Last week India's prime minister compared the plight of India's Dalits to that of black South Africans under apartheid. “Even after 60 years of constitutional and legal protection there is still social discrimination against Dalits in many parts of the country.”

Marking this, the BBC radio programme Woman's Hour this week featured an interview with the Dalit campaigner Ruth Manorama, who won a human rights award last month for her work with Dalit people, especially women. She describes how her family converted, not to Buddhism but to Christianity, to avoid caste discrimination. She comments on Dalit conversions to Buddhism and other religions and her three decades of campaigning.

Listen to the interview (6.5 mins)