Caste discrimination Recently: A Reformulated version

 

Sitting in the comfort zones of our houses, most of us may be unaware of the fact that even children, in many parts of rural India, face the torments of caste discrimination. These children, from dalit communities, live in such poisoned environment where they grow up believing that they are not as privileged as other children from upper castes. These ideas are so rooted in their minds that they don’t resist any kind of discrimination towards them.

 

Dalit children wait in the background for their mid-day meals while others eat in front, at a government run primary school of village Bhagwanpura of Jalaun district. Picture courtesy: Action Aid.

Schools which are thought to be the sites of inclusive education where children from all castes communities come together and evolve as able citizens. But it is a sad fact that they are turning to be the preachers of caste discrimination.  In many rural areas in various sates dalit children are not allowed to mix with other children, they are given food in separate plates and are forced to carry their own plate so that they don’t mix with other plates. Schools are supposed to create good citizens, instead they forge and reinforce these ideas into children.

These are all very clear cases of discrimination. Lately they tend to have taken different forms. Even though reservation is believed to be able to help lower caste people come up, there may be a situation where it is not properly implemented . For instance there are reservations in many educational institutes like IITs for OBC/SC/ST students. But the fact is that they constitute a very low minority compared to others. As in 2005 out of the 22.5 percent reserved seats only 11.9 seats were filled and the numbers o very low in higher courses like MS and PhD. Even the number of Dalit professors is a grim 0.86 percent. According to a professor in the institute Dalit scholars are treated badly, they are unduly delayed, they are failed in examinations and vivas. Thanks to the intervention of some parties like Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) the situation is changing. A recent study conducted by PDK revealed that even after 41 years of its existence, there are departments  in which not even one dalit student have been admitted. The study also reported that, “almost all M.Tech and MS Students in IIT were Brahmins.” The study reported the case of a meritorious SC/ST student who got 94 percent in the board exam and got call from bits Pilani and Ranchi but chose to attend IIT Madras. He was made to take the preparatory course for Dalit students  and the worst part as that he was failed in it.

Even though the idea of caste has changed over the years it still persists in a subtle form. Recently a post in the IIT Madras Confessions page on Facebook (#446)  talks clearly about this. Even though students turn their face when someone talks about castes many are unhappy with the system of reservation. The kind of look that students have on their face when they come to know that you are a reserved candidate is humiliating. This affects the mental morale of the student. The prevalence of such kind of ideas even among the supposedly “intellectual” students is something to really worry about.

 

http://dalitsvoice.blogspot.in/2008/05/caste-in-campus.html