Social Exclusion and Battles Against It

agenda I N F O C H A N G E ISSUE 13 2008 Against exclusion The roots of social exclusion And battles against it FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION RECENT BACK ISSUES Migration and Battles over land HIV/AIDS: The big Women at work displacement questions © InfoChange News & Features, Centre for Communication and Development Studies, 2008 InfoChange Agenda is a quarterly journal published by the Centre for Communication and Development Studies, a social change resource centre focusing on the research and communication of information for change To order copies, write to: Centre for Communication and Development Studies 301, Kanchanjunga Building, Kanchan Lane, Off Law College Road, Pune 411 004 Suggested contribution: Rs 60 (1 issue); Rs 240 (4 issues); Rs 480 (8 issues) DDs/cheques to be made out to 'Centre for Communication and Development Studies' InfoChange Agenda content may be cited, reproduced and reprinted for purposes of education and public dissemination with due credit to the authors, the journal and the publishers Contents Introduction: One person, one value by Anosh Malekar 2 Towards inclusion and equity by Prakash Louis 4 Garbage as a metaphor by Nityanand Jayaraman. Photographs by Sudharak Olwe 10 1,001 battles: Converting dalit numbers into dalit strength by Padmalatha Ravi 15 Caste is the cruellest exclusion by Gail Omvedt 17 Dalit exclusion: The empirical evidence by Sukhadeo Thorat 22 Caste in the West by Nikki Van Der Gaag 28 Giving adivasis a voice by G N Devy 30 Queer azadi by Siddharth Narrain 34 Tamil Nadu pioneers transgender inclusion by Anupama Sekhar 38 The silence of same sex desiring women by Ponni Arasu 42 No white for these widows by Freny Manecksha 44 Hukumnama against female foeticide by Anosh Malekar 47 Sex workers as economic agents by Manjima Bhattacharjya 50 Exclusion of Muslims by J S Bandukwala 53 Persons with disability may apply by Monideepa Sahu 59 Discrimination is built into our legislation by Alok Prakash Putul 61 Battling the triple burden of poverty, religion and gender by Anosh Malekar 63 The fallacy of equality by Oishik Sircar 65 Cover photograph of a dalit conservancy worker cleaning the sewers by Sudharak Olwe This issue has been guest-edited by Sandhya Srinivasan Editors: Hutokshi Doctor, John Samuel Editorial board: Sandhya Srinivasan, Ashish Kothari, Mari Marcel Thekaekara Production and layout: Gita Vasudevan, Sameer Karmarkar InfoChange team: Anosh Malekar, K C Dwarkanath, Philip Varghese, Rakesh Ganguli, Renu Iyer, Vijay Narvekar 8 0 0 2 3 E 1 U S S 1I agenda Against exclusion One person, one value WHEN Dr B R AMBEDKAR rose to speak in the Constituent But six decades later, millions of dalits continue to be Assembly on November 25, 1949, it was evident that several denied the most basic of human rights — to be treated as issues of social equity and justice that had dominated the equals. Women, also victims of the 'shastras', are excluded drafting of the Indian Constitution had remained unresolved. in their own homes and society. Other excluded sections Ambedkar hinted at this in as many words: “On January 26, include adivasis, de-notified tribes, religious minorities, 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In the differently-abled, and sexual minorities, to mention politics we will have equality and in social and economic life just a few. we will have inequality. In politics, we will be recognising the Though caste-based discrimination is less intense today, principle of one man-one vote and one vote-one value. In there is empirical evidence that untouchability persists, as our social and economic life, we shall by reason of our social the article in this issue by Sukhadeo Thorat illustrates. In and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of rural India, restrictions on temple entry, access to drinking one man-one value.” water sources, segregated seating arrangements in The hint at continued exclusion in various spheres of social classrooms and so on are still the order of the day. In urban existence in this country came from a man who made an India — and even in the Indian diaspora — where caste distinctions seem to have blurred, the notional sense of important contribution to the intellectual and institutional untouchability remains pervasive even while adjusting to foundations of modern India. Ambedkar had warned: “If we modern living. continue to deny it (equality) for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove Even when concessions are made to dalits, in education and this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else jobs for example, they are perceived as favours and not those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure rights. Intellectual discussions on caste-based reservations of political democracy which this Assembly has laboriously are largely confined to their impact on merit. The two are built up.” seen as incompatible by the privileged. 