PAPER1IRJHRSSAUG2014

International Research Journal of Human Resources and Social Sciences
Volume-1, Issue-3 (August 2014) ISSN: (2349-4085)

A Monthly Double-Blind Peer Reviewed Refereed Open Access International e-Journal - Included in the International Serial Directories.
International Research Journal of Human Resources and Social Sciences (IRJHRSS)
Website: www.aarf.asia. Email: editoraarf@gmail.com , editor@aarf.asia Page 1

DALITS IN INDIA: DISCRIMINATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Harshil Sharma
ABSTRACT
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.
Key words: Dalits, caste system, Economic Exclusion, Discrimination, Affirmative
action.

1. Introduction
Dalits (people belonging to schedule castes and schedule tribes) constitute about 25% of
Indian population as per 2011 census of India. They are considered to be the weakest
section of the Indian society who were and still are denied certain educational, social,
economical and political rights for centuries, having been negatively discriminated against.
(Thorat,2009). This situation is largely responsible for their low literacy, poverty, low
educational attainments, indebtedness and overall backwardness. (Kulkarni, (2008),
Chalam (2011), et.al)
Government of India has already taken numerous steps since Independence for the
upliftment of Dalits which can be enumerated as:



a. Anti-discriminatory measures include enactment of the untouchability offence act,
1955 and the Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribes Prevention of Atrocities (POA) act,
1989. Under this act practice of untouchability and discrimination in public places and
services is treated as an offence and provides legal protection to the Dalits against violence
and atrocities by the higher caste.

b. India also has a caste based Affirmative action programme for development of low
castes
(Namely reservation policy in educational, employment and political spheres of the
economy) have lays special emphasis on raising the level of this under privileged and poor
sector of the society.

Though practice of untouchability is banned in India under Untouchability of offence
act,1955 but practice of untouchability is done not only at a large scale in rural areas but
traces of caste based discrimination can be found in urban areas as well. These
discriminations can be noticed in places such as schools, colleges, private firms,
government organizations and even in household works. (Teltumbde (2010), Thorat (2009))

Common beliefs among masses is that reservation system is a plague for the society which
is holding Indias growth and form the perspective that Dalit section of society has
developed and need not need any kind of reservation for upliftment.
This study tries to focus on current state of Dalits in 21
st
century. In view of these
perceptions of common masses as well as developmental processes initiated by the state
and central government it becomes necessary to ascertain the impact of these programmes
on the scheduled castes of India. This study will try to find answers to the question that why
even after enactment of so many programmes Dalit communities still live in constant fear,
threat and uncertainty of their future and livelihood.
This paper will focus mainly on two sectors where reservations or positive discrimination is
applied namely Education sector and Employment sector. Both education and employment
are considered to be the most basic steps towards upliftment and development of Dalits.


These are two the sectors identified by the government to uplift Dalits as well as helping in
eradicating poverty from a major section of the society. So the main objective of our study
is to analyze the problems faced by Dalits in both education and employment sector; even
after having a particular quota of seats reserved for them.
In the first section we will try to explain the historical significance of the caste system in
India and why it is still able to maintain its strong hold over the Indian society. In the
second section we will proceed towards one of the main objectives of the paper i.e.
education sector where we will explain high dropout rates in primary as well as secondary
level and try to provide evidences of discrimination in this sector against Dalits. Then we
will try to establish link between education and employment to show that high level of
education leads to higher probability for a Dalit to get employed. In the third section we
will talk about the discriminations faced by a Dalit in so called developed urban private
employment sector where caste based discriminations are always denied.
In the fifth section we will try to assess the affirmative action adopted by India in the form
of Reservation policy and in the concluding section we will try to suggest some of the
alternative strategies which have been adopted by different nations which have been
successful.
2. Historical evidence

The Indian society is characterized by a high degree of structural inequality based on the
clutches of caste system. It is a division of society traditionally based on the occupation and
the family background whose traces can be found in oldest available written evidence like
Rig Veda, Bhagwad Gita and Laws of Rishi Manu (Thorat, 2006).

