DESPITE laws making it punishable, untouchability continues to exist in the country in a vicious manner. A study titled “Understanding Untouchability: A Comprehensive Study of Practices and Conditions in 1,589 villages”, conducted in Gujarat by the Navsarjan Trust, an organisation that promotes the rights of Dalits, in collaboration with the Robert E. Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights, puts together staggering data on the obnoxious practice that gets neglected by both the State and Central governments. The survey was conducted from 2007 to 2010. A sample of the findings indicates how deep the rot is. In 98.4 per cent of the villages surveyed, inter-caste marriage was prohibited, and inter-caste couples would be subjected to violence and would often have to leave the village. In 98.1 per cent of the villages, a Dalit could not rent a house in a non-Dalit locality. In 97.6 per cent of the villages, Dalits touching the water pots or utensils of non-Dalits was considered defilement. In 97.2 per cent of the villages, Dalit religious leaders would never be asked to perform a religious ceremony in a non-Dalit area. A report states: “There is systematic underestimation of the practice of untouchability within modern India; the perpetuation of a wide variety of abuses is allowed to continue with impunity; there is a general lack of awareness and sensitivity to the pervasiveness of the problem; and, consequently, there is limited political will to address and change the situation.” According to Macwan “It is a crime to practise untouchability, but the caste system is not a crime, which is the root of the problem. People believe it is part of a belief and nothing is wrong with that,” The team spoke to 5,462 respondents in 1,589 villages over a two-year period. The researchers formulated an index of untouchability after identifying 98 distinct practices of discrimination and clustered them into eight categories: 1) water for drinking, 2) food and beverage, 3) religion, 4) touch, 5) access to public facilities and institutions, 6) caste-based occupations, 7) prohibitions and social sanctions and 8) private sector discrimination. A practice most prevalent across all the villages examined (at 98 per cent) was the failure to serve tea to Dalits in non-Dalit households. Even if tea was served, it was done so in a separate cup called “rampatar”—vessel of Ram. In approximately 96 per cent of the villages, Dalit labourers were served lunch separately from other workers. Any leftover food touched by them was thrown away, untouched by any non-Dalit. Further, in 94 per cent of the villages, when the community gathered, Dalits were asked to sit in a separate place to eat, to bring their own plates, or to eat after non-Dalits had finished. With regard to practices concerning religious activity, the study suggests that in almost all of the villages surveyed (97 per cent), Dalits were not allowed to touch articles used for religious rituals. In 96 per cent of the villages, non-Dalits would not come to Dalit localities to perform religious services. The report states that in 90 per cent of the villages, Dalits were not allowed to enter public temples. In 92 per cent of the villages, prasad, or a portion of the food offered to the deity, was thrown to Dalits without any physical contact. The study also found that in approximately 96 per cent of the cases, it was forbidden for a Dalit to enter an upper-caste house. Some of the clearest forms of vertical caste discrimination were in restrictions with regard to private and public spaces. In 87 per cent of the villages surveyed, Dalits were not allowed to hire cooking pots for wedding ceremonies. Further, Dalits could not use the services of local barbers (in 73 per cent of the villages), potters (in 61 per cent of the villages) and tailors (in 33 per cent of the villages).
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 12:56:12 +0000
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