caste discrimination in india

The recent violence in Maharashtra against the desecration of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's statue at Kanpur and the Khairlanji killings in Bhandara district in which a Dalit woman and her daughter were raped and killed and her two grown-up sons were also killed has hardened the mood among the 17 crore Dalits in India.

The November 30 riots that spread in about a dozen places in Maharashtra resulted in four deaths and left more than 100 people injured. Three trains were burnt in Mumbai causing damage estimated at Rs 7 crore.

The burning of the Deccan Queen which shuttles between Pune and Mumbai has shaken many so-called upper caste Hindus.

The Deccan Queen, a favourite of hundreds of daily commuters to Mumbai, was stopped by Dalit protestors on the outskirts of Mumbai. Commuters were asked to get off the train and an angry mob set the train on fire.

Arjun Dangle, distinguished Dalit poet and one of the founder�members of the Dalit Panthers in Maharashtra, told rediff.com, "For many decades the Deccan Queen was the symbol of Pune, seat of the Peshwa Brahminical rule. There is a meaning behind the burning of train."

Dangle, who has chronicled underprivileged classes' literary movement in Maharashtra, claims the current Dalit movement is not the movement of illiterates.

Vishwasrao says, "The young generation is hungry of information. At the Nagpur book fair more than 100 titles on Dalit literature get released in a week. Dalit literature sales is above Rs 20 crore annually."

The biographies of Dalit leaders who have earned successes in mainstream India are in demand. Revolutionary poet Namdeo Dhasal and his contemporaries have also helped Dalits emerge out of darkness, says Vishwasrao.

"Dalit children are now saying 'I am not a small person'. Dhasal's father was doing one of the dirtiest jobs by assisting a Muslim butcher while living in a red light district of Mumbai. But the new generation of Dalit children are able to say, 'I don't want to do this dirty job, let a Brahmin do it'. They have got education and information. They are now alert and aware."

Satish Kalsekar, publisher and activist, says, "The Dalit movement is much more intense and dangerous now than ever because Dalits are aware of the injustice due to a casteist society. They are educated and will not keep silent. It is the responsibility of other castes to see that they are treated well."

Now, the scheduled castes are getting information with as much speed as any other classes. In Mumbai there are four Dalit dailies that include the Vishwa Samrat and Lok Nayak. There are large number of bloggers and websites helping in the percolation of information.

Dangle says, "Dalits are not only well-aware of their rights now but they want a share in resources. They know power, wealth and status has been the privilege of upper caste but now they are all set to struggle to have a share of power, wealth and status in society."

The intensity of violence and fury has not surprised Dalit leaders or experts.

The establishment's attempt to cover up the Khairlanji incident and the media's lapse in not reporting it for the first three weeks have hurt the mass psyche of community deeply.

Once again this shows the deep-seated bias in Indian society and that irks the Dalit community.

According to official statistics between 2003 and 2005, 69,216 cases of rapes, arson, atrocities and other such crimes against Dalits have been recorded in India but it rarely becomes headline news.

Dangle says, "Most people and the police are biased against Dalits. Our movement should be your movement. The Dalit issue should not be confined to Dalits only. When we take out a morcha, the police hit out with more force but when the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh hit the streets they are softer towards them. Why? The police forget that Dalits are on the streets to evoke humanity within you but political parties are evoking your baser instincts. When are we going to get social justice?"

The activists say that there was an attempt to "hush up" the rape and murders in Khairlanji. It is now beyond doubt that police, doctors and the administration tried to cover up the event. Even the district Superintendent of Police Suresha Sagar said: "This incident is the height of brutality."

Bhalchandra Mungekar, member of the Planning Commission and a Dalit, after visiting Khairlanji told the media, "How could so gruesome a crime happen in the land of Phule and Ambedkar? It is sad that the entire state machinery in Maharashtra, as well as the Dalit leadership there, have gone into a complacent, neutral limbo."

Only when Buddhists started protesting on the streets and the blogosphere brought the news out did the world came to know about killings in Khairlanji.

On the net and in Dalit newspapers graphic details of the abuse of the Dalit family before they were killed have been published. The Buddhist community is slowly and steadily organising the Dalit movement which is in search of a leader who can be trusted.