In India caste system is divided in five separate classes. The highest class in Indian society
is that of priests and teachers, the Brahmins followed by warriors, the Kshatriyas. Third
ranked are those who fall in farmer and merchant class called the Vaishyas followed by the
labour class called the Shudras The fifth group was seen as being low enough to not
deserve being placed in the caste system, called Bhangi(untouchables) (Vithayathili, 2012).


The fourth class Shudras were with passage of time combined with the fifth class and they
together came to be known as Dalits, often referred in the Indian culture as untouchables,
these were the people who have the most harsh and most unjust restrictions (Desai and
Kulkarni, 2005).

No collection of wealth must be made by a Shudra, even though he be able to do it; for a
Sudra who has acquired wealth , gives pain to Brahmans- The laws of Manu, chapter 10,
verse 129, pg. 430

Going by the Marxs concept of primitive accumulation of capital, the dvija castes
(Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas) had the right to education, assets, weapons etc. Thus,
naturally, they accumulated capital over a period of time and augmented the value of their
human capital. As untouchables were denied accumulation of wealth it leads to deprivation
of Dalits. (Chalam, 2011)

Various retaliation and revolts have happened in history for upliftment of Dalits which are
well discussed by S.M Michael(2007) who emphasized on main Dalit movements and
leaders from past of India. Major movements were Mahar movement in 1948, Jyotirao
Phule in Poona founded the first Non-Brahmin organization Satyashodak Samaj in 1883,
Buddhist conversion movement started by Dr B.R Ambedkar in 1956, who is known as
father of Dalits in India, Formation of Dalit panthers in 1970 and latest examples is
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) formed in Uttar Pradesh. It has its roots deep in history, and
even today it governs life of not even the Dalits but also other general. the castes were first
listed systematically in 1931 census of India, the term Schedule Caste was applied to
those castes for the first time in the government of India act of 1935.The division of castes
constitutes one of the most fundamental features of Indias social structure. In Hindu
society, caste divisions play a part in both actual social interactions and in the ideal scheme
of values. Members of different castes are expected to behave differently and to have
different values and ideals (Deshpande S, 2010).

3. Dalits and Education



2001 census of India indicated that only 37.41% of the Dalit population has acquired the
most elementary skills in reading and writing. In 1981, less than 30% of rural Dalit children
(5-14 yrs.) were found to attend school (India 1993.1989). That is, Dalits are among the
least literate social groups in the country. Deshpande (2011) comprised data and concluded
that the illiteracy has been declining from the last two decades for all the social groups in
rural as well as in urban areas but the discrimination in education sector is quite visible
through various evidences in the subsequent parts of this section.

3.1 Quality of schooling

In the purview of education, since independence the proportion of plan resources allocated
for the education sector has not only been meagre, but has also declined considerably. The
general quality of schooling at primary stage is extremely poor. Basic educational
infrastructure as well as minimum basic amenities are absent in a significant proportion of
schools, especially in the rural areas. Though data on predominantly Dalit schools is not
separately available, still it has been observed that quality of inputs and the functioning of
schools especially those which had a large percentage of SC and ST students left much to
be desired[India 1988:303].Obviously, this will adversely affect the first generation
learners (Nambissan 1996).

Kurrien underlines in particular the detrimental effect the deficiencies in schooling have on
early learning of children from poor and illiterate backgrounds [1983:179-80]. It is also
shown that providing Dalits with learning opportunities as well as pedagogic supports to
acquire specific language, numerical and other competencies, they are likely to be better
able to academically cope with rigours of formal school.

3.2 Social Discrimination and Economic constraints
Besides this, a crucial dimension of school experience is the nature of social relations that
influence daily routine of teaching, learning and peer interaction- known as hidden
curriculum. It gives the distinct message of social inferiority through the following
experiences shared: to sit separately, orthodox teachers correcting exercises from far, not
being allowed to answer questions, not allowed to touch blackboards or to learn Sanskrit


language as it was considered the key to the Vedas, being refused drinking water or served
in broken cups, made to dine separately, etc. [India 1969, Joshi 1986, Roy and Singh 1987].

