NDW-NCDHR a member to the delegation of six members, representing South Asia, called the Asia Dalit Rights Forum (ADRF), composed of members from Dalit organisations in Nepal (Feminist Dalit Organisation and Jagaran Media Centre) and Bangladesh (Nagorik Udhyog) participated in the 6th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR), from 22-26 June 2014 in Bangkok, Thailand, under the main theme, “Promoting Investments for Resilient Nations and Communities”. The 6th AMCDRR was hosted by the Government of Thailand and the United Nations office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction). The delegation from ADRF submitted the Statement on the Inclusion of communities affected by Caste Based Discrimination (CBD) in Disaster Risk Reduction to the Asian Disaster Reduction and Network (ADRRN, officially recognised platform for feeding into the Post 2015 DRR Framework. Here you can read the Statement. The concerns related to social exclusion contained in the Statement were incorporated in the final Statement of Voluntary Commitments of Civil Society Organizations for the 6th Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction. Linked here is the same- http://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/policies/v.php?id=38081&pid:0.

1. Statement by the Asia Dalit Rights Forum on
Inclusion of communities affected by Caste Based Discrimination
(CBD)in Disaster Risk Reduction
At the 6th
Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction
22-26 June 2014, Bangkok, Thailand
Recognising the high vulnerability of Asia region to disasters, and hence, the
importance of the 6th
AMCDRR as a platform to input into the HFA 2 process for
inclusive DRR and climate change adaptation, to influence and inform the national and
local level policy, and upholding the need for convergence with the Sustainable
Development Goals;
Recognising that 260 million are affected worldwide with Caste-based discrimination
(social arrangement based on occupation, leading to untouchability of those hailing
from the so called lower castes) (Caste discrimination: A global concern, Human
Rights Watch report 2001), and its intersectionality with gender, age and disability;
Acknowledging the findings of vigilant monitoring by civil society groups in India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka that has revealed the consistent pattern of
discrimination and exclusion faced by caste affected and discriminated Dalit
vulnerable communities in all interventions pertaining to disaster response, mitigation
and risk reduction, and climate change adaptation;
We, the members of the Asia Dalits Rights Forum engaged in protection of the rights
of caste discriminated groups, at the national, regional and international levels over
many years, call upon the leaders of the Conference to give urgent attention to the
recommendations below:
1. Principle
Explicitly recognise the problem of caste-based discrimination and exclusion in
disaster prevention and response in the Asia region into the DRR and Climate
change adaptation/HFA 2 frameworks.
2. Practice
Encourage disaggregated data gathering by the governments and humanitarian
stakeholders and reporting to assess the extent of outreach and service provision to
these caste affected communities in DRR and Climate change adaptation with a
common approach to addressing the risk of caste-based discrimination in humanitarian
programming across the spectrum of interventions from disaster prevention,
preparedness, response and recovery.

2. 3. Policy and legislation
Support the development and implementation of inclusive and appropriate disaster
management law and policy at local, national and international level that enable
the effective targeting of marginalised and excluded groups for disaster
prevention and response and climate change adaptaton, with a specific focus on
CBD.
4. Inclusive vulnerability and risk assessments and Monitoring
Promote the use of appropriate tools based on participatory methods and principles of
social equity audit for monitoring and auditing the extent of social equity and
inclusion of persons affected by caste–based discrimination in disaster response
and risk reduction programmes.
5. Encourage advocacy with the governments and UN agencies to take measures to
address exclusion and CBD in all the programmes they fund, with a particular
emphasis on addressing the pre existing socio-political and economic vulnerabilities of
caste discriminated communities and disaggregated reporting of resilience building
programmes for these caste affected communities.
ADRF Head office
c/o Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO)
Kupondole, Lalitpur, Nepal
Office: +977-01-5520982
*ADRF is a platform of civil society organizations in Bangladesh, India,
Japan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka working for the empowerment and
emancipation of the communities subjected to descent and work based discrimination
and violence.
It aims at addressing the rights and entitlements of these communities in the
respective countries and collectively in Asia and at international level.
It has a decade old history, when the idea was mooted at the gathering of Dalit
ADRF Camp office
C/o National Campaign on Dalit
Human Rights
8/1, 2nd Floor, South Patel Nagar
New Delhi-110008, India

3. rights activists and those in Solidarity at the World Social Forum in 2004. This was
further strengthened at the Karachi Social Forum wherein Dalit rights activists
gathered from the South Asian countries. The rationale for this networking lay in the
contiguity of the countries of this region, the commonality of the systemic nature of
discrimination suffered by the peoples living in these countries and the felt need to
make collective interventions in UN bodies, EU and in individual governments on the
one hand and the international human rights organizations and donor partner
organizations on the other hand.
The objective of such interventions was to gain global visibility and recognition
to the issue of caste based discrimination and to engage the governments in South Asia
to make responsive policy changes for the betterment of Dalit communities.