Caste discrimination against India's 'untouchables' is an international issue

For years, the Government of India has opposed efforts to place the issue of caste discrimination on the agenda of the international community. This attitude is counterproductive as it would be to India's advantage to support such efforts and take the lead in the global struggle against a form of discrimination which affects an estimated 260 million people around the world.

The caste system may be outlawed in India, but legislation is poorly implemented, and the country's 200 million Dalits – formerly known as 'untouchables' – continue to suffer appalling forms of discrimination. Murder, rape and other crimes against them are mostly committed with impunity, while many Dalits experience forced prostitution and other forms of modern slavery.

India has much to gain from encouraging international involvement in this issue. Its endorsement of a UN framework to eliminate caste discrimination would set an example to other countries and strengthen its own unsuccessful efforts to end this human rights problem. Such a framework exists in the form of the draft UN Principles and Guidelines to eliminate caste discrimination, which have been published, but not yet adopted, by the UN Human Rights Council.

Recently, civil society activists and an Indian MP have urged the government to stop opposing the inclusion of caste discrimination in the international human rights regime, and to become a champion of the draft UN Principles and Guidelines in the UN. However, government officials continue to reject such claims based on misguided interpretations of caste discrimination in the context of international human rights law.

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