wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Caste-based discrimination within churches must end, Christian leaders say

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 30/09/2009 16:16:53

INDIAN CHRISTIAN LEADERS CALL FOR AN END TO CASTE-BASED
DISCRIMINATION, ALSO WITHIN CHURCHES

As the United Nations has made a small but significant step
forward towards declaring caste-based discrimination a human
rights violation, Indian Christian leaders have called on the
churches to confess that the caste system is still being
practised also within them. 

The call came as senior representatives of the National Council
of Churches in India (NCCI) met to discuss the churches' response
to poverty and exclusion on the International Day of Prayer for
Peace (21 September).

An ecumenical Living Letters team representing the fellowship of
the World Council of Churches (WCC) was also present at the
debate held at the YMCA Conference Hall in New Delhi. The
ecumenical group expressed its solidarity with the NCCI in
overcoming violence in all its forms – from poverty and neglect
to discrimination and murder.

Bishop Taranath S. Sagar, NCCI president, said: "There are
millions of people who are subject to poverty and discrimination
by the caste system in India. This is equal to racism. The
outcast Dalits are being treated as untouchables, not having
access to dignified human lives and subjected to all kinds of
humiliation".

"Women are being raped, children are undernourished, food is not
available to everyone and natural resources are not being
distributed equally. Although the Constitution has laws to
protect these people, in practise it is not happening," he added.

The Indian Constitution first outlawed discrimination on the
basis of caste in 1955 with the introduction of the
Anti-Untouchability Act, later renamed the Civil Right Act in
1979. Further protection for the outcast Dalits and tribal
Adivasi people came with the Prevention of Atrocities Act in
1989. However, according to church leaders and social activists
in India, the implementation of these laws has been almost non
existent.

Bishop Dr D.K. Sahu, NCCI general secretary, said: "The Indian
church has to make a confession first. If you are alienated in
society and you become a Christian, you are alienated again. We
tell them, 'if you become Christian then there is no
discrimination', but once they become Christian they are looked
down upon by Christians of higher castes. A higher caste
Christian will never marry a Dalit Christian, yet we say we are
all one." 

Meanwhile, progress has been made towards addressing caste-based
discrimination at the global level through the UN system. On 16
September, the government of Nepal, a South Asian country
affected by caste-based discrimination, has supported a recently
published draft of UN principles and guidelines that recognizes
caste-based discrimination as a violation of human rights. The
draft was also supported by the presidency of the European Union
and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

Earlier in September, the WCC Central Committee had called on
member churches to "recognize that the continued discrimination
and exclusion of millions of people on the basis of caste" is a
"serious challenge to the credibility of their witness to their
faith in God". 

Following questions put by the Living Letters team, the Indian
church leaders explained what initiatives they were supporting in
order to end caste discrimination. The NCCI is backing public
interest litigation in the Supreme Court, making the case that
Dalits and tribal people of Christian and Muslim identity are not
covered by the Prevention of Atrocities Act. 

During Lent, the NCCI called on Christians to fast for justice
in the name of Dalit liberation. NCCI members are involved in
ecumenical dialogue about how the church can be just and
inclusive. A number of campaigns by nongovernmental organisations
also have the backing of the NCCI, such as Safai Karmachari
Andolan - a campaign to end manual scavenging led by Bezwada
Wilson. 

Rev. Dr P.B.M. Basaiawmoit, NCCI vice president, said: "In
India, there is apartheid. The Dalit issue is a racist issue.
Dalits are not seen as human beings." Tribals were being treated
with even less regard than Dalits, he added. 

Living Letters visit to India:

http://www.overcomingviolence.org/en/peace-convocation/living-letters-visits/india.html

WCC Central Committee statement on caste-based discrimination:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7157

WCC member churches in India:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/asia/india.html

Additional information: Juan Michel +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.