Around 100 participants came from around the globe to IHEU’s first “World Conference on Untouchability” to share successful strategies to combat a problem they described as “the most widespread, pernicious and intractable form of discrimination on Earth.” The conference, held in London’s Conway Hall Humanist Centre on June 9 and 10, brought together politicians, academics and grassroots leaders to explore a problem that afflicts nearly 250 million people.

Political leaders at the conference included: Lord Desai and Lord Avebury from the House of Lords; Binod Pahadi, Member of the Constituent Assembly, Nepal; and Tina Ramirez, US Congressional Fellow on International Religious Freedom. They were joined by scores of grassroots activists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Nigeria, Sudan and Pakistan; plus academics and experts from across Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Speakers revealed the historic and global reach of Untouchability, which is found in many different cultures and traditions, afflicting nearly 250 million people in countries ranging from Japan to Nigeria. The origin of Untouchability across the world seems to be connected to religious ideas of purity and the desire to separate people who worked in jobs that were seen as impure or polluting, such as scavengers, sanitation workers, butchers, leather workers, and those dealing with the dead. This discrimination by descent remains deeply interwoven with the religious and social systems in many regions. But we did hear of countries – such as Sweden, France, and, more recently, Korea – where Untouchability has been consigned to history.

The presentations on Untouchability in East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa were fascinating, but most attention focused on India and South Asia where more than 200 million Untouchables live. In India “Untouchables” are now called “Dalits”. As one speaker revealed, “Dalit” literally means “those who are crushed” or “broken”. The Conference revealed how Untouchability was a source of many other urgent problems. For example, Untouchability is the source of the largest number of slaves in the world, because so many Untouchables are forced into indentured servitude. And there are more than a 100 000 temple prostitutes in India forced into sexual slavery because of their caste. Millions of children cannot even go to school because they are “Untouchable”. Child marriage, and the attendant trafficking of girls, is often a way to prevent inter-caste relations. As one of the Indian speakers said, “Untouchabilty is a Gordian knot: to cut it we must destroy the whole caste system.”

In the opening keynote address of the conference, Lord Desai gave a powerful analysis of the great progress made against Untouchability in his native India and the great work that remains to be done. He compared the situation of Dalits in India to that of black Americans, progressing from slavery to President Obama, but still facing inequities. He noted that the legal abolition of discrimination is a necessary step, but it is not sufficient to overcome the legacy of discrimination which includes issues of class, social status and economic deprivation.

On a sombre note, Desai noted that untouchables have their own caste system, with the “scavenger castes” at the bottom. Government “reservations” of jobs, education and other benefits tend to benefit the upper- level Dalits who still discriminate against lower-level Dalits. More positively, Desai pointed out that South India had made more progress because it was less socially conservative thanks in part to a history of leaders who openly rejected religion.

Lord Avebury, from the British House of Lords, outlined a plan of action that could be implemented through existing and new UK legislation, along with ways to improve UN action against Untouchability. Tina Ramirez, US Congressional Fellow on International Religious Freedom, revealed many legislative initiatives in the US to survey Untouchability and pressure governments to do more to combat it. She also spoke of new initiatives to prosecute funding from US to groups promoting religious violence.

These proposals, and many others shared over the two-day conference, fed into the final
conference declaration calling for global recognition of the problem of Untouchability and specific measures to remove this baleful and pernicious form of inhumanity.

But for me, the most powerful outcome of this conference was a series of indelible images: a woman, filmed by CNN, performing the traditional Untouchable occupation of cleaning public toilets with her bare hands; British radio stations playing Indian rap music that denigrates lower castes; the gun battle at a Sikh temple in Vienna in May, which was just one example of caste-based violence in the West; Babu Gogineni investigating the murder of an Untouchable woman who had dared to become richer than her upper-caste neighbours; the lower-caste politician who joined the Government in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and then saw the cabinet room washed out after every meeting to cleanse it of his presence; Dalit women standing up against the double discrimination of misogyny and Untouchability. The list goes on of unspeakable treatment, but also of inspiring courage.

There is hope for progress against the scourge of Untouchability if we can take some of this courage and apply it to the agenda agreed at IHEU’s groundbreaking conference.

Matt Cherry is IHEU International Representative, USA