A band of intre­pid walk­ers took off on a 50km walk called ‘Go the Extra Mile’—an  endurance hike from Mitchel­ton to Scar­bor­ough in Bris­bane, Aus­tralia last Sat­ur­day, 6 August 2011, to raise funds and aware­ness for the “Untouch­ables”, or Dal­its – the throw-away peo­ple of India.

Organ­ised by Gospel for Asia, the event shed light on the 300 mil­lion dis­en­fran­chised peo­ple in India liv­ing under the bondage of being born in the wrong caste.

Since the sys­tem orig­i­nated 3,000 years ago, the Dal­its are pris­on­ers to the Hindu code of caste.

They have been unable to escape their fate and are dis­pos­sessed of even the most basic free­doms and priv­i­leges, includ­ing the lib­erty to choose where to live, work and worship.

Gospel for Asia shares the mes­sage of God’s sal­va­tion and redemp­tion with these for­got­ten peo­ple.  The organ­i­sa­tion also prac­ti­cally assists them by teach­ing adults to read, pro­vid­ing their chil­dren with an edu­ca­tion, plant­ing churches among the Dalit peo­ple and teach­ing them about the love of Christ.

The Plight of the Dalit Chil­dren in India (words taken from the Bris­bane Flyer adver­tis­ing the event) 

The Dalit chil­dren are located among some of the most down­trod­den peo­ple groups in Asia, where boys and girls face incred­i­ble dis­ad­van­tages as they grow up. Often con­sid­ered sub­hu­man by soci­ety, these chil­dren have lit­tle under­stand­ing of their value in the eyes of a lov­ing Cre­ator. They are among the most poor and needy of Asia, chil­dren who go hun­gry every day. More often than not, poverty forces every fam­ily member—children included—to labour to pro­vide the barest of essentials.

They are the street chil­dren roam­ing the cities. Treated with less con­cern and care than ani­mals, they are the recip­i­ents of cruel abuse and angry beat­ings. It’s doubt­ful they’ve held a bar of soap, eaten an ice cream cone or cra­dled a doll. Sur­vival is their only goal. They are the child labour­ers who toil in fac­to­ries, coal mines, tea plan­ta­tions and pas­tures. Their health is com­pro­mised; their grow­ing bod­ies are crippled. Some are bonded labour­ers; oth­ers are enslaved to their tasks by fam­ily poverty.

Quotes About the Caste System

“In a land where every ani­mal is wor­shipped, these fel­low humans are treated worse than any ani­mal, even in [the] 21st cen­tury.“
—taken from www.ambedkar.org

“The Dal­its may live in the world’s largest democ­racy, but their lives are shaped by a sys­tem of sanc­ti­fied apartheid.“
—Carla Power, Newsweek International

“Edu­ca­tion has been one of the only mech­a­nisms of upward mobil­ity for Dal­its… Basic lit­er­acy is a fun­da­men­tal right but also a means to empower deprived pop­u­la­tions.“
—Sukhadeo Tho­rat, Indian Insti­tute of Dalit Stud­ies, Jawa­har­lal Nehru Uni­ver­sity, New Delhi

“Caste is a state of mind. It is a dis­ease of mind. The teach­ings of the Hindu reli­gion are the root cause of this dis­ease. We prac­tice casteism and we observe Untouch­a­bil­ity because we are enjoined to do so by the Hindu reli­gion. A bit­ter thing can­not be made sweet. The taste of any­thing can be changed. But poi­son can­not be changed into nec­tar.“
—B.R. Ambed­kar, Dalit Activist

“My pre­cious broth­ers and sis­ters, I come to you today speak­ing on behalf of Christ, His love and His mercy for us all. Jesus came to set the cap­tives free. And He Him­self said that who­ever the Son sets free, is free indeed … We love you with Christ’s love, uncon­di­tion­ally and always.“
—K.P. Yohan­nan, GFA Pres­i­dent, speak­ing to Dal­its at Novem­ber 2001 rally