http://www.thehindu.com/news/the-india-cables/the-cables/article1568910.ece
March 25, 2011
35177: Socioeconomic future of Dalits remains bleak
Most experts believe the key to ending discrimination is a
comprehensive education campaign starting at the primary level to
teach acceptance of dalits, a topic completely absent from India's
public school system.
35177, 6/22/2005 13:44, 05NEWDELHI4761, Embassy New Delhi,
CONFIDENTIAL,, "This record is a partial extract of the original
cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.221344Z
Jun 05","C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 NEW DELHI 004761
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/06/2015 TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, ECON, ELAB, IN, Human Rights
SUBJECT: SOCIOECONOMIC FUTURE OF INDIAN DALITS REMAINS BLEAK
Classified By: DCM Bob Blake for Reasons 1.4 (B, D)
1. (C) Summary: Embassy interlocutors report that after one year of
UPA rule, limited government efforts to improve dalit (formerly called
""untouchables"") socioeconomic status have shown little success,
ensuring that they continue to face severe economic and social
discrimination. Government reservation laws do not extend to the
private sector, the largest and fastest growing segment of the
economy. Most experts believe the key to ending discrimination is a
comprehensive education campaign starting at the primary level to
teach acceptance of dalits, a topic completely absent from India's
public school system. Despite the political success of dalits such as
current Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ram Vilas Paswan,
dalits' failure to organize at the national level has limited their
ability to demand equal rights. Until the Indian majority increases
pressure to change the status quo, many dalits will remain trapped
below the poverty line in manual labor jobs with few mechanisms for
upward mobility. End Summary.
Discrimination Remains Despite Legal Protection
--------------------------------------------- --
2. (U) Dalits, who make up approximately 16% of India's population,
roughly 166 million people, occupy the lowest position in the social
structure and face constant and severe discrimination. Formerly called
""untouchables"" because ""caste Hindus"" believe they can be
""polluted"" by having any contact with them, most dalits remain
trapped at the bottom rung of the caste ladder. In fact, most ""caste
Hindus"" consider them to be so low as to be outside the caste system
altogether.
3. (C) Despite the passage of the Anti-Untouchability Act of 1955 and
the Prevention of Atrocities Act of 1989, crimes against dalits are
still a major social problem, and discrimination is widespread.
According to Jawarahal Nehru University Professor and Director of the
Indian Institute of Dalit Studies SK Thorat, all of the trappings of
untouchability remain in rural India and rampant job discrimination
occurs in India's cities and towns. Thorat recently told Poloff that
the approximately 18,000 caste-related discrimination cases filed
annually with the Indian government are only a small fraction of the
actual number. Vastly more cases go unreported, because dalits in
rural areas still live under feudal systems and cannot risk angering
their high-caste landlords. Thorat also commented that only the most
serious and well-publicized acts of caste discrimination receive the
attention of the Indian authorities.
4. (C) Ram Nath Kovind, himself a dalit and a BJP MP from Uttar
Pradesh, expressed a more positive view to Poloff recently, stating
that ""open"" discrimination against dalits has decreased dramatically
over the last decade, while the number of persons who genuinely care
about helping dalits has increased. He maintained that while
discrimination persists in the housing sector, employment decisions
are usually free from bias. Executive Director of the South Asian
Human Rights Documentation Center Ravi Nair agreed that employment
discrimination against dalits has decreased over the last decade,
while access to housing often remains based on caste.
The Reservation System
----------------------
5. (U) The GOI uses a system of ""reservations,"" similar to
affirmative action programs in the US, in an attempt to ameliorate the
social and economic disparities resulting from the caste system. Under
the system, dalits receive government-mandated, numerical quotas in
government employment and education programs. The law requires the
state to allocate approximately 16 percent of government jobs, seats
in schools, the Parliament and State Assemblies, and public housing be
to ""scheduled"" castes and tribes. These schedules contain a list of
underprivileged groups determined by the government to need social
assistance. There are no reservations for dalits in the military or
the private sector.
