Nepal cites a Dalit apology it never formally made
Nepal told the UN it had apologised to Dalits. No apology was passed by the Cabinet or gazetted, and a Dalit man's death in police custody was investigated only by the police.
Coverage
Global Caste
Caste discrimination outside India, and comparative/international caste-adjacent systems.
In focus
Caste Law Beyond India
Police face Dalit rights protesters in Kathmandu in June 2013, at a protest over the lack of justice for attacks on Dalits in Rautahat district. File photo. — The Advocacy Project, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Sometimes I was evicted after landlords learned my caste. At other times, I faced physical violence. Now it is time to fight the final battle and end this discrimination once and for all.
39
Untouchability cases Nepal Police registered in the 2021/22 fiscal year, after 30 the year before.
Dalit Feminisms
Urmila Pawar weaves Dalit women into the record
From a Konkan village to Mumbai's women's movement, the Marathi-language writer has spent fifty years putting Dalit women, and the caste and patriarchy that bound them, on the page in their own terms.
Christina Dhanuja on the caste mind that awards merit, and why a Dalit woman's education is a right
Urmila Pawar at Savitribai Phule Pune University in December 2017. File photo. — Hemalataeditor, CC BY-SA 4.0
My mother was an expert at weaving; similarly I also wove with words.
Rs 144 vs Rs 290
Roughly what a Dalit woman earned for a day of paddy transplanting in Mahatwar, Uttar Pradesh, in cash and rice, against the local daily wage for men.
Caste, Coded
Inside India's new caste economy: equity follows the IIT network, and the state lends to Dalit founders
Investors say an IIT degree speeds up the trust start-up money runs on, and scholars trace that degree to caste advantage. Federal programmes for Dalit founders mostly lend.
Where is caste discrimination illegal in the US? Two cities, some campuses, no state
The main building of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. File photo. — TheVyomanaut, CC BY-SA 4.0
Legal protection is the only means to guard the vulnerable from caste exploitation in places where dominant castes have privilege and preponderance.
More than half
Of the founders of India's first 100 unicorns, start-ups valued at US$1 billion or more, are IIT graduates.
Nepal's caste law has no word for the rented room. A Dalit woman has sat five months asking for one
Nepal's 2011 law bans caste discrimination everywhere but never mentions renting. Since April, Deepa Nepali has sat in a Kathmandu square asking the government to close that gap.
Nepal cites a Dalit apology it never formally made
Houses and apartment blocks across Kathmandu, seen from above. File photo. — Royonx, CC0 1.0
Our son died inside state custody. If someone dies in the state's care, justice must be delivered.
UN & Treaties
A Geneva side event tests whether caste gets its own line in UN human rights law
Caste has never had its own line in international human rights law; it is argued under race or descent. A UN Human Rights Council side event tested whether that is changing.
Nepal told the UN it would enforce its caste law. Its police log a few dozen cases a year
The Palais des Nations, Geneva, host of the UN Human Rights Council side event this piece covers. — Risuciu, CC BY-SA 4.0
The hardest part is getting justice for Dalit victims because police refuse to register complaints. If it is registered, a Dalit hardly gets justice because all institutions are run by upper-caste people who still think Dalits are untouchable.
15 to 43
complaints Nepal Police registered each year under the 2011 caste-discrimination law, 2019/20 to 2023/24.
North America
Yashica Dutt stopped passing in 2016. A decade on, she is taking caste to New York's lawmakers
The journalist who hid her Dalit caste, then named it in public, now reports on caste in the diaspora and helps organise New York's caste-law campaign. She answers her Dalit critics in print.
Where is caste discrimination illegal in the US? Two cities, some campuses, no state
Pulitzer Hall, home of Columbia University's journalism school, on Broadway in New York. Dutt began studying there in 2014. File photo. — ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0
But I am not here begging for equality. I am taking what's mine – my place in the society as a loud and proud Dalit, whether they like it or not.
55–3
the California Assembly's vote for SB 403 on 28 August 2023. The governor vetoed it on 7 October. (California Legislature)
Showing —
Police face Dalit rights protesters in Kathmandu in June 2013, at a protest over the lack of justice for attacks on Dalits in Rautahat district. File photo. — The Advocacy Project, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Analysis
Nepal cites a Dalit apology it never formally made
Nepal told the UN it had apologised to Dalits. No apology was passed by the Cabinet or gazetted, and a Dalit man's death in police custody was investigated only by the police.
Analysis
Nepal's caste law has no word for the rented room. A Dalit woman has sat five months asking for one
Nepal's 2011 law bans caste discrimination everywhere but never mentions renting. Since April, Deepa Nepali has sat in a Kathmandu square asking the government to close that gap.
Profile
Christina Dhanuja is building the rooms caste kept Dalit women out of
The co-founder of Dalit History Month has spent more than a decade making spaces where Dalit women tell their own story. Her first book is the newest of them.
Profile
Yashica Dutt stopped passing in 2016. A decade on, she is taking caste to New York's lawmakers
The journalist who hid her Dalit caste, then named it in public, now reports on caste in the diaspora and helps organise New York's caste-law campaign. She answers her Dalit critics in print.
Profile
Sujatha Gidla's family history puts caste at the centre of modern India
Gidla traced her Dalit Christian family's caste through mission schools, communist parties, a police cell and a New York subway job. Her newest writing turns to her mother.
Opinion
The EU has leverage on caste. Its India trade deal doesn't use it
Brussels' trade deal, due-diligence law and human-rights dialogue with India all stop short of naming caste. Parliament's consent vote on the deal is the moment to change that.
Analysis
A Geneva side event tests whether caste gets its own line in UN human rights law
Caste has never had its own line in international human rights law; it is argued under race or descent. A UN Human Rights Council side event tested whether that is changing.
Analysis
Nepal told the UN it would enforce its caste law. Its police log a few dozen cases a year
Nepal accepted UN calls to enforce its caste law and declined the four asking for a comprehensive anti-discrimination law. UN bodies have mapped every gap; none can make an officer open a case.
Explainer
Where is caste discrimination illegal in the US? Two cities, some campuses, no state
Seattle and Fresno name caste in their civil rights codes. No state does. Where the protections stand in 2026, what the courts have said, and where California's case against Cisco has got to.
Profile
Shrujana Niranjani Shridhar paints Dalit women at rest, on their own terms
The Mumbai artist known for archiving the Dalit Panthers' magazines makes work about who gets to picture Dalit women, and what even the anti-caste movement lets them be.
Analysis
The invisible hierarchy: how caste decides who 'fits' on a tech team
Dalit engineers in the US and India describe the same filter: questions that locate caste, referral networks, and reviews that read dominant-caste comfort as merit.