20 January 2004	Tuesday	27 Ziqa'ad 1424

MUMBAI, Jan 19: Campaigners for Hinduism's lowest caste, the Dalits, on Monday sought a global alliance to wipe out caste discrimination. More than 5,000 Dalits sang, danced and held banners as they marched onto a Mumbai exhibition grounds for the World Social Forum, an anti-globalization convention attended by 100,000 people from 130 countries.

"Your battle is a battle for humanity. If you do not win, no one will win," said A. Padmanabhan, a high-caste Hindu who runs the voluntary People's Trust aimed at aiding Dalits, drawing loud cheers from Indians and foreigners alike. But Padmanabhan, a retired civil servant, acknowledged much more needed to be done to end discrimination against the Dalits, who were formerly known as "untouchables".

"A lot of discrimination is still going on. It is going to be a long-drawn struggle," he said. "Liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation are anti-Dalit as there is no social justice," he said.

The so-called "World Dignity Forum" was a rare international event on caste discrimination, which India has refused to permit on the agenda at official events around the world such as the 2001 conference on racism in Durban. But even at the World Social Forum there were quiet protests about the treatment of the Dalit cause. Some Dalits who marched on the site held up signs directed to forum organizers: "Why are the Dalit stands near the toilets?"

More than 138 million Indians are Dalits, formerly known as "untouchables", and by tradition are not allowed even to use the same dishes as the upper castes.

Caste discrimination was banned under the 1949 constitution and a number of Dalits have risen to prominent positions, most notably K.R. Narayanan, president of India from 1997 to 2002 and a scheduled speaker at the World Social Forum's close on Wednesday. But by the estimate of US-based Human Rights Watch, Dalits are still the victims of 100,000 crimes a year. Karamat Ali, a Pakistani trade union leader, said Christians in his country, many of them descendants of Dalits who converted, continued to face discrimination.

Even though Islam does not recognize caste, Karamat Ali said some people in Pakistan kept ancient tradition by refusing to drink water from the same glasses as Christians of Dalit origin. He recommended a resolution to abolish untouchability around South Asia.-AFP