Dalit Reservation and the Issue of Social Upliftment: An Overview (original) (raw)
Related papers
DALITS IN INDIA: DISCRIMINATION AND DEVELOPMENT
This study seeks to examine the lives of Dalit people in 21st century. Dalits are excluded and discriminated in the society from decades but the state has provided safeguards for them. So the study tries to focus mainly on two sectors education and employment sector where positive discrimination has been provided by government to analyze the state of Dalits. The main objective of the paper is to provide evidences which can show that caste based discrimination is still prevailing in India. Also an attempt is done to access reservation system of India and what lessons can be taken from international experiences regarding the affirmative actions. The study utilizes the available data and literature to analyze the aforementioned objectives.
Dalits in India: Origin of Caste and Social Exclusion
―Dalit‖ is presently the most-used term for India‘s untouchables. It includes more groups than the official word for untouchables in the 1935 government list of ―scheduled castes,‖ those eligible to receive governmental benefits and parliamentary reservations. ‗Dalit‘, means ground down, downtrodden, oppressed, and is now being used by the low castes in a spirit of pride and militancy. The term began to be used by politically-awakened exUntouchables in the early 1970s when the Dalit Panthers, a youthful group of activists and writers in Bombay, came on the scene to protest injustice. The Dalit Panthers, a short-lived but famous militant group of educated youth, Dalit scholars and workers
Dalits in India: From Marginalisation to Inclusion
It is said that that India is at the threshold of a Dalit Revolution, dalits being the most marginalised people in India. This paper opens a debate on participation and poverty of dalits in India's social and economic spheres by introducing the lens of 'inclusion' to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the issue. It highlights and discusses the present conditions and challenges of India's 167 million of oppressed and marginalised sections of society who – by and large – have for thousands of years – remained neglected and ignored in the social milieu. The dalits have suffered cumulative domination, protested several sources of deprivation, political powerlessness, exploitation and poverty. These protests and movements have no doubt given organisational shape and resulted in social awareness and political consciousness to develop self-respect and feelings of power-sharing. Economic and social " welfare measures " , along with political reforms have tried to address vital issues in dalit resurgence. There is some transformation in this sense. The revival of 'Ambedkarism' and dalit movement should be assessed in this context. Despite political empowerment dalits live in situations of social discrimination, physical violence and abject poverty. Around 50 per cent of the quantum of welfare measures is still unfulfilled. We need to explore social, cultural, political and economic factors (e.g. caste, class, gender, education, state, etc) in the context of dalit people's access to rights, resources, employment and security. The focus now needs to be on dalit emancipation, rights and inclusive growth, both within 'dalitology' and the new pedagogy of inclusive growth. Political reality – whether in case of agitations or administration – must admit social equality within caste dynamics. This indeed is a challenge.
Caste Discrimination, Deprivation and the Socio-Economic Development of Dalits
Voice of Dalit, 2010
India is unique in its social structure. In the Indian social order, caste plays a crucial role in every sphere of human life. It is estimated that there are around 260 million people affected by the inhuman practice of untouchability and discrimination based on birth and occupation. In other words, discriminatory, inhuman and degrading treatment of these disadvantaged sections of people has been justified on the basis of caste. In our caste-ridden Hindu social order the suppressed sections of the population, especially the dalits and tribal groups, are considered to be inferior social beings and are treated as subhuman beings or lesser human beings. 1 In caste ridden Hindu society the cow is in fact considered to be more sacred and valued than the dalit human beings. In view of the fact of the age-old caste prejudices which are so severe that the dalits are physically and socially isolated and excluded from the rest of the society, Ambedkar observed that dalits belong to the Hindu religion, but not to the Hindu society. The caste-based exclusion and discrimination is essentially structural in nature and it involves denial of equal opportunities particularly to the disadvantaged dalit groups in multiple spheres. 2 Caste-based discrimination and exclusion violates all human rights norms. Socioeconomic discrimination perpetuated under the caste system in India has no parallels in human history. The discrimination and exclusion against these disadvantaged sections is practiced by the upper castes and some dominant caste groups on a scale, the extent of which is impossible for an outsider to imagine. In every respect, casteism rejects the notion of human equality and thus justifies enclosure of each caste within its own boundaries on the basis of graded inequality. 3 In fact, this caste-based discrimination and exclusion is extended to all aspects of dalit life, such as in employment, education, health, land holding, security etc. This practice relegates dalits to a lifetime of discrimination, exploitation and violence including severe forms of torture perpetrated by state and private actors in violation of the rights guaranteed by the constitutional and legal provisions in India. That is why some activists consider the caste system and its discriminatory inhuman practices as a peculiar form of racial discrimination. Higher