6. (C) Nair argued that the reservation system has only been partially
successful in empowering dalits, because they often discriminate
against each other. For example, in North India, a subgroup of dalits
known as the Jatevs have become very successful in the leather
industry. Nair indicated that this group of dalits would never help
other dalit groups in the area, such as the Bhangi, which they
consider lower. He observed that due to the many strata within each
caste, the reservation system has created a ""creamy layer"" of
successful people within the dalit community. In general, these groups
have focused on solidifying their own positions rather than helping to
empower other dalits, Nair stated.
7. (C) Professor Thorat judged the reservation system as ""only a
partial success"" and maintained that its effectiveness will decline
in the future, because discrimination is rampant in the private
sector, which is creating the most new jobs. Himself a dalit,
Professor Thorat claimed that high-caste Hindus would almost always
hire another caste Hindu over a dalit, even if the dalit were fully
qualified for the job. He theorized that the religious basis of the
caste system, which teaches that dalits hold their social position due
to mistakes made in a prior life, allows caste Hindus to discriminate
without guilt. BJP MP Kovind disagreed with Thorat, asserting to
Poloff that current legislation has to a large degree been successful
in protecting dalit rights, but that India still has work to do to end
discrimination, citing increasing dalit access to primary education as
a place to start.
8. (C) Centuries of discrimination have confined most dalits to the
lowest paying jobs. Thorat claimed that 70% of all dalits live in
rural areas, and over 90% work in the agricultural sector as unskilled
or day laborers. Most of the remainder are employed in manual,
unskilled labor jobs in urban areas. Given these facts, he argued that
only 5% of the working dalit population has actually benefited from
the Indian reservation law. He acknowledged that while GOI poverty
alleviation programs help dalits, the government does not strictly
monitor them and many are never implemented. Thorat asserted that the
vast majority of dalits are denied upward socioeconomic mobility due
to lack of access to education, land, and capital. Kovind commented
that the true basis of discrimination is economic in nature rather
than caste-based, as the ""haves discriminate against the have nots""
and use the caste system to perpetuate differences between economic
groups. Comparing the caste system to the trade guilds in feudal
Europe (in that certain groups performed specific jobs), he added that
under the caste system persons acquire their trade at birth, while the
guilds allowed job mobility. Caste factors are now used to protect
jobs and livelihoods more than anything else, Kovind argued.
Poor Prospects for Improvement
------------------------------
9. (C) Thorat and Justice Party President and Chairman of the
All-India Confederation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
Organizations Dr. Udit Raj commented to us recently that despite
India's growing economy, the outlook for dalits remains bleak.
According to Thorat, globalization and economic liberalization have
actually hurt dalit prospects for progress and social mobility. Raj
argued that liberalization will shift more of the economy from the
public to the private sector, where hiring managers are almost
exclusively from high castes and constantly discriminate against
dalits, denying them the opportunities guaranteed by reservations.
Unlike the United States, India has no equal opportunity law
applicable to the private sector, which means that the rapidly
expanding private sector is under no compulsion to hire dalits, while
the public sector will have fewer jobs to offer. Kovind predicted that
caste-based discrimination will exist for at least the next 50-100
years in India. He suggested that since the Hindu religion condones
caste, it will take longer for the GOI to end caste discrimination in
India than it will take to eradicate racial discrimination in the US.
10. (C) Sangh Priya Guatam, a dalit BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh, India's
largest state and one of its poorest, agreed that dalits will be left
behind in a globalizing world and that job reservations in the private
sector would be an important tool to ensure equality. Guatam stated
that the BJP favors private sector reservations and would like the UPA
government to take up the issue in Parliament and not rely on the
private sector to develop a solution. Thorat confirmed that a
Ministerial Commission is researching the issue of reservations in the
private sector. Raj did not expect positive results, commenting that
the private sector fears losing competitiveness, especially in the
information technology realm, should the GOI extend reservations to
private industry. Thorat and Raj both denied that private sector
reservations would hurt productivity, as many qualified dalit
applicants could fill reserved slots. Kovind stated that the BJP
favors reservations in the private sector and will pressure the UPA
government to institute them.
