A hungry 10-year-old girl from India's lowest Hindu caste had all the fingers of her right hand chopped off by an upper-caste landowner for taking a few spinach leaves from his field. The attack took place in a village in Bhagalpur district in impoverished Bihar state in the east where caste prejudice against Dalits – formerly called "untouchables" – is widespread and sometimes results in violence against them.
Police in Bhagalpur, in eastern Bihar, said they would soon arrest the upper-caste landowner who used a sickle to wound the girl whose name was given as Khushboo. "We will get results. This is terrible," said police superintendent J. S. Gangwar, quoted by the local newspaper.
Khushboo's father said that he and his wife– both laborers– had nothing to eat in their house so they sent their daughter to collect herbs that grew along a railway line. "She just strayed (to the landlord's field) and plucked a few leaves," Sukho Ram told the newspaper. Dalits make up around 16 per cent of India's 1.1 billion population and still face discrimination in rural areas from higher castes and sometimes are victims of rape and murder. They are not allowed to enter some Hindu temples.
But Dalits have also held high office. India's first Dalit president K. R. Narayanan held office from 1997 to 2002. It was recently announced by law ministry officials that Justice K. G. Balakrishnan would become the first Dalit chief justice of India's powerful Supreme Court this year. Affirmative action in colleges, universities and in government jobs has benefited a small section of Dalits. But the majority of them still work as laborers, sweepers and toilet cleaners.
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