Savio Mahimaidass: calling to end caste-based discrimination worldwide

Savio Mahimaidass: calling to end caste-based discrimination worldwide

“Dalits are socially, educationally, economically and politically
deprived of their dignity and rights, pushing nearly 90 million people
to extreme poverty”, says the UN Human Rights Office Minority Fellow,
Savio Mahimaidass.

He
recalls that Dalits have been historically members of the lowest rank
of South Asian societies and are treated as “untouchables”. Despite
legislation to protect their rights, they are often forced into the most
menial and hazardous occupations, such as cleaning human waste or
sewers and are perceived as “impure” and “contagious” to other caste
groups.

Other injustices against Dalits include segregation in housing and
schools and the restriction of access to certain public places and
public services, such as health care and education.

While today the Indian constitution protects Dalits from caste-based
discrimination, not all Dalits have equal legal protection, says
43-year-old Mahimaidass, who has degrees both in Public Administration
and Law.

As stated in the 1950 Constitution Order on Scheduled Castes, only
Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Dalits are considered to be of the “Scheduled
Caste”: the group of Dalits who receive protection from the State in the
form of quotas in employment, education and Parliament, as well as
legal protection against caste-based discrimination. Those Dalits who
are not listed as members of the “Scheduled Caste”, namely the Christian
and Muslim Dalits, do not receive this protection, Mahimaidass says.

Mahimaidass recently participated in the five-week Minorities
Fellowship Programme of the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva. Since the
launch of the Programme in 2005, more than 100 men and women from
national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minority groups have been
given the opportunity to learn about the UN system and human rights
mechanisms with minority rights as a key component.

“This program is important because it creates a link between the United Nations and the civil society,” says Mahimaidass.