8 0 0 2 3 E 1 U S S 2I Introduction The strange thing is that India is so diverse. Over the disadvantages women face. centuries, people of all major religions of the world — It is in this context that the struggle of 26-year-old Sumathi T Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, N, a postgraduate in Arts, gains importance. Sumathi dared Zoroastrianism, and Bahaism — have lived in India. not reveal her dalit identity while employed as a teacher at a According to B S Guha's classification, people of six racial local school in Tumkur, a district town some 70 km from stocks live in India, and, according to the 1971 census, there India's Silicon Valley, Bangalore. “I used to see how they are 1,652 languages spoken as the mother-tongue across treated the dalits; not letting them enter hotels or the country. The Mandal Commission alone lists 3,743 castes households and even beating them up if they dared to do in addition to around 1,000 scheduled castes. so. I thought it was safer to say I was not a dalit,” she told Despite this diversity we see widespread exclusion. Our our contributor. lessons on India's 'unity in diversity' seem to be forgotten Sumathi had to quit her job after her caste identity was the moment we leave school, though the slogan popularised accidentally revealed to her colleagues and it took a while by Jawaharlal Nehru is still recalled during moments of for her to come to terms with the fact: “…I learned about national pride. dalit history and culture and realised the importance of If we analyse the nature of exclusion in Indian society we will accepting my identity and fighting for my rights. I am not find exclusion on the basis of cultural heterogeneity — as ashamed or afraid of my being dalit anymore.” seen in the recent outburst against north Indians in Mumbai; This issue 'Against Exclusion' is about the struggles of many on the basis of faith — the most glaring example of which is such individuals and groups. There is Moghubai from a the exclusion of Muslims and more recently of Christians; nondescript village in Jharol block, Rajasthan, where widows and on the basis of gender. Sex-selective abortion is the are branded witches for any misfortune from a child getting latest, most frightening form of exclusion. According to chickenpox to a cow that has stopped giving milk. There are Unicef, India loses 7,000 girls every day through abortion. Tamil Nadu's approximately 300,000 transgenders or The British medical journal The Lancet estimates that 10 aravanis who have fought for and won major concessions million female foetuses have been aborted in the past two including the introduction of a 'third gender' on ration cards decades in India. and social visibility and acceptance as mediapersons and It is important to understand that social and economic television anchors. There are IT companies that are exclusion has more to do with group identity than income, increasingly employing persons with disability, not as a productivity, or merit of individuals in the group. Unlike token CSR gesture but because it makes good business sense members of privileged groups, who may be excluded from to do so. And there are the girls from the Meo Muslim education or work due to individual lack of income, low community, who are finally getting an education thanks to merit or poor skills, members of excluded groups are denied Vinodkumar Kanathia who chucked up his job as a bank opportunities due to their identity as members of a certain manager to set up a series of schools in Mewat region of social group. north India. Experts have long pointed out that few of the debates on “I was shocked by the vast disparities between Gurgaon and poverty in India have questioned the links between poverty Mewat, located hardly 40 km of each other. If the yuppie and social discrimination. But the big question is the extent crowd inside the plush malls of Gurgaon symbolise the new to which social exclusion causes economic deprivation and India, the toiling daughters of the impoverished Meos in thus poverty. Mewat are rude reminders of the uneven growth policies of National Sample Survey (NSS) data reveals that the a booming Indian economy,” says Kanathia. scheduled castes (SCs) (dalits) and scheduled tribes (STs) Their stories emphasise what Ambedkar had warned, that (adivasis) are particularly disadvantaged. Average per capita equality cannot be denied for long. income of SC/STs at an all-India level is about one-third lower than other groups. Headcount poverty in 1999/2000 was — Anosh Malekar 16% among non-deprived groups, 30% for minorities (Muslims), 36% for SCs, and 44% for STs.

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