Here’s the full video from the Second Annual Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Lecture with Santosh Dass.
Join us for the second Annual Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Lecture with Ms. Santosh Dass MBE! This year’s Memorial Lecture is dedicated to Mr. Raju Kamble, Mr. Shital Anmol, and others who dedicated their lives for creating inclusive world.
Ms. Santosh Dass MBE is a human rights and equality campaigner living in London. She is an ex Civil servant and held a number of senior roles at the Department of Health (DH) including leading on Better Regulation and Risk Management. Santosh is one of the leading figures in the campaign to outlaw Caste-based discrimination in the UK. She has taken up this issue and that of the rising atrocities against Dalits in India at the United Nations. Santosh is the Chair of the Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance (ACDA)and President of the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations UK. She is the co-founder of CasteWatch UK and the ACDA. In September 2014, Santosh put forward and pursued a proposal to the then Congress-led and then the BJP Government of Maharashtra (GOM) in India that they fund the purchase of the £3.1million London house where Dr B R Ambedkar lived in between 1921-22 – and turn it into a memorial. This house was purchased by GOM in September 2015 and has been refurbished and opened to the public. Santosh is a member of the Ambedkar House London Memorial Advisory Committee. In 2007 Santosh was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her services to Better Regulation at DH.
Abstract:
This talk focuses on the campaign to outlaw caste discrimination in the UK. Dass will cover why a law on Caste discrimination was necessary; share evidence of Caste-based discrimination; what the campaign has involved both at a domestic and UN level; what’s worked; what has been there by way of opposition; the status of the law now; and take-away messages from the experience. The talk will also address Dr Ambedkar’s legacy through the Ambedkarite movement in the UK.
This event is sponsored by CISAR, Chetna Association of Canada, Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation, the Department of Asian Studies, the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhism and Contemporary Society (何鴻毅家族基金佛學與當代社會課程), and SFU Institute for the Humanities.