International Human Rights Day: The plight of the Dalits in Dhaka

By Bridget Phillipson MP

Since my election, I’ve chosen to work closely with organisations who focus on women’s rights in international development and I’m proud of what we achieved in government on women’s rights internationally. From appointing gender focal points, to developing the Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP), I think we certainly took big steps in the right direction for the world’s women.

However, a deeper analysis of the link between gender and global poverty reveals that quite often, decision-makers in the north focus on the consequences of poverty for women – consequences like the high maternal death rate still devastating communities in the global south – rather than the much more complex causes of the disproportionate number of women in the world who live in poverty.

This relatively simplistic outlook does little to tackle to root problems of discrimination, inequality and lack of power which condemn women to lives of poverty and put the gains of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) beyond reach for many. It also does little to tease out solutions for those most alienated from the targets of the MDGs – the women and girls from discriminated against groups (Dalits, women living with HIV, disabled women, women migrants, minority and indigenous women, young and older women) who cannot participate equally, realise their potential, nor claim their rights because of the extremely complex layers of discrimination and isolation they face.

This problem was recently brought home to me when I travelled to Bangladesh with One World Action, to learn about the struggle of women in the Dalit colonies of Dhaka.

For those who know little about the discrimination Dalits face, strict caste structures have placed Dalits at the very bottom of society – they are ‘untouchables’. Literally living as outcasts, the vast majority of the world’s 250 million Dalit population face extreme poverty, without land or opportunities for better employment or education. Notions of purity and pollution have led to a discrimination which labels Dalits ‘unclean’ and most are consequently assigned the jobs that nobody else wants to do, including sweeping the streets, burying the dead and manual scavenging (cleaning human excrement from dry toilets by hand).

Doubly discriminated against because of their caste and their gender, Dalit women have found themselves to be on the very bottom rung of the lowest ladder in this rigid social hierarchy. Multiple layers of disadvantage have left the vast majority of Dalit women illiterate and a staggering 83% of Dalit girls drop out of school.

When meeting with members of the Dalit Women’s Forum in Dhaka, they told me that they wanted to bring about the solutions in their own community – tackling domestic violence and early marriage, proper sanitation and schooling – but that they also wanted the UK to put pressure on their government to recognise their plight and take action. Inspiring community organisers such as Moni Rani in the Women’s Forum and Sonu Rani, who at 21 was the first Dalit woman elected to her local council, are at the forefront of fighting for change in their communities. However, without the political will at the top the full benefits of this won’t be felt across Bangladesh.

Whilst Dalit women in Dhaka continue in their fight to change their own lives for the better, they are dependent on big international development donors like the UK making development decisions that are inclusive and recognise the complexities of the challenges that lie ahead.

So today – on International Human Rights Day – let’s not forget the multiple human rights challenges faced by women, which only serve to compound the barriers and exclusion they already face as a result of their gender.

For the Dalits of Dhaka, this means ensuring that tackling caste discrimination is integral to all bilateral and multilateral aid prorgammes. It means developing innovative indicators that can capture the multiple layers of discrimination faced by the most vulnerable people. It means taking action to push for the adoption of the UN Principles and Guidelines on caste discrimination. But most of all, it means developing an inclusive approach, that finds a way to listen to every voice in development, however distant – whether woman, indigenous, Dalit, refugee or person living with HIV/AIDS – ensuring that Labour’s international development policy truly is reflective of the many, not the few.

Bridget Phillipson MP travelled to Bangladesh as a supporter of One World Action’s More Women More Power campaign, which seeks to give voice to the world’s most marginalised women. For more information about the campaign, visit: http://www.oneworldaction.org/more_women_more_power

You can also contact Bridget directly on facebook or twitter.