2007

Despite many strong social, cultural and political movements aimed at improving the status of dalits, and several laws to protect their rights, untouchability is widely prevalent in both rural and urban India, in several clearly visible and subtle ways.

In rural India, untouchability is witnessed at various sites:

• In the location of homes in villages - dalits usually live outside the village.
• At public water sources - dalits are often denied access, or have restricted access.
• In public meetings - dalits are often expected to sit separately.
• In non-dalit homes - dalits are not expected to enter some or all parts of non-dalit homes.

Such discrimination against dalits is not only insulting and violative of basic human rights, it also affects their economic prospects.

Untouchability is no longer a major political issue. While atrocities against dalits are highlighted in the media and taken up by political parties, everyday discrimination against dalits is often simply accepted as an aspect of Indian reality that will not change easily or soon.

There is also the belief that untouchability is practised only in isolated areas of the country and that it is generally on the decline.

Study on untouchability

A recent study on untouchability across rural India shows that these assumptions are incorrect.

Conducted by ActionAid in 2001-2002, in 565 villages of 11 states (Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu), the study shows that:

• In 73% of the villages, dalits cannot enter non-dalit homes.
• In 70% of the villages, dalits cannot eat with non-dalits.
• In 64% of the villages, dalits cannot enter common temples.
• In 53% of the villages, dalit women suffer ill-treatment at the hands of non-dalit women.

The findings of the study were analysed by a panel that included social activist Harsh Mander, who was with ActionAid when the study was conducted, and Sukhadeo Thorat, University Grants Commission chairperson and PACS Programme National Advisory Board member.

Their analysis has been published in the form of a book, Untouchability in Rural India (Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2006).

This backgrounder provides information about the study and its findings.

About the study

This was essentially a survey of the practice of untouchability at particular sites, or in particular forms.

Investigators were provided a list of observation sites such as the village teashop, the bus stop, temple and shops. They were also given a list of specific forms of untouchability.

Among the sites/forms of untouchability to be observed were:

• Entry into some or all parts of the house of an upper caste person.
• Crossing the threshold of a temple.
• Walking up to a shop counter.
• Accessing water from a public source.
• Physical contact whilst giving and receiving goods and money at a shop.
• Taking measurements for stitching.
• Working in the fields with non-dalits.
• Physical contact whilst receiving wages.
• Using umbrellas, cycles, chappals (footwear) on public roads.
• Taking out marriage and funeral processions on public roads.
• Wearing new, clean or bright clothes.
• Eating food with non-dalits.
• Wearing sunglasses, smoking in front of non-dalits.
• Using the services of a non-dalit carpenter.
• Entering panchayat buildings.
• Using the water facility at schools.
• isiting doctors.
• Entering police stations.
• Sitting in self-help group meetings.

In each of these areas, instances of untouchability were well defined. For instance, at common water sources in villages discrimination takes on many forms but only the last two practices in the list below were considered "clear" cases of untouchability:

• Dalits and non-dalits do not stand in the same line to fill water.
• Dalits and non-dalits use separate pulleys to draw water from a well.
• Dalits cannot dip their pots in a well or pond when a non-dalit is drawing water; dalits can draw water only when non-dalits have finished drawing water.
• Non-dalits can draw water from water sources ‘allotted’ to dalits when their own water sources have dried up, but dalits cannot use non-dalit water sources under any circumstance.
• There are separate water sources for dalits and non-dalits; however, either group can use the other’s water source in an emergency.
• There are separate water sources for dalits and non-dalits and neither group can use the other’s water source even in an emergency.
• Dalits cannot take water from any source on their own; they have to request non-dalits to pour water into their pots.

Thus, the study adopted a conservative approach in identifying untouchability.

The investigators were mostly high school graduates recruited by state branches of ActionAid or CSOs and activist groups working with the organisation. They included dalits and non-dalits, men and women who spoke the local language.

After receiving training in administering the schedule given to them, the investigators worked usually in teams of two per village, spending four to seven days on making their observations.

Group discussions, recording of case studies and interviews with key persons were other methods used to elicit information.

The selection of villages was such that different regions of a state were covered, as also different percentages of dalit populations vis-à-vis the total population of a village.

The study revealed that apart from being forced to live in bastis or colonies outside villages, or in segregated areas within villages, dalits suffer several forms of discrimination in the public, cultural, personal and business spheres. They also suffer discrimination when dealing with state agencies and officials.

