About one-seventh of the world population lives in South Asia and about one-seventh of this concentrated human mass belongs to the so-called harijans or untouchables. Economically exploited and socially despised, this minority — which actually contains well over 85 million people — has been relegated to the lower fringes of Hindu society. With occupations like sweeping, tanning, midwifery etc. permanently assigned to them, their degradation is further reinforced by the stigma of ritual pollution, which renders them unfit for social contact: untouchable.