Dalit children are also affected by the teachers perceptions about the mental abilities of
Dalit pupils as well as stereotypes held about these communities. Interpersonal relations of
Dalit children within schools are constrained powerfully by the dimension of caste.
Example: confine friendships to those belonging in the pollution boundary. All of this
suggests the social prejudices and negative stereotypes held by the school community,
proving to be traumatic for those at the receiving end (Nambissan, 1996).

Economic constraints are translated into the inability of families to provide adequate
resources to meet direct and indirect costs of educating children. Schemes offering financial
assistance are both limited in coverage of Dalit pupils and inadequate in terms of the
amount that is extended as scholarship. The implementation and monitoring of schemes like
free books and free uniforms is pervaded by bureaucratic delay and apathy that they
often prove to be relatively ineffective (Nambissan, 1996)

A careful reading of a few studies suggests that support and encouragement for education in
Dalit families is shown by the financial support extended by parents to children for the
pursuit of education even under adverse conditions is a concrete indication of their positive
attitudes towards education (Nambissan, 1996)

3.3 Outcomes from schooling
So the outcomes from schooling have been pretty dismal. The large magnitude of drop-out
of children from schools and their relatively low achievement levels signals that very few
Dalit children actually reach high school. For every 100 Dalit pupils in class I in 1980 there
were barely 4 pupils in class XII [Nambissan: Table 10]. NSSO data (42
nd
round) also
validates this point. 49.62% children leave school between classes I and V, 67.78%
between classes I and VIII, and 79.88% fail to reach even class X.In XI, majority of
students seem to opt for arts, rather than science and commerce; restricting the range of
future options available to them [India 1993B]. It is likely to have a direct impact on the


future of Dalit youth (Nambissan, 1996). And their future with respect to higher education
is what we go on to discuss now.

3.4 Higher Education

Dalits representation in the higher educational institutes is hardly visible. This fact is the
outcome of the unequal educational facilities distributed on the basis of caste hierarchy.
Dalits who come at the bottom of the caste hierarchy are the one who suffer in each and
every context. It becomes a serious problem when a group of people cannot access the
educational institutes for higher studies just on the basis of caste and if somehow they enter,
they are discriminated by the other groups who belong to the upper caste and rich
background. This inequality in education further leads to affect the performance of students
, these inequality transform into occupational inequality where better jobs are occupied by
the selective group and weaker section are left with inferior jobs.

The evidence shows that even today the Dalits are at the bottom of the educational
pyramid. Only 7.7% of SCs and 2.3% of STs are enrolled in higher education [MHRD
1997]. The proportion of Dalits in highly reputed institutes like IITs and IIMs is very less.
The evidence shows that shortfall in admission ranges from 45-65% in SC in almost all
IITs [LokSabha secretariat 1998-99]. These shortfalls in admission clearly show the case
of equality vs. excellence, on one hand there is a rule of equality in education and on the
other hand this evidence shows that only excellent, high status, people on the top level of
caste can survive in these reputed institutes. It shows the selective nature of these institutes.
Although a small percentage of Dalits appear in these institute only because of the policy of
reservation.

3.5 Relation of Education and Employment sector

Education of Dalits and their participation in the workforce are interdependent on each
other. To engage in highly reputed jobs one has to have a good educational background.
Due to caste discrimination and exclusion which Dalits have faced, it becomes difficult for
them to gain knowledge from the environment which is against them. This deliberate


exclusion is a form of active exclusion which results in passive exclusion i.e. exclusion
from job as job needs better educational qualification. (Sen, 2000). One major reason that
the Dalit does not enroll their children into school is because of the financial constraints
faced by them and they want their children to engage in non-school activity.
As per the national sample survey (1999-2000), 90% of prime age Hindu men were literate
over the age of 7 years and as against only 67% of Dalit were literate. Only 4% of Dalits
were graduate as compare to 24% Hindu men. As a result, these Dalits are being passively
excluded from the labour market because of their low levels of human capital. If the
educational base of a person is low then he cannot get into a job which demands high
efficiency. So, the issue of employment cannot be separated from aspects of educational
qualification.

