Rape and other violence against women is prevalent, and authorities take little action. Many of the hundreds of thousands of women and children in Indian brothels, including tens of thousands of Nepalese trafficking victims, are held in debt servitude and subjected to rape, beatings, and other torture in a system that thrives with the complicity of local officials. Tribal land systems, particularly in Bihar, deny tribal women the right to own land. The constitution bars discrimination based on caste, but in practice members of so-called scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, as well as religious and ethnic minorities, routinely face discrimination. Scores of people are killed each year in caste-related violence.
Freedom of religion is respected.
However, the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, a lay Christian NGO, recorded more than 90 cases of rape, assault, Bible burning, and other violence against Christians in 1998, more violence than in any other year since independence. Most of the attacks took place in the BJP-controlled western state of Gujarat, where mobs also attacked several churches late in the year. The militant Hindu organizations denied responsibility but suggested the attacks were in retaliation for conversions by Christian missionaries. Numerous religious traditions that place children in positions of servitude contribute to child sexual exploitation in rural India. Major cities have tens of thousands of street children, many of whom work as porters, vendors, and in other informal sector jobs.