GOI-CII Agreement on Reservations
---------------------------------
11. (C) Thorat asserted that a June 2 agreement between the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment will likely prevent the extension of
reservations to the private sector. Under the agreement, the GOI will
not press for government-legislated private sector reservations for
dalits. In exchange, the CII pledged to promote vocational skill
advancement programs for dalits in the private sector. Thorat agreed
that vocational programs are necessary, but will not help dalits as
much as reservations. Raj concurred, stating that with a rapidly
growing population and an excess of workers, high-caste hiring
managers will always choose non-dalits, regardless of qualifications,
unless the law forces them to do otherwise.
12. (C) Dalits view the GOI-CII agreement as yet another mechanism to
maintain the status quo, according to Raj. He argued that with the BJP
and Congress dominated by upper-castes with little interest in
increasing opportunities for the lower castes, both parties have
abandoned platforms aimed at empowering the poor and elevating the
socioeconomic status of dalits, while Congress has exploited its
secular identity to justify inaction. The high castes want to preserve
the status quo because they benefit from it. A large segment of the
population living in desperation guarantees a pool of workers willing
to work for minuscule salaries and perform the most menial jobs. Raj
anticipates that the CII,s promise to offer vocational training to
dalits will never be adequately implemented and is unlikely to
increase dalit employment opportunities.
Solutions?
----------
13. (C) Education programs for Indian youth to increase egalitarian
attitudes are the only way to truly break caste discrimination,
according to Thorat and Raj, although they asserted that the
initiative needed to centrally mandate such education in all public
schools is absent. Raj proffered that the upper-castes have enjoyed
thousands of years of free access to education, at the expense of
dalits. These same castes remain in control of India's educational
institutions and, consequently, few administrators wish to mandate or
incorporate education programs advocating dalit equality. Thorat and
Raj contend that the human rights awareness classes currently offered
in some schools are wholly inadequate, as they do not cover caste
discrimination or critically investigate the unjust norms regarding
interpersonal relationships between dalits and the caste Hindus still
practiced today. Raj pointed out that until such education programs
are implemented, schools will serve as breeding grounds for prejudice,
and upper caste children will continue to learn that it is permissible
to discriminate against dalits. He argued that the present system
teaches caste Hindus that it is acceptable to cheat dalits and
discriminate against them.
14. (C) Reservations in public education institutions have not
translated into enhanced socioeconomic status for dalits, according to
Thorat. Schools and teachers are unable to keep up with the growing
numbers of children, and dalits are usually the first children denied
an education when resources are scarce. Therefore, many dalits have no
access to the primary education necessary to qualify for
education-based reservations in the university system. Since public
schools frequently offer substandard education, and the vernacular
education they provide is held in low regard, few members of the
Indian elite and middle class attend them. This leaves private,
English-medium education as the principal tool for upward mobility. As
a result, argues Raj, GOI-enforced dalit reservation in public schools
has not led to increased social mobility, and most dalits with access
to education remain in manual, unskilled jobs that others refuse to
take.
15. (C) Raj also questioned whether the GOI was committed to taking
effective action to end discrimination against dalits, claiming that
most members of the Indian Commission on Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes which investigates violations of anti-caste
discrimination law are from the upper castes and not genuinely
interested in the plight of dalits. As a result, the Commission
overlooks most day-to-day discrimination to concentrate on a few
highly publicized acts of violence or discrimination, he stated.
Dalit Rights Movements
----------------------
16. (U) Dalits' perception of their plight varies from region to
region, according to Thorat. He noted that the civil rights agitation
for dalits began in South India with the ""self-respect movement"" in
the early 20th century. Consequently, dalits in the South have seen
more improvements than their counterparts in the North, where the
movement for equality was much slower and began only after Partition
in 1947. As a result, Northern dalits generally harbor greater ill
will towards the upper castes than those in the South, because of the
higher and more recent levels of discrimination against them.
