Apropos of Air Marshal Vir Narain’s article in this issue “Human Rights And Social Ills: The Dalit Case” the writer correctly writes that despite legislative measures, social evils of the vilest variety continue to plague Indian society: caste-prejudice, caste-violence, female foeticide, dowry deaths, child-labour, religious killings etc., and I agree with him that these are a disgrace to Indian society. There can also be no disagreement about the conclusion that the solution to these problems ultimately lies in education.

However I would like to mention a few clarifications with reference to the rest of his article.

What are human rights?: The contention that these social ills should not be dealt with under the rubric of human rights violations is baffling. Call them social ills or crimes, if they are not violating human rights, what then are they violating? A human right is a human right, whatever one may term its violation.

Human Rights Act: The Protection of Human Rights Act (1993) which established the Indian National Human Rights Commission defines human rights as ‘the rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by courts in India’. The Act mentions specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The social ills/evils which Air Marshal Narain contends do not come under the purview of human rights are indeed, I believe, covered under the Indian Act, and under the International Covenants. In practice, the Human Rights Commission - or its State level counterparts - have routinely gone beyond issues of civil liberties and have addressed cases as diverse as starvation deaths, marriages and dowry related harassment, violation of human rights by insurgent groups etc. It is true that the state has to be involved in protecting human rights, but the offender need not always be the state.

Social evils and human rights NGO’s: Social evils leading to the situation of Dalits have existed for centuries. If the problem has existed for so long, if India is a soft state, not capable of implementing laws in a ‘draconian’ fashion in the light of centuries-old traditions, and in this context if domestic voluntary organisations have not been able to make a difference, is it perhaps too harsh to find fault with NGOs, specially when even Governments are finding it very difficult to make a difference?

Moral support and solidarity: I do not see anything wrong in the victims seeking moral support and solidarity from wherever they can within the legal framework that they operate in. In the same way as Indians extended moral support to victims of apartheid, offered relief to victims of natural disasters even outside India, so should the international community rally around the victims of the social calamity that Untouchability is. Is only business allowed to globalise in the modern world, and not solidarity?

Untouchability is international: Air Marshal Vir Narain suggests that the work to improve the situation ‘has to be on Indian soil and under the harsh Indian sun - and not in the air-conditioned conference halls of international fora’. Even if the writer cites only western sources in his own article, I have sympathy with this view point. But the problem of Untouchability or ex-Untouchable communities goes beyond the national borders of India to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, Nigeria, Yemen etc. Why should these Dalits not come together to examine their situation and work to improve it? And if Untouchability has been a phenomenon in human history as is now obvious, why not try to understand those societies like France and Spain which have got rid of it?

IHEU World Conference: It is true that India has the largest affirmative action program in place, and unfortunately it is not working well at all - but nothing else is working well either. This said, it must be recognised that neither Nigeria, Japan, Nepal nor Pakistan have anything comparable to the vision and reach of India’s program or of India’s legislation addressing the Untouchability situation. This issue has been covered in the previous special number of IHN on Untouchability. Perhaps it is time to tell those countries of India’s experience, achievements and challenges, and to encourage them to implement effective programs. IHEU is organising a World Conference on Untouchability in June 2009 precisely for this reason. The Conference we propose to organise is not an instrument for possible abuse by some meddlesome foreign government, but a forum for the meeting of minds and activists who will examine ways and means of moving forward. It is our explicit aim to create a non confrontational meeting point for representatives of so-called Untouchable communities, victims, activists, academics and representatives of governments to examine the situation, share experiences, and to do something about what is a shame for humanity, not just for Nigeria, Yemen, Japan or the Indian sub continent.

Babu Gogineni is IHEU's International Director