Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I want to thank you for the privilege and honour of testifying before you on a very important subject that is related not only to India and its people, but also to the whole world. We all know that for the past 60 years India has had a

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, sir. You're right. Durban actually was the first global meeting at which Dalits finally managed at least to come and be present, even though they were not given a full place at the table for discussion. Problem number two has been an ongoing battle with the Indian p

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. There is an International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination in the UN, the CERD committee, at which a lot of nations have a voice. That committee has gone into detail. In a report released on March 9, 2007, when they called the Indian govern

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 s

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  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 significan

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 tribal

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 E

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 slave

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

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

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 Af

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 i