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January 04, 2008
An Open Letter of the Dalit Christians to Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Indian Parliamentarians and Indian Church Authorities
The Hon’ble Prime Minister,
152, South Block,
New Delhi -110 011
Wish you Happy Christmas and New Year.
For
the last several decades, the Indian Church Authorities and its Leaders
at National and International level have been subtly pressurizing the
Indian Government to make suitable amendments in the Constitution to
include converted Dalit Christians in the list of Schedule Castes. Our
Constitution founders and framers had seen the validity of assuring
equality and respect to Dalit Hindus in their Hindu fold, while they
were not clear as to the implications of the same with Dalit
Christians. Hence they formulated the provision for Hindu Dalit
reservation for Schedule Caste in the Constitution. The Hindu community
as a majority of peoples accepted reservations as a just and fair
provision. Thus the Indian constitution gave equal right to the Dalit
Hindus because they suffered ill treatment and were oppressed in the
society over the centuries. It was a fair and just compensation to the
Dalit Hindus for the exploitation done to them.
While
Dalit Hindus- who were converted to Christianity- lost their privilege
of reservation policy and thus they were not included in the list of
Schedule Caste. The Converted Dalit Christians had ‘an historic option’
to decide whether to accept their original religion-Hinduism and return
to their community and thus avail the facility of Schedule Caste but
most of the Dalit Christians forsook the reservation policy and they
decided to remain Dalit Christians (DC) mainly because DCs fondly
recalled the words of Jesus Christ: “Come to me, all of you who labor
and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mt Ch. 11:28)
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Posted in
Prime Minister
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An Open Letter of the Dalit Christians to Hon’ble Prime Minister of India.
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When St. Stephen’s College set aside, for Dalit
Christians, 25 per cent of the minority quota seats now fixed at 40 per
cent --- that is 10 per cent of the total 410 undergraduate places ----
questions were raised as to who constitute this group. Valson Thampu,
who recently took over as Officer on Special Duty at the college, said
that one could tell who a Dalit or a Scheduled Caste person was. Dalit
Christians are “those who come from low-caste backgrounds, or are
social backward,” says the policy proponent. The college will go by
candidates’ certificates issued by their church certifying them as
Dalits. “I have to trust the church,” said Thampu. Three leading
persons of the community, however, said that, at times, it could be
hard to identify a Dalit Christian, particularly on the basis of
surnames.
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Posted in
News
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The Number Game
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New Delhi, May, 2007: Christians have the lowest
illiteracy levels in the country but the highest unemployment rate,
according to a recently released government survey for 2004-05. “In
rural areas, the unemployment rates were higher among the Christians
(4.4 per cent) as compared to those among the Hindus (1.5 per cent) or
Muslims (2.3 per cent). In the urban areas also the same pattern was
observed” the survey said. Christians also had the lowest illiteracy
rate for both rural and urban areas. The survey covered 7,999 villages
and 1, 24,680 sample households. – Zee News.
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Posted in
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Christians: lowest illiteracy rate
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New Delhi, March 9, 2005:
Hundreds of Dalit Christians staged a protest march and dharna at
Jantar Mantar, near Parliament House, New Delhi, urging the Indian
Church to give ample compensation for the upliftment and development of
the Dalit Christian community numbering over 2.5 crores.
Organized
by the Poor Christian Liberation Movement under the leadership of Dalit
Christian leader, Mr. A.K. Ambrose, Convener, Delhi Unit of the
Movement, men, women and children demonstrators were carrying placards
and banners demanding compensation for the education, better living and
employment opportunities for Christian Dalit and weaker sections.
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Posted in
News
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Dalit Christians Protest against denial of Constitutional rights
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