GFA President welcomes Indias first woman and Dalit Speaker

The election of Meira Kumar as the Indian Parliament’s first woman and first Dalit Speaker is “great cause for celebration”, says Gospel for Asia President K P Yohannan.

Mrs Kumar was unanimously elected to her new role and fifth term in the legislative body as a member of the Congress Party in India’s recent general elections.

Mr Yohannan said her election was a “huge event” for India where he said the most neglected people had traditionally been women.

“And the women who are treated the absolute worst are Dalit women,” he said.

The Dalits are a group of people in India known as the untouchables. Although the caste system has been abolished for decades, Dalits still face discrimination, particularly in the areas of work and education.

“Now the most despised people in the most abused people group have a voice in one of the world’s largest government bodies – the Indian Parliament,” said Mr Yohannan.

Mrs Kumar represents one of India’s poorest states, Bihar. She is the daughter of the well known Dalit leader and former deputy prime minister, Babu Jagjivan Ram.

At a press conference following her election she vowed to be “completely impartial” in her conduct as Speaker of the Parliament.

Her elevation to one of the top constitutional posts was hailed as a "truly historic" moment by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Mrs Kumar, who has previously backed proposals for a civil rights amendment benefiting people from low caste backgrounds, is a “great political force”, Mr Yohannan added.

"Now she holds great power, so when the issues involving human rights or the downtrodden people groups come up, she will be the one to decide if the issue will be heard,” he said.

"We will be praying for her as she makes decisions that have the power to radically transform the lives of the millions of Dalits in India."

Mrs Kumar’s election comes as Catholic and Protestant groups in India this week pressed the new government to implement Scheduled Caste reservations for Dalit Christians.

Under the reservation system, a quota of jobs and places must be set aside for Dalits in government and educational institutions, but so far the reservation system has applied only to Hindu and Sikh Dalits.

Spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India Babu Joseph said this week that the Dalit Christian issue had been “ignored” by successive governments.

“We will now be seeking reservations in government jobs, educational institutions and politics for them from the newly elected government," he said.