Form body to ensure rights of Dalits

Speakers at a seminar urged the government to form a commission for the development of 55 lakh Dalit people in the country to minimize the social, political and economic gap between the mainstream and Dalit people.
They also demanded that the government ensure professional and political rights of these people.
Speakers and representatives of Dalit communities from home and abroad made the demand yesterday at a seminar titled 'Development and prospects of Dalit communities in Bangladesh: In light of political pledges' at Institute of Education and Research (IER) in Dhaka University.
Bangladesh Harijans Oikya Parishad, Friends Association for Integrated Revelation (FAIR) and Manusher Jonno Foundation jointly organised the seminar on the occasion of the five-day long South Asia Social Forum 2011.
Addressing the seminar, lawmaker Hasanul Haque Inu, president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, said though all people were equal according to the constitution of Bangladesh, it was urgent to formulate a law to protect the rights of the untouchables.
Representatives from Pakistan, India and Sweden also described the miserable condition of Dalit people in their own countries.
Director of Manusher Jonno Foundation Mina Roy, President of Bangladesh Harijans Oikya Parishad Krishna Lal, and its General Secretary Nirmal Chandra Das also addressed the seminar.