Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Dalit leaders who came to Durban, sir, in South Africa carried banners saying that caste is worse than apartheid. The fact that a running prime minister of the country has compared untouchability to apartheid, whether it is actually playing out as apartheid played out in South Africa--

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I consider the practice of untouchability worse than apartheid.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Years of degradation and centuries of degradation, etc., have compounded the problem. A host of issues are at play. One of the great issues at play, because of a society that does not give equal value to human beings, is the value of a girl child. So Dalit parents are complicit in selling their children, especially a girl child, because the girl child is a beast of burden.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Sir, the caste system has been shielded--the impact, and the way the caste system works out. There are children of the upper caste who are shielded from that by their parents and all, so there is that growing consonance in India, which is largely urban, that would say it is not there.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Sir, just as there are the Sullivan Principles in relation to apartheid in South Africa, we have developed a set of principles called the Ambedkar Principles, which I'd be more than happy to send. You all can have them. The Ambedkar Principles guide industries and companies in their association with India so that when they go out....

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. We have to accept and admit that provisions were given in the constitution to the Dalits in a variety of areas called reservations or affirmative actions. Policies were also given in the political sphere, where reserved constituencies were kept for the Dalits, and a certain amount of reserved constituencies of Dalits are brought into Parliament.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Human trafficking, the selling of children and the abduction or deception of children, has become a larger problem. As the U.S. State Department report says, India is the destination and the source. Now there is evidence of Indian children and girls being trafficked into Middle Eastern states and other places, including Burma, the U.K., the U.S., and even Canada.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There is an increasing amount of material now available in India and many other places about the size and the scope of the problem. I think one idea is to bring awareness to all our lawmakers across the world about the size of this problem. This is not a small issue. Modern slavery--human trafficking--is bigger and worse than slavery ever was in South Africa or the United States 200 years ago when people were taking slaves out of Africa.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  One principle that we are suggesting is that when non-relatives--meaning not family, somebody who is not related--are bringing a child into the country, antecedental research be done and a trail be made before they're allowed. If you don't do that, you won't know where they came from, who brought them, what certificates they have, who their parents are, what their address is.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I wrote a blog as soon as Slumdog came out, before it became an Oscar-winning and award-winning movie. I knew there would be controversy. In the blog, I wrote that this was an accurate description of life in India for the 70% majority, especially for the Dalits and for the tribals.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  She is one of the bright spots of current Dalit politics. She's single, herself a victim of social abuse, so she knows first-hand what it is not only to be Dalit but what it is to be abused as a woman. She has built in one state--the state of Uttar Pradesh, which has a significant Dalit population and a significant Muslim population--an alliance, which now makes her quite a formidable political power in that one state.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  What I'm saying is that there are forces in all of our political parties who, when they come to power, have a hidden agenda of perpetuating the caste system and holding to the caste system, and then giving the spin to the rest of the world that the caste system is gone from India.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, sir. The situation with regard to the discrimination against the Dalits and their situation in view of a constitution that condemned untouchability in its practice is very similar to what happened in the United States with regard to the problem of racism and blatant slavery, even though there was a constitution that declared that all men were equal before God.