NEW DELHI - A hungry 10-year-old girl from India's lowest Hindu caste had all the fingers of her right hand chopped off by an upper-caste landowner for taking a few spinach leaves from his field, the Hindustan Times reported on Monday.

Low-caste (dalit, or the oppressed) Hindu women wait for a medical treatment at a homage site in Mumbai. [AFP]

The attack took place in a village in Bhagalpur district last week in impoverished Bihar state in the east where caste prejudice against Dalits -- formerly called "untouchables" -- is widespread and sometimes results in violence against them.

Police in Bhagalpur in eastern Bihar said they would soon arrest the upper-caste landowner who used a sickle to wound the girl whose name was given as "Khushboo".

"We will get results. This is terrible," Superintendent of Police J.S. Gangwar was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

Khushboo's father said that he and his wife -- both labourers -- had nothing to eat in their house so they sent their daughter to collect herbs that grew along a railway line.

"She just strayed (to the landlord's field) and plucked a few leaves," Sukho Ram was quoted as saying.

Dalits make up around 16 percent of India's 1.1-billion population and still face discrimination in rural areas from higher castes and sometimes are victims of rape and murder.

They are not allowed to enter some Hindu temples.

But Dalits have also held high office. India's first Dalit president K.R. Narayanan held office from 1997 to 2002.

Last week, law ministry officials said Justice K.G. Balakrishnan would become the first Dalit chief justice of India's powerful Supreme Court in January next year.

Affirmative action in colleges, universities and in government jobs has benefitted a small section of Dalits.

But many work as labourers, sweepers and toilet cleaners.