The Slum Development Society (SDS) was founded in 1987 to combat the severe economic, social, psychological and political problems of the Dalit, or the outcasts of Indian society. The literacy rate of the project population is 31%, and the average daily wages are approximately 25-50 cents. In 1994, 256 rapes were reported in SDS’s serviced communities. After a woman is raped her prospects for marriage in this culture are slim. With few other options these women often commit suicide. Furthermore, AIDS is fast swallowing up India. Ten thousand women in Madras alone have AIDS.

The staff of SDS includes fourteen people, mostly women. They have conducted a study of 20 villages in the area, examining their problems and proposing possible solutions. SDS activities include community participation in meetings, street plays focusing on political education, night-time skills training and education for children who work during the day, small loans for women starting businesses, a library for the community, AIDS education, and summer camps for children.

The proposed Human Rights Awareness project further addresses the social, psychological, and economic difficulties of the Dalit by focusing on adolescents, especially school dropouts. The project will identify approximately a hundred young people from twenty remote villages of Tamilnadu, one of the most socially, economically, and culturally marginalized areas of the region. They will provide job, leadership and skill training for two days each month for one year, will offer psychological counseling and guidance addressing problems of inferiority and self-hatred resulting from the institutionalized racism of the caste system, and will encourage advocacy of human rights. Follow-up procedures built into the program will monitor the effectiveness of the intervention and reinforce the participants’ awareness of changing social possibilities and human rights.