August 10^th -Black Day for India’s Dalit Christians and Muslims

New Delhi, 10 August 2013: Black Day was observed in New Delhi on 9^th August 2013 in front of the Sacred Heart Church. Anil Couto, Archbishop of Delhi and Regional chairperson for commission for SC/OBC presided over the program. Dr. Alwan Masih the General secretary of Church of North India(CNI) synod, Advocate Mushtaque Ahmed,Hafeez Ahmad Hawari, National President, All India Jamiatul Hawareen, bishops, priests, pastors, nuns Christian and Muslim leaders participated in the demonstration and expressed their solidarity with the Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. Dalit Christian and Dalit Muslim Volunteers demonstrated half naked with black flag. Slogans were raised to demand the Union government to resolve the issue and reply to the Supreme Court.

A press statement released on the occasion demanded: that the Union Government should come forward to resolve the issue immediately without further delay, and that the Government should give appropriate answer to the query of the Supreme Court based on the recommendation of Justice Ranganath Misra Commission’s report.

The statement recalled that the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) order 1950 was signed on 10^th August 1950 by the then President of India which says that “No person who professes a religion other than Hinduism shall be deemed to be a member of the Scheduled Caste” which was later amended to include Sikhs (1956) and Buddhists (1990) in the Scheduled Caste net. This order is against the Secular nature (Preamble of the Constitution) of the country, against Article 14(Equality before the law), against article 15(prohibition of discrimination of any citizen on ground of only religion), Article 25 (Freedom of Conscience and free to profess any religion), Article 26 (equality before the law and equal protection of the law) and against the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a party.

Civil Writ petition 180/2004 in the Supreme Court of India praying the deletion of paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) order 1950 is still pending in the Supreme Court of India for the past nine years since the UPA Government is not replying to the Supreme Court. Thus Constitutional rights for Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims are denied based on religion for more than 63 years, the press statement pointed out.

Different commissions appointed by the Government have clearly recommended that Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims should be included in the Scheduled Caste list.

The national Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has recommended that Scheduled Caste status must be extended to the Christians and Muslims of Scheduled Caste Origin. The National Commission for Minorities too has given its consent.
Till now twelve State Governments and Union Territories have recommended to Union of India for granting SC status to these people. The Bihar State Assembly, Uttar Pradesh State Assembly and Andhra Pradesh state Assembly have passed resolution for granting SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims in the years 2000, 2006 and 2009 respectively.
The event was organized by Fr. Z. Devasagayaraj, Secretary, SC/BC of CBCI, Mr. Samuel Jayakumar, Executive Secretary, NCCI, Mr. Franklin Caesar Thomas, National Coordinator, NCDCSource:CBCI News