Caste discrimination

Marking a historic moment in the global struggle against caste injustice, recent legislations in Seattle and California explicitly ban caste discrimination. The legal category of caste in these pieces of legislation is a product of decades of transnational activism by Dalits. It is also a category with a signifi cant history in the United States.

This paper estimates the extent of discrimination in employment, occupation and wages against the Scheduled Castes and its impact on poverty in urban regular salaried labour market in recent years. Discrimination in employment and wages is found to be very high in private sector and lesser in public sector. Discrimination in employment and wages leads to reduced wage income which enhances poverty of the discriminated group. The finding calls for policy reform in both private and public sectors to ensure non-discriminatory access to SCs in employment and wages.

While Hollywood has begun making some amends for the poor representation of marginalised communities, Indian cinema has a long way to go.

Drawing from an ethnographic study conducted in a Karnataka village, the unfavourable differential treatments against Dalit patients in rural public health services are delineated. An analysis of medical interactions shows that as compared to non-Dalits, Dalit patients experienced more apathy, denial, and avoidance behaviours from service providers. Surprisingly, most Dalits did not attribute this to their caste, but to the flaws of the public health delivery system. Caste and allopathic medical practice are embedded in the rural public health delivery system, and both camouflage and normalise discrimination in paternalistic medical interactions. This sustains the favourable environment for caste-based discrimination in rural public health services even in places where Dalit consciousness is strong.