India: Dalit Camera - Media For the Marginalised

Dalit is a designated name for a group of communities of India who were historically considered to be untouchables as they either held jobs that were considered to be very menial in society, such as shoe making/repair, butchering, washing, sweeping, waste and animal carcass disposal, manual scavenging, cremation etc., or belonged to certain marginalized tribes that consumed beef. These people were considered socially inferior and faced economic, political and social discrimination - to the extent that they were even denied a status in the traditional Indian caste-rank (varna) system (though they had their own hierarchy of sub-castes or jatis). In his time, Mahatma Gandhi tried to popularize the term Harijan (Children of God) to collectively refer to these communities in an effort towards... [via Global Voices Online]