ARTICLE
India's caste system assigns individuals a certain hierarchical status according to Hindu beliefs. Traditionally, there are four principal castes and one category of people who fall outside the caste system—the Dalits. The discrimination against the Dalits is especially significant because of the number of people affected; there are approximately 167 million Dalits in India, 16 percent of the total population.
Within the Dalit community, there are sub-caste such as leather workers, street sweepers, cobblers, agricultural workers, and manual "scavengers". The latter group, considered the lowest of the low are traditionally are responsible for digging village graves, disposing of dead animals, and cleaning human excreta. A majority of the country’s forty million people who are bonded laborers are Dalits. These jobs rarely provide enough income for Dalits to feed their families or to send their children to school. Hence, many Dalits are impoverished, uneducated, and illiterate.
Dalits have been oppressed, culturally subjugated, and politically marginalized. The principals of untouchability and “purity and pollution” dictate what Dalits are allowed to do; where they are allowed to live, go, or sit; who they can and cannot give water to, eat with, or marry; extending into the minutia of all aspects of daily life.
Moreover, discrimination for Dalits does not end if they convert to another religion. In India, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity maintain some form of caste despite the fact that this contradicts their religious precepts. As a result, dominant castes maintain leadership positions while Dalit members of these religions are often marginalized and flagrantly discriminated against.
Forced exclusion and constant oppressionToday
Dalits make up 16.2% of the total Indian population, but their control over resources of the country is marginal—less than 5%. Close to half of the Dalit population lives under the Poverty Line, and 62% are illiterate. Among the Dalits, most of those engaged in agricultural work are landless or nearly landless agricultural laborers. The average household income for Dalits was of Rs. 17,465 in 1998, just 68% of the national average. Less than 10% of Dalit households can afford safe drinking water, electricity and toilets, which is indicative of their deplorable social condition. Moreover, Dalits are daily victims of the worst crimes and atrocities, the vast majority of these crimes remain unreported due to omnipresent fear, and those that are reported are often ignored by police or end up languishing in the backlogged court system.
Dalits in Gujarat
Gujarat counts a fairly low proportion of Dalits. According to the 2001 Census, there are approximately 3.6 million members of Scheduled Castes in Gujarat, which represents 7.1% of the state’s total population. This relatively low figure is, however, inversely indicative of their miserable condition. More than 80 per cent of the Dalits in Gujarat are daily labourers, the majority of which are in the agricultural sector. Half of the SC population is landless or owns less than one acre of land, which forces them to work on dominant castes’ land in order to survive.
Because of this dependence and the quasi-inexistence of labour welfare in Gujarat, Dalits are subject to immense pressure and utter discrimination. Atrocities committed against them are a daily reality, with more than 4,000 cases reported in the span of 3 years in just 14 districts. Manual scavenging is still very much prevalent also, the State’s institutions in Gujarat themselves employing Dalits to clean dry latrines. For a State that likes to depict itself as a modern and thriving region in India, Gujarat is still a far cry away from ensuring social justice to all of its citizens.
The government of Gujarat has implemented certain policies designed to uplift those belonging to the Scheduled Castes into higher positions. The most prominent is the reservation system, where certain seats in the government are set aside only for Dalits. In Gujarat, 7% of seats in the government and education sectors are reserved for Dalits (as opposed to 14% set aside on the national level). This amounts to 2 of the 26 Members of Parliament (MP) and 13 of the 182 Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLA) currently held by members of the SC. There are also established reservation system
Even with this promise of upliftment through reservation, Dalits continue to be discriminated against throughout Gujarat.
Dalits in other South Asian Countries
India’s caste system finds corollaries in other parts of the sub-continent, including Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Indeed, as Hinduism spread from northern India to the southern part of the peninsula establishing itself as the dominant religion by the pre-Christian era, so spread the caste system and its ideology justifying the superior standing of the system’s aristocracy. Caste even migrated with the South Asian diaspora to firmly take root in East and South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, the Middle East, Malaysia, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, and North America. Nevertheless, Asia remains the continent with the largest share of Dalits. There are today in Asia well over 200 million men, women and children enduring near complete social ostracism on the grounds of their descent.
In both Bangladesh and Nepal, the types of discrimination faced by Dalits are very similar to those existing in India. Notions of purity and pollution are prevalent within society, social restrictions, and discrimination in access to public places or jobs are therefore commonplace. Nepal’s situation is noteworthy as not even a fringe of the 4.5 million Dalits (over 20% of the Nepalese population) has been able to significantly emancipate itself. With no affirmative action measures, there are practically no Dalits in Nepal’s legislative assemblies. The literacy rate of Nepalese Dalits is only around 10%, while that of Nepalese Dalit women is even lower. Over 80% of Nepal’s Dalits find themselves below the official poverty line; their life expectancy is not higher than 50 years.
In Pakistan, as well as in Sri Lanka (except Tamil regions), the caste system is somewhat less rigid in the sense that it does not hold any ritual pollution concepts. However, features such as social distance and restricted access to land are still very much a reality. Moreover, the Swat region in northern Pakistan also practices extreme forms of humiliation against Dalits, and especially Dalit women.
link:http://navsarjan.org/navsarjan/dalits/whoaredalits
India's caste system assigns individuals a certain hierarchical status according to Hindu beliefs. Traditionally, there are four principal castes and one category of people who fall outside the caste system—the Dalits. The discrimination against the Dalits is especially significant because of the number of people affected; there are approximately 167 million Dalits in India, 16 percent of the total population.
