Bangladesh Dalit and Excluded Rights Movement at a rally in Dhaka on Saturday raised 12-point demands for an end to discrimination against the underprivileged communities, including the dalit.
Speakers at the rally held in front of the Bangladesh National Museum in Shahbagh said that around 75 lakh dalit people in Bangladesh faced discriminations for their birth and occupational reasons daily.
They also said that the dalit community was extremely backward in terms of education, social status, gender equality and equal rights.
To bring an end to discrimination against them, the BDERM raised the demands, including the amendment and passing the 鈥楢nti-Discrimination Bill 2022鈥� immediately, ensuring rehabilitation before evicting dalit colonies, taking legal actions against those who obstruct dalits鈥� access to public spaces, urgent steps to determine the exact number of dalits, permanent employment with a fixed pay scale for all cleaners, increasing budget allocations for dalits.
The demands also included ensuring and providing protective equipment for all cleaners addressing health risks, introducing a 鈥榬eservation policy鈥� at various levels to eliminate discrimination against dalits, full implementation of the constitutional clause that states that the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, priority land allocations for landless dalits, providing housing facilities to all cleaners in metropolitan and municipal areas and ensuring dalit representatives in the committees from聽 local government to the national level.
Presided over by the BDERM president Uttam Kumar Bhakta, its general secretary Shipon Kumar Robidas anchored the rally, said a press release.
The Socialist Party of Bangladesh assistant general secretary Khalequzzaman Lipon, the Communist Party of Bangladesh central committee member Luna Noor, Dhaka University professor Zobaida Nasreen and the BDERM chief adviser Zakir Hossain, among others, spoke at the rally.
