(RE: UA-28-2001 - Mixed-caste couple hanged by own families )

Dear, Dear Ms. Robinson,

I am deeply concerned about the caste system and believe that the WCAR will be a failure unless it addresses caste oppression as a form of racial discrimination on the basis of work and descent!

Please, read this message!!!

From my own experience in India, I know that the caste-system is (still!) very deep rooted within the Indian society as a whole! Especially if you've got the misfortune of being born within a caste or sub-caste (jati) which is seen by others (higher castes or jati's) as low and unpure. This whole system is organized and regulated by strict socialcultural behaviour.

As a Dalit your life or 'destiny' is that you have no right whatsoever to develop social-economically as higher castes. You are concerned to be an 'untouchable' which is been looked upon as very low and dirty/inpure by others higher socially ranked. If ever you will try to intertwine of interact with people from higher castes than yourself in any way, this is seen as a crime and you will be punished for it. So this is discrimination!

For example, I have been on a 'chickenfarm' of a middleclass Indian family. The people working for them were of a lower caste (of course) than the owner and were clearly treated that way! Which means, that they were screamed upon and ordered/dictated to do whatever the owner
wanted in a way that showed no respect whatsoever and made me feel very very discomfortable! As these people were totally dependend upon their 'master' - some of them even because of generated debt by their ancestors - they can't do anything but listen and follow the orders.
If not, they will be punished in any way, dependent on the will of the owner. It is somehow like slavery.

Allthough the Indian law bans discrimination and India is often looked upon as being 'worlds biggest democracy', in real life these people have no rights or even the same opportunities as others.
For them it often all depends on well-willingness of higher individuals. There are many many stories of punishments of 'lower' individuals that even go as far as murder! Often not even investigated by the police, which is widely known for its high corruptive manners. As you might know: in India everything
is possible as long as you've got money for 'baksish'. Unfortunate, something that lacks in the lower castes ofcourse!

This problem should be adressed as a topic in this World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance - don't you think?!

Therefore, I sincerely, strongly hope and kindly urge you to do everything whithin your possibilities and responsibility to stand up for all these people in South Asia and millions all over the world that have no voice, not really anyway, to fight for their rights themselves!!!

I plead to you to include caste in the agenda, despite the intransigence and pressure from the Indian government on the issue.

Yours sincerely,

Lousco Grasman
(The Netherlands)

P.S. Please, forgive me my English spelling!


==================================================================

Dear Ms. Robinson

RE: CASTE IS STILL KILLING - PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE IT IN WCAR!

It is hard to believe that the caste system in India can still be so entrenched that a young couple were publicly hanged to death by their families on Monday because they were in love and from different castes. The whole village of Alipur in Uttar Pradesh and both sets of parents were supportive of the murders of the two, aged 20 and 18.

I understand that the problem goes much deeper than preventing inter-caste marriages. For a Dalit to drink from the upper caste well, enter an upper caste home, sit with upper caste students, worship in an upper caste temple, or do work outside of their caste-designated jobs, is to be guilty of a social crime punishable by rape, economic boycott, stripping and public parading, or murder. These atrocities happen every week in India, and often go unreported, uninvestigated, or ignored by police. Further, I am aware that this is in fact a global problem, with caste abuse prevalent all through South Asia as well as in Japan and West Africa.

So it has come as a shock to me that this enormous problem may not even be discussed at the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance beginning this month. Hundreds of millions of people around the world will wonder what the conference was for if it does not try to understand and respond to the discrimination they face every day because of the family they were born into. I urge you to use your good offices as Secretary General to the conference to ensure that another opportunity for the international community to address the caste system does not pass by. After 3,000 years of caste violence, the Dalits and other low caste people deserve this much.

Yours sincerely

Thiruvalluvar, Augustine, Anna Gill, Cheung Choka
IYCW ASPAC, Hong Kong
--------------------------------------------------------------

A. Roks
The Netherlands
--------------------------------------------------------------

Nicole Michael
--------------------------------------------------------------

Chandra Muzaffar
President,
International Movement for a Just World
Malaysia
--------------------------------------------------------------

Tyrell Haberkorn
128 Linn Street
Ithaca, NY 14850

==============================================================

Dear Ms. Robinson,

CASTE IS STILL KILLING - PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE IT IN WCAR

It is hard to believe that the caste system in India can still be so entrenched that a young couple were publicly hanged to death by their cheering families in Uttar Pradesh (India) on Monday because they were in love and from different castes.

Of course I do understand that in India ( as well as in other countries of the world) the problem goes much deeper than preventing inter-caste marriages. Not many people still ignore the atrocities committed against the Dalits.

Furthermore, I am fully aware that these atrocities are part of a global problem, with caste abuse prevalent all through South Asia as well as in Japan and West Africa. So I am confident that this problem will be discussed - as a priority item - at the WCAR.

I do urge you to use your good offices as Secretary General to the conference to ensure that another opportunity for the international community to address the caste system does not pass by. No doubt, all human beings on this planet will surely agree that, after 3,000 years of caste violence, the Dalits and other low caste people deserve this much.

Yours very sincerely,




Bernard de Guchteneere,
Avenue de Broqueville 125/12,
B - 1200 Brussels. Belgium