ACDA (Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance) asks you for your support in ridding society of the vile and evil practices of Caste Discrimination in the UK and around the world.
As you know, the Equality Act received Royal Ascent on the 8th April 2010 and this was directly as a result of the excellent work done by ACDA, CasteWatchUK, Dalit Solidarity Network UK, Federation of Ambedkarites Organisations UK, Association of Community Cohesion, VODI and Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha UK .
The Act has given the Minister a power to introduce secondary legislation if proof is found that caste discrimination exists in the UK in the areas covered by the Act i.e. Education, Employment and the Provision of Goods and Services.
The Government have commissioned separate research to look at instances of caste discrimination, where it has happened, who was involved, the impact it has had, etc…
All organisations who share our aims of obviating caste discrimination from society should now work hard to identify cases of caste discrimination which fall in these areas. This has to be done now otherwise it may be too late.
Let us make no mistake in understanding the seriousness of this opportunity. If we don’t find the required cases the Government will say it does not exist in the areas covered by the Act – Education, Employment and the Provision of Goods and Services.
We have a number of concerns about this research:
- The organisation (NIESR) commissioned to carry out the research:
- does not have a track record within this social area
- may not be able to engage the affected communities without our assistance
- It may have been set up to fail as part of it relies on identifying 15 cases of caste discrimination by conducting street side MORI type polling. This approach in itself is dangerous as it does not recognise the marked reluctance of caste discrimination victims to come forward with confidence knowing that there will be some sympathy to them and their situation.
- There is no intention of the research organisation to conduct a literature review in this area. As such they will not have a clear idea of the issues involved, only those that they have formed already in their minds.
- The approach itself is therefore flawed and would support our view about the implicit procedural weakness embedded in this research programme.
- There appears to be a resistance to accept external expert contributions to the research
In spite of our concerns about the research ACDA is working hard with the NIESR to try and ensure it is a success. We have chaired the National Conference held in Bedford on 8 May 2010, whose purpose was to raise awareness of this research programme and to encourage examples of caste discrimination to be brought forward direct to NIESR.
ACDA have organised another Conference being held on 29 May 2010 in Birmingham for the same purpose.
There is a high degree of unity and cooperation already present. You only have to see the 40 organisations who signed up to our Joint Statement to see this.
Click here to the Joint Statement http://www.acdauk.org.uk/wp-content/pdf/Joint Statement vFinal Feb’10.pdf
ACDA is committed to eliminating Caste Discrimination in the UK and more widely. We work by raising awareness of Caste Discrimination and seek legal protection and enforcement of the legislation to protect those who are victims of this form of discrimination. One of our key objectives as an umbrella organisation is to continue to introduce a degree of co-ordination between likeminded groups and organisations and where necessary, provide strategic direction.
