Rural India has a dark side: a caste system that condemns Dalit communities to pariah status, menial and demeaning work, and poverty. The people once known as untouchables or Harijans, and now generally termed Dalits, suffer discrimination, daily humiliation and at times, atrocity. Most of those below the poverty line in rural India are Dalits.
Dalit communities traditionally had little choice but to succumb to this apartheid-like system, despite government measures such as positive discrimination.
What do VST and its partners do?
- We give priority to Dalits in all our programmes, and especially to the Arunthathiyar sub-group, sometimes termed the Dalits of the Dalits.
- We encourage Dalits to join self help groups and to use the panchayat system to obtain benefits for themselves and their community.
- We work with Arunthathiyar activists who by campaigning for social justice are changing public attitudes, not least among Dalits themselves.
Recent achievements
- Direct action in protest at separate teashop tumblers for Dalits gained wide publicity and discouraged the practice.
- Campaigners won rights to burial land and special reservation of government jobs and college places for Arunthathiyars.
- Thousands joined a rally to protest against untouchability; further demonstrations held against illegal high interest loans.
- Dozens of cases of violence against Dalit women taken up under the Prevention of Atrocity Act.
- Hundreds of Dalit women have increased their income by obtaining credit for micro-enterprise.
If somebody is talking badly about my caste I tell them: ‘Your blood is the same as mine, no better and no worse' (Woman Dalit leader)
Case study - Tamilselvi
I am 13 years old. I was studying in government middle school at Vilankurichi. I am an Arunthathiyar. For the past few years the teachers made the 15 Arunthathiyar students clean the toilets. I told Ms. Chitra and Mr. Raja who work with Vizhudugal (Arunthathiyar activist group) about it. They said that we need not clean the toilets and they came and talked to Ms Uma Maheswari, our teacher and Ms Philomina, the headmistress. We thought the problem would stop and so I told the others not to clean the toilets. But both the teacher and the headmistress shouted and used very bad words and beat us. The next day again we did not clean the toilets, we were beaten and all 15 of us were sent out of the school.
A big crowd made the Kovilpalayam police register a case under the Prevention of Atrocity Act. For a week nothing happened and so Vizhudugal organised a demonstration. We went with our parents and others and shouted slogans in front of the office of the Collector (a senior government official) at Coimbatore. Only then the teacher and the headmistress were suspended and transferred. We were taken back to the school and all of us are still studying there and we don’t have to clean the toilets now. I am happy that my refusing to clean the toilets helped, but this change took place because all of us students and our parents and Vizhudugal were united.