"At most restaurants they put a coloured mark at the bottom of the glass so that everybody knows the glass is fixed for us...They do not give us good cups for taking tea," said Asim Rabidas.

"We are the untouchables...If we touch them by chance, it seems they will wash their body for the next one year to 'purify' them," said Sandhya Rani.

The idea of such discrimination and hatred has even spread among the children. In some regions children of the lower caste families cannot continue studies as other children do not want to sit beside them, members of the lower caste said.

"Our main concern is not money but having a dignified life like other citizens," Asim told an audience silenced by the unbelievable accounts of the lower caste people.

Asim and Sandhya, both of whom came from Satkhira, were speaking at a seminar on poverty and the adverse situations the lower caste people face everyday. Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB) organised the seminar at the CIRDAP auditorium yesterday.

Members of the lower caste like Harijon, Rishi, Kaora, Buno, Rabidas, Manta, Bede, Munda, Nagarchi, Shabdakar and Bashfor from Satkhira, Kushtia, Moulvibazar, Syedpur and Rangpur came to the seminar to describe their everyday experience.

These people provide services to people by making and repairing shoes and baskets, making and playing musical instruments, cleaning streets and human excreta, and working as midwives.

RIB Chairman Dr Shamsul Bari, who coordinated the first session of the seminar, told the story of advocate Panna Lal Das, the first graduate from Kushtia's Harijon community--sweepers of the Kushtia Municipality.

With the help of the community people Panna Lal became a lawyer and joined a local NGO. But the NGO authority sacked him when it came to know that Panna belongs to the Harijon community, Bari said.

With the help of the RIB, Panna is now working to improve the fate of his community.

Renowned writer Selina Hossain delivered the keynote speech at the seminar. She said both the public and private sectors should come forward to help these people improve their fate.

She recommended considering the views of these deprived people while making policies for them. "We should not let them remind us again that we should consider them as human beings," Selina said.

Former adviser to the caretaker government Akbar Ali Khan said the problem of caste discrimination is based in South Asia. He said poverty of these people will become severe when general people will enter their professions.

Dr Hamida Hossain, vice-chairperson of RIB, suggested forming specific policies for the improvement of these people. "We should stand by their side not in our ways but the ways they suggest," she said.

Khushi Kabir of Nijera Kori and RIB Executive Director Meghna Guhathakurata also spoke at the seminar.

The speakers also discussed gender issues of these deprived people and ways to provide them legal aid.

Children of the Harijon community from Kushtia staged a play portraying the discrimination they face in their everyday life. A documentary film was screened in the second session of the seminar.