International Journal of Research, 2014
Under-educated, severely impoverished, and brutally exploited, Dalits struggle to provide for even their most basic daily needs. Dalits must also endure daily threats to their physical security from both state and private actors. The violence by upper-caste groups against Dalits have two major causes: the “untouchability” and discrimination upper-caste community members practice on a daily basis and the desire of upper-caste community members to protect their own entrenched status by preventing Dalit development and the fulfillment of Dalits’ rights. A review of the political, social, economic, and cultural status of Dalits in India shows the State Party to be in violation of its obligation to respect, protect, and ensure Convention rights to all individuals in its jurisdiction. India routinely denies Dalits the rights and privileges that many of its other citizens take for granted. An attempt has been made in this paper to high light the issues and problems of India as a country that has failed in its duty to eliminate caste discrimination and ensure the full enjoyment of the fundamental rights and equality before the law of Dalits guaranteed by Article 5. A review of the political, social, economic, and cultural status of Dalits in India shows the State Party to be in violation of its obligation to respect, protect, and ensure Convention rights to all individuals in its jurisdiction.
Dalits and Reservations in the Private Sector
Voice of Dalit, 2009
Reservation for the historically deprived and discriminated communities in publicemployment, institutions of political representation and higher education has been an important component of India's democratic politics. The main purpose of reservation policy is to ensure social and economic justice and thereby realize the goal of empowerment of the dalits and other marginalised sections of the Indian society. It is a well-known fact that the dalits suffer a number of disabilities and restrictions due to the age-old caste prejudices which are so severe that they are physically and socially isolated and excluded from the rest of the society. In fact, the Hindu social order does not at any level recognise the principle of equality. So reservation is needed for equity and it definitely addressed that equity. In other words, the policy of reservation intends to bring about proportional representation, as it is a mode of distributing benefits based on the proportion of population under the scheme; the governments are bound to implement them on the basis of the principle of distributive justice and compensation for past disadvantages. 1 But with the adoption of the policy of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation, the state is giving up its soci<tl responsibilities one by one. The public sector is being surrendered to the private sector so much so that even the high profit earning infrastructural public sector undertakings whose establishment was considered an honour for the country and the government and which are called the 'Navaratnas', are being sold out by the government. 2
Sociology Mind, 2022
This research article aimed to explore why so-called upper-caste people, predominantly Brahman and Chhetri caste groups, are against 9% Dalit reservations, though the other five groups have reservations, like 33% women, 24% Aadibasi/Janajatis, 20% Madhesis, 5% people with disabilities, and 4% candidates from disadvantaged regions (people from disadvantaged districts in Karnali (basically to Khas Chhetris/Thakuris/Dalits), among others. The reservation has created some antipathy between so-called upper caste people and Dalits. The Supreme Court has also ordered a change in the existing reservation policy from a caste-based to a class-based system. In the midst of ambiguity, applied purposive sampling technique to gain detailed knowledge about a specific phenomenon with so-called upper-caste students studying at Kailai Multiple Campus in Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City. Reservation is an important solution to Dalit prejudice in the present, but it does not solve "past" deprivation of religiously sidelined, socially oppressed, economically exploited, politically oppressed, and educationally deprived people. Compensation is the appropriate solution for the latter kind of discrimination. What more can be done within the current system to ensure Dalits' access to state services if the reservations aren't the solution to their problems?