Background to ASF / WSF:

The World Social Forum (WSF) was conceived in Brazil as an international forum against neo-liberal policies and capitalist-led globalisation, centred around the slogan: "Another World is Possible". The World Social Forum has emerged in the movements working against capitalist-led globalisation as a forum that seeks to provide a space for discussing alternatives, for exchanging experiences and for strengthening alliances between social movements, unions of the working people and NGOs.

The Asian Social Forum (ASF) 2003 is a milestone in that journey. The process of ASF 2003, in the WSF spirit, will be open, inclusive and flexible, to incorporate all the social movements and organisations, networks, coalitions, alliances and campaigns opposed to capitalist-led globalisation working all over Asia, who are in consonance with the World Social Forum (WSF) Charter of Principles. It is a step towards calling on these movements in Asia to take initiatives and to collaborate for the start of the WSF process in Asia.

ASF 2003 is being hosted by WSF-India and will be held Hyderabad from January 2 to 7, 2003. In the World Social Forum process ASF 2003 is the first Asia-level event to be convened with an understanding that the Asian Social Forum event will be repeated over a period in all the sub-regions of Asia. ASF will be organised as a platform for participatory formulation of alternatives to the dehumanising world order resulting from the policies and practices of neo-liberal globalisation. It is conceived as a process capable of generating a movement of ideas and of building a development approach based on the vision and strategies devoted to realising all human rights for individuals, communities and people.
Thematic Areas for ASF:

1. 1. Peace and Security
   
2. Debt, Finance, Trade, Investment and Development
   
3. Nation state, Democracy and Social Exclusion
   
4. Social Infrastructure and Democratic Development
   
5. Ecology, Culture, Knowledge: Towards the construction of Counter-hegemony
   
6. Alternatives and People's Movements

Dalit Concerns in ASF:

The Dalits in India and South Asia (Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) and similar social groups (namely the Buraku people of Japan) constitute sizeable social groups in their respective countries. They continue to suffer widespread social and economic discrimination arising out of the practice of caste system and untouchability, or descent and work based discrimination. In South Asia alone the Dalits account for over 200 million people; people who have historically been excluded from enjoying their social and economic rights, due to customary restrictions imposed on them under the caste system and the institution of untouchability.

Asian Social Forum offers a unique opportunity to mainstream Dalit concerns into the growing world-wide resistance to neo-liberal globalisation processes, through creative interventions in order to clearly articulate the concerns that the community is facing today. ASF also presents a chance to forge links and networks with other social movements in Asia, broadening our base for solidarity and mass action.

As part of the liberalisation process, the Indian Government's economic policy has undergone a significant change since the early 1990s. The main feature of the policy of liberalisation has been:

1. general reduction in the role of State in the economic governance,
   
2. withdrawal by the State in some economic sectors and its replacement by private sector, &
   
3. future development through wider participation of the private sector and hence more dependence on the market for exchange of goods (capital and consumer) and services.

Reduction in the Government's economic role is reflected in a decline in public spending. Total Government expenditure increased at a per annum rate of 11.0% during the 1960s, 7.1% in the 1970s and 6.46% in the 1980s, but it declined at per annum rate of 4.7% in the 1990s. Correspondingly, government and public sector employment has also reduced by a significant margin. Similarly, there has been privatisation of a number of public sector enterprises. According to the 1990 'Industrial Policy', only six to eight type of industries will be under the government and public sector, as against eighteen under the 1956 'Industrial Policy Resolution.' Private banking and insurance is now openly allowed. The consequence of reduction in government and the public sector and its replacement by the private sector mean that the access of Dalits to employment, capital and social services like education, housing and other under reservation will be now much less. The decline in the economic role of the State, and a shift towards private and international sectors means that Dalits will now have to depend on the market to a much greater degree than before. However, Dalits face discriminatory access to the market: there are studies that go to show that Dalits suffer from exclusion from market through discrimination in access to the land, capital, employment, and social amenities and faced unequal treatment that does not appear to justify on any ground.

Decline in social protection due to the withdrawal of the State from many public economic activities and a shift towards the private sector, and the absence of alternative forms of protection in the private sector against caste-based market discrimination, has given rise to new vulnerability and uncertainty for Dalits in access to sources of livelihood. This has a negative impact on the income and poverty levels of this group. Thus, current structural adjustment policies involving the relinquishing of economic activities from the public sector into the hands of the private sector, ie: the State moving away from economic planning and leaving the economic decisions to the market, means the withdrawal of social protection, with adverse consequence for the Dalits. Official data indicates the decline in Dalit employment in the public sector. The composition of their employment has also shifted from regular/salaried to casual labour and petty business.

Beside Dalits in India, there are Dalits from Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka and also identical social groups like the Buraku people in Japan, who also face similar impacts of the globalisation and liberalisation on their already marginalised socio-economic situation.

In view of the above facts, Dalit groups at ASF discussed the following nature of new forms of vulnerability being faced by Dalits and other similar social groups in Asia, in the context of the challenges posed by the globalisation and liberalisation in India: