A sound bite from "Hindus for Human Rights" in an article about a Hindu temple? Really? Would NBC go around looking for sound bites on Jewish issues from an organization called "Jews for Human Rights" run by virulent anti-semites?
This is typical of Western media reporting on Hindus and India. There can never be a single positive story about them without referring to snake charmers, sati, child marriage, toilets, hunger, poverty, caste, violence against minorities etc etc.
The ignorance about who Dalits actually are is par for the course. Dalits are not part of the traditional jati/varna classification. To use a now-English term for their status in society, they were complete "outcastes." This ignorance is more appalling because the reporter has a South Indian name. Looks like another thoroughly deracinated Indian.