NEW DELHI, March 26, 2010
Tribals, Dalits still at the bottom in most indicators
Aarti Dhar
Indigenous groups and Dalits continue to be at the bottom in most
indicators of well-being, the Muslims and the Other Backward Classes
(OBCs) occupy the middle rung, while forward caste Hindus and other
minority religions are at the top. The "Human Development in India:
Challenges for a Society in Transition" survey has found this.
These patterns are seen in a variety of indicators, including
household incomes, poverty rates, landownership and agricultural
incomes, health, and education. The group positions are not immutable,
and on some dimensions, there is a difference in rankings.
The Adivasis generally have slightly better health outcomes (reported
short term morbidity and child mortality), particularly in the
northeast where healthcare appears to be of a higher quality.
Similarly, when it comes to education, the Muslims are as
disadvantaged as the Dalits and Adivasis, although their economic
well-being is more at par with that of the OBCs, the survey suggests.
Two major aspects of these group disparities have been highlighted in
the survey report. Firstly, much of this inequality seems to emerge
from differential access to livelihoods. Salaried jobs pay far more
than casual labour or farming, and these jobs elude the disadvantaged
groups for many reasons, including living in rural areas and lower
education. But regardless of the reason, more than three out of 10
forward caste and minority religion men have salaried jobs, compared
with about two out of 10 Muslim, OBC and Dalit men, and even fewer
Adivasi men.
Dalits and Adivasis are further disadvantaged as they either do not
own land, or mainly low-productivity land. Not surprisingly, these
income differences translate into differences in other indicators of
human development.
Secondly, the report points out, future generations seem doomed to
replicate these inequalities because of the continuing differences in
education — both in quality and quantity. In spite of the long history
of positive discrimination policies — reservation in college admission
— social inequalities begin early in primary schools. Thus,
affirmative action remedies are too little and too late by the time
students reach the higher secondary level.
It further says that differences in well-being among social groups are
long established, but a variety of contemporary forces have conspired
to sustain and sometimes exacerbate these inequalities. Dalits have
long laboured at the margins of a society that depends on that labour,
but that has often excluded them. Although some Adivasis in the
northeast fared better, other Adivasis living in extremely remote
locations have been left out of the recent economic progress or forced
to migrate, only to work as low paid labourers. In some cases, such as
for the OBCs and the Muslims, historical disadvantages have been
exacerbated by structural shifts. A decline in artisan incomes has
affected the Muslims disproportionately, while agricultural stagnation
has affected the OBCs.
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