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Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

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The Fifth Floor: Unpicking India's Caste System

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Indian caste protests

26/02/2016 GMT

Unpicking India's Caste System

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Unpicking India's Caste System

India's Jats want more privileges. So who are they, and how does the caste system work?

India's Jats are protesting for better access to jobs and education.  David Amanor unpicks the caste system, and talks Ugandan elections, Afghan cartoons and Thai temple boys

This week in India the capital Delhi faced a huge water shortage after protestors blocked the main canal into the city.  The protestors were members of the relatively affluent Jat caste who are demanding to be categorised as a protected caste in order to gain better access to jobs and education.  So how does the caste system actually work?  Vaibhav Dewan and Sumiran Preet Kaur of BBC Hindi shed light on the complex subject.

There's a controversy brewing in Hong Kong over a film called Ten Years. It's set in the year 2025 and paints a gloomy picture of a Hong Kong losing its unique identity.  The film comprises 5 short stories produced with a low budget and non-starry cast but despite this it's been nominated in the best film category for the upcoming Hong Kong Film Awards. That could have repercussions though... Grace Tsoi of BBC Chinese explains.

Arturo Wallace of BBC Mundo has a special interest in the Granada poetry festival. It takes place in his home country of Nicaragua, where his countrymen have a special relationship with poetry going back over a century. The festival organiser, and poet, is Gioconda Belli.

Zuhura Yunus was in the Ugandan capital Kampala to cover last week's presidential elections for BBC Africa. And she got a bit of a scoop - an exclusive interview with re-elected Yoweri Museveni - the man who has been at the nation's helm for the past 30 years.  He's not an easy man to get hold of - so how did she do it?

Have you come across the cartoon stick-man Bill?  He's a sensible chap giving advice on his webpage about how to be a good person.  And it seems he has international cousins including one in the Afghan language Dari called Qodos. BBC Afghan's Kawoon Khamoush does the introductions.

BBC Thai has aired a video report looking at the changing faces of Thailand's Temple Boys. They're the children who once accompanied yellow robed Buddhist monks on their morning processions to collect gifts of food. But the boys it seems are no longer boys.  Issariya Praithongyaem explains.

And Fifi Haroon rounds up some surprising stories from the web.Photo: Protesters from the Jat community protesting for enhanced rights.

(Picture: Protesters from the Jat community protesting for enhanced rights.
Credit: STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images).

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