New Delhi, Dec. 14: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India has come out with a Dalit policy in the hope that a written document frowning upon caste-based discrimination - billed a sin years ago - will send out an effective signal that there can be no caste in Christianity, after repeated homilies from the Catholic hierarchy in India and the Vatican failed to end untouchability within the church.
The policy is a clear acknowledgement of Dalit assertion within the community as also the prevalence of untouchability and social discrimination. Dalits, according to the policy document, are a majority among Catholics - accounting for 12 million of the 19-million-strong community.
According to Fr. Z. Devasagayaraj, executive secretary of the CBCI Office for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, untouchability was prevalent in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh within the community but social discrimination was almost a pan-India phenomenon. In the two southern states, he said, Dalits were forced to have separate graveyards. Also, in some churches, Dalits and non-Dalits have separate feasts.