Massive Rally to Demand Scheduled Caste Status to Dalit Christians

(June 23, 2011) The National Coordination Committee for Dalit Christians and the National Council of Dalit Christians are organizing a massive hunger strike from 25th July to 27th July 2011 at New Delhi concluding with a Parliament march on 28th July 2011. Bishops, Leaders, people of Christian community, Muslim community and Civil Society from different parts the country will participate. Christians of Scheduled Caste Origin, also called Dalit Christians, have been asserting their right for equal Constitutional provisions on a par with Dalits of this country. This has been denied to them historically by the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order 1950, Paragraph 3. This exclusion of people of Scheduled Caste (SC) Origin who adhere to religions other than Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism from their fundamental rights has caused great concern and has been debated from the very beginning of its promulgation. If providing reservation is a way of including the historically excluded, then denying it merely on the basis of religion is a serious violation of the Constitution and its principles of Secularism and Freedom of Religion. The National Commission for Minorities has already written to the Union Government stating that Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims should be included in the Scheduled Caste list. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has expressed the same in April 2010. Progressively it is becoming clear that the present UPA Government itself is against giving this right to the Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians.