#dnaEdit: Banned, yet present

The findings of a caste survey, the largest of its kind covering 42,000 households, by the National Council of Applied Economic Research and the University of Maryland, pointing out that one in four Indians still practice untouchability in some form in their households, has several implications. Despite Article 17 of the Indian Constitution abolishing untouchability in 1950 and Parliament enacting the Untouchability (Offences) Act, 1955, renamed as the Protection of Civil Rights Act in 1976, social change has proceeded at a slow pace. While there are many who comfort themselves with the survey by noting that untouchability was rampant at Independence and these findings represent some incremental improvements, it is shameful that such a discriminatory practice can even co-exist in a country which swears by its fundamental right to equality and equal opportunities. According to the survey, 52 per cent Brahmins, 24 per cent non-Brahmin forward castes, 33 per cent OBCs, 15 per cent scheduled castes, 22 per cent scheduled tribes, 23 per cent Sikhs, 18 per cent Muslims and 4 per cent Christians admitted practising some form of untouchability. 

What these statistics translate to, in daily practices, is that a significant number of Indians continue to negotiate their terms of engagement with others, based on caste. The implication of this on Dalits, without access to education or skilled jobs, is that their avenues for employment and social interaction are greatly constricted, even in access to domestic labour. The findings on Brahmins, with their emphasis on ritual purity, is perhaps not surprising, but with other categories like OBCs, other religious groups and even SCs and STs practising untouchability, the issue falls into perspective. Indians are refusing to let go of a social hierarchy that allows them to place themselves as superiors of at least one other social group in the caste hierarchy. This explains why the Dalits, by no means a homogeneous classification, comprising upwardly-mobile and politically influential groups like the Jatavs on one end and Valmikis on the lower end, also appear to be practicing untouchability. The surprisingly high figures for OBCs reflect the changing dynamics of rural India where migration of upper castes to cities have seen OBCs and Dalits locked in a direct fight for political influence, employment opportunities and control over land and village common property. In fact, recent caste tensions have pitted intermediate castes, especially OBCs, against Dalit attempts to assert themselves.

The NCAER survey also notes that caste endogamy, identified by Ambedkar as the pillar on which caste survives, continues strongly with just five per cent Indians opting for inter-caste marriages. The politics of post-Independent India has gravitated towards asserting caste identities rather than breaking down caste barriers. The natural progression of such politics saw parties identifying overtly with backward caste interests cropping up, but electoral compulsions have diluted their social justice politics. Reservation in higher education and government jobs, touted as an equaliser capable of bringing Dalits quickly on par with other groups, has worked only marginally. Another form of exclusion, couched in grouses against Dalits for being beneficiaries of reservation, is playing out in these spaces amid intense competition for scarce government jobs and public higher education. The SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, offers stringent penalties but applying these to the subtle ways of domestic untouchability is near impossible. Banning untouchability or child labour are not enough to make them go away; civil rights are won when we can say with finality that discriminatory practices have ended. The NCAER findings must shake us out of the complacency of merely passing progressive laws.