Being discriminated on the basis of caste is unfortunately a common occurrence for a large number of India's population. The following case from West Bengal demonstrates how this discrimination violates many of their fundamental human rights, including their right to food.

A. 'We get so tired that sometimes we can’t even move'
(Nick Cheesman, 'Life at Rubbish Dump', Human Rights SOLIDARITY, vol. 14, no. 4, July 2004, pp. 8-12)

"Some of us were very severely beaten," recalls Tara Murti Hela. "Some tried to flee by taking shelter in a pool of human shit, but the police beat them there too. It was so brutal, you can’t imagine. If I think of these things, my heart is in pain. I just can’t do it."

But it is not easy for Tara Murti Hela, 53, to forget. Her life has not been the same since the events she recalls, when she was among some 7,000 people evicted from their houses in Bellilious Park in Howrah City on February 2 last year. Their houses were bulldozed, possessions looted, and the occupants told to move to the Belgachhia dump, a few kilometres away, if they had nowhere else to go. More than 1,000 have been there since… 

"Over 150 families are at this place out of the original number, which we estimate to have been more than 700," says human rights campaigner Kirity Roy, following a couple of people returning from the dump through a gap between two shop stalls on the left.

"In the first part of the 20th century, the municipality brought the grandparents of these people to clean the streets and drains. It was responsible for locating them at Bellilious Park, and even built accommodation for them there; now it has demolished those very same buildings and forced the people to move here," says Roy, a member of Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), a local human rights organisation. Since the eviction, MASUM has been deeply involved in the fight for rehabilitation and compensation of the victims.

"It is important to remember that all the people here are Dalits," Roy says. "They are segregated from the caste groups. Nobody will rent accommodation to these people. If your name is Balmiki or Hela [Dalit names], other groups will not allow you to stay with them." ?lt;/p>

God Knows What will Happen

Hunger, starvation. Here, not more than about 10 kilometres from where the chief minister and members of parliament preside over the government of West Bengal, people are starving to death. E. M. Parvati knows this better than most: her son died for want of food just a few months ago.

Parvati lives in a dwelling that consists of little more than some wood and bamboo pressed hard against a wall at the far end of the settlement. Gusts of wind lift the plastic roof, which during heavy rain protects the family little more than were they in the open.

Parvati, 32, is carrying a new child. She speaks with exhaustion, three daughters sitting alongside: "My son Shiva died just three months back, because of malnutrition. He had no medicine, no proper place to live. He was in the hospital for two months, and died when he was three years old."

"My husband is here, but he is also very sick, with TB [tuberculosis]. Usually he cleans the toilets in private houses, but now he cannot work, so we have no income. I also was working like that, but cannot now because I am pregnant," she says.

Parvati says her children have to collect wood at the dumping ground during the daytime for cooking and boiling water. "We cannot send them to school. It is quite impossible for us to give them an education. I have no hope for their future. We have done everything we can for our children, but we haven’t been able to change our situation," she says while looking at her children.

Parvati's mother, E.M. Bhupati Lachmi, has to earn a living for the family by cleaning toilets in people’s houses and the roads and drains outside. "I am the only earner in the family, and can get perhaps 50, perhaps 70 rupees per day (US-1.40). I also get some rice and other things from neighbours. Another daughter of mine helps too, by giving some of her earnings from cleaning houses," she says.

"Today a neighbour gave some rice and wheat, with which we have prepared our meal," she says, opening pots by the earthen stove to show rice, flat bread and some thin curry. "As for tomorrow, God knows what will happen. I go to work in the morning and find out after that. If I go to work, I will definitely earn something with which we can buy food to eat."

So Many Things Taken

…Gopal Balmiki ?recalls how the eviction was managed. "On the day of the eviction we were not given any notice. Some police came on January 28 and made an announcement with a loudspeaker that the place would be demolished and that we should go, saying, 'On February 2 this place will be vacated; remove your structures and leave.' After that there were no more warnings until they came with bulldozers at about 6 am that Sunday. Then we were scattered here and there." The municipality evicted the people on Sunday, leaving the residents no recourse to an injunction through the court.

"They took so many of our things, but to where, we do not know," says Gopal. "All our possessions were taken on the backs of trucks, like our TVs, radios and refrigerators. There were at least 10 trucks and hundreds of labourers employed by the corporation to take stuff away. When we tried to take our things for ourselves, the commandos beat us with their batons."

