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UN says India's Caste-System is a human rights abuse

Abolition of Untouchability is enshrined in article 17 of the constitution especially through fundamental rights
PART III

Fundamental Rights

General

12. Definition — In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires, "the State" includes the Government and Parliament of India and the Government and the Legislature of each of the States and all local or other authorities within the territory of India or under the control of the Government of India....

Right to Equality

14. Equality before law — 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. Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth — (1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them. (2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to — (a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or (b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public. (3) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children. (4) Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

16. Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment — (1) There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State. (2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect or, any employment or office under the State....

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

18. Abolition of titles — (1) No title, not being a military or academic distinction, shall be conferred by the State....

Right to Freedom

19. Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc. — (1) All citizens shall have the right — (a) to freedom of speech and expression; (b) to assemble peaceably and without arms; (c) to form associations or unions; (d) to move freely throughout the territory of India; (e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India; and (f) [removed]; (g) to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business.

...Nothing in sub-clause (a)... (b)... (c)... (d)... (e)... (g)... of Clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India....

20. Protection in respect of conviction for offenses — (1) No person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the act charged as an offence, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the offence. (2) No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once. (3) No person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself.

21. Protection of life and personal liberty — No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

22. Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases — (1) No person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrest nor shall he be denied the right to consult, and to be defended by, a legal practitioner of his choice. (2) Every person who is arrested and detained in custody shall be produced before the nearest magistrate within a period of twenty-four hours of such arrest excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court of the magistrate and no such person shall be detained in custody beyond the said period without the authority of a magistrate. (3) Nothing in clauses (1) and (2) shall apply — (a) to any person who for the time being is an enemy alien; or (b) to any person who is arrested or detained under any law providing for preventive detention. (4) No law providing for preventive detention shall authorize the detention of a person for a longer period than three months unless — (a) an Advisory Board consisting of persons who are, or have been, or are qualified to be appointed as, Judges of a High Court has reported before the expiration of the said period of three months that there is in its opinion sufficient cause for such detention;... (5) When any person is detained in pursuance of an order made under any law providing for preventive detention, the authority making the order shall, as soon as may be, communicate to such person the grounds on which the order has been made and shall afford him the earliest opportunity of making a representation against the order. (6) Nothing in clause (5) shall require the authority making any such order as is referred to in that clause to disclose facts which such authority considers to be against the public interest to disclose....

Right Against Exploitation

23. Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labor — (1) Traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labor are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law. (2) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from imposing compulsory service for public purposes....

24. Prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc. — No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.

Right to Freedom of Religion

25. Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion —(1) Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion. (2) Nothing in this article shall affect the operation of any existing law or prevent the State from making any law — (a) regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice; (b) providing for social welfare and reform or the throwing open of Hindu religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of Hindus....

Cultural and Educational Rights

29. Protection of interests of minorities — (1) Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same. (2) No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them....

34. Restriction on rights conferred by this Part while martial law is in force in any area - ..Parliament may by law indemnify any person in the service of the Union or of a State or any other person in respect of any act done by him in connection with the maintenance or restoration of order in any area within the territory of India where martial law was in force or validate any sentence passed, punishment inflicted, forfeiture ordered or other act done under martial law in such area....

51-A. Fundamental duties — It shall be the duty of every citizen of India — (a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem; (b) to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom; (c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India; (d) to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so; (e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practice derogatory to the dignity of women; (f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture; (g) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures; (h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform; (i) to safeguard public property and to abjure violence; (j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.
Excerpts from The Constitution of India

The Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act

An Act to prevent the commission of offences of atrocities against the members of the Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes, to provide for Special Courts for the trial of such offences.......

Sec 2 (a) " atrocity" means an offence punishable under Sec 3.

Sec. 3 Whoever not being a member of a Scheduled caste or a Scheduled Tribe

(i) forces a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled (hereinafter referred to as SC &ST ) to drink or eat any inedible or obnoxious substance;

(ii) acts with intent to cause injury, insult or annoyance to any member of a SC or ST by dumping excreta, waste matter, carcasses, or any other obnoxious substance in his premises or neighborhood;

(iii) forcibly removes clothes from the person of a member of SC or ST or parades him naked or with painted face or body or commits any similar act derogatory to human dignity;

(x) intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a member of a SC or ST in any place within public view.......shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to five years ......

(2) Whoever not being a member of SC or ST -

(I) gives or fabricates false evidence intending thereby to cause, or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby cause, any member of SC or ST to be convicted of an offence which is capital by the law for the time being in force shall be punished with imprisonment for life; and if any innocent member of a SC or ST be convicted in consequence of such false or fabricated evidence, the person who gives or fabricates such false evidence shall be punished with death............

Sec 14 Special Court For the purpose of providing for speedy trial, the state government may constitute a special court to try the offences in this Act......

