MIDDLE-CLASS students from across India are flocking to apply to British universities as plans to double the quota of places for “Untouchables” at Indian colleges leave them feeling squeezed out.

The move will be voted on by the Delhi parliament next month. It is aimed at ending the social stain associated with appalling treatment of the low-caste Untouchables.

But it has split the country and sparked fears of inter-caste violence. Trainee doctors joined other students protesting in Delhi last week.

British universities expect to cash in as many higher-caste students find themselves unable to get a place at home and start to look abroad.

The new rules will reserve almost half of university places for the lower castes.

There is resentment that the quotas will inevitably force up entry requirements for the remaining places.

The number of Indian students entering British universities rose from 16,000 to almost 18,000 last year and a further boost is expected this year as panic spreads at India’s exclusive private schools.

In the past six months more than 100,000 Indian pupils have contacted the British Council for advice on obtaining university places in Britain.

Kabir Bedi, 17, is among those prompted to apply because of his government’s plans. He says he has had offers from York, Nottingham and Bath.

He would prefer to go to St Stephen’s College at Delhi University but believes the minimum entrance requirement this year will be too stringent. “My friends are going to have a very hard time this year and I feel angry about it,” he said.

Alka Malhotra, whose son is hoping for a place at one of the elite Indian institutes of technology, said too many students were competing for too few places, and this was putting both parents and pupils under intense pressure. “It’s a numbers game. Kids need 90% passes to apply for the best colleges,” she said.

The anger of higher-caste parents and their offspring is lost, however, on Bant Singh, 40, a leading campaigner for the rights of Punjab’s dalits, as the Untouchables are known.

“I’m all for reservations in colleges and government jobs, and I’m not bothered what the middle class thinks,” he said last week.

One of his legs and both arms were amputated earlier this year after he was beaten with iron bars. His remaining leg is pinned together with steel rods, and his toes are black with gangrene.

His crime was to campaign for justice after his 19-year-old daughter was raped by two of his landlords’ sons. His fate was sealed when he refused the landlords’ offer of £12,000 and a scooter to drop the charges.

Dalits are the lowest of the Hindu castes and are regarded as unclean by the highest Brahmin, or priestly, caste.

They are excluded from Hindu temples and banned from drinking from the same wells as higher castes. They have even been attacked for casting their shadows over Brahmins.

More than 40m of India’s 250m dalits are reported to work in slave conditions. Their jobs include skinning cows in tanneries, pig farming, farm labouring, rag-picking and night-soil carrying — picking up human waste and carrying it in baskets on their heads.

India’s constitution formally banned discrimination against dalits in 1950 and quotas were established to reserve 22% of all government jobs and university places for them. But more than half a century later violent attacks, poor access to education and healthcare and regular humiliation persist.

More than 120,000 assaults on dalits were reported to the police between 2001 and 2004. Campaigners say a dalit is assaulted every two hours, while two are murdered every day. Most assaults go unreported for fear of further attack.

In Mansa hospital near Patiala, Punjab, Bant Singh said he supported any reforms that would help families like his. He has eight children. None is heading for university.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• A doctor, a daughter and a man called Johnny
• Mona Lisa's smile may have belied ill health
• ‘Parasite economy’ lies behind Greek tragedy