4. Dalits and Employment Sector

After studying the link between education and employment in previous section let us now
bring our focus to employment sector. We will keep our focus on urban sector exclusion
from employment opportunities as there is a common belief that the present day inequalities
are a result of past discriminations which are mainly confined to rural areas. There is a
common notion that labour markets in urban area contain no evidence of caste based
discrimination. So this section of the paper will try to find evidences of caste based
discrimination in urban employment sector of India.
The characteristics of caste system contain compulsory occupations fixed for every caste
and exclude one caste from undertaking the occupation of another. This majorly involves
labour immobility and about caste related factor immobility i.e. occupational immobility
which operates in Indian markets by having restrictions on land, labour, credit, inputs and
services necessary for an economic activity. (Thorat (2012), Thorat and Attewell (2007))
4.1 Major employments in low grade jobs
Evidences from government of India,(2001) in Michael, (2007) show that SC and ST
concentration in lower level jobs were very high in services of central ministries department


Group D (excluding sweepers) jobs having 19.9% of SCs and 7% of STs as compared to
the 11.29% and 3.39% in Group A.
In the countrys capital Delhi in 2011 the percentage of SC employees in govt. of N.C.T
Delhi is 50.2% in Group D as compared to 14% in Group A.(census of employees in
govt. of Delhi and autonomous bodies,2011).
It has been well documented that certain menial professions like sweeping and scavenging
are traditionally not taken up by the Non SC/STs due to the notion of them being polluted
and unclean. Despite the rhetoric on empowerment of the SCs and the STs and the
existence of extensive laws and provisions, not much has been achieved in actual terms.

4.2 Denial in opportunity to work in urban labour market
In the urban sector as discussed by Ashwini Deshpande (2011) recruiters have a taste for
Non Dalits. This concept clearly indicates that Dalit having almost same qualifications as
his counterpart Non Dalit has a significantly low chance of getting the job. Evidence related
to this theory can clearly be observed in a comparative study in Indian labour market
conducted by Thorat and Attewell (2007) which focused on jobs in the highly educated
segment.
They responded to advertisements of job opening in various English newspapers like Times
of India, The Hindustan Times and The Hindu and they responded specifically only to
private sector firms. They also avoided highly specialized jobs and which required many
years of experience. Main focus was of the select that a university graduates might be
eligible for within the first few years after graduation. Applications to apply to these jobs
were sent and similar looking resumes had just one difference in their applicants name i.e. a
Dalit and a Non Dalit. No explicit mention of religion or caste background was made in any
application. In matched applications sets were made where one person was named a high
caste Hindu family name and second candidate was a low caste Dalit name and the third
candidate a Muslim name.
A total 4808 applications were applied to 548 advertisements for 66 weeks. The results
clearly showed evidence of Caste based and religion based discrimination. Appropriately
qualified Dalit candidates had odds of 0.67 successful response as compared to that of


upper caste applicants and those of Muslims were a meagre 0.33. Both the results were
statistically significant too. This study clearly captured the discrimination faced by highly
educated Dalit at the first stage of the job search process in urban, formal, private sector
labour market.
Another similar kind of study was conducted by Siddique (2009) in Chennai during 2006
for jobs posted online. Here two resumes were sent for a total of 523 jobs one with a high
class name and the other again with a low caste name. Results showed high caste applicants
had a 20 percent higher chance of being called back.
A study by Deshpande (2011) in 3 big universities of Delhi i.e. JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru
University), DSE (Delhi School Of Economics) and JMI (Jamia Milia Islamia) also
suggested evidences of discrimination in a Dalit getting placement as compared to his Non
Dalit counterparts mainly because of the perception that a Non Dalit aspirant is considered
to be more sharp and productive as compared to a Dalit. The expected time to get placed for
a Dalit student was longer than his Non Dalit counterpart.
Results of both Siddique (2009) and Thorat and Attewell(2007) can be questioned based on
the purposive thinking of companies that a Non Dalit is more productive than a Dalit but as
we clearly saw that all the applications were exactly same in characteristics so caste based
discrimination cannot be declined in urban private sector. So we can clearly find evidences
of denial of working opportunities for a Dalit as compared to a Non Dalit.