?amp;quot;The temples were also destroyed, and when we tried to take things from them too we were beaten; even the women," says Rajesh. "We begged them, 'You may be destroying our houses, but please don’t destroy our temples.' But the police said, 'No one will be staying here; you don’t need them.' The idols were brought out, and the police took or broke everything else."

The looting and devastation were absolute. The community had built and run its own school, and this too was demolished, along with the three buildings that had been constructed by the municipality to house the workers. Wells were filled in, pipelines and electricity supplies destroyed. The place was flattened.

"We were told that we were all illegal occupants and this was the reason for the eviction, but it is our feeling that it happened because we are Dalits, and our social position is weakest," says Gopal. There is a chorus of agreement from others nearby. "We don’t have a say in anything. That is why we were targeted."

The Howrah administration, offering no help to the ousted residents despite their demonstrations, maintained that the eviction was legal and the municipality had no money to rehabilitate the people.

"Our only hope is to be able to educate our children and give them a better life than we have. When we stayed in Bellilious Park, we had a chance, but now these hopes have faded," Gopal says. "Now we are having to forego meals to save enough money with which to send our children to school. Where we once ate three times in a day, now it is only twice."?lt;/p>

Beautification?lt;/strong>

Abhijit Datta, another member of MASUM and a lawyer at the Howrah District Court, feels the anger and frustration of the people forced to live at the dump. "This is not a place fit for human habitation, between a dumping ground and condemned buildings on the verge of collapse. But the municipal corporation doesn’t care if these people die here because they are Dalits. In this sense the conditions for these people are not different now from how they have been for centuries."

Passing through the busy streets of Howrah, Abhijit points to an area of land on the right ?Bellilious Park. The place looks uninviting: little can be seen other than some rubbish piles where the main dumping ground had once been located; the settlement was on the other side. Whereas the park was originally established in an open area outside the city limits, it is today surrounded on all sides by the walls of apartment buildings and other constructions. The area is densely populated, and by now of high commercial value.

The community was evicted on the ground that they were responsible for polluting the park; their removal being a step towards its beautification. The condition of the park today speaks to the audacity of this lie. It is a barren and dusty wasteland?The location of their former houses is easy to see: the rubble is still there, the corporation not even having bothered to clear it all away after knocking it down. Nothing has been done with this part of the land since. Picking through the rubble, pieces of a temple wall are uncovered. Somebody has piled a few bricks into a makeshift shelter nearby. The remnants of some structures remain upright ?here is a corner of the school; there is the ground floor of one boarding house?

The plight of these people and the utter disregard for their wellbeing by the local authorities and the state government is indicative of attitudes among India’s elite and policy makers. And it is this very attitude that results in the denial of food and the hunger faced by millions throughout India; hunger is not a product of famine or other natural causes, but the result of deliberate and systemic factors. For the Bellilious Park evictees, their lack of food is caused by the inequality they face in every aspect of their lives, as shown below by Bijo Francis, in 'The Great Indian Vanishing Act', Human Rights SOLIDARITY, vol. 14, no. 4, July 2004, pp. 6-7.

Discrimination against Dalits

The reason for this brutal reality in India is simple: Who cares for the Dalits? Wherever people of this outcaste group go they will face with the same situation. They are poor. They are being discriminated. Caste system follows a Hindu from birth to grave. The system engraves its mark upon an individual simply even by his or her name. For example, Gopal Balmiki is easily identified as an "untouchable" from his name "Balmiki", which is being put in all of his records including the identity card. Once being tagged as a Dalit, a person will be treated differently by others. "If we walk into any restaurant we will not be provided any decent place to sit," Rajinder Balmiki said. "Even those petty bunk shops in the pavement will only give us tea in a separate glass. We have to wash our glass once we drink the tea. Whereas for other customers they could just give the empty glass back," he said.

Most of the Dalits can do no other job than scavenging. They have no choice but to take up the job of manual scavenging of night soil, which is outlawed in India. They have to carry the night soil on their heads as there are no sewage treatment or other means available for clearing human and animal excrement. The authorities turn a blind eye to the situation. As manual scavenging has been done by the people of the scheduled caste, especially the balmikies, for centuries, the presence of safai karmachari to keep the city clean has been taken for granted. Since the Dalits are not able to provide a better education for the next generations, their children usually end up in the same repulsive job.