Sec 21. Duty of the Government to take adequate measures to implement the Act

(i) the government shall provide adequate facilities, including legal aid, to the persons subjected to atrocities to enable them to avail themselves of justice;

(iii) the provision for the economic and social rehabilitation of the victims of the atrocities
India, The Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act

This is the act by which they are punishable acc to the constitution of India
 
and where pray have i defended the caste system? Seriously, point out the post where i defended it.

The anger is not directed to any caste, but direct towards the

government. What do you mean by this ?:smitten::pakistan::china:
 
Caste system is the worst thing in this world. All humans are created equal and treatment of humans will be questioned by God from every human.
 
The article states that positive discrimination in universities, government jobs. etc has resulted in anger in India. I was pointing out that this anger is not directed at any "caste" like the article seem to imply but rather at the government.

Protesters against quotas in government institution want quotas to be implemented on the basis of income and not caste. It is that simple.
 
@greyboy

You would be surprised to know that caste based discrimination is a feature of the entire sub-continent. Even among muslims unfortunately there is some sort of caste discrimination to a degree like amna mentioned. So any form of caste based discrimination wether among muslims or hindus shoud be condemned
 
Well its nice to see Indians leaving behind the evils of caste system its about time :coffee:

Its also inherited and present in many of our old villages which are cut off form modern societies.

Only cure is education -
 
Come on its time to remove this $hit centuries old cast system. Though the task is difficult as majority of the older population have a strong feeling that will die a slow death with them.

Its very much a fact of daily life. Caste system that is. But it is a very complex phenomenon to tackle at governmental level. ...

A steady resolve with a "Fabian" approach is the way, IMHO.

It's sober to see some self-styled "insane" posting something incredibly sane.

:tup:
 
UN cannot help it.
Cast system is core of hinduism.
I have hardly met hindu who failed to mention is high cast and hardly met a hindu who mentioned his low cast.

SICK of you...How can you give such a comment about Hindusim,Are you mad?
I can absolutely find your knowledge about this issue, Its really interesting to me that you think there are no Dalits among Muslims in India.

We have caste and community system everywhere in every religion.Hinduim definitely insists about caste system but none of history says there was any such low cast or upper caste defined by Hinduism.If you dont know about something just dont comment about it ,just keep quite.
 
I hope next time Indians will think twice before started to preach their

Caste-democracy. :smitten::pakistan::china:

Grey boy did you see any of the Indian members here supporting caste systems?? its a bad system and its banned by law..but its hard to get it out from peoples mind in rural areas ..only proper education can help..for example now most of the urban Chinese don't eat rats ..are you sure that you can say the same thing about your rural people???Don't get me wrong here I am just citing an example... some time centuries old practices and customs need time to change..hopefully by next generation it will eradicate fully..the changes are visibly shown in this country..

About Democracy yes we are damn proud of our democratic government..Many of the countries got independence after 1945 and can you show me how many countries still practice democracy while selecting their government??very rare...Our country is a prime example that people's voice counts and Many of the countries fall in to dictatorship or military take over after Independence but still we are a democratic country..don't you think its an achievement?

We have the right to criticise our government for its action and we can protest against our government in the street??Can you do that in your country?? You and me know what happened in the last protest in Tienanmen square..I am just saying this that every country's system has its pro and cons..Neither mine or Your country is perfect ..but we both are developing and destined to become the future world leaders..

Don't have a blind hatred towards a country and also try to have a healthy discussion around here...
 
Come on its time to remove this $hit centuries old cast system. Though the task is difficult as majority of the older population have a strong feeling that will die a slow death with them.
...

Ooops i guess i am starting to go in a wrong direction i stop here.... But India has lots and lots of problems including poverty, illiteracy, Hunger, Corruption which we are fighting and that is reducing rapidly by the day. But cast system is an evil which i guess would die a very very slow death.. Its not going anywhere soon unless drastic steps are taken which ain't easy.. Thanks to DEMOCRACY ( or rather the practice of it).

First question why do you think caste system is wrong ? Never say anything about low caste or upper caste. I argue the discrimination purely based on the economic status only. Its not 1947 that you cannot leave your home town and have to stay accepting the discrimination. It has been 60 years and we have lot of options and opportunities wide open everywhere. If you lead a "good life with good financial support can earn respect everywhere.I know Brahmans by birth cleaning toilets and people from low caste ruling the country.Its purely based on economic status only.

If there is no caste system this discrimination will increase but not decreaseYou can share your thoughts if you disagree.
 
