Dear Friends

Greetings from Amudhan R.P.

I take this oppurtunity to invite you to the screening
of my new documentary “Seruppu” (chappal/footwear) .

This film is a socio-cultural documentary on the lives
of Catholic Arundhatiyars
(Dalits/harijans/ untouchables) of Dharmanathapuram, an
old slum located at the heart of Tiruchirappalli in
Tamilnadu, a southern state in India.

The people of Dharmanathapuram are involved in making
footwear, one of the traditional occupations of a
dalit with in Indian caste based society.

According to the Presidential Order 1950: Para 3, by
the Union Government of India, dalits or the people
from the ‘lower castes’ in the Indian caste system who
do not follow Hindu religion (or those who have
converted to Christianity or Islam), are not
considered as Scheduled Caste (as any other Hindu
dalits); Also they do not get access to reservation
for jobs or in educational institutions and other
support mechanism that are otherwise available to a
Scheduled Caste according to the Indian Constitution.

Besides, the upper caste Hindus who have converted to
Christianity also follow their caste based practices
such as discrimination, exclusiveness, untouchability,
and at times violence against their fellow Christians
who happened to be dalits.

This film brings out the discrimination and struggle
faced by the Catholic Arundhatiyars of
Dharmanathapuram who also face stiff competition in
the economic grounds as mechanization in footwear
manufacturing continues to grow in the era of
globalization.

The film runs for 74 minutes.

Venue: SCM campus,Mission Road,Bangalore
Date: 13 January 2007
Time: 5:30 p.m.

My mobile: 09344156392

In Solidarity

Amudhan R.P.