Exactly. Caste problem is one that's in the minds of people. India's Constitution doesnot discriminate based on caste. And many easily forget the affirmative action that India has implemented since 1947, that almost seems like reverse-discrimination.
Besides, most of India's lawmakers and politicians are from the 'lower' castes. Miracle of democracy, the wise ones say, and the fool fails to see it. Typical 'useful idiot'.
Uh huh.
http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050330/NEWS01/503300307/1008
Aftershocks among India's 'untouchables' Local native who witnessed tsunami's aftermath alarmed by this week's news
By Rachel E. Sheeley
Staff writer
The International Medical Corps, with whom Union City, Ohio, resident Mary Rodeheffer volunteered her services in Indonesia, reports that the team that Rodeheffer was with survived the earthquake unharmed. Trudi Behr, a communications representative for the corps, reported in an e-mail to the Palladium-Item, "We just heard everyone on the International Medical Corps team is fine, thank goodness."
Richmond native Nanci Ricks welcomed news that no second tsunami hit the coast of India on Monday and Tuesday.
After hearing reports of an earthquake in Indonesia and a tsunami warning, Ricks, executive director of the Colorado-based Dalit Freedom Network, was concerned for the safety of the medical team from the organization working in the Tamil Nadu region of India.
Ricks, the daughter of Tom Reddington of Richmond and the late Norma "Taffy" Reddington, took a team to India in January to help people affected by the Dec. 26 tsunami. The efforts by the Castle Rock, Colo., woman and her team were documented by a reporter and photographer from the Rocky Mountain News.
As was reported in the Rocky Mountain News stories and by Ricks, the post-tsunami grief and fears of the people are greater than any physical injury.
Monday's earthquake, which killed about 1,000 people, and subsequent warnings, Ricks said, will combine with other post-tsunami phenomena -- inexplicable flooding of 2 to 4 feet in villages where the water rises and recedes without reason -- to increase the post-traumatic stress.
"We kept saying, 'No tsunami,'" she said. "It just reinforces that it could happen. That's just going to keep them in fear for months to come now."
Ricks, a physical therapist, generally makes an annual trip to inland India with a medical team to offer aid to Indian Dalits, who are at the bottom of the practiced caste system and who are sometimes known as untouchables. In the wake of the tsunami, many Dalits were refused relief such as food, medical treatment and shelter. Those reports made Ricks and her crew change their destination to the coast, where they visited several Dalit villages.
"I'm so used to bandaging up wounds and taking care of sores," she said, "This was a shocker. They were completely emotionally paralyzed."
She said many of the people are uneducated and believe that the sea god attacked them because they did something wrong.
"It kills you," Ricks said. "... That just adds to all the grief and psychological paralysis. They feel as though it's their fault."
Ricks' visit to Singarathoppu, India, was a prime example of the fear that the tsunami has bred.
They had been treating the villagers there for two days when a high tide brought a tsunami scare.
"The whole village just panics, just screaming and running," she said.
That night, the team slept in a hotel in another community. The terrified villagers slept on the bridge.
Along with the emotional problems, the tsunami has created economic problems, Ricks said.
The problem is exemplified by a Dalit village where pigs were raised to be sold to the fishermen at the rate of about one per month.
"They were not underneath the wave itself, but they were more affected by the tsunami because the fisherman aren't buying pigs," Ricks said. "These people are literally starving to death ... because the tsunami hit the fishermen and the fishermen are being fed by relief efforts. They're not getting any relief because they weren't actually hit by water."
The Dalits' plight touched Ricks five years ago when she joined a medical mission trip to India to help the people following a cyclone that killed 700,000. There, she saw the Dalits -- who make up 25 percent of India's population -- treated poorly.
"I decided the world needs to know about this," Ricks said.
She founded the Dalit Freedom Network, which collaborated with Operation Mobilization India to help in tsunami-ravaged areas. The network also is helping the Dalits cultivate schools, medical resources, economic development and human rights.
Ricks said relief teams from the network will continue to visit the coast. She returns to the northern region of Orissa with a team in October.
"There's going to be a need for quite some time," Ricks said.
Reach reporter Rachel E. Sheeley at (765) 973-4458 or rsheeley@pal-item.com.
Originally published March 30, 2005