UN says India's Caste-System is a Human Rights Abuse
Absolutely is. No two ways about it.

hindu society is a very cruel one for women and poor.

a lot of pakistanis, especially punjabis, are still clinging onto this caste rubbish - bragging about being rajput/raja/araeen.. even jatt and gujjar.. jeez.. the way kaanjar, chooray and chamar are treated in rural punjab is deplorable even today, generations after being muslims..and lets not even start with the syed nonsense...
Yeah right. Hindu culture is quite prevalent in Pakistan or you want to imply that Punjabis are Hindus??? Dude, its a social issue no longer a religious one.

It is not Hinduism or Islam or Christianity, it is our society that has discriminated based on gender and financial status, which grew onto opression of women and caste system. I am not sure about Pakistan, but in Indian rural areas there is an immediate need to put a curb on caste based violence and hatred.

I was even told by some indian members here, i don't understand

how wonderful caste system works for India.

Now UN show the true face of castes system
Care to quote Some. I'd like to personally fry their a@ses for it.

Generally Indians that would support caste system would not be capable of articulating their thoughts in English leave alone accessing Internet and posting here.

Only cure is education -
Again agree 100%. Any educated indian supporting Caste system would be hard to come by, its just that almost 40% can't even write their names leave alone the moral and ethical education.
 
Grey boy did you see any of the Indian members here supporting caste systems?? its a bad system and its banned by law..but its hard to get it out from peoples mind in rural areas ..
...

Caste system is not at all banned by our Law.Its not bad system too_Only caste based discrimination is banned by law.There is no need to remove caste system from our country.

I am from TamilNadu - India. In rural side we will see "society" units representing the caste helps a lot in improving the living standards of people n their caste.I know a lot of banks/companies being run by some communities which provide employment only to that people from their caste .

Caste system helps a lot in improving the living standard of people.

Please do not get confused by these western people.We are culturally far ahead of any civilization existing in the world.Their culture just gave ghengis khan or Gori kind of cruel kings who even kill innocent civilians. We had great kings like Ashoka , Prithviraj chauhan who can even forgive the enemy king and just let them go_Our Dharma is fit for any society and any time unlike others.
 
First question why do you think caste system is wrong ? Never say anything about low caste or upper caste. I argue the discrimination purely based on the economic status only. Its not 1947 that you cannot leave your home town and have to stay accepting the discrimination. It has been 60 years and we have lot of options and opportunities wide open everywhere. If you lead a "good life with good financial support can earn respect everywhere.I know Brahmans by birth cleaning toilets and people from low caste ruling the country.Its purely based on economic status only.

If there is no caste system this discrimination will increase but not decreaseYou can share your thoughts if you disagree.

Excuse my interjection.

Predominantly economics-based initiatives indeed make sense for India - as far as I can tell as an outsider. That's what people have been increasingly advocating for the US, too. For poor, rural Chinese, there are voices internally that clamour on their behalf in this direction as well.

There would be advantages in moving from a caste-based affirmative action program to a "class"-based one (hopefully in a strictly financial wherewithal sense). The challenge is how not to trade one evil for another - to have demagogue-led "caste wars" substituted by demagogue-led "class wars".

We know from experience in the last century over many parts of the world that the latter was capable of causing even more blood shed.

"Doing it" slow, doing it steady, and doing it with a multi-pronged approach seems most prudent.
 
I don't understand this article?
it doesn't talk about some remedial policy to be implemented...what is this article about?
We all condemn the caste system yes we do and so does the constitution of india...but can someone cater to my stupidity by highlighting the parts of the article that I missed/didn't understand?
 
Caste system is not at all banned by our Law.Its not bad system too_Only caste based discrimination is banned by law.There is no need to remove caste system from our country.

I am from TamilNadu - India. In rural side we will see "society" units representing the caste helps a lot in improving the living standards of people n their caste.I know a lot of banks/companies being run by some communities which provide employment only to that people from their caste .

Caste system helps a lot in improving the living standard of people.

Please do not get confused by these western people.We are culturally far ahead of any civilization existing in the world.Their culture just gave ghengis khan or Gori kind of cruel kings who even kill innocent civilians. We had great kings like Ashoka , Prithviraj chauhan who can even forgive the enemy king and just let them go_Our Dharma is fit for any society and any time unlike others.

I would be the last one to entirely dismiss your view, even though I have never been to Tamil Nadu. Yours is not too different - in a way - from those from the Black American Community who had "reservations" about the benefits of integration.

I know (albeit very superficially) about the "misgivings" held by Black American "self-sufficiency" advocates such as Booker T. Washington.

At a micro-level, you have a point. All countries/civilizations have a penchant to form "societies". One thing that struck me after I came to Canada was to see the various "同乡会" (loosely translated to "provincial fraternity association"s) studding the various parts of Chinatown - and many of them were at the "sub-Cantonese" level that cater to people from just a particular "region"!

Anyhow, these organizations can be enormously "adaptive". But their potential to be "maladaptive" on a "national scene" is also enormous ...
 
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