Some of the major findings are summarised below:

Entry into non-dalit homes; eating together

Untouchability is practised most strongly in the personal sphere. In over 70% of the villages surveyed, dalits could not enter the homes of non-dalits. Nor could they eat together with non-dalits.

Entry into religious places

Numerous campaigns have been fought to allow dalits entry into ‘upper caste’ temples. Nevertheless, denial of entry into a temple continues to be the most widely prevalent form of public untouchability. The study found this practice in 64% of the surveyed villages; in Karnataka, denial of temple entry was seen in 94% of the villages.

The practice is not limited to Hindu places of worship. In Punjab, 41 of the 51 surveyed villages had separate gurdwaras for dalit Sikhs. Dalits are not denied entry into the main gurdwara, but they are forced to sit separately during the langar communal meal. Similar caste segregation within the Christian community was seen in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

Access to water

Another common form of public untouchability is denial of access to water. Untouchability around common water sources, in some form or the other, was seen in a little less than half the surveyed villages.

Complete denial of access to a particular water source designated as ‘upper caste’ was common. What was more common was the imposition of deferential treatment. For instance, dalits have to wait for non-dalits to fill water first, or they have to move away when a non-dalit arrives to fill water.

Friction over access to water leads to major fights or forces dalits to seek alternative water sources.

Access to cremation/burial grounds

Access to cremation or burial grounds is a particularly sensitive issue, especially as it involves land, which is usually a contentious resource. Denial of access to dalits to these grounds was found in nearly half the villages surveyed.

In many villages, dominant-caste communities encroach on dalit cremation or burial grounds. Even in places where dalit burial/cremation grounds exist, they are subject to regulations. For instance, in Maharashtra, dalit cremation grounds are on the eastern side of villages so that the whole village is not ‘polluted’ by winds blowing from the direction of the dalit cremation ground.

Entry into village shops, restaurants

In over a third of the surveyed villages, dalits suffered untouchability at village shops. This usually meant that dalits had to wait at a distance from the shop; shopkeepers avoided contact when giving them goods or taking money from them.

In a quarter of the villages, dalits were barred from entering village teashops and restaurants. In about a third of the villages, dalits had to sit separately or use separate utensils.

Washing clothes and cutting hair

Discrimination by dhobis and barbers was found to be present in nearly half the villages surveyed. The social status of people providing these services is itself dependent on denying the service to dalits.

Sanctions on public behaviour

In 47% of the villages, dalits are not allowed to take out marriage processions on public roads. In 10-20% of villages dalits have to stand in front of upper caste men in public; they cannot wear new or bright clothes; they cannot use umbrellas or wear chappals on public roads; they cannot even wear dark glasses or smoke in public.

Discrimination in the economic sphere

Dalits experience various forms of economic exclusion:

• Denial of the right to participate on equal terms in markets for jobs, in factors of production like land, and in common property resources like grazing land or water for agriculture.
• Denial of the right to change occupations, which is particularly experienced by people involved in ‘unclean’ occupations such as clearing human body waste, removing animal carcasses or cleaning sewers.
• Being forced to pay or receive discriminatory prices.
• Exclusion from the use of public services like transport and health services.

The study found that in 37% of villages, dalits were denied wage employment in agriculture; in around 25% of villages, they received lower wages than non-dalit workers. Dalit workers were excluded from housing construction in around a third of the villages; and in 46% of the villages they were not allowed to sell to milk cooperatives. In 32% of the villages they were denied access to irrigation facilities; in nearly 21% of villages they were denied access to common property resources.

Access to government services

One would expect discrimination to be less prevalent when dealing with the state machinery -- which does not endorse untouchability. This study shows otherwise.
In 38% of villages, dalit children have to eat separately at school. In 33% of villages, non-dalit health workers do not visit dalit homes. In around a fourth of villages, dalits cannot enter ration shops. In around a sixth of villages, dalits cannot enter panchayat offices. In around a fifth of villages, they cannot enter a primary health centre.

In 28% of villages, dalits cannot even enter police stations!

Sitting in self-help groups

The Untouchability in Rural India study shows that sections of the CSO sector also practise untouchability. In 30% of villages, dalits have to sit separately in self-help group meetings.