The word Dalit means ¡°broken/scattered¡± in Sanskrit and Hindi and is usually used to refer to the people excluded from the social/societal structure or the caste system.
Dalits are the backward castes, more often than not downtrodden to an extent that their shadows are considered filthy.
They are the untouchables or achhoot.
The term ¡°Harijan¡± was popularised by Mahatma Gandhi to refer to the people from communities traditionally considered so called 'Untouchable'.
But, it did little to remove the intrinsic hate and repulsion in the minds of so-called upper castes towards the Dalit community.
On September 25, two dalit children were beaten to death by some people for defecating in front of a panchayat building in Madhya Pradesh¡¯s Shivpuri district. The incident took place in Bhavkedhi village in the morning. The two children, Roshani Balmiki (12) and Avinash Balmiki (10), suffered severe injuries in the incident and were rushed to the district hospital where doctors declared them dead.
The father of one of the deceased alleged they were facing discrimination over their caste in the village.
The deceased boy's father, Manoj Balmiki, claimed they were allowed to draw water from the village hand-pump only after all the other residents had done so.
And it couldn't get any more ironic on September 25, the same day of the incident, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred the "Global Goalkeeper" award by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by his government that focuses on making India open-defecation free.
National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which gathers data about different crimes in the country, shows that the rate of crimes against Dalits has risen in the last few years. The conviction rate for such crimes has also declined substantially.
In all of India, 40,801 atrocities against Dalits were reported in 2016, up from 38,670 in 2015.
The NCRB data says that most of the crimes against SCs reported were crimes against women, including assault, sexual harassment, stalking, voyeurism and insult to modesty.
In September, a village development officer committed suicide by hanging himself in Kumbhi village, Uttar Pradesh, due to constant pressure from Kisan Union leader and two village heads.
The suicide note found in Kumar¡¯s pocket mentioned the harassment by two heads and the leader of the farmers¡¯ union. He mentioned that he had been constantly abused and made fun of at the block office.?
A 46-year-old dalit teacher, Kanhaiyalal Baraiya, in Gujarat was served a notice as he drank water from a pitcher ¡®reserved¡¯ for three of his upper-caste colleagues.
Two weeks after the dalit teacher lodged an FIR against the discrimination, he was transferred to another government school on August 28.?
The principal slapped a notice on him on July 3 stating, ¡®You are a teacher belonging to the Valmiki community. Do not drink water from the pitcher of ¡®savarna' (upper caste) teachers.¡¯?
In yet another case reported from Uttar Pradesh, some students were found to be carrying their own plates for mid-day meals and eating separately from those belonging to the SC, ST and Dalit communities.
Another inhumane case came to light in August when a dead body of a Dalit man had to be lowered from a bridge using ropes after members of the upper caste community allegedly refused to allow the funeral procession to pass through their land. The shocking incident took place in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
The video of the body being lowered from the bridge went viral on social media.
While there seems to be no end to atrocities committed against Dalits in the name of caste, what triggers such behaviour and the authority to commit a crime against certain section of people?
India is well-known for its caste system. The discrimination against a section of people makes the world¡¯s biggest democracy nothing less than an apartheid-style state.
Indian constitution has banned the practice of untouchability; however, reports suggest that 15 per cent of population is still kept on the very margins of society because of untouchability.
Dalits are still broken and suppressed. Only a few manage to break out of the cycle of poverty and caste that they are born into. Dalits traditionally do the dirtiest of the jobs, from manual scavenging to cleaning sewers. In a work set up, they are sent to die of asphyxiation on the job, while cleaning sewers. Even as manual scavenging has been banned by law, the practise continues unabated.
Simply, because Dalit lives do not matter in Indian society.
Even if a Dalit scavenger can afford to buy a cow and sell milk or open a shop, for example, upper caste customers are unlikely to buy any of the produce.
It is still common to see reports of Dalits being threatened, beaten and killed for ostensibly mundane reasons.
At a time when Dalits are killed for using water from wells meant for upper caste Hindus, owning a horse or simply sitting cross-legged, the society is light years far from achieving true inclusivity and treating Dalits as equal humans.