KARACHI, July 1: Laws should be framed to eliminate discrimination against Dalits living in Pakistan and to restore their social, economic and political rights.
These demands were made during a workshop ‘Dalits of Pakistan: their problems and solutions’ organised by the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) at its Central Secretariat, on Sunday.
Labour leader Habibuddin Junaidi conducted the workshop while Dr Mohan Kohistani, Lal Malhi, Meeyan Bajeer Advocate, Dr Jaipal Chhabria and several NGO activists attended the moot.
Zulfiqar Ali Shah of PILER, who has conducted research on the conditions of Dalits in Pakistan, gave an overview of the forms and manifestation of caste discrimination against them in the society and deprivation of their social, economic and political rights.
He presented the findings of his study carried out on 5,000 households. Mr Shah focused on four districts, two in lower Punjab and two in lower Sindh.
He said that about two million scheduled caste people belonging to the Kolhi, Meghwar, Bheel, Balmiki, Oad, Jogi, Bagri and other communities were the poorest lot of all. The survey revealed that the worst form of discrimination came in the shape of untouchability.
They had segregated housing, while the situation was worse in the rural areas as 95 per cent of the Dalits living in Rahimyar Khan reported untouchability as compared to 35 per cent living in Multan. Sixty-nine per cent of those surveyed said that their upper caste Hindu and Muslim neighbours either did not invite them to their social gatherings like weddings, or if invited they were served food separately. This attitude was relatively more prevalent in Rahimyar Khan (87 per cent) than in Tharparkar (60 per cent).
The study claims that only one per cent of scheduled caste people are in the government service, that also in the lowest tiers like primary school teachers. Illiteracy level in Dalits stood at 73 per cent against the national literacy level of around 50 per cent.
Approximately 56 per cent of Dalit families live in single-room katcha houses, while 35 per cent reported the death of a child less than 5 years of age, in their families. The data showed that they were ignored by political groups and government; hence they were unable to reap any benefits from the devolution plan. They also faced economic exploitation and the majority of bonded labourers in Sindh belonged to the scheduled castes.
In his presidential address, Nawab Yousuf Talpur said that the PPP took pride in taking initiative for the rights of the marginalised communities called Dalits as the party had always been a progressive one, striving for the democratic and human rights of all segments of society.
Former senator Taj Haider said that the PPP being a progressive party would struggle for the rights of the Dalits. He said that the PPP was against any form of untouchability or caste discrimination and would not allow these practices in Pakistan anymore.
The founder president of Scheduled Castes Federation of Pakistan (SCFP), Surendar Valasai, said that caste discrimination was very much in practice in many parts of Pakistan especially in Sindh and the lower Punjab.
He said that many codes of Manusmriti were being applied in Thar and parts of Umerkot in different forms and stressed that a law should be enacted to make caste discrimination, an act punishable under the law
Engineer Gianchand, Meeyan Bajeer and Amar Uddani from Thar said that under a systematic way the evil caste system was being implemented by Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim and demanded a probe against him.—PPI
