Inequality And Discrimination In India's Caste System

In the Indian context, the system of inequalities is not only based on difference in social and economic capital but one should also take into account the caste system. India 's caste system is among the world 's oldest forms of social stratification, dating back to 3,000 years. It consists in a social practice of categorizing individuals into various hierarchical castes and sub-castes. Outside of the system are found Untouchables, or Dalits, accounting for 16% of the Indian population (according to the 2011 census).

Due to power relations, differences in social status and systematic discrimination, the caste-system resulted in multidimensional inequalities (social, economic, political and educational). Implemented in India at end of 19th century

As Jaffrelot, C. states in his article « The impact of affirmative action in India », India was the first field of experimentation of positive discrimination, starting at the end of the 19th century under the British rule: « British colonial authorities, inspired by utilitarians, wanted to improve the human condition through programs for the advancement of the underprivileged. As early as the late nineteenth century, the first beneficiaries of these policies were found among the victims of India’s inherently inegalitarian system of castes. » But affirmative action policies became systematic only after India’s independence in 1947. The first group targeted were the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) with account for approximately 25% of the population but it was then extended to the Other Backward Class (OBC), representing 46% of the population, in 1980. Affirmative action consists in three complementary dimensions: political representation, education and government jobs. Jaffrelot shows that the reservation policies in India, paradoxically had a more political impact than socioeconomic. He also points out the fact that the first one can have a positive indirect impact on the second one through various policies directed toward the lower classes of the

Significant progress has been made over the years in improving literacy levels among the SCs and STs, and much of this has been achieved after Indian independence. In 1931, census figures show that literacy rates were almost always below 2% for the castes that would later form the SCs, while they were often over 20% for Hindu upper-caste groups such as the Brahmins and Kayasths (Somanathan, 2011). By the 1961 census, the literacy rate for SCs had risen only to 10.3% and that for STs, to 8.53 (Government of India, 2007). By 2001, the literacy rate went up to 54.69% for SCs and 47.10% for STs (figure 1). This shows that there has been a considerable improvement and convergence between the overall population and the lowest castes communities. However we observe that the gap tends to increase at higher levels of education (figure