Mass conversion of dalits

According this BBC story, many thousands of dalits, who used more commonly to be known as “untouchables” - untouchable to high caste Indians because they fall outside the Hindu caste arrangements - have converted to Buddhism and Christianity in the hope of escaping the appalling discrimination that they face in India.

Two questions strike me:

1. Aren’t they unlikely to escape the discriminationthey just because they have changed religion. Discrimination of this kind is often highly persistent.

2. Are they changing their religion from conviction and belief (which seems to me to be OK) or merely because they think it will result in an end to discrimination? If the latter, is that OK?

A further twist in this story is that some of the Indian states have passed laws in an attempt to make it more difficult to convert from Hinduism to other religions. Regardless of whether or not one thinks that the mass conversion of dalits is happening for the right reasons, these laws would seem to run counter to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief…

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