Violence Against and Exploitation of “Untouchable” Children

A Report Prepared for the Committee on the Rights of the Child by Human Rights Watch. Despite the fact that “untouchability” was abolished under India’s constitution in 1950, the practice of “untouchability”- the imposition of social disabilities on persons by reason of their birth in certain castes – remains very much a part of rural India. More than one-sixth of India’s population, some 160 million people, live a precarious existence, shunned by much of society because of their rank as “untouchables”. The abuses documented in this report are in violation of the international human rights treaties.