A legal rights group on a fact-finding mission in a tribal district of India’s eastern Odi-sha state has found that aggre-ssive Hindu mobs are denying poor Christians from tribal and Dalit communities the “right to belief and a dignified burial.”
The Odisha Lawyers Forum, in a May 14 report titled: Free-dom to Be Buried, A New Stru-ggle for Christians in Odisha, has cited recent cases of “denial of the rights of the deceased” in Nabarangpur district, which they say are a clear violation of the Indian Constitution and laws. The report has docu-mented many such cases between 2022 and 2025, based on testimonies provided by survivors in the villages.
“The Odisha Lawyers Forum found gross violations of fundamental, constitutional and human rights of the most vulnerable communities of Adivasi, Dalit and religious minorities in terms of equality before law, right to freedom of expression, thought, belief and association, more importantly, the right to life and a dignified burial in Nabarangpur district in Odisha,” the report said.
India’s poor deserve better than this
Concerns are being raised about whether the needs of poor and marginalized communities in India are receiving enough attention in current government policies. Observers say
