Speaking at the UN International Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robertson, welcomed the position of the Indian National Human Rights Commission, which called for moral support for Dalits. India and exposed it to the international community. 1 Who are the Dalits, how many are there, and what are their problems? The 160 million Dalits (oppressed) in present-day India are former untouchables, pariahs, and outcasts. These are people whose touch defiled any representative of the pure castes from all four varnas ( classes) - brahmans (priests), kshatriyas (warriors), vaisyas (farmers) and even sudras (poor and inferior). Although social discrimination against these castes, known as untouchability, is prohibited by law, it persists in one form or another. The untouchables were called oppressed classes, harijans (children of God), registered castes * in accordance with the Constitution. But they prefer to call themselves Dalits. According to the Peoples of India report, which was carried out by the National Anthropological Service based on a comprehensive study of the social structure of India in the 1990s, there are 751 scheduled caste communities in the country, living in all states except Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya. The largest number of such communities is concentrated in Uttar Pradesh (88), Orissa (67), Madhya Pradesh (53) and West Bengal (49). There are 191 scheduled caste communities in all four southern states (Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala) .2 The Constitution of India (1950) proclaimed the abolition of untouchability and declared the equality of all people before the law, and prohibited discrimination based on religious, racial and caste affiliation. Quotas for Dalit seats in the lower house of the central Parliament and state legislatures, as well as in local government bodies, were also provided fo ... Read more