Robancy A Helen –
New Delhi, 10 August 2026: Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims across India observed 10 August as the “National Day of Prayer and Protest”, renewing their longstanding demand for the extension of Scheduled Caste (SC) status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims.
The Denial of Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians and Muslims in India is unconstitutional and against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18, said Father Devasagayaraj M Zackarias, the national secretary to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), Office for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes (SC/BC).
This denial not only deprives them of their rights as citizens but also violates religious freedom in a secular nation, he added.
It deprives the human dignity of a certain group of people who are discriminated against based on caste. It violates the rights of the people, though historically the daughters and sons of the soil are today alienated from it, and they are silenced and robbed of dignity,[i] largely deprived of the necessities of life. (Dalit Empowerment Policy # 2)
For the past 76 years, Christians and Muslims of Dalit origin have been denied Scheduled Caste status. The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, issued on 10 August 1950, contains Paragraph 3, which states, “No person who professes a religion other than the Hindu religion shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.” The Order was subsequently amended to extend Scheduled Caste status to Sikhs in 1956 and Buddhists in 1990.
The continued exclusion of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims from the Scheduled Caste list is widely regarded by their representatives as religion-based discrimination, particularly since Dalits who embraced Sikhism and Buddhism were subsequently brought within the ambit of Scheduled Caste status. As a result, Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims have continued to face social and economic disadvantages while being deprived of constitutional protections and benefits associated with Scheduled Caste status.
Against this background, Dalit Christians and their supporters have been observing 10 August as a Day of Prayer and Protest for several years. The observance seeks to draw attention to the continuing injustice and to call for equality, justice and the extension of Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims.
On 10 August 2026, the Day of Prayer and Protest was observed across India. Following the guidance of Bishop Jayarao Polimera, chairperson of the CBCI Office for SC/BC, dioceses across the country observed the day in collaboration with ecumenical churches, people’s movements and other organizations.
Prayer services, demonstrations, seminars, awareness programmes and public meetings were organized in State and district headquarters. Memoranda were also submitted to the concerned authorities, urging the government to address the longstanding demand for Scheduled Caste status for Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims.
Archbishops, bishops, priests, pastors, religious, lay faithful, Christian leaders, and representatives of people’s movements actively participated in the programmes and expressed their solidarity with the demand for justice and equality.
In Delhi, Christian leaders and representatives of various Churches and organizations participated in a consultation held at CNI Bhawan as part of the National Day of Prayer and Protest. The consultation was jointly organized by the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) and the CBCI Office for Scheduled Castes/Backward Classes.
The participants reflected on the continuing denial of Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. They discussed strategies for strengthening the collective campaign through prayer, advocacy, legal action, public awareness and democratic engagement.
The struggle has continued for 76 years, while the legal challenge concerning the exclusion of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims has been pending before the Supreme Court of India for more than two decades.
The important event across the country demonstrated the unity, commitment and peaceful determination of Dalit Christians, Dalit Muslims, Churches, ecumenical organizations and people’s movements in their continuing struggle for justice, equality, dignity and constitutional rights.
“The Dalit Christian movement will have to reinvent itself and devise new strategies in the face of hardening government and political opposition, indefinite delay in getting justice in the courtroom, and finally almost fatal arguments that Justice KG Balakrishnan is feared to give in his report at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party,” said Dr. John Dayal, a human rights activist and a former member of the National Integration Council of India.
“The movement demanding Scheduled Caste status needs to gather more data, develop deep roots in the youth and secular Dalits, civil society and the international community,” he added.
[i] Jon Sobrino, Witnesses to the Kingdom, Orbis Books, NY, 2003, p. 139.