Facts

Referring to the 2001 census there are 1,027 million people living in India, among these there are 167.2 million Dalits or about 16.3% of the population.[1]

Overall 27,070 crimes against Dalits (reported under scheduled caste or SC respectively in the Indian criminal statistics) were counted in 2006 - one every 19.4 minutes.[2]

673 Dalits were killed in India in 2006, 3760 were hurt, 1217 were raped.[2]

27% of the Dalits belong to the poorest fifth of the Indian population, only 10.2% belong to the richest one.[3]

6.3% of the Dalits finished school after 12th class, the average in India is 12.0%.[3]

43.8% of the female and 72.4% of the male Dalits are able to read and write, the average in India is 55.1% and 78.1% respectively.[3]

66.4 out of thousand neonates of a Dalit mother die within a short period of time after the birth, the average in India is 57.0.[3]

81.5% of Dalit children are smaller than the average coeval children of the 2006 WHO International Refference Population, the average in India is 71.7%.[3]

In 37.8% of the villages Dalits have to sit seprately in school.[1]

In 37% of the villages the Dalits wages are paid from distance to avoid physical contact.[1]

64% of the Dalits in the villages are not allowed to enter the temple.[1]

11.78% of the Indian urban population are Dalits, their share in the urban slums is 17.4%.[1]

In 1999-00 38.47% of the Dalits in the cities lived below the poverty line, the average among the urban population is 23.62%.[4]

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[1] from 'Caste an eye on the Dalits an India'

[2] from 'Crime in India 2006'

[3] from 'National Family Health Survey 2005-06'

[4] from 'Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment - Annual Report 2006-07'