This time activists prepared a report of the Khairlanji event, e-mailed it widely, sent it to the media, got it published in local newspapers and even set up a website and campaigned in Mumbai and even in the US.

On November 24, the Ambedkar Center for Justice and Peace protested against the killings of Dalits in India before the United Nations at New York. They presented a memorandum to Ambassador Nirupam Sen at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations highlighting the suffering of Dalits/Untouchables.

Another important factor behind current mass fury is that the image of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, one of the founder members of Constitution, is getting stronger than ever. In the changing times of globalisation, Dangle says, Ambedkar is 'a like-minded friend' for Dalit youth.

He says, invariably, in villages the Dalit is a landless labourer. In the cities, he is without any capital to start his own petty business. His only option is to get a decent job. "For educated youth job opportunities have shrunk after India got liberalised. He doesn't have any option but to participate in agitations on the streets. There is social and political unrest and Dalits want to become a political force in Indian politics."

That seems difficult because of the absence of a unifying force and a leader. In Maharashtra Ambedkar initiated his politics through the Republican Party of India in the early 1950s. But after Ambedkar's death no leader has filled up the gap. The RPI today is fragmented party with as many as five groups led by personal ambitions and egos of leaders like Joginder Kawade, R S Gavai, Ramdas Athavale and Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar.

Achyut Yagnik, social activist based in Ahmedabad, says, "India is on move, but in process of globalisation tribals and Dalits have remained on the margins."

He says that the Dalits of India who were in small and petty sectors of commerce and industry are losing out their vocation and skills.

"They are angry because college degrees don't guarantee jobs. On other hand, they are struggling for an identity. Ambedkar has given them assertive edge. Asserting their identity and the frustrating search for economic opportunity keeps them volatile. The current violence is an expression of the minds of Dalits in today's India," Yagnik adds.

Dalit 'killed' in lock-up at Kurnool

Tension between different groups of people is due to unfairness this will eventually lead to violence. This will happen regardless of the place. This can be proven as a Dalit is killed when he is lock-up at Kurnool, 12 october 2000.

Tension prevailed for some time after the alleged lock-up death of Madiga Tirupal, a Dalit, who was taken into police custody on charges of gambling.

The body of the victim was found lying on a grave in the fields adjacent to the police station. However, police were contending that the victim was not tortured, and he had committed suicide by consuming pesticide.

People laid siege to the police station for over three hours seeking explanation. The victim was arrested two days ago along with P Ramachandra Reddy, Khaja Hussain and E Subrahmanyam.

The accused were let-off after a stringent warning to come to station again on Wednes-day. However, police had to intervene again after they failed to turn-up. Witnesses stated that the victim was seen riding pillion of a constable on Wednesday night.

He was found dead in lock-up next morning. The body of the victim bore bleeding scratches indicating that it was dragged through a fence erected around the field. Blood marks were also found on the floor giving credence to the contention that the victim was killed in the lock-up and was dragged to the field.

This show that even in prison unfairness towards the minority such as Dalit is still present. They are still being looked down at.

Dalit women face dual discrimination

Dalits in India are subject to all sorts of discrimination, including untouchability. Dalit women face dual discrimination, i.e., discrimination due to both gender and caste. Dalits are also the targets of hate crimes and violence. For thousands of years, the casteless in India have been oppressed, discriminated and abused. The result is that 90 per cent of the more than 160 million Indian casteless belong to the poorest of the poor in the country.

In addition to being targets of physical and sexual violence, Dalits are often required to eat and drink from separate containers in restaurants, attend separate religious services, walk long distances to get water and work in degrading conditions.

Dalit women face dual discrimination, i.e., discrimination due to both gender and caste. Although Indian law contains extensive protection against caste discrimination, the government still fails to enforce its domestic and international obligations to ensure Dalit rights (Human Rights Brief, Center for HR & Humanitarian Law, Washington).

Dalits are forced to undertake the occupations that the rest of Indian society finds ritually polluting, such as handling carcasses, disposing of human waste (manual scavenging), sweeping streets and cobbling. Historically, Dalit women have been forced to serve as sexual servants to upper caste men. Dalit children are also subject to human rights abuses including bonded labour.

Hence these show how the Dalits are look upon in their homeland. They are not treated with respect but humiliation and this treatment had lasted since thousands years ago, but this does not change.