"They need us to clean all their filth for which we need to report to duty at the early hours of the day and late at night and for which we need to stay within the city limits. But they do not want us to stay anywhere near their houses. What should we do?" asked one of the evicted residents of Bellilious Park who now stays at the Belgachhia dump.

The Indian delegation to the Race Summit in Durban in 2001 was very emphatic to deny that caste discrimination was an issue in India and that definitely it did not come under the terms of racial discrimination according to international standards. However, the facts indicate a different picture. Discrimination in the name of caste is not a remote issue in India. It could be found in any state. It is reported even in more developed areas such as Bangalore and the most literate state Kerala.

Never-ending Exploitation

Despite its strong economic growth, rapid development of information technology and the claim of being the largest democracy in the world, India remains one of the worst human rights violators in Asia. The caste discrimination and exploitation plagues the progress of the country. Given the caste taboo, a person tends to remain within the clutches of the dominant majority in exploiting the cheap labour and oppressing the scheduled castes. Although politicians vow that they will work to eliminate the caste system, once they reach their seat of power they forget their pledge of concern of the Dalits among other promises. That did happen in the Bellilious Park incident. Representatives to the parliament and the Howrah Municipal Corporation failed to defend the rights of the ousted residents and fight for their rehabilitation.

The legislation in India, in fact, provides adequate security for people from being evicted without due process of law. Both the state and the central governments have special ministries chaired by ministers from the scheduled castes or scheduled tribes to attend to the burning issues of their communities. The government of India accepts aid from outside funding sources for programmes supposed to be aimed for the development and welfare of the Dalit community. Exploitation and discrimination against the scheduled caste community is punishable under specific legislation in India. The Indian Constitution provides adequate remedies for safeguarding the interest of the poor and weaker sectors of society. India is also a state party to the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights.

Yet in reality, the story of exploitation and inhuman treatment of the Dalit community continues.

"The Constitution of India has the right to everything, but in practice, the people have the right to nothing," Roy said. The ousted residents need support to lead a dignified life, he said. "I am talking about assurances of even just a minimum amount of food, housing and health care to live a dignified life. I am talking about us ending this society where till today people are carrying human shit on their heads for work while the government is talking about sending a man to the moon."

The practice of caste discrimination, by its very nature, is one that affects the right to food, and many other rights, as described above. In this case then, hunger is caused by social practices, not any natural causes. Furthermore, there is a strong link between the protection of the right to food (and other rights) and the rule of law. While there are legal provisions available (as will be shown in the section below) for the protection of both the rights to food and non-discrimination, these rights are clearly still being violated.

B. Legal framework

While the Constitution of India ‘has the right to everything? and while India’s international obligations also require the government to protect the rights of its citizens, the practice of caste discrimination remains widespread throughout the country. This section outlines the domestic and international legal provisions relating to caste discrimination. (NB. Please see Lesson Series 38 for legal provisions regarding the right to food.)

The Constitution of India

14. The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.

15.(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race,?caste,?sex, place of birth or any of them.

17. "Untouchability" is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability rising out of "Untouchability" shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Article 26
All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

The International Convention on the Elimination against all Forms of Racial Discrimination

Article 5
In compliance with the fundamental obligations laid down in article 2 of this Convention, States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights:?
(a) The right to equal treatment before the tribunals and all other organs administering justice;
(b) The right to security of person and protection by the State against violence or bodily harm, whether inflicted by government officials or by any individual group or institution;
(d) Other civil rights, in particular:
(i) The right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of the State;
(v) The right to own property alone as well as in association with others;
(e) Economic, social and cultural rights, in particular:
(i) The rights to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work, to protection against unemployment, to equal pay for equal work, to just and favourable remuneration;
(iii) The right to housing;
(iv) The right to public health, medical care, social security and social services;
(v) The right to education and training;
(f) The right of access to any place or service intended for use by the general public, such as transport hotels, restaurants, cafes, theatres and parks.

Questions For Discussion

1. The discrimination of the Bellilious Park occupants violates many fundamental human rights, such as the rights to non-discrimination and equality, food, land, redress/effective remedies, legal protection, health.
a. Are these civil and political rights, or economic, social and cultural rights? What are the legal provisions for the protection of these rights?
b. How would you campaign for redress for the victims of the eviction? Apart from legal aspects, what other issues would the campaign address?
2. Discuss cases of discrimination in your own country. What are the laws being violated in those cases?
3. Discuss ways/a campaign to eliminate caste discrimination. In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle to its elimination? How can it be overcome?