The Dalits, or 'untouchables', form the very lowest class in India's caste system. They have been severely discriminated for many centuries, and have recently decided to turn their backs on Hinduism, the religion that the caste system is built on. Providing education to Dalit children is an effective way to break the cycle of poverty and discrimination, while at the same time introducing the Dalits to Christ. One to One International sends Dalit children to school with your help. It costs $5 a month or $60 a year to send a child to school in India. We would like to help as many children as

Imagine living daily with tangible fear. Certain forces control your life and may bring death and disease in an instant. Your job is to keep these ‘forces’ happy, hoping they will be good to you in return. You’ve made them little images, which you worship, offer food and drink, and even dress and bathe on certain days. You don’t dare make a move without their consent. They may burn your house or take your children if you do. All your life you have lived this way, and so have your ancestors before you. In fact, this fearful faith has bound your people for thousands of years. And then...

Evangelism has always been more fruitful among the Dalits than among the higher castes, and increasingly the egalitarian nature of Christianity has attracted them as one way at least to a decent existence. It is mainly due to Christian efforts, in social work and literacy classes as well as in evangelism, that the Dalits have become more aware of their rights. This involvement has not been welcomed, however, by the recent Hindu governments. The leading BJP party has strong connections with the RSS, a fundamentalist Hindu group that propagates India as a Hindu country and all other religions as

Dalits are outcastes, which means that they do not belong to any of the four main castes of Hindu society, created several millennia ago. When the Aryans (Indo-Europeans) invaded India about 1500 years BC from the Northwest, they found there an original dark-skinned people. The newcomers organized their society according to a hierarchical system of four castes or varnas ("colours"): that of the Brahmins or priests, the Kshatryas or warriors/rulers, the Vaisyas or farmers/artisans, and the Shudras who were to serve the other castes. This caste system was an intricate part of the Aryan religion,

I spent the month of September traveling through India and watching closely the plight of the Dalits. The best way I can describe it is that they are an unloved and broken people. Society has no compassion for them. They are seen as a lower species of human being, only fit to do jobs no one of the higher castes would think of doing. An estimated one million of them are manual workers who clear feces from public and private latrines and dispose of dead animals. Most other jobs are closed to them, just as associating in any way with those outside their class, a law which excludes them from most