4.3 Differential in wages offered to a Dalit and Non Dalit at the equivalent post

Economic exclusion includes the discrimination in labour market which consists of wage
and hiring based discrimination. A popular belief is that these caste based discrimination is
confined to the rural areas and urban markets have no mechanism of caste discrimination.
but, this is not the reality, various works have tried to uncover the truth that there is a
significant amount of caste based discrimination which prevails in the urban area even in
this era of modernization and the caste has its strong hold even today.


Madheswaran and Attewell,(2007) in their work have examined the inequality in
employment, occupation and earnings between SCs/STs, OBC and other forward caste
Indians and then statistically decomposed those gaps into separate components, one
explanation of difference in factors such as education and the other representing
discrimination in employment and wages which resulted, is that of marginal wage effect to
education are significantly positive and monotonically increasing with the education level
but the NSS data from 1983 to 2000 shows that SCs-STs have lower returns to education
than rest, an additional year of education of SC-ST yields a smaller increase in wages as
compared to non-SCs-STs. Unequal access to education which leads to inefficient human
capital and high incidence of illiteracy among SCs explains a significant portion of their
lower earnings (Deshpande, 2011). All this is happening during the liberalization phase of
Indian economy when there is compelling evidence to indicate that premium to education is
increasing in the formal sector.
Further, Banerjee and Buccis (1994) analysis resulted that SC migrants displayed a greater
propensity than non-SCs for the on-the-job search in the formal sector but not in the
informal sector even after the reservation policy in the formal sector. The reason for this
was the low earnings for SC in the formal sector. The above evidences suggest that caste is
still a very important determinant in not only hiring but also in paying wages.
Despite highly impressive growth rates, Indias exclusionary economic and social structures
continue to place obstacles for several groups in access to key opportunities. Caste in India
therefore is the source of stratification and responsible for a host of outcomes even after
controlling for other factors. Thus, poverty rates, educational endowments, entrepreneurial
wherewithal are all lower among SCs and STs.
Despite having a long history of policies in India there is no comprehensive data-based
analysis of the impact of these policies (Sahoo, 2009). Through various literatures in further
sections, we have tried to assess the problems in the affirmative actions in India and from
various countries experiences, trying to figure out the remedies which can more broadly
resolve these problems if applied to India and look at the need of extending these actions to
the private sector.
5. Assessing Affirmative Actions in India


22.5% of quotas in all the state run institutions and jobs at all levels of governance have
been provided under the article 15(4) and 16(4) of the Indian constitution to the Dalits. This
includes jobs in central government; in state government; and in public sector units, such as
the telephone corporations and public sector steel mills. Since government is the largest
formal sector employer, accounting for over 56% of all jobs in India. These actions have
been made to provide employment, to increase representations and improve the relative
status of Dalits. Study of Thorat and Senapati (2006) shows positive impact of reservation
policy on participation of work force in public sector. Same way Niranjan Sahoo (2009)
supported the above argument that affirmative actions have considerable effect in
improving these marginalised groups and has been clear that without the implementation of
these quotas Dalits would have remained inadequate and far from what it is today. Desai
and Kulkarni(2008) analyzed large NSS data of over 100,000 households for each of the
four survey years 1983, 1987-1988, 1993-1994, and 1999-2000 and to see the effect of
affirmative policies on the educational attainment of children and young adults aged 6-29
which showed that the gap between Dalits and others have reduced in terms of attaining
primary education. In terms of positive effects, it has also been seen that southern Indian
states are having comparative advantage over northern states in terms of the effects of the
affirmative policies especially in higher education Kancha Ilaiah (2006) and Sahoo (2009).
We cannot overemphasize the effects of the affirmative policies because it has not attained
what it should have because of its various flaws and it raises a number of issues which we
will see in the preceding part.
When B.R Ambedkar formed Reservation policies they were going to stay for 10 years but
due to ineffectiveness they are still prolonging even after 63 years of independence.
Galanter (1984) has done a comprehensive assessment of affirmative action programme and
has found out that despite weak implementation, now the access of education and job
spread wider in the caste spectrum but this spread has been limited to the creamy layer of
the Dalits.
One of the flaws of Indias reservation policy has been inefficient and ineffective
implementation. As Ashwini Deshpande (2008) says in order to increase its efficacy, it has
to be less mechanical: provision of quotas should be seen as the beginning of the
affirmative action, not its end, as in the current practice. Secondly, Governments role


