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Articles on Dalit

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Supporters and opponents of a proposed ordinance to add caste to Seattle’s anti-discrimination laws gather at City Hall on Feb. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

How caste discrimination impacts communities in Canada

Casteism is commonly seen as a form of discrimination limited to South Asia. However, diaspora communities in Canada are also grappling with issues of caste.
Nuns from a group of Dalit Christians, or India’s lowest caste who converted to Christianity, protest in New Delhi. AP Photo/Gurinder Osan

Caste doesn’t just exist in India or in Hinduism – it is pervasive across many religions in South Asia and the diaspora

Several US universities now recognize caste as part of nondiscrimination policies. Two scholars of South Asian studies explain how caste-based violence isn’t limited to Hinduism, or to India.
People protesting the gang rape and killing of a woman in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, hold onto each other as policemen try to detain them in New Delhi, India, in September 2020. The gang rape of the woman from the lowest rung of India’s caste system sparked outrage across the country. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Gang rape exposes caste violence in India and the limits of Me Too

Because of its extreme violence, the Hathras rape sent shock waves throughout India: it is a disturbing reminder of the normalization of rape culture there and should be seen as a call to action.
In this 2012 photo, a midwife holds a newborn baby boy she has just delivered by flashlight in Guinea-Bissau. The African country is one of the deadliest places in the world to give birth, with a high rate of maternal death. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

The truth about maternal death

It’s not just women in impoverished countries dying in childbirth. The maternal death rate in both Canada and the U.S. has risen, particularly among Indigenous and African-American women.

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