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UNDERSTANDINGUNTOUCHABILITY

A Comprehensive Study of Practicesand Conditions in 1589 Villages

i Navsarjan and RFK Center

BOUT THE

NSTITUTIONAL

UTHORS

Navsarjan Trust (Navsarjan) is an organization that promotes the rights of Dalits, the“untouchable” caste of Indian society. Navsarjan is one of the leading organizations working for advancement of Dalit rights. Based in the western Indian state of Gujarat,Navsarjan currently organizes more than 3,084 villages to fight the practice of “untouchability” and to improve the economic conditions of Dalits. The mission of Navsarjan is: to eliminate discrimination based on untouchability practices; to ensure equality of status and opportunities for all, regardless of caste, class or gender; and to ensure the ruleof law.Navsarjan has implemented and currently maintains nine programs: Human RightsEducation, Manual Scavenging Eradication, Land Rights, Minimum Wage Implementation, Women’s Rights, Digitization of Research and Documentation, Dalit Shakti Kendra, theCommunity Video Unit, and the Center for Dalit Human Rights. In addition, Navsarjancontinues to mobilize communities. The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights (RFK Center) is a nonprofitorganization dedicated to advancing the human rights movement through long-termpartnerships with human rights defenders around the world. The RFK Center works underthe direction of partners on the ground—recipients of the Robert F. Kennedy HumanRights Award—using innovative tools to achieve sustainable social change. These toolsinclude litigation, technical initiatives, advocating with governments, United Nations andother international entities and non-governmental organizations, and launching consumercampaigns aimed at fostering corporate responsibility. By forging long-term partnerships with international human rights leaders and taking on their social justice goals, the RFK Center ensures that its work concretely contributes to important social movements andmakes an impact on the global human rights movement. The RFK Human Rights Award is presented annually to individuals who stand up tooppression and often face great personal risk in the promotion of human rights. In 2000,the RFK Center awarded its Human Rights Award to Martin Macwan, founder of Navsarjan,beginning a long-term partnership with the RFK Center and RFK Global Advocacy Teammembers, including Christian Davenport, Allan Stam, and David Armstrong.Christian Davenport is a Professor of Peace Studies, Political Science and Sociology at theKroc Institute – University of Notre Dame as well as Director of the Radical InformationProject (RIP) and Stop Our States (SOS). Primary research interests include political conflict(e.g., human rights violations, genocide/politicide, torture, political surveillance/covertrepressive action, civil war and social movements), measurement, and racism. Prof.Davenport is the author of numerous books and articles. Recently, he completed MediaBias, Perspective and State Repression: The Black Panther Party (2010), which was published with Cambridge University Press series in its Contentious Politics series. He is currently engaged in various projects concerning political conflict in the United States, Rwanda, Indiaand Northern Ireland. For more information, please refer to the following webpage: www.christiandavenport.com.