New Delhi, India., March 05. - When the Dalits, a socially backward community that bore the brunt of the Hindu caste system, embraced Christianity, many thought that their bad days were over as they would, henceforth, be treated as equals and not be discriminated against.

But recently when a Christian body representing Dalits or the socially underprivileged questioned the church leadership for demanding special treatment for them and accused it of exploiting their economic and social backwardness, it appeared that their dream of liberation from the rigid caste system was far from coming true.

Stating that Dalit Christians accounted for 70 percent of India's Christian population, the Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM), a Christian organization based in Delhi, accused high caste Christians of exploiting them.

The church leadership wanted to exploit the poverty and unemployment among the Dalit Christians to demand reservation of government jobs for them by getting them classified as scheduled castes, PCLM president R.L. Francis said in a press statement.

People belonging to the scheduled castes benefit from reservations in educational institutions and government jobs.

"It is worth mentioning here that when they (Dalit Christians) were in Hindu society, they were the victims of the caste system. The foremost reason for their coming to the fold of Christianity was that there would be no discrimination and they would be treated as equals," the PCLM president continued.

"But despite a wide network of (Christian) missionary schools and colleges, most children of Dalit Christians have not been able to rise above the literacy level because these convent schools are busy catering to the educational needs of upper and high caste people. The neglect of Dalit Christian children by these institutions is at the root of the problem," he lamented.

"Same is the case with job opportunities and entrepreneurship development. Dalit Christians are being denied all these facilities while the church leadership continues to flourish by usurping vast foreign funding and real estate resources," Francis charged.

Demanding a Dalit Christian Development Board, he said that in the coming parliamentary elections, members of the community would only vote for parties which supported this.

- by our Special Correspondent, South Asia