doesnt end with the implementation of a policy; it should also be monitored to see its
effect, the proper implementation which is the problem with affirmative policies in India,
are not being monitored, and if these are evaded no penalties are there, no monitoring of
how many seats have been filled and if not what are the reasons for the vacant seats, what
happens to the recipient after getting the benefit. Further, SCP and NCSCST have been
setup for special planning of funds allocated by the government for Dalits but the amount
allocated for them is consistently decreasing even after rise in Dalit population in India
(Ramotra, 2009).
We can also notice that Reservation policy has been implemented only to the government
sector, where also its outcomes are limited in approach. As the Indian economy is
privatizing, restricting affirmative actions to government jobs and education in India
would gradually make it redundant (Deshpande 2008). Private sector is out of its domain
which makes it even more limited in the approach.
6. Suggested Remedies through International Experience
Some scholars, in fact deny that true caste systems are found outside India but affirmative
action for marginalized population can be witnessed in various parts of the world.It is
important to recognize how flexible, adaptive and contextual affirmative action has been in
different parts of the world. It is not a precise constitutional or legal arrangement of
universal application, nor is it a fixed formula for governmental action transportable from
one country to another. Yet it has a core feature - wherever it may function and whatever its
terminology, it involves focused and deliberate governmental intervention that takes into
account of the reality of discrimination to deal with and to overcome the problems
associated with it (Sachs, 2006). These remedies are used to correct the imbalances in
access to resources, employment, education, in political participation, etc. between different
sub-groups of the population in different countries around the world (Thorat, Negi, et al
2006).
In developed countries like the United States of America, where the non-agricultural sector
comprises of more than 90% of the workforce, the focus is mainly on affirmative action
policies for the labor markets. But besides the above, legal and affirmative action policies
also cover education, housing and government contracts for construction, and purchases of


goods from minority businesses. On the other hand, in developing countries like Malaysia,
in addition to affirmative action for labor market and for social needs like education and
housing, etc.; the affirmative action measures are extended to agricultural land and capital
markets because substantial portion of population in Malaysia is engaged in the agricultural
sector. So evidently, measures in economic spheres vary from country to country (Thorat,
Negi, and et al. 2006).
Affirmative action in India in the form of quotas or preferences is simply a means to
increasing employment and income. These do not touch the issue of disparity in wealth
distribution. The privatizing of Indian economy would make affirmative action redundant,
if we only restrict it to government jobs and education. It must be extended to cover the
entire economy for it to be meaningful as seen in the case of United States of America and
Malaysia. We can see from the experience of other countries that affirmative action policies
can take more creative forms other than quotas (Deshpande, 2008). In some cases without
fixed quotas, goals and targets are fixed, which are to be realized in some specific period.
These fixed goals or targets are either made legally mandatory or compulsory. In some
cases, they are also pursued with other non-legal actions; example, withdrawal of
concession or incentives for not fulfilling the goals, on part of the firms (Thorat. Negi, et al.
2006).
Supplementary measures which hold crucial implications for the success or failure of the
affirmative action should be made an integral part of the program. Some of these are
remedial teaching, counseling, attempts to lower the incidence of drop outs; skill enhancing
programs, etc. which would end up ensuring that the benefits of entry into prestigious jobs
and educational programs are fully utilized (Deshpande 2008).
Moreover, for the effectiveness of affirmative action, it should contain self-liquidating and
self-perpetuating features; that is, as it becomes stronger at entry level, it should be
gradually lowered at later stages. For this, strict monitoring of outcomes and some sort of
enforcement machinery, with penalties for non-compliance is essential (Deshpande 2008).
Example, Federal Contract Compliance in United States of America and Fair Employment
Agency in Northern Ireland (Thorat, Negi etal 2006).


