CONFRONTING MARGINALISATION

 

CLASS- VIII    SPL-III

08.    CONFRONTING MARGINALISATION

Invoking Fundamental Rights

·       The Constitutionlays down the principles that make our society and polity democratic. They are defined in and through the list of Fundamental Rights that are an important part of the Constitution. These rights are available to all Indians equally.

·       As far as the marginalised are concerned, they have drawn on these rights in two ways: first, by insisting on their Fundamental Rights, they have forced the government to recognise the injustice done to them.

·       Second, they have insisted that the government enforce these laws. In some instances, the struggles of the marginalised have influenced the government to frame new laws, in keeping with the spirit of the Fundamental Rights.

·       Article 17 of the Constitution states that untouchability has been abolished –this means that no one can henceforth prevent Dalits from educating themselves, entering temples, using public facilities etc. It also means that it is wrong to practise untouchability and that this practice will not be tolerated by a democratic government.  In fact, untouchability is a punishable crime now.

·       There are other sections in the Constitution that help to strengthen the argument against untouchability – for example, Article 15 of the Constitution notes that no citizen of India shall be discriminated against on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

·       Therefore, Dalits can ‘invoke’ or ‘draw on’ a Fundamental Right (or Rights) in situations where they feel that they have been treated badly by some individual or community, or even by the government. They have drawn the attention of the government of India to the Constitution, demanding that the government abide by it and do justice to them.

·       In the case of cultural and educational rights, distinct cultural and religious groups like the Muslims and Parsis have the right to be the guardians of the content of their culture, as well as the right to make decisions on how best this content is to be preserved. Thus, by granting different forms of cultural rights, the Constitution tries to ensure cultural justice to such groups. The Constitution does this so that the culture of these groups is not dominated nor wiped out by the culture of the majority community.

LAWS FOR THE MARGINALISED

There are specific laws and policies for the marginalised in our country. There are policies orschemes that emerge through other means like setting up a committee or by undertaking a survey etc. The government then makes an effort to promote such policies in order to give opportunities to specific groups.

Promoting Social Justice

·       As part of their effort to implement the Constitution, both state and central governments create specific schemes for implementation in tribal areas or in areas that have a high Dalit population. For example, the government provides for free or subsidised hostels for students of Dalit and Adivasi communities so that they can avail of education facilities that may not be available in their localities.

·       In addition to providing certain facilities, the government also operates through laws to ensure that concrete steps are taken to end inequity in the system. One such law/policy is the reservation policy that today is both significant and highly contentious.

·       The laws which reserve seats in education and government employment for Dalits and Adivasis are based on an important argument- that in a society like ours, where for centuries sections of the population have been denied opportunities to learn and to work in order to develop new skills or vocations, a democratic government needs to step in and assist these sections.

How does the reservation policy work?

·       Governments across India have their own list of Scheduled Castes (or Dalits), Scheduled Tribes and backward and most backward castes.

·       The central government too has its list. Students applying to educational institutions and those applying for posts in government are expected to furnish proof of their caste or tribe status, in the form of caste and tribe certificates to avail of the benefit of reservation.

 

PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF DALITS AND ADIVASIS

In addition to policies our country also has specific laws that guard against the discrimination and exploitation of marginalised communities.

The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989

·       This Act was framed in 1989 in response to demands made by Dalits and others that the government must take seriously the ill treatment and humiliation Dalits and tribal groups face in an everyday sense.

·       While such treatment had persisted for a long time, it had acquired a violent character in the late 1970s and 1980s. During this period, in parts of southern India, a number of assertive Dalit groups came into being and asserted their rights – they refused to perform their so-called caste duties and insisted on being treated equally.

·       This resulted in the more powerful castes unleashing violence against them. In order to indicate to the government that untouchability was still being practised and in the most hideous manner, Dalit groups demanded new laws that would list the various sorts of violence against dalits and prescribe stringent punishment for those who indulge in them.

·       Likewise, throughout the 1970s and 1980s Adivasi people successfully organised themselves and demanded equal rights and for their land and resources to be returned to them.

·       They too had to face the anger of powerful social groups and were subject to a great deal of violence.

·       This is why this Act contains a very long list of crimes, some of which are too horrible even to contemplate. The Act does not only describe terrible crimes, but also lets people know what dreadful deeds human beings are capable of. In this sense, laws such as these seek to both punish as well as influence the way we think and act.

·       The Act distinguishes several levels of crimes. Firstly, it lists modes of humiliation that are both physically horrific and morally reprehensible and seeks to punish those who (i) force a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe to drink or eat any inedible or obnoxious substance; … (iii) forcibly removes clothes from the person of a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or parades him or her naked or with painted face or body or commits any similar act which is derogatory (insult) to human dignity…

·       Secondly, it lists actions that dispossess Dalits and Adivasis of their meagre resources or which force them into performing slave labour. Thus, the Act sets out to punish anyone who (iv) wrongfully occupies or cultivates any land owned by, or allotted to, … a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or gets the land allotted to him transferred;

·       At another level, the Act recognizes that crimes against Dalit and tribal women are of a specific kind and, therefore, seeks to penalise anyone who (xi) assaults or uses force on any woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe with intent to dishonour her.

ADIVASI DEMANDS AND THE 1989 ACT

·       The 1989 Act is important for another reason – Adivasi activists refer to it to defend their right to occupy land that was traditionally theirs. Activists have asked that those who have forcibly encroached upon tribal lands should be punished under this law. They have also pointed to the fact that this Act merely confirms what has already been promised to tribal people in the Constitution – that land belonging to tribal people cannot be sold to or bought by non-tribal people. In cases where this has happened, the Constitution guarantees the right of tribal people to re-possess their land.

·       C.K. Janu, an Adivasi activist, has also pointed out that one of the violators of Constitutional rights guaranteed to tribal people are governments in the various states of India – for it is they who allow non-tribal encroachers in the form of timber merchants, paper mills etc, to exploit tribal land, and to forcibly evict tribal people from their traditional forests in the process of declaring forests as reserved or as sanctuaries.

·       She has also noted that in cases where tribals have already been evicted and cannot go back to their lands, they must be compensated. That is, the government must draw up plans and policies for them to live and work elsewhere.

·       After all, governments spend large sums of money on building industrial or other projects on lands taken from tribals – so why should they be reluctant to spend even very modest amounts on rehabilitating the displaced?

……….. the end ……….