Within the Dalit community, there are sub-caste such as leather workers, street sweepers, cobblers, agricultural workers, and manual "scavengers". The latter group, considered the lowest of the low are traditionally are responsible for digging village graves, disposing of dead animals, and cleaning human excreta. A majority of the country’s forty million people who are bonded laborers are Dalits. These jobs rarely provide enough income for Dalits to feed their families or to send their children to school. Hence, many Dalits are impoverished, uneducated, and illiterate.
Dalits have been oppressed, culturally subjugated, and politically marginalized. The principals of untouchability and “purity and pollution” dictate what Dalits are allowed to do; where they are allowed to live, go, or sit; who they can and cannot give water to, eat with, or marry; extending into the minutia of all aspects of daily life.
Moreover, discrimination for Dalits does not end if they convert to another religion. In India, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity maintain some form of caste despite the fact that this contradicts their religious precepts. As a result, dominant castes maintain leadership positions while Dalit members of these religions are often marginalized and flagrantly discriminated against.
Forced exclusion and constant oppressionToday
Dalits make up 16.2% of the total Indian population, but their control over resources of the country is marginal—less than 5%. Close to half of the Dalit population lives under the Poverty Line, and 62% are illiterate. Among the Dalits, most of those engaged in agricultural work are landless or nearly landless agricultural laborers. The average household income for Dalits was of Rs. 17,465 in 1998, just 68% of the national average. Less than 10% of Dalit households can afford safe drinking water, electricity and toilets, which is indicative of their deplorable social condition. Moreover, Dalits are daily victims of the worst crimes and atrocities, the vast majority of these crimes remain unreported due to omnipresent fear, and those that are reported are often ignored by police or end up languishing in the backlogged court system.
Dalits in Gujarat
Gujarat counts a fairly low proportion of Dalits. According to the 2001 Census, there are approximately 3.6 million members of Scheduled Castes in Gujarat, which represents 7.1% of the state’s total population. This relatively low figure is, however, inversely indicative of their miserable condition. More than 80 per cent of the Dalits in Gujarat are daily labourers, the majority of which are in the agricultural sector. Half of the SC population is landless or owns less than one acre of land, which forces them to work on dominant castes’ land in order to survive.
Because of this dependence and the quasi-inexistence of labour welfare in Gujarat, Dalits are subject to immense pressure and utter discrimination. Atrocities committed against them are a daily reality, with more than 4,000 cases reported in the span of 3 years in just 14 districts. Manual scavenging is still very much prevalent also, the State’s institutions in Gujarat themselves employing Dalits to clean dry latrines. For a State that likes to depict itself as a modern and thriving region in India, Gujarat is still a far cry away from ensuring social justice to all of its citizens.
The government of Gujarat has implemented certain policies designed to uplift those belonging to the Scheduled Castes into higher positions. The most prominent is the reservation system, where certain seats in the government are set aside only for Dalits. In Gujarat, 7% of seats in the government and education sectors are reserved for Dalits (as opposed to 14% set aside on the national level). This amounts to 2 of the 26 Members of Parliament (MP) and 13 of the 182 Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLA) currently held by members of the SC. There are also established reservation system
Even with this promise of upliftment through reservation, Dalits continue to be discriminated against throughout Gujarat.
Dalits in other South Asian Countries
India’s caste system finds corollaries in other parts of the sub-continent, including Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Indeed, as Hinduism spread from northern India to the southern part of the peninsula establishing itself as the dominant religion by the pre-Christian era, so spread the caste system and its ideology justifying the superior standing of the system’s aristocracy. Caste even migrated with the South Asian diaspora to firmly take root in East and South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, the Middle East, Malaysia, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, and North America. Nevertheless, Asia remains the continent with the largest share of Dalits. There are today in Asia well over 200 million men, women and children enduring near complete social ostracism on the grounds of their descent.
In both Bangladesh and Nepal, the types of discrimination faced by Dalits are very similar to those existing in India. Notions of purity and pollution are prevalent within society, social restrictions, and discrimination in access to public places or jobs are therefore commonplace. Nepal’s situation is noteworthy as not even a fringe of the 4.5 million Dalits (over 20% of the Nepalese population) has been able to significantly emancipate itself. With no affirmative action measures, there are practically no Dalits in Nepal’s legislative assemblies. The literacy rate of Nepalese Dalits is only around 10%, while that of Nepalese Dalit women is even lower. Over 80% of Nepal’s Dalits find themselves below the official poverty line; their life expectancy is not higher than 50 years.
In Pakistan, as well as in Sri Lanka (except Tamil regions), the caste system is somewhat less rigid in the sense that it does not hold any ritual pollution concepts. However, features such as social distance and restricted access to land are still very much a reality. Moreover, the Swat region in northern Pakistan also practices extreme forms of humiliation against Dalits, and especially Dalit women.
link:http://navsarjan.org/navsarjan/dalits/whoaredalits