http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/the-social-revolution-in-uttar-pradeshThe social revolution in Uttar Pradesh
S A Aiyar
03 October 2010, 10:45 AM IST
Last week, this column highlighted major economic improvements for
dalits in Uttar Pradesh, based on a research paper by Devesh Kapur and
others (Rethinking inequality : Dalits in UP in the market reform
era). But the real dalit revolution has been in social status, far
more than economic.
In material terms, inequality (technically measured by the Gini
coefficient) in UP has always been low — less than in Kerala or the
national average. UP's problem has always been social inequality, not
consumption inequality. The good news is that social inequality is
being transformed. The practice of seating dalits separately in upper
caste weddings is down from 77.3% to 8.9% in eastern UP, and from
73.1% to 17.9% in western UP. The proportion of non-dalits accepting
food and water at dalit households is up from 1.7% to 72.5% in the
east and from 3.6% to 47.8% in the west.
Many dalits in eastern UP were locked into thehalwaha (bonded labour)
system, which Jagjivan Ram once called "a remnant of slavery" . This
has virtually disappeared : the proportion is down from 32.1% to 1.1%.
The proportion of dalit households doing any farm labour has plummeted
from 76% to 45.6% in the east, and from 46.1% to just 20.5% in the
west. Encouragingly , the proportion depending on their own land is up
from 16.6% to 28.4% in the east, and from 50.5% to 67.6% in the west.
Tubewell ownership is up substantially , but remains modest.
Dalits are leasing land from upper castes. Those who were once
labourers on upper caste land now insist on a share of the crop. The
proportion in sharecropping is up from 16.7% to 31.4% in the east and
from 4.9% to 11.4% in the west. In western UP, cases of dalits alone
lifting dead animals are down from 72.6% to 5.3%. Once dalits ploughed
the land of upper castes with bullocks . Today, they are getting their
own land ploughed by upper caste tractor drivers. Economic reforms
have created major new opportunities in urban areas, facilitating
dalit migration to towns and back. This has broken their dependence on
rural landlords and moneylenders. The resulting labour shortage has
raised the bargaining power of dalits.
The proportion of dalit families working locally as masons, tailors or
drivers — all non-traditional occupations — is up from 14% to 37% in
the east and from 9.3% to 42.1% in the west. Even more revolutionary
is the rise of dalit business families, from 4.2% to 11% in the east
and from 6% to 36.7% in the west.
Political parties shout themselves hoarse over job reservations. Yet,
the dalit family proportion in government jobs has actually fallen
from 7.2% to 6.8% in the east, and risen marginally from 5% to 7.3% in
the west. Clearly, job reservation has not been a key factor in UP's
social revolution.
Once, dalit babies were not midwifed equally by dalits and non-dalits
. The proportion equally delivered has shot up from 1.1% to 89.9% in
the east. Earlier non-dalit and government midwives rarely came to
dalit homes for deliveries, but the proportion is now up from 3.4% to
53.4% in the east, and from zero to 3.6% — still very low — in the
west.
Dalit households where most or all kids go to school are up from 28.8%
to 63.4% in the east and from 21.7% to 65.7% in the west. Girls'
schooling is up from 10% to 58.7% in the east and from 6.8% to 56.9%
in the west. As a form of social assertion, dalits are adopting elite
consumption patterns. Their use of toothpaste , shampoo and bottled
hair oil has soared. Earlier, only one-third of dalits in the east and
virtually none in the west used cars or jeeps for wedding baraats, but
today virtually all do. The proportion serving laddoos to baraatis is
up from 33.6% in the east and 2.7% in the west, to almost 100% in both
cases.
The data shows that despite major improvements , dalits are still far
from achieving equality in status or income. Caste oppression and
inequalities remain. Nevertheless, the changes constitute a social
revolution, sparked by both economic reform and the rise of the BSP.
In the survey, dalits themselves emphasized that their social
well-being had advanced even faster than their material wellbeing .
Self-respect and dignity are vital for the downtrodden. Mayawati's
statue-building spree is a form of status building.
Amartya Sen has talked of freedom as development . This means not just
more consumption but more voice, access to accountability , access to
influential networks and livelihood choice, access to good governance,
and physical security. The traditional castebound village in UP denied
all these to dalits. Those shackles are breaking apart.
------------------------------------
----
INFORMATION OVERLOAD?
Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/
PARTICIPATE:-
On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com
TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:-
If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/
Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
ZESTCaste-digest@yahoogroups.com
ZESTCaste-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ZESTCaste-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