In India, in addition to the above given supplementary measures, "outside the box"
measures that go beyond the scope of current Affirmative Action program must also be
considered (Deshpande,2008). 'Reparation and compensation' strategy must also be
considered. These are to be specifically used as a payment for the denial of property rights
and other rights in the past, resulting in lack of access to income earning assets, education,
and other rights causing intense deprivation to the excluded and discriminated groups
(Thorat, Negi, Aryaman 2006). Example, free, compulsory and good quality primary
education, vigorous expansion of non-farm employment, land reforms wherever feasible,
subsidies/support for Dalit business/self-employment. All these will benefit a much larger
section of Dalits than being benefited by the current Affirmative Action program. The
current program and the supplementary measures can strengthen and reinforce each other
(Deshpande 2008). Thus, along with addressing present discrimination, it is also necessary
to compensate for the wrong done in the past (Thorat, Negi, Aryaman 2006). The costs to
all these measures have to be weighed against the benefits of integrating into the
mainstream around 160 million Dalits. It is the need of the hour to unleash this vast but
suppressed reservoir of talent (Deshpande 2008).
7. Concluding Remarks
TURN IN ANY DIRECTION YOU LIKE, caste is the monster that crosses your path
-Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Indias foremost crusader for dignity and civil rights
After finding enough evidences of caste based discrimination in education as well as
employment sector and assessing policy measures we can clearly see stigma of caste has
still not left India from its clutches. The fact that certain low castes are thought to remain
disproportionately poor, despite these legal safeguards, is often attributed to the groups
low level of education or to their concentration in the economically weaker sectors i.e. in
low grade jobs.
It is essential to note that even the lowest paid government job today usually requires a
minimum of matriculation or high school education. The discussion above of the poor
enrolment of Dalits and large proportions of drop-outs imply that the majority of them are
unlikely to be in a position where they are able to even compete for jobs that are reserved
for them.


Other than these there is a special allocation of planned funds in proportion to the
population of the Dalits which is called Special component plan (SCP). Latest data reveals
that in 2008-09 Rs. 22,939.40 crores were allocated for development of SCs and STs.The
Scheduled castes development corporation (SDSC) started in 1979 to assist central
government to invest share capital of SC finance. (Chalam, 2011).Reservation Policy
which is discussed in quite detail in this paper is one of the most critical steps for upliftment
of Dalits. This policy is often criticized and negative image develops in minds of Non Dalit
population regarding this policy that economically well of Dalits take the reserved seats due
to which unfavorable gains are given to Dalits but this set of population fails to realize
that only 20% of Dalit population which is economically well off takes benefits of this
reservation policy and 80% still are in dire need of this positive discrimination. Also
Reservation policy is needed to be extended to private sector for upliftment of marginalized
groups as is indicative from the international experience. (Thorat and Senapati, 2006,
Thorat, Negi et al 2006)

So our society needs a change in mindset as attitude of Non Dalits can help in improving
the social relations prevailing in the society. Also lack effective implementation, it is
essential so that the benefits reach the low caste communities.

Equal opportunity is very much necessary for development of Dalits in India. If a
particular set of society is not economically well off so aid from government is very much
required for their upliftment. Through the prevailing policies and guidelines conditions can
be improved, SCP funds and the AA programme can help in formulation of a strong anti-
discriminatory framework, free and compulsory good education, arresting drop outs at
middle and high schools is essential. Also, preferential treatment given to Non Dalit must
be completely done away with.
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