17. (U) This finds expression in the bitter caste-based politics of
the North India ""Hindi Belt"" which has spawned such parties as the
dalit-based Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of Uttar Pradesh and its fiery
leader Mayawati, who routinely rails against the excesses of ""caste
Hindus,"" while pledging to openly discriminate in favor of dalits. In
South India, the dalit agenda has been largely absorbed by more
broad-based regional parties such as the AIDMK and DMK in Tamil Nadu,
or the Communists in Kerala.
18. (U) With dalits estimated to constitute from 16% to 27% of the
Indian population, the lack of progress for dalits has both political
and social implications. Their lack of access to jobs in the growing
private sector, and limited access to land and capital, has led
increasing numbers of dalits to convert to other religions, such as
Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, which have not institutionalized
caste, in hope of obtaining redress. However, for many, interpersonal
and economic discrimination has continued despite conversion, as most
caste Hindus in their local communities continue to regard them as
dalits despite their change of religion.
19. (U) Thorat argued that political organizations have also proven
ineffective. After 1947, most dalits pledged allegiance to Congress,
but many became discouraged by what they viewed as the party's failure
to live up to its promises in the ensuing decades. With the departure
of many dalits from Congress, their votes have become fragmented
between numerous and disparate political organizations, preventing
them from forming a cohesive lobby capable of pressuring the GOI to
address their concerns. Congress is trying to convince dalits to
return to the fold, but with little success, and they remain divided.
Thorat and Raj argue that massive religious conversions or political
organization have failed to provide necessary social change. With
these avenues proving largely ineffective, dalits remain discouraged
and fatalistic. Kovind, who heads the BJP's dalit cell, disagreed,
asserting that his party is determined to help dalits and shed the
image that it is only an ""upper caste party."" He argued that only a
nationalist party like the BJP will succeed in fighting discrimination
against dalits, as India cannot become a world power until dalits and
low-caste persons are brought up to the level of the rest of society.
20. (C) Prominent human rights expert Nair stated that dalits need to
take their case to the courts if they want to achieve emancipation. He
argued that laws protecting dalits exist, but that they have not used
them effectively, and that dalit groups do not use the large donations
they receive from the government, the donor community and private
sources effectively. He said that they should mirror the civil rights
movement in the US and set up legal aid defense groups. These groups
of lawyers would ensure that dalit cases are heard and judgments
rendered against those who discriminate. Nair warned that nothing will
change until people who discriminate go to jail or face stiff
financial penalties. He did not expect dalits to implement his plan,
because their leaders are more interested in rhetoric than doing the
hard work required to mount a meaningful challenge in the courts.
Success Stories
---------------
21. (U) Despite widespread discrimination, a number of dalits have
become successful. The highest profile case is that of K.R. Narayanan,
who served as President of India from 1997-2002. Ram Vilas Paswan,
currently holding two Ministerial level positions (Minister for
Chemicals and Fertilizers and Minister for Steel), is a very
successful politician from Bihar. BSP president and a three-time
Member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh Mayawati is also a well-known
dalit. However, these persons have all benefited from the reservation
system and local interlocutors stated it unlikely that they would have
reached these positions without affirmative action programs. The Dalit
NGO Dalitawaz lists dalits from a wide range of professions, including
doctors, lawyers, engineers and civil servants, indicating that,
despite the odds, it is possible for members of this disenfranchised
group to do well.
Comment
-------
22. (C) While the UPA has focused on bettering the lot of the dalit
community, it is dominated by upper caste Hindus, very few of whom are
genuinely concerned about the plight of dalits. This ensures that
dalits will continue to be an oppressed, discriminated group in India.
Although the GOI has passed legislation and established government
bodies to administer these laws, it has failed to attack the root of
the problem. There are success stories, but acts of violence and
prejudice against dalits, combined with government negligence, persist
and there is little upward mobility among the dalit population.
Without a broader, more comprehensive approach to teach tolerance and
equality early in primary schools, it is unlikely that the social
acceptance of caste-based discrimination will fade any time soon. The
increasing dominance of the private sector in the economy could also
result in greater economic polarization if there is no mechanism in
place to combat job discrimination.
MULFORD
