Caste based discrimination driving Dalits to Islam

Days after two Dalit children in Sunped village were burnt alive by Rajputs in an attack on their family over a long-standing caste feud, people in Faridabad are now living in fear especially the lower caste community.

Due to the continuous threat by upper castes, a section of people from the lower caste have expressed their desire to convert to Islam.
“The upper caste people used to humiliate us over petty incidents like pulling out a mobile phone from the drain. They would often threaten and dishonored us”.

Not only men, women too are not safe here. We do not feel secure as the current government has failed to protect our pride. We have no other option than to embrace Islam, because I heard in Islam all are equal, one has no superiority over other”, said Rohtash, a villager.

In adjoining Asawati village, a teenage girl was abducted by an upper caste youth and was later found unconscious in UP’s Bulandshahr district. Despite a complaint of sexual assault at the Ballabhgarh police station, cops dismissed the matter saying that the girl had eloped with her boyfriend.

Back to the days the Dalits are always a victim of Upper caste violence, recently a Dalit family made to go naked after they tried to lodge a complaint against an upper caste man.

Demanding dismiss of police commissioner Subhash Yadav who has failed to control the law and order situation, Villagers blocked the Delhi-Agra highway for most of the day in grief and anger, with the bodies of two infants who died on Tuesday.

“The district police and local administration have ignored us and our complaints,” alleged another villager Ramesh Kumar.

“One of the reasons behind the police apathy is the majority of the upper caste people. Sunped village has a population of 1,400 with 75 per cent belonging to the upper caste community. They have strong political support.