Brussels, 02/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has called on the Indian government to put an end to the discrimination suffered by the Dalits, or Untouchables. Fifty five years after the drafting of the Indian Constitution which officially abolished the caste system and gave all Indians equal rights, the 240 million Dalits are still the pariahs of India society. In a resolution passed on 1 February, MEPs note that implementation of laws protecting the rights of Dalits “remains grossly inadequate” and that “atrocities, untouchability, illiteracy, inequality of opportunity, manual scavenging, underpayment of wages, bonded labour, child labour and landlessness continue to blight the lives of India's Dalits”. Although many Dalits do not report the crimes of which they are the victim for fear of reprisals from the dominant castes, official police statistics over the last five years show: as a weekly average 13 Dalits are murdered, five houses or assets belonging to Dalits are burned, six Dalits are kidnapped or abducted; daily, three Dalit women are raped, 11 Dalits are beaten; and a crime is committed against Dalits every 18 minutes. MEPs have called on the Indian government to improve its criminal justice system to make it easier to make complaints, to increase the conviction rate, to significantly reduce the length of court procedures and to take special measures for the protection of Dalit women. The resolution also notes with concern the lack of substantive EU engagement with the Indian government, notably within the EU-India summits, on the problem of caste-based discrimination. (bc)