Dalit protesters rally against attacks

Описание: (12 Aug 2016) Thousands of activists and Dalit protesters belonging to the lowest rung in Hinduism's caste hierarchy gathered in Mumbai on Friday to demonstrate against a series of attacks on their community by Hindu hardliners.
Protests have been taking place across the country after four low-caste Dalit community men were beaten by alleged cow-vigilantes while trying to skin a dead cow in Una in western Gujarat state last month.
Hindus consider cows to be sacred, and the slaughter of cows is banned in many parts of India.
In another incident last month, police arrested a shopkeeper for axing to death a couple from a lower caste for not promptly paying a meager debt of 15 rupees (22 US cents) for groceries.
Opposition parties and rights groups have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of failing to protect the Dalits.
Vigilante groups comprising mostly members of Hindu nationalist organisations have become active in small towns and cities across India since Modi's Hindu-nationalist party came to power two years ago.
Dalits usually carry out undesirable tasks such as skinning dead animals, and many work in tanneries and in the leather industry.
Although caste discrimination was banned soon after India's independence from Britain in 1947, the practice persists.
Successive governments have set quotas for jobs and university spots to level out disadvantages faced by lower castes, but it has been difficult to change social attitudes.


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