Many of the hundreds of thousands of women and children in Indian brothels are held in debt servitude and subjected to rape, beatings, and other torture in a system that thrives with the complicity of local officials. Muslim women face discrimination in inheritance rights. Tribal land systems, particularly in Bihar, often 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 unofficial discrimination. Caste-related violence kills scores of people each year.
Freedom of religion is respected.
However, in January 1999, the Delhi-based United Christian Forum for Human Rights reported that Hindu militants had carried out at least 114 assaults on Christians in the past year, including rape, assault, the burning of churches, and destruction of Bibles. Most of the attacks took place in the BJP-controlled western state of Gujarat, and to a lesser extent in eastern Orissa state, where in January, Hindu militants burned to death an Australian missionary and his two young sons. The militant Hindu organizations denied responsibility but suggested that the attacks were in retaliation for alleged conversions by Christian missionaries. Major cities each have thousands of street children, many of whom work in the informal sector. Many work in hazardous conditions, and several million are bonded laborers.