Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University School of Law submit the following information to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (“Committee” or CERD) for consideration in its review of India’s fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth periodic reports under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

This joint-submission is based on in-depth HRW investigations on caste discrimination in India and the findings of Indian governmental and non-governmental organizations on caste-based abuses. Discriminatory and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of over 186 million people in India has been justified on the basis of caste. Caste is descent-based and hereditary in nature. It is a characteristic determined by one’s birth into a particular caste, irrespective of the faith practiced by the individual. Caste denotes a traditional system of rigid social stratification into ranked groups defined by descent and occupation. Caste divisions dominate in housing, marriage, employment, and general social interaction—divisions that are reinforced through the practice and threat of social ostracism, economic boycotts, and physical violence. This report focuses on the practice of “untouchability”—the imposition of social disabilities on persons by reason of their birth in certain castes. This practice relegates Dalits, or so-called untouchables (known in Indian legal parlance as scheduled castes), to a lifetime of discrimination, exploitation and violence, including severe forms of torture perpetrated by state and private actors in violation of the rights guaranteed by the Convention. Although the practice has been condemned by many Indian leaders, including most recently by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, unless the government accepts responsibility to end the widespread prejudice, crimes against Dalits will continue. India has consistently cited its numerous legislations and government policies as a measure of compliance with its obligations to end caste-based discrimination, choosing to ignore its failure to implement these measures which has resulted in continued, and sometimes enhanced, brutalities against Dalits.

HRW and the CHRGJ respectfully request that the following issues be raised in the List of Issues addressed to the State Party and in the State Party examination.