Dalits still excluded from development policies: Filmmaker

Filmmaker Pawan Shrivastava, who has made a film based on a Dalit family, says it throws light on the fact that Dalits are still excluded from the development policies of India.

After successfully focusing on the agony of migrants and their struggles for identity through "Naya Pata", Shrivastava's latest offering titled "Life of an Outcast" is based on caste oppression and religious intolerance in India which seem to be on the rise rather than diminishing.

"As a filmmaker, I saw that Dalits are still excluded from the development policies of India. Development policies which India has till now followed is not interested and that is why economically they are still backward.

"Even after so many years of independence, they are unmoved from their position because of the development policies," Shrivastava told IANS.

"In my film, I am showing the life of a Dalit in India. I am trying to show a family living through 30 years of life led as outcasts in the society," he added.

The film was screened here last month. Shrivastava plans on travelling with the project to 500 villages.

--IANS

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