Dalit-Christians renew call for equal affirmative action in India
Community leaders urge BJP government to extend caste-based benefits, saying conversion has not ended centuries of discrimination
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — Christian leaders from India’s southern state of Telangana have renewed demands for affirmative action benefits to be extended to Dalit-Christians, arguing that conversion to Christianity has not freed members of the historically oppressed lower-caste Hindu community from caste-based discrimination.
The demand was raised during a roundtable conference organized by the Telangana Christian Joint Action Committee in Secunderabad, where community leaders called on the federal government to amend a decades-old law that excludes Dalit-Christians from receiving constitutional protections and reservation benefits available to many other Dalit communities..
However, under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950, Scheduled Caste status — and the accompanying affirmative action benefits — is generally limited to Dalits who profess Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism.
Dalits who converted to Christianity or Islam are largely excluded from those protections despite continuing to face caste-based discrimination in many parts of the country.
Former Telangana Foods Chairman Meday Rajeev Sagar said the campaign would continue until Dalit Christians receive equal treatment under the law.
“Religious conversion does not erase caste-based discrimination,” he said, arguing that Dalit Christians continue to experience social and economic marginalization despite changing their faith.
Participants at the conference urged the federal government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to introduce legislation extending Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians.
They argued that the current legal framework violates constitutional guarantees of equality and freedom of religion by making access to affirmative action contingent upon a person’s faith.
Campaigners have long maintained that caste discrimination persists across religious communities because social identities and historical prejudice often survive conversion.
They argue that denying affirmative action solely because a Dalit adopts Christianity effectively penalizes individuals for exercising their constitutional right to choose their religion.
The conference was attended by leaders of Christian organizations, retired police officials, clergy and former lawmakers, who pledged to continue pressing for legal and constitutional reforms aimed at extending equal affirmative action protections to Dalit Christians.
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