Caste discrimination in India

The Indian caste system is the social stratification and social restrictions in the Indian subcontinent, in which social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups. There are four "varnas.", the Brahmins (teachers, scholars and priests), the Kshatriyas(kings and warriors), the Vaishyas (agriculturists and traders), and Shudras (service providers and artisans). The Dalits, or the people outside the varna system, had the lowest social status.

Most of them worked in what were seen as unhealthy, unpleasant or polluting jobs. In the past, the Dalits suffered from social segregation and restrictions, in addition to extreme poverty. Hence tension is present between the Dalits and the other classes of people and Dalits are also the targets of hate crimes and violence.

Phoolan Devi (1963 – 2001) was an Indian dacoit (bandit), who later turned politician. Born in a lower-caste Mallah family, she was mistreated and abandoned by her husband. She was later kidnapped by a gang of dacoits. The upper-caste Thakur leader of the gang tried to rape her, but she was protected by the deputy leader Vikram, who belonged to her caste. Later, an upper-caste Thakur friend of Vikram killed him, abducted Phoolan, and locked her up in the Behmai village. Phoolan was raped in the village by Thakur men, until she managed to escape after three weeks.

Phoolan Devi then formed a gang of Mallahs, which carried out a series of violent robberies in north and central India, mainly targeting upper-caste people. Some say that Phoolan Devi targeted only the upper-caste people and shared the loot with the lower-caste people, but the Indian authorities insist this is a myth. Seventeen months after her escape from Behmai, Phoolan returned to the village, to take her revenge. On February 14, 1981, her gang massacred twenty-two Thakur men in the village, only two of which were involved in her kidnapping or rape. Phoolan Devi later surrendered and served eleven years in prison, after which she became a politician. During her election campaign, she was criticized by the women widowed in the Behmai massacre. Kshatriya Swabhimaan Andolan Samanvay Committee (KSASC), a Kshatriya organization, held a statewide campaign to protest against her. She was elected a Member of Parliament twice.

On July 25, 2001, Phoolan Devi was shot dead by unknown assassins. Later, a man called Sher Singh Rana confessed to the murder, saying he was avenging the deaths of 22 Kshatriyas at Behmai. Although the police were skeptical of his claims, he was arrested. Rana escaped fromTihar Jail in 2004. In 2006, KSASC decided to honor Rana for "upholding the dignity of the Kshatriya community" and "drying the tears of the widows of Behmai."

caste discrimination in india

Discrimination at work place became a popular topic as it was brought out by International Labour Organisation (ILO). It had said that dalits in India are denied jobs due to "caste discrimination' and this has evoked mixed reactions from the people.

The report titled ‘Equality at work: tackling the challenges' released on May 10, said: "Dalits are excluded from work opportunities in the area of production, processing or sale of food items and services in the private and public sectors in India.' It also said that although law prohibits practice of ‘untouchability', caste remains a dominant factor in defining the economic and social status of dalit men and women in India and Nepal. "Limited access to education, training and resources, such as land or credit, further impair their (dalits) equal opportunities for access to non-caste-based occupations and decent work,' the report said. While acknowledging that affirmative actions by Indian government has enabled marginal number of dalits in obtaining formal jobs, the report says that such initiatives have failed to lead to an even progress in providing equal opportunities to all.
This is further supported by a research which states that on average low-caste applicants need to send 20 percent more resumes than high-caste applicants to get the same callback. This means that the Dalits need to put in more effort in get the jobs compared to the upper-caste applicants.
The percentage of numbers of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in government jobs including the public sector enterprise is below 10 per cent, while 22.5 per cent job reservation is being followed by successive governments since 1950. Due to globalisation, followed by shrinking job opportunities in the public sector, there is mass migration of workers from the organised sector to the informal sector, where discrimination against dalits or marginalised is more acute.

