Struggle For Human Rights Essay

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Continuing plight of India’s Dalits
Struggle for human rights is a struggle for life, liberty and enforcement of fundamental rights.
In India the status of an individual is religiously determined by birth of a person in a caste.
The basic structure of Indian society is based on a system of stratification which has been endorsed by religious practices and the societal practices.
In India Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe account for about 25% of the total population in India which means that 1 out of every 4 people in India are Dalits (1.21 billion total population in India).
Although untouchability had been formally abolished when the Indian Constitution had been enacted under Article 17. But it continues to be a disease that is prevalent …show more content…

In India the status of an individual is religiously determined by birth of a person in a caste. The caste system in India is a system of social segregation and Dalits occupy the lowest position. Atrocities against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and untouchability are the natural expressions of the unnatural Indian caste system. 16.2% of the total population consists of the scheduled castes which include ‘Dalits’ also known as untouchables or ‘Harijans’. Scheduled Tribes refer to the indigenous tribal population of India. 8.2% of the population is the indigenous people or the ‘Adivasis’. The Indian Constitution has banned untouchability under Article 17. The Government recognizing the historical disadvantage and vulnerability of the Dalits has passed the Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Caste/Tribe Act, 1989 to enable the Dalits to enjoy human rights on par with other sections of Indian society and empower them in their struggle for their rights. The Act was enacted to protect the SCs and STs from wanton attacks by those claiming to be superior and to help the social inclusion of Dalits into Indian society, but crimes against Dalits continue to exist. Legislation namely the Protection of Civil Rights Act (PCRA), 1955 has also been enacted to eradicate untouchability. Despite these legislations seeking to ensure basic civil rights to the SC and ST community in matters like education, employment and healthcare, the status of Dalits continues to be low as they primarily remained engaged in menial jobs such as collecting garbage, cleaning sewages or are engaged as bonded laborers. The socio economic reforms haven’t been successful and have only touched periphery of the issue of empowerment of the Dalit section of our society and have instead contributed to rising resentment of people against them as can be seen by the increasing level of crime against the

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