2016-08-11 16:38:00

Indian Church marks "Black Day" in support of Dalit Christians


India’s Christian community "does not require any special favours; it wants justice, equality and minority protection, guaranteed by the Constitution of the country. Like other Dalits, Christian Dalits face discrimination, and are not protected from violence since they do not fall within the official category of Scheduled Castes,” said Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the president of Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, (CCBI), the body of the country’s Latin Rite bishops.  The cardinal who is Archbishop of Bombay expressed his opinion to AsiaNews on the occasion of  the ‘Black Day’ protests held every year on 10 August to highlight the discrimination against Christian Dalits. 

Dalit which means "broken" or “downtrodden”, denotes former "untouchables" so low in ‎social status that they were considered outside the caste system of Hindu society.  The ‎Indian ‎Constitution has given special privileges to dalit, tribal groups and scheduled castes to ‎help their socioeconomic welfare.  A presidential notification limiting the privileges to ‎Hindus was twice ‎amended to add Sikh and Buddhist dalit after they protested being ‎excluded, but Christians and ‎Muslims of low caste origin were excluded.  ‎ For a long time, Dalit Christians and Muslims have deemed the notification discriminatory  and a violation of the constitutional principles of equality and freedom to choose one’s own religion.  Dalits represent about two thirds of India’s Christian community, who make up 2.3 per cent of the country’s population. 

CCBI had called on Catholics to observe a black day in their respective dioceses and institutions, with meetings, demonstrations, hunger strikes and candle vigils to show solidarity with Christians who suffer.  “Please make use of the media, especially social media, to spread the news to civil society," the bishops said.   The CCBI said, "Human development indicators of Dalit Christians show social, economic, political and cultural discrimination that lead to widening income inequalities, poverty levels, and denial of equal opportunities and access to resources and services. The government must end discrimination against Dalit Christians.”  Card. Gracias noted that even "in the Church, there is discrimination along caste lines”. But “as my late friend and Brother Archbishop Marampudi Joji would proudly say, ‘Only in the Catholic Church could a Dalit become an archbishop. I am the first Dalit archbishop.”  (Source: AsiaNews)

 

 








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