India Christians’ rally for Dalit Christians

(July 22, 2011) India’s Christians, including bishops and laypeople, have announced plans for a hunger strike and demonstration in the Indian capital New Delhi next week in support of Christian Dalit demands for Scheduled Caste status. Father Cosmon Arokiaraj of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) said the strike and demonstration will begin on Monday, ending with a rally procession on Thursday starting at the Ramlila grounds and terminating at Parliament. The rally has been organized by the National Coordination Committee for Dalit Christians, a joint program of the CBCI and the National Council of Churches in India, and will also include protesters of other faiths, Father Arokiaraj said. He said that for more than 60 years, Christians of Schedule Caste origin have been asserting their right for equal constitutional privileges on par with Dalits of other faith but with few results. Paragraph 3 of the Constitution made concessions for education and employment available to low caste Hindus, which were later extended to Sikhs and Buddhists, but Christians and Muslims were excluded.