"The issues linked with movement of labour from traditional agriculture to low productive manufacturing and tertiary activities due to rapid emergence of few urban centres have not been the core of development debates on globalisation,' says Amitabh Kundu, professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

The report has also attracted some criticism some feels the report has not dealt with caste discrimination with sufficient rigour. It fails to register the growing consciousness among dalit workers, and the strong challenge they are posing against discrimination and inequality.

caste discrimination in india

Caste discrimination is a serious issue in India and it continues to plague Indian mothers. Based on one 2007 study in six north Indian states, it found that 61 per cent of maternal deaths were among Dalits — as “untouchables” are now called — and the indigenous people known here as tribals, Human Rights Watch said. Those two communities are at the very bottom of India’s complex social ladder and are far more likely to live without equal access to jobs, education or health care.
In Uttar Pradesh, caste discrimination is an ingrained part of the medical system, doctors and activists say. Upper-caste health workers refuse to visit Dalit communities. This means that pregnant Dalit women do not get nutritional supplements and consultation with the professionals although the majority of them are anemic. Negligence of the disease can cause the fetus an increase risk of growth retardation, prematurity, intrauterine death, rupture of the amnion and infection. It can also cause cardiovascular symptoms, reduced physical and mental performance, reduced immune function, fatigue, reduced peripartal blood reserves and increased need for blood transfusion in the postpartum period to the mothers.
In addition, the curse of caste means that lower caste patients are often asked for bribes or favors just to get admitted to a hospital even in emergency cases. This can be seen from an egregious incident of discrimination in the Social exclusion rampant in India’s maternal health care.
“New Delhi: A husband rushed his pregnant wife, writhing in labor pain, on his bicycle to a government hospital in Rampur Maniharan block. A nurse there demanded a bribe of Rs 500 for admission to the hospital. They are not able to pay the bribe, thus, she was refused admission. The woman then delivered a dead baby outside the hospital gates. The husband and wife were dalits. Later, the hospital authorities tried to hush up the matter.”
From this incident, we can clearly see the severity of caste discrimination in India. We can also see that high rate of maternal mortality among women of lower caste is a reality in India and it is a serious healthcare issue they face.

caste discrimination in india

One of the essential features of the caste system and its evolution over time is the hierarchical nature of the various castes and sub-castes with the dalits at the bottom of the hierarchy and the Brahmins at the top.
Many castes are traditionally associated with an occupation, such as high-ranking Brahmins; middle-ranking farmer and artisan groups, such as potters, barbers, and carpenters; and very low-ranking "Untouchable" leatherworkers, butchers, launderers, and latrine cleaners. There is some correlation between ritual rank on the caste hierarchy and economic prosperity. Members of higher-ranking castes tend, on the whole, to be more prosperous than members of lower-ranking castes. Many lower-caste people live in conditions of great poverty and social disadvantage.
The caste based discrimination has its obvious impact on the occupational pattern of these castes, most notably the scheduled castes otherwise known as the dalits. This discrimination assumes severe dimensions because of the multi-layered nature of caste system in India. In particular, the choice of employment pattern is affected by the structure of property rights; access to skills or education and falso the social restrictions on labor mobility. It is still difficult for people who belong to Scheduled Castes, who live in the rural areas to have access to employment opportunities other than probably the lowest occupation in social hierarchy and also the least productive.
In addition, people who belong to the Scheduled Castes are also deprived in regard to their access to education or skill. As a result, very few have skills and ability to move to other forms of employment opportunities even if they can overcome the social rigidities. Although the nature and severity of caste-based occupational rigidities is not the same in different areas within the country, the Dalits are still at the bottom of traditional rural society who find employment in the lowest occupations and have little access to education.
It is generally assumed that with urbanization and the entry of market forces these age-old rigidities are being broken down or moderated to a great extent. However, preliminary evidence on this count does not offer any concrete evidence of this. Hence, the dalits are still deprived of fair employment opportunities.

