Teen creates documentary on plight of ‘dalits’

CAMP HILL, Pa. (CNS) — Imagine living a life deprived of basic human rights. You live in squalor, are subjected to forced labor and violence, and have little or no access to sufficient nutrition, running water, electricity or sanitation.

Now imagine that your chances of changing your situation are slim because society denies you the right to an education, the right to possess assets, and the right to improve yourself socially or economically.

For many, this picture is impossible to comprehend. But for some 240 million men, women and children in India, these conditions are a harsh reality.

They are known as dalits, or "untouchables," labeled by their society as unworthy of belonging to India’s four-level caste system. Without education, affirmation and opportunity, most who are born dalits will die dalits. It has been that way for more than 3,000 years.

The situation of the dalits, who account for nearly 25 percent of their country’s population, is something a 17-year-old student at Camp Hill High School wants to make better known.

Andy McCoy, a member of Good Shepherd Parish in Camp Hill spent two weeks this winter assisting dalits in India and visiting refugee camps established for people devastated by December’s tsunamis.

He used the mission trip to film several hours of footage depicting the destruction, disease and death left in the wake of the natural disaster for a documentary, "Tsunami Smiles," to educate others about the dalits’ struggles and resiliency.

"I’m hoping to let people — especially students — know the conditions that others live in, and show them what they can do to help alleviate those problems," McCoy said in an interview with The Catholic Witness, newspaper of the Diocese of Harrisburg, after he showed his video during a March assembly at his school.

He explained at the assembly that even though India outlawed the caste system nearly 50 years ago, society has continued to live by it. Violence against dalits by other members of society has increased dramatically over the past decade in an effort to discourage the increasing amount of human rights efforts there, he noted.

McCoy, a junior, traveled to India earlier this year as part of a mission group associated with Dalit Solidarity, an organization dedicated to providing dalits with education, health care, employment training and social development.

"I was really taken aback by the number of people who were suffering and the total devastation from the tsunami," McCoy said.

But he noted many people — especially children — were constantly smiling and showing gratitude for the assistance. That’s why he titled his documentary "Tsunami Smiles."

McCoy planned to share his documentary at a human rights film festival, and would like to eventually distribute copies of it. He also plans to participate someday in another Dalit Solidarity mission trip.