The Dalits or the Untouchables are the most unfortunate people in the whole of India.

Translated to English, Dalit means Crushed or Suppressed. No wonder that they are what make up the lowest class in the Hindu Caste System and have the lowest and worst jobs, if even any, in India. Today one quarter of Indias population is considered to be Dalits. That is a huge crowd of 250 million people. Tradition says that Dalits are extremely unlucky as for the people that come in touch with them; if you touch anything belonging to a Dalit, such as their items or even their shadow, in worst case the Dalit himself, you are doomed and you shall possibly be followed by their problems throughout all your life. The Dalit class is part of the Hindu Caste system, which is the social classes pyramid used in India. This System has been dominant in India and other parts of South Asia for over 3000 years. At the very high top are the Gods. Below them are the Brahmin. They are usually Priests or involved in academics. Under them are the Kshatryia. They are the warriors and kings. After that come the Vaishya. They are either Merchants or Landowners, the business people. Last come the Sudra. These are the common people. They are either Peasants or Servants. Now the Dalits are the Outcasts. They are not present on the Caste, because they are below it. They clean the streets and have may not own any land. To the Indians they are Outsiders. Because they are Outcasts, Dalits cannot participate in any public activities (e.g. swimming or running), near or with any man or woman that is out of the Untouchable class. For example Dalits cannot be in the same lake as the Landowners and they cannot participate in festivities with others. However since some years, the situation for the Dalits is gradually becoming better as the Indian Civilization accepts them more and more. The higher classes often abuse the Untouchables. They are

discriminated and are often cargo of human trafficking. Even after 60 years of constitutional and legal protection and support, there is still social discrimination against Dalits in many parts of our country, said Prime Minister Singh of India. They are the modern type of slaves in India and at least 2 dalits are murdered every day. A land owner filmed in a documentary was asked If one of your best animals died and one of your dalit servants died, who would you care more about?. He answered he would care about the animal, not about the dalit, because he could just get another one. This scenario proves exactly what is true to Hindus; Dalits are not important to them and no-one should care about Dalits. India has many traditions concerning on how to treat Dalits. For example, traditionally, when Dalits enter a tea shop and request a cup of tea, they are served in a clay cup rather than a glass or metal cup that others would receive. After drinking their tea, they are expected to crush the cup on the ground so that no other person risks being polluted by the cup the Dalit touched. Other traditions include that they may not marry members of other castes, wearing only their own stuff. However traditions are changing and as stated before the situation is becoming better. Still, these traditions make the dalits lives so much harder I hoped youve learnt to know what unfortunate people the dalits are, like me during the time I was researching. They are the lowest class in the Caste System and sometimes even excluded. They have no rights in the Hindu world and are discriminated by all the richer people. I chose this research topic because I wanted to know more about less fortunate people. For me it just stuck out of the other two options. I really enjoyed learning about the dalits and I hope you understand how bad the situation for the dalits really is.