Promoting Social Justice, Human Rights And Empowerment

Special Articles / Annie Namala / Social Work Profession in India: An Uncertain Future

Foundations Laid in the College
The caste system is a detailed well laid social structure of graded inequalities that assign privileges and rights as one goes up the ladder and obligations and duties as one goes down the ladder (Ambedkar,1968). The system sanctions, practices and perpetrates human rights violations as segregation, humiliation, abuse, physical and sexual violence, caste based occupation, obligatory duties, economic exploitation and exclusion from decision making against Dalit communities1 (Scheduled Castes) that fall at the bottom of the hierarchy and are considered ‘outcastes’.  They are considered polluted and polluting, and are excluded from social, economic and educational rights with little possibility for social mobility and change. In addition, the caste based beliefs in untouchability, purity and pollution prohibit social relationships and interface between Dalits and other social groups, succeeding to exclude them from the larger society. Caste based inequities and disabilities are also reflected in the social, economic and educational status of other social groups –Tribals2, Nomadic Tribes, Denotified Tribes, Minorities especially Muslims, and even some Other Backward Classes. In the case of Dalit women, and women from other marginalized communities caste principles operate together with patriarchy and weave a complex web of poverty and disabilities around them. 

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