Dalits In India

Threatened, ostracised and pushed to the edge, a group of about 130 Dalit families in West Bengal's Purba Bardhaman district are pinning their final hopes on police and district administration to end a caste-based discriminatory tradition of three centuries and receive their Constitutionally-guaranteed right to worship their God. The families at Daspara area of Gidhgram village, all having 'Das' surnames and belonging to the traditional community of cobblers and weavers, have allegedly been forced to stay away from the steps of Gidheswar Shiv temple, the only place of worship in the locality, by the shrine committee and other villagers on grounds that they belong to a "low caste", victims alleged. At their wits' end, victims at the receiving end of this discrimination now plan to take "the fight to the end" and even seek legal recourse if the state administration fails to resolve the crisis. The discriminatory practice almost unheard in modern Bengal and violative of Article 25 of t

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday hailed the contribution of the Dalits towards the making of the Constitution and said it is "your ideology but wherever you go now, you are crushed by the system". The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Raebareli MP said this while interacting with a group of Dalit students of 'Mool Bharti' hostel near Bargad Chauraha here. He was accompanied by Congress Amethi MP Kishori Lal Sharma and other party leaders. Naming some top private companies which are part of the "big 500" firms, Gandhi asked the youths how many of those had a Dalit at its helm. When one youth responded "none", Gandhi asked him, "Why not?" Another youth replied "because we don't have adequate facilities". Gandhi disagreed and said "(B R) Ambedkar ji did not have any facility. He was alone in his efforts yet he shook the politics of the country." "There is an entire system which is against you and doesn't want you to progress. The system attacks you everyday and half of t

The biggest angst of Dalit groups is the issue of manual scavenging

Babasaheb Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar alleged on Wednesday that Union Home Minister Amit Shah's remarks on the father of the Constitution reflected the BJP's "same old mentality". Several MPs of the INDIA bloc staged a protest in Parliament premises demanding Shah's apology for his remarks on B R Ambedkar which they claimed were an insult to B R Ambedkar. The Congress also demanded that Shah apologise publicly and in Parliament. "Before the BJP came into existence, its forerunners Jan Sangh and RSS had opposed Babasaheb while the Constitution was being adopted," Prakash Ambedkar, who heads Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, told reporters in Pune. He said Shah's statement has brought the same old mentality of BJP to the fore. "There is nothing new in the statement. They are not able to execute their old plans. Not because of Congress, but because of Babasaheb Ambedkar and they will continue to sulk," said Prakash Ambedkar. Congress general secretary-in-charge communications Jairam

In wake of Supreme Court's sub-classification verdict, SHREYAS UBGADE analyses how ideological divides and political alignments of Dalit groups make this a complex electoral battle in Maharashtra

As Railway Board chairman, Kumar, the first Dalit to get the office, will have to deal with rising cases of accidents and concerns of people both within and outside the Railways

Recent SC order allowed states to implement sub-classification of reservations

In the rural expanse of western Uttar Pradesh's Hathras and Firozabad, where the pastoral beauty belies deep-seated challenges, those living in Dalit colonies want basic necessities and dignity and freedom from filth and sewage. Several villages this PTI reporter visited had a Dalit colony separately and these villages had debilitating homes and sanitation issues. In these villages, the realities of sanitation and poverty shape the narratives of women like Aarti Devi and Maya, whose voices echo the aspirations and frustrations of their communities. In Hathras's Pilakhana, the air is heavy with the stench of stagnant water that surrounds modest homes, many of which are precariously perched in disrepair. For Aarti Devi, a Dalit woman whose days are consumed by cleaning the households of so-called upper caste people, her own living conditions are in stark contrast with the cleanliness she strives to achieve elsewhere. "Our houses are swallowed by filth and sewage. We clean the homes

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of participation of marginalised communities in high courts and bureaucracy in the country

Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Friday demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao apologise to Dalits for what he called betraying the community

Created in 2007, the organisation describes itself as the "organisation that fights for the rights of minorities, Dalits, and marginalised communities".

A key architect of India's Constitution, Ambedkar is regarded as an icon, especially by Dalits, for his relentless work for social reforms and empowerment of the disadvantaged sections of society.

BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday lashed out at the successive Congress governments at the Centre and in Punjab for their alleged anti-Dalit stance and policies

But not all Dalits plan the same. Many accuse Opposition parties, especially the BSP, of indulging in vote bank politics

Dr Gail Omvedt, US-born renowned Dalit researcher, writer on Ambedkarism and the movement for the oppressed classes, passed away following a brief illness at Kasegaon

Renowned social scientist Chandrabhan Prasad tells Aditi Phadnis about a new Dalit consciousness on the rise

Hathras case raises many questions

Book review of Caste: The lies that Divide Us

Dalits constitute nearly 16 per cent of the vote and 38 seats are reserved for them in the Assembly

Book review of I Could Not Be a Hindu: The Story of a Dalit in the RSS