India's untouchables denied aid and shelter

Telegraph | News | India's untouchables denied aid and shelter: "India's untouchables, reeling from the tsunami disaster, are being forced out of relief camps by higher caste survivors and being denied aid supplies. More than 6,000 people, including 81 Dalits or untouchables in India's rigid caste hierarchy, died when tsunamis struck southern India's coastal district on December 26.

At Keshvanpalayam, the Dalits had only flattened homes to show while survivors elsewhere enjoyed relief supplies such as food, medicines, sleeping mats and kerosene. No government official or aid has flowed into the village which houses 83 Dalit families. Cranes and bulldozers cleared the debris of a neighbouring fishing community, but they are yet to reach the Dalit village.

Chandra Jayaram, 35, who lost her husband to the tsunami, said her family had not received the promised government compensation of 100,000 rupees (£1,211 ). Another activist, Mahakrishnan Marimuthu, who heads the non-governmental Education and Handicraft Training Trust, said tsunamis dealt a double blow to the caste.

The United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF said government, relief agencies and aid workers did not discriminate against the Dalits but the caste issue always exists."