The manifestation of untouchability has changed from its physical aspects to more intangible forms*
♦️Why are a majority of applicants for academic posts under the SC/ST category declared as “not found suitable”?
♦️How many law firms or chartered accountant firms are owned and run by the SC and ST communities?
♦️And why do we still have reported cases of deaths from manual scavenging in the country, though the practice has been constitutionally abolished?
♦️ Why did a Dalit IPS officer still need police protection to ride a mare as part of a procession in his village in Haryana as recently as 2022?
Marginalisation in India is a complex exercise that needs caste data, anthropological analysis.
I lived in a rented accommodation as a student in Delhi University. One day, tired of Delhi’s water woes, I asked my landlady if I could call somebody and get our water tank cleaned. Unsurprisingly, my landlady replied, “Ab C***r (using a term for members of the Jatav community) tanki mein jayenge aur hamare pani ko ganda karenge?” I was quick to remind her that she used a Dalit’s rental *money to run her house, yet she thought our touch would “pollute” her water tank. But *money*, I learnt, *is beyond the pale of purity and pollution*. And in this instance, money did help me get accommodation — but it stripped me of my dignity.
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