NEWS BY THOSE
WHO LIVE IT

Untouchability: Mid-wives excluded from celebrations

 
/ April 24, 2012

Most midwives in India belong to the Dalit community. Once the child is born, however, the touch of a midwife is deemed unacceptable to the mother and child. Celebrations of the birth continue without her participation. At most, she is invited but will be kept away from the festivities and...

Sewage workers denied safety equipment

 
/ April 18, 2012

A sanitation worker shares with Community Correspondent Rohini Pawsar, how he has lot all hope of receiving basic dignity. The caste system in India prescribes that all menial and filthy jobs be done by the ‘lowest’ caste. In continuation of this ‘tradition’, sanitation workers around the country are almost always...

Polluting Touch: Taps cleaned after Dalit’s touch

 
/ April 17, 2012

Village women and children vigorously clean common water taps only because a Dalit has used it before them. They maintain that even if a Dalit has brushed up against it, the tap has to be ‘purified’. This is a clear sign of Untouchability as is practised in many parts of...

Hands chopped off for quenching thirst: Polluting touch

 
/ April 17, 2012

When a thirsty youth drank water from a pot meant for other castes, the reaction was immediate and brutal. He was abused, assaulted and his hands were chopped off. Community Correspondent, Satyawan Verma interviews the young man belonging to Chamar community whose hand was chopped off for quenching his thirst....

Polluting touch: Rotis thrown from a distance

 
/ April 14, 2012

An “upper caste” household pays a sweeper women for her services by standing at a distance and flinging food like charity into the folds of her sari. Community Correspondent, Sunita Kasera shows how the woman belonging to Bhangi(Dalit) community is not allowed into the compounds of houses and are given...

Woman Sarpanch Brings Change to Rural India

 
/ March 29, 2012

Sukhvantibai leads the way in Chhattisgarh