caste discrimination in india

A tsunami hit countries around the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004. It brought misery to all living along their coasts and India was one of them. Tamil Nadu, which makes up of Chennai, Cuddalore, Kanyakumari and Nagapattinam, was one part of India that was most badly affected. However, in India, the suffering of Dalits, who are at the bottom of the hierarchy, affected by the disaster has been exacerbated due to caste-based discrimination in the provision of relief supplies and other assistance.
Places such as Kadapakuppam and Pattipulam of the Kachipuram district in Tamil Nadu have received no relief after the disaster. Despite complaints by villagers in these two places, no government officials, political parties or non- governmental organisations (NGOs) have gone to the assistance of these people. Likewise, in Pannanthittu village of Tamil Nadu's Chidambaram Thaluka, people have been denied aid. This is because the Dalits who are mostly poor and illiterate, cannot document their economic and property claims and so have been unable to access relief and also compensation and relocation schemes. Furthermore, they are without effective local or political clout, are mostly servants to higher-caste people and remain subservient about their demands, needs and rights
This lead toThe Dalits literally starving. They have finished their stored grain. The crops were destroyed. They cannot grow their crops anymore as the land is full of salt.
However, there has been some attention to rehabilitation of and assistance to Dalit victims.In some villages in Nagapattinam, Dalits have been given temporary shelters. But discrimination is evident from the location and the quality of material provided to them.For instance, the Dalits' temporary shelters are near graveyards or garbage dumps without proper sanitation or lighting facilities.Their roughly 14 sq metre shelter, for a family of six to 10 members, are made of poor-quality cardboard sheets. Plastic roofing has long blown away in the strong wind and rain while asbestos sheets make the shanties unbearably hot during summer, so that many have simply left.
In addition, Dalits have been brought in to bury the dead, as 'traditionally' they have been obligated to do. The community kitchens which were established to distribute food to victims were divided into two: one for caste Indians and one for Dalits. This is because upper castes do not consume food prepared by the Dalits. This is a disheartening reality that caste prejudices dominate social exchanges even during such time.
The tsunami relief operations in South India are indicative of persistent caste discrimination throughout the country.

Caste and religion in Japan. Shintoism.

Religious origin of the Japanese caste systemThe caste system may have developed as early as the eighth century AD. The Japanese population was divided into two groups according to Shinto concepts of purity. Shintoism was basically a primitive folk religion and Shinto concepts equated goodness and godliness with purity and cleanliness. Shinto held that impurities could cling to people, making them evil or sinful.

Komin (“acceptable citizens”) or ryomin (“good citizens”) were engaged in agriculture. They belonged to the state and had a duty to pay tax in labour and in kind. The other group was called shiyumin (privately owned people) or senmin (“despised citizens”) because of their non- agricultural and unproductive occupations.

Kan Takayuki suggests that senmin were seen as religious people possessing a special talent which enabled them to interact with the mystical world. Some senmin were also called hafurinotami because they performed hafuri ritual duties. They were untouchable because of some ambiguous feeling involving both fear and reverence. Because of these special powers, senmin could have been a political threat to the Japanese Emperor, a living god and the master Shinto-priest who was supposed to have the same mystical powers. The symbolic power of the purity of the Emperor was enhanced by degrading the senmin class. The Emperor was in the highest position and the senmin were at the lowest in a kind of bipolar religious status. In order to enhance the Emperor’s religious power, senmin were placed under the direct control of the Emperor or some other powerful clans.

This discriminatory structure of society was strengthened when Buddhism penetrated Japan. Taboos on meat-eating, animal slaughter and leather-making became generalized and were extrapolated to concerns about the impurity of handling meat and eventually with handling dead humans as well. Consequently, anyone who engaged in related activities was, by definition, impure and to be avoided. Pollution could be caused by contact with the bodies of dead animals, and thus came to be associated with leather work. Gradually the Shinto concepts of imi (taboo) and kegare (pollution) became linked to the Buddhist prohibition on taking any life. First proclamations which outlawed the eating of flesh of certain animals occurred in AD 676. The Edo period (1603 – 1868) Discrimination based upon Buddhist religious concepts was firmly implanted in the Japanese mentality during the Edo period (Edo jidai).

Below the Tenno Heika (emperor) and the daimyo (feudal lord) there was the samurai (warrior- administrator), the nofu (farmer), the jukurenko (skilled artisan) and the shonin (merchant). All those people had “acceptable” occupations. Below them, senmin practised “unacceptable” and “despised” occupations, “tainted” with ritual impurity, involving special mystical powers, linked to magicians or shamans. They had their own temples and were not allowed to visit other religious sites.

During this period, senmin were divided into two groups, eta and hinin. Eta (“full of filth” – they were also given derogatory names such as beast, humble, ignoble, servant) was an inherited status, passed on to one’s children. Marriage was permitted, but only with a fellow eta. Hinin (“non-human”) became a status imposed as a punishment for:1. running away from your village;2. petty theft by youths under the age of 15;3. participating in failed double suicides;4. running illegal gambling games, etc.