Home
Back Issues
The Team
Contact us
 
Volume 6 Issue 02| February 2012

Inside

Original Forum
Editorial

Readers' Forum
The 'Indigenous' Experiment
-- Hana Shams Ahmed

A Forgotten People

-- Shudeepto Ariquzzaman

Living Culture

-- Interview with Prof. Anisuzzaman
To Be or Not To Be:Culture conflict of Bangladeshis at home and abroad
-- Ziauddin Choudhury

Trans-nationalism and Identity: The multinational Bangladeshis
-- Olinda Hassan
Going Diasporic in One's Own Land -- II
--- Rifat Munim
For the Sake of Sindhi
--- Naseer Memon
Unheard Voices
-- Naimul Karim

Photo Feature
The Untouchables




Bangladesh Genocide and the Quest for Justice

-- Mofidul Hoque

Fountain of Youth:Will the real younglings please stand up, please stand up?
-- Shahana Siddiqui


Has Left Politics any Future?

-- Syed Fattahul Alim

The Case for Moving Bangladesh Bank to Chittagong

--Nofel Wahid
Why Do Bangladeshis Love Maradona?
--Quazi Zulquarnain Islam

 

Forum Home

The Untouchables

A Photo Feature by Sk. Enamul Haq

Like in other countries of the world, Dalit community in Bangladesh is also neglected and deprived, and the cause of this discrimination is enrooted in their identity at birth. The idea of 'untouchability' is in the root of the Indian subcontinent's discriminative society. It is thought that the group of people known as the 'Dalit community' is at the lowest social level and does the dirty or inferior work.

There are almost 48 lower caste communities in Bangladesh, numbering around 48 lakhs. They are in marginal positions, both economically and socially. It is believed that the work done by the Dalit community are undignified, the likes of cleaners, undertakers, cobblers, washers, tea garden workers, etc.

They are allowed to live temporarily on government land, sometimes by the rail stations, sometimes on open land beside government offices. It can be said that they live the lives of slum dwellers, and life is polluted and full of hardship. The people who do the municipality work, do not have civic amenities themselves. Not only civic amenities, this community does not get any privileges as citizens at all. Rather, their rights have been taken away.

Sk. Enamul Haq is Chief Photographer, The Daily Star.

© thedailystar.net, 2012. All Rights Reserved