ICC Note:

Christians in India are planning to highlight the discrimination suffered by Dalit members of their faith on August 10. Dalits, sometimes also known as “untouchables”, are people from India’s lowest castes. Discriminated against for generations, India has enacted policies to help members of this low caste community develop. Unfortunately, these policies only extend to Dalits from Hindu, Buddhist, or Sikh backgrounds and are denied to Dalits from Christian or Muslim backgrounds. Such massive discrimination based on one’s faith identity remains one of the  most difficult issues facing religious minorities in India. Will demonstrations on August 10 help highlight the suffering faced by Dalit Christians? 

07/24/2017 India (Herald Malaysia) – This August 10th will be a “Black Day” to highlight the discrimination suffered by Dalit Christians in India for 67 years. It is the initiative launched by the Indian Bishops’ Conference (CBCI) Office of Dalits and the Disadvantaged Classes. In recent days, the bishops expressed their solidarity with the new president, Ram Nath Kovind, of dalit origins. They also want to remind people that the country implements a constitutional-based discrimination against those Dalits that embrace Christianity.

The constitutional order of 1950 on the “scheduled caste”, signed on August 10, 1950 by the then president of India [Rajendra Prasad, ndr] states that “No person professing a religion other than Hinduism may be considered a member of Scheduled Caste “. Subsequently, the order was modified to include Sikhs (in 1956) and Buddhists (in 1990).

The bishops complain that civil petition 180/2004, which requested the deletion of paragraph 3 of the order of 1950, is still pending before the Supreme Court. That is, they argue that “the constitutional rights of Christian and Muslim Dalit have been denied for 67 years because of religion.” Specifically, ecclesiastical hierarchies believe that paragraph 3 is “unconstitutional, a black page written outside the Constitution and inserted through the black door of an executive order.”

…