wfn.org | LWI 2009-017 Churches Called to Recognize Image of God in Dalit Women

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Churches Called to Recognize Image of God in Dalit Women
Ecumenical Workshop Addresses Gender-Based Caste Discrimination

BANGKOK/GENEVA, 27 March 2009 (LWI) - Participants in a workshop at the  Global Ecumenical Conference on Justice for Dalits in Bangkok, Thailand,  have highlighted the close connection between caste and patriarchy. The  Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the World Council of Churches  organized the 21-24 March gathering, which was hosted by the Christian  Conference of Asia.

Entitled "Multiple Discriminations: Special Characteristics of the  Situation of Dalit Women and Dalit Christians," the workshop uncovered the  additional layers of stigma and degrading treatment Dalit women face as a  result of their sex.

"The moment [a body] is a Dalit, that body becomes 'feminized' and we need  to seriously look into caste and patriarchy together," challenged Rev. Dr  Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar, chair of the Department of Women's Studies  at United Theological College in Bangalore, India, an ecumenical institutio n of the Arcot Lutheran Church.

Caste, class and gender combine to silence and subjugate Dalit women,  shared Mr. Pirbhu Satyani, advocacy officer for Thardeep Rural Development  Programme in Pakistan's Sindh province. "Dalit women are treated as  third-class citizens in Pakistan."

According to Bishop Dr. Vedanayagam Devasahayam of the Church of South  India, Madras Diocese, caste-based discrimination often contributes to the  feminization of poverty. In India, where a majority of the 1.2 million  Dalits are women, Dalits are forced to do degrading, unsanitary jobs for a  pittance.

The women must "clean dry latrines with the help of minimum aids, usually  a pair of tin scrapers and a wicker bucket or basket, remove and carry  human excreta on their heads to the dumping sites," reported Devasahayam.

Karuppaiah, a Dalit living in a slum in Chennai in the southern Indian  state of Tamil Nadu, commented, "I obviously know it is disgusting, but I  have no option other than to do this work."

Church-based initiatives are taking steps to offer Dalit women alternatives  to such debasing and impoverishing employment.

Through their Slum Women's Advancement Programme, the Women in Church and  Society desk of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India provides  microloans to women in the slums of Chennai to help them establish new  livelihoods.

Ms. Indira Ghale, treasurer of the Nepali Feminist Dalit Organization,  shared that LWF World Service Nepal strives to empower Dalit women through  advocacy, income generation and capacity building.

Workshop participants-representatives of churches and church-related  organizations from all over the world-agreed that such initiatives towards  Dalit women's emancipation are a welcome sign but raised the question  whether they can bear the desired result in the face of widespread,  deep-rooted prejudice present even in the churches.

"I have no issues sharing the Eucharist with a Dalit but I will never get  her married to a boy who is a Dalit," asserted a caste Christian from  India, speaking about his daughter under condition of anonymity.

The participants called for the churches to recognize the current  treatment of Dalit women as sinful and dehumanizing. They urged the  worldwide ecumenical community to affirm that women are also created in  the image of God and that any form of abuse of women distorts the divine  image in each human being.

(A contribution by Timothy Melvyn, communication officer for the United  Evangelical Lutheran Church in India)

More information on the Global Ecumenical Conference on Justice for Dalits  is available at http://www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/OIahr/OIAHR-Dalit_J ustice.html

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(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran  tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140  member churches in 79 countries all over the world, with a total membership  of over 68.5 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in  areas of common interest such as ecumenical and interfaith relations,  theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the  various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is  located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless  specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or  opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an  article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced  with acknowledgment.]

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