrimination.However, successive governments in the past seven decades have denied welfare benefits to Christians and Muslims of Dalit origin, arguing that their religions do not subscribe to the Hindu caste system. The Indian constitution allows benefits to Dalit people, technically termed Scheduled Caste (SC) people, to bring them into the social mainstream. The benefits include job quotas and seats in state-run academic institutions and legislative bodies.

However, in 1950, a presidential order reserved these benefits only for Dalit Hindus on the ground that Dalit people exist only among Hindus. Later, the order was amended twice to include Sikhs and Buddhists in the list.

Dalit Christian leaders and Church leaders have been demanding to amend the order again to include them in the list, saying a mere change of religion has not changed their socio-economic status.

They say Dailt Christians now face “double discrimination” because, besides the social discrimination, the government also discriminates against them.

Two decades ago, they and Muslim leaders jointly petitioned the Supreme Court to end the discrimination of Christians and Muslims of Dalit origin.

The commission is expected to submit its report next month, as the country’s top court is scheduled to hear the pending case.

It is the third government commission that studies the possibility and implications of extending SC status to Christians and Muslims of Dalit origin.

The previous two panels – the Ranganath Misra Commission in 2004 and the Rajinder Sachar Commission in 2005 – recommended including Dalit Christians and Muslims for benefits, saying joining “egalitarian religions” did not improve their socio-economic status.

However, the Modi government refused to accept the recommendations of the earlier commissions and appointed a new commission headed by Balakrishnan, a Dalit community member.

The commission has been meeting various stakeholders, including Church officials and Muslim leaders, before finalizing its report.

Social observers say Indian governments often appoint commissions to study an issue when they do not want to act.

Successive government did not include Christians and Muslims in the SC list, fearing political backlash from Hindus, who form some 90 percent of India’s population.

This article is originally published on https://www.ucanews.com/news/church-delegation-presses-for-indias-dalit-christian-rights/106714