Founded in 1998 by Dalit rights and human rights activists in response to a perceived lack of enforcement of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, the NCDHR had chapters in 14 of India's states by 2003.
[1] Shortly after adopting this organisational structure, in 2009, the National Dalit Watch (NDW) was set up.
It followed from an extensive study conducted on the 2004 tsunami and later of massive flooding in Bihar (2007–08), which NCDHR said highlighted caste-based discrimination in rescue programmes during disasters.
Since its inception, various tools and methods have been designed to identify, expose and document caste-based discrimination and used the experiences of the people to influence disaster management guidelines by central government.
[3] The NCDHR was awarded the Rafto Prize in 2007 for its work promoting Dalit rights and for kindling conversations about the issue internationally.