vulnerable groups who faced intergenerational discrimination or exclusion within the society
or culture has not focused on bringing policies towards prevention and protection of
minorities. Women belonging to the minority community are not recognised as a separate
entity and youth and children are largely ignored.
Dear Madam/Sir,
I would like to point out strongly that in Asia, caste biases are deeply embedded in
the criminal justice administrative system and the enforcement agencies particularly the
police. In our experience, the police exhibit their caste biases clearly in perpetrating or
colluding in atrocities against Dalits. For example, in India more than 60% of the victims of
torture belong to Dalit and religious minorities, Custodial torture and deaths, enctounter
deaths, raids on Dalit colonies after inter-caste clashes, false arrest of Dalits. Dalits are
particularly vulnerable to arrest under draconian security laws. Dalit activists are also
accused of being "terrorists," "threats to national security," and "habitual offenders," and
frequently charged under the National Security Act, 1980. Delft women are particularly
vulnerable to sexual assault and rape during police raids as a means of exerting pressure on
their male family government and between government and civil society, to ensure thorough
and gender-sensitive implementation of legislations on violence against minorities and
specially women.
h) In order to. ensure that officials charged with implementing the law against minorities
fully adhere to their responsibilities, there is a need for legislation to provide for
penalties for non-compliance.
i)
Ensure regular and institutionalized gender-sensitivity training and capacity-building
on violence against caste minorities and specific to women belonging to caste
minority for public officials and such training and capacity-building be developed and
carried out in close consultation with nongovernmental organizations.
Ensure a national action plan or strategy for caste minorities, which should contain a
set of activities with benchmarks and indicators, to ensure a framework exists for a