New Delhi, June 29 (The Telegraph): Complaints of segregated cemeteries will join the pile of other representations lying at the United Nations Information Centre here, with groups that claim to represent Catholics of Dalit origin taking their battle within the Church to the UN.
Tomorrow, the Viduthalai Tamil Puligal Katchi (VTPK) and the Dalit Christian Liberation Movement (DCLM) will submit complaints addressed to secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and several UN bodies to end "racial discrimination" within the Church in Tamil Nadu.
"We have knocked on every door. Despite writing to the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and finally the Pope, discrimination continues," VTPK president Kudanthai Arasan told The Telegraph.
"In several places, most notably in Tiruchirapalli, separate graveyards are maintained for Dalits, Anglo Indians and upper-caste converts. In villages, upper castes refuse to accept the Eucharist from Dalit priests and church processions do not pass through Dalit hamlets."
The petitioners are demanding that the UN take action against the Holy See, a permanent observer to the UN.
Rajiv Chandran, national information officer at the UN Information Centre, said this was not the way to appeal. "First they must complain to the National Human Rights Commission, which can forward it to the office of the high commissioner for human rights of the UN through the ministry of external affairs," he said.
The CBCI, the apex body of Catholics in India, says it is open for talks with these groups. "The Church has declared untouchability as a sin. The problem is that in some rural areas the Church is still trying to abolish these practices," said Z. Devasagayaraj, secretary of the CBCI Commission for SCs and Backward Classes.
