India: Court Date Set for Dalit Christians’ Human Rights Case

The Indian Supreme Court has set 18 October as the date for a crucial delayed case on whether to assign Dalit Christians the same basic rights as Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Dalits, reports Mission Network News.
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Under current law, Dalits, the low caste of Indian society, have numerous basic rights including the right to work and the right to education. Such basic rights, however, are removed if Dalits convert to Christianity.

The Dalit Freedom Network are the sponsors of a conference to be held in Washington DC on 6 October to the attention of the world the many daily atrocities experienced by the Dalits in India.

The conference, entitled “Racism and Caste-Based Discrimination in India: Implications for the US-India Relationship”, will be followed by a House Hearing on ongoing acts of discrimination against the caste.

Gospel for Asia’s KP Yohannan is convinced the Dalits will win the case: “This is definitely going to happen because there is tremendous pressure from all sides, especially on the left, who are saying this needs to be done.

And, therefore I do not think they can say no to it especially with the world coming into the picture.”

Yohannan said the purpose of the conference was “to get the world [to] become aware of the slavery of these Dalits and this is another step needed to be taken so they can be freed from the grip of this caste system.”

|QUOTE|Mr Yohannan also predicts that a Supreme Court ruling in favour of the Dalits will encourage them to proclaim their faith in public even more fervently.

He added, however, that a positive outcome presented a challenge for the mission organisation with not enough trained pastors and lay leaders to disciple the Dalits.

“It’s a huge challenge. The Lord has to do something very significant. And, this is one of the reasons we have increased the number of students in our Bible schools this year, knowing that things are happening and we need to get ready and this is a challenge,” he said.

Mr Yohannan also said that lack of funding was a problem, despite it costing just $30 a month to train a student: “Every year we are turning away students from our Bible school simply because we don’t have the resources to keep them in our centre.

So, there’s not a lack of Christian workers, we just need to find a way to help them so we can get the work done.”