Social exclusion and caste discrimination in contemporary India

Abstract

Social exclusion is practiced worldwide mostly on the identity of gender, caste, religion, ethnicity, colour, race and nationality. In India social exclusion is the denial of the basic welfare rights which provide citizens positive freedom to participate in the social and economic life and which thereby render meaningful their fundamental negative freedoms (ILO country case studies (Gore & Figueiredo, 1997:17-18). This paper attempts to study the caste based discrimination and social exclusion of Dalits or Scheduled Castes (SCs) in contemporary India. Even today the Indian society follows the varna system which divides people into four varnas namely the Brahmans, Kshtriya, Vaishya, and the Shudra. The caste system is at the root of the discrimination of social exclusion. Although caste based discrimination is against the Constitution of India and it has been prohibited by several laws, it is being practiced in rural and urban India. Most of the SCs in rural parts remain at the margin of the society due to caste based discrimination. We hear the caste based discrimination has been a phenomenon of the past but in reality it is in practice in newer forms and strategies. SCs face some of the most heinous, inhumane and terrorizing forms of atrocities from members of upper caste. Crimes and atrocities against SCs ranging from abuse on caste name, murder, rape, social and economic boycott, parading naked, etc. are committed against them. In India SCs have been facing caste based social exclusion since ages which has hampered their overall development. Although caste based discrimination is against the Constitution of India, it is being practiced in India in newer forms and strategies. This paper intends to study the caste based social exclusion which has adversely affected the overall development of the SCs.