The need to address caste-based atrocities, Pg7

Key Highlights:

• In 2023, 57,789 cases were registered against Scheduled Castes (SCs), a 0.4% increase from 2022, and 12,960 cases were registered against Scheduled Tribes (STs), a 28.8% increase.
• Caste-based violence and exclusion persist despite constitutional guarantees of equality for SCs, STs, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
• Social reformers like Mahatma Phule, B.R. Ambedkar, Periyar, and Mahatma Gandhi challenged the Brahmanical caste order.
• The current government is criticised for promoting symbolic gestures without addressing the core issues of caste prejudice.

Detailed Insights:

• Caste hierarchies persist due to a belief in caste-based superiority, leading to violence and discrimination against Dalits and Adivasis.
• Hindutva narratives often frame resistance from marginalised communities as a threat to cultural unity, stifling demands for justice.
• Policies promoting social justice, such as reservations, are inconsistently implemented, allowing social elites to maintain dominance.
• Dalit Panthers in the 1970s and the Bahujan Samaj Party empowered marginalised communities, but such movements are now fragmented.
• Enforcement of laws like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is hampered by delays and societal bias.
• Addressing caste atrocities requires strengthening law enforcement, promoting egalitarian values, fostering dialogue, and rigorously implementing affirmative action.
• Amplifying Dalit, Adivasi, and Bahujan voices and reviving anti-caste social movements are crucial for social justice.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Caste System: A social hierarchy that divides people into groups based on birth, determining their social status and opportunities.
• Brahmanical Order: A social and religious hierarchy that places Brahmins at the top of the caste system.
• Affirmative Action: Policies designed to address past and present discrimination by providing opportunities to disadvantaged groups.