The Dalit's of India

Driving down a major highway in Hyderabad, India, a two-lane road basically, I noticed plastic roof structures on one side of the highway.  I asked the taxi driver who lived there.  He told me they are the Dalit's.  Dalit means "Outcaste".  These "homes" were no more than sticks, cardboard, bricks, stone, collected in such a way as to create a "living" space upon which they attached plastic tarps.  These living spaces were not much bigger than 10x10 rooms with dirt floors and cardboard walls.  There is no available water, no electricity, no heating or cooling and no bathrooms that I could see.
I have been south of Tijuana, Mexico and thought I had seen poverty, and don't get me wrong, they are poor too.  But the vast expanse of poverty I see in India is disheartening!

Being poor because you can't find work, did not have a good start with parents who perhaps could not get out of poverties grasp is one thing.  Having the entire culture keep you pressed down, unable to get up with zero (nada, no) chance of moving "up the ladder" so to speak, is quite another.  I have so much opportunity to do whatever my heart and mind can conceive of, as do you most likely!  To even conceive that I have NO CHANCE to get out of where I might be is frightening to say the least.  What a hopeless environment!

Talk about being depressed!!!  I get "depressed" when the sun doesn't shine for a few days. I get "depressed" when we lose a hockey game.  They certainly don't even have much recreation, let alone the chance to win or lose.

Last time I mentioned journeying with me as I launch a For-Profit company whose main purpose is to employ and build significant and meaningful jobs for these Dalit's (and eventually others as we expand and grow).  As I indicated before, "aid" only promotes a wellfare state, while employment can transform a people.  Would you join me in helping these Dalit's? 

I would like to share a story from Nanci Ricks, past President of the Dalit Freedom Network - and by the way, I highly encourage you to pick up her book mentioned below.

"...an old woman walked into our medical clinic with an open wound in her hip.  I asked her to lie down so I could see what was wrong.  The quarter-sized hole led to a massive infection underneath.  It was clear she was in immense pain while I poked around in the wound.  We gave her a dozen anethesia shots, but the infection was so intense we couldn't numb the area, so we cleaned the wound as carefully as we could.  I also tried to get a clear history of exactly what happened, but the story wasn't making sense to me.  She said she had been beaten with a stick. Then I started pulling out large, hard chunks of something from the wound.  That's when I decided to find out exactly what had happened to her, so I asked the interpreter to find out the whole story of her injury.    

This woman had committed an unacceptable social crime: as a Dalit, an "untouchable," she had walked on the wrong road.  Angry men attacked her for contaminating the road with her presence.  Right there on the now "unclean" road, they beat her with a stick breaking her hip and leaving this open wound.  The chunks inside her were not pieces of the broken stick, but remnants of her infected bones.   

We could do nothing for her.  After poking and prodding for thirty painful minutes, we now had to tell her she needed to go to a hospital for surgery and strong antibiotics.  I was on the verge of tears when I explained the situation to her and said that we would gladly pay for her treatment. 

I expected her to cry as well - we both knew that her situation was bleak.  The reality was that no one in her village cared enough about her to save her life and help her get well.  Instead, she got down on her hands and knees and kissed my feet.  She kissed my feet!  I began to sob.  Even though no one else cared about her, she wanted to thank me for sitting with her and treating her like a human, even if it was only for thirty painful minutes."

"BEATEN, for walking on the wrong road" - unbelievable to me!

Thanks for walking with me on this journey.  Next time I will share a story and a video of the legal implications of these atrocities and the practical realities of their lives.


REFERENCE MATERIALS ******************************

To read more on the Dalit' plight here are a few books to peruse and web sites to go to:

http://www.loveslumdog.com/  Nanci Ricks, Co-Founder and past President of the Dalit Freedom Network.
Nanci's book, "To Love The Slumdog"

http://www.dalitnetwork.org/  Dalit Freedom Network.  Primary goal of providing child sponsorships to educate Dalit children in India.

http://www.ideasworld.org/  iDEAS sends people overseas to work with the Dalit's and other people groups.

http://www.om.org/ Operation Mobilization works all over the world, but has 2,500 Indian workers focused on the Dalit plight.
Joseph D'Souza's book "Dalit Freedom, Now and Forever" is a great resource to learn about the Dalit's.