Caste Based Social Exclusion and Vulnerability of Dalits in a Village of Andhra Pradesh: An Anthropological Study V. SUBRAMANYAM* Department of Anthropology, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam 530003, Andhra Pradesh E-mail:
[email protected] KEY WORDS: Caste. Social inequality. Discrimination. Social exclusion. Dalits. Guntur district. Andhra Pradesh. ABSTRACT: Around 70 per cent of Indian population are found to live in villages and they sustain primarily on agriculture. The social system in rural India is mainly centered around the caste structure, its organization and caste identities. Social divisions of Indian society is primarily based on the caste system, which is the basis for examining the social inequality, discrimination and the levels of equality among the members belonging to different endogamous groups of rural India. The paper discusses on the existing inequality and discrimination between the Dalits and other castes communities in a multi caste village of Andhra Pradesh. The paper explains the form of social exclusion that is prevailing in the case of Dalits such as Mala and Madiga castes in Mandur village of Guntur district, in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It also discusses on the effectiveness of affirmative action programmes on Dalits, and suggests new inclusive policy guidelines for their inclusive growth and development based on the case study of Mandur village in Andhra Pradesh. INTRODUCTION the era of globalization. The institution of caste is Social stratification of Indian society is based on considered as the root cause for existing social the caste system. There are several theories of origin inequalities and discrimination in between high and of the caste system in India propounded by different low castes.