"We are challenging the international community. Are you going to hear our agonies? What is your response?" Bolimera asked.

"How can you best use your influence and all your goodwill and wishes so that the governments will address the caste discrimination, especially against the Dalits in India?"

A Dalit project officer for the Center for World Solidarity in Hyderabad, India, Bolimera said that when he heard the UN was calling for a racism conference, he thought it would be a good chance for Dalits to voice their caste discrimination concerns.

"Caste and racism-why I am equating this is because the dominant class feels that they belong to the Aryan race. The Aryan race is something where you feel the superiority over others," he explained. "Caste discrimination is racism."

Pleased with the support Dalit people were given at the non-governmental organization forum, Bolimera complained that Dalits have not been heard at the intergovernmental conference.

"The Indian government is using every diplomatic channel so that this issue will be diluted," he said.

Bolimera claims the Indian government wants to make the caste issue a private one that should not be discussed at the international level. Predictably, he disagrees.

At the last preparatory committee meeting, Switzerland supported the inclusion of caste discrimination on the agenda, but that support was withdrawn during the conference's opening weekend.

"I don't know why that happened, but the Indian government immediately said that since the nation that proposed it itself has withdrawn it, caste discrimination cannot come under the human rights violations and then could not be discussed," he said.

But the inclusion of caste discrimination was openly supported by some of the smaller African and Asian countries, ensuring that the issue will be discussed at the intergovernmental conference.

Though there are two Dalit people on the Indian delegation, Bolimera complains that they are the "cream of Dalits," not in tune with the needs of the masses.

Bolimera earned his Masters degree in Business Administration from Andhra University where he ranked first in his class. Although he has applied for numerous jobs, he has been unable to find one.

"I tried to enter into the corporate sector but always I would come across the question 'what caste are you?' I have to mention my class in my curriculum vitae."

Bolimera would like to see the equivalent of the US affirmative action policy created and implemented for Dalits in India because although there is a reservation system at educational institutions where seats are set aside for Dalits, the same is not true for the private business sector.

With limited access to education, the Dalits have been confined to menial and agricultural work. Bolimera contends that as a result of mechanization the number of working days for the average Dalit has been reduced from almost 200 to fewer than 90 days per year.

"Science and technology have become a curse for the Dalits," he claimed.

"I think we came here to tell the world that this is our situation. What is your response? We have declared that all human beings are humans, irrespective of the caste, class and gender. If that is the case, then something wrong is taking place," he said.