To claim the rights...meant for Dalits" - An analysis of a NGO’s strategies to mitigate caste discrimination and violence in Tamil Nadu, India

Sammanfattning

Strategies to claim Dalit human rights in Tamil Nadu, India This thesis analyzes interviews and ethnographic accounts from the Indian non-governmental organization (NGO) Equity Justice which works with Dalit human rights in Tamil Nadu. It examines the strategies by the NGO since many Dalits usually lacks knowledge about their rights and how they can be claimed. The main subjects are discrimination, strategies, speech acts, and civil and political human rights. The focus is directed at the NGOs strategies that correlates, or lead, to the act of Dalits claiming their constitutional rights in India. The theories applied focuses on speech acts, the societal conditions needed to claim rights, minority rights, and philosophical accounts on dignity in relation to human rights. The analysis utilize the interviewed employees answers, complaints and observations from a field study. The research question is: Which strategic choices does an Indian NGO implement to mitigate acts of violence and discrimination towards Dalits to advance their human rights and dignity, and how do these approaches affect Dalits opportunities to claim rights in Tamil Nadu, India? The results from the study demonstrate that the Equity Justice implement various strategies to mitigate Dalits rights predicament that both treat the symptoms, and aims to find a cure, to caste discrimination and violence. The analysis further show that claiming rights in Tamil Nadu, India is not an easy-going procedure but instead a complicated process with hurdles such as low awareness, demeaning attitudes, and poor implementation of Dalit rights.