The Ulcer We Love To Hide

Any Indian with a conscience only has to look around to find examples of discrimination based on "work and descent" practised against millions of Dalits. It's a bitter fact the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban in 2001, recognised. That euphemistic reference to what we all know as the caste system was then accepted by our government with much reluctance. But the government has now refused to acknowledge even so much at the Durban Review Conference held in Geneva in April. This resulted in the absence of any reference to the caste discrimination practised against some 26 million Dalits across South Asia, but chiefly in India.

Dalits in several regions of the country continue to be denied access to schools, places of worship, resources, food and dignity. The government's own records admit to even worse atrocities: every hour, two Dalits are assaulted; every day, two Dalit houses are burnt, three Dalit women raped, and two Dalits murdered. Recognising this in internal documents is fine, but when it comes to international forums, our government tries to brush this enormity under the carpet, calling it a "family" or "internal" matter. The fig leaf behind which it hides, of course, is that we have a liberal constitution, drafted under the aegis of a renowned Dalit, that bars all forms of discrimination, including caste-based ones.

Also, the government points to affirmative action, such as reservation, and to the fact that Dalits have held many high positions in India, including that of chief minister, Union minister, chief justice of India, speaker of the Lok Sabha and even president. The new example being offered is of Meira Kumar, our first Dalit woman speaker of the Lok Sabha.

That may be so, but although some Dalits have made it to the top in our so-called democracy, millions continue to be denied the right to vote despite some six decades of our liberal constitution being in force. While we have always had some politicians or media reports speaking out against particular instances of such discrimination, it has never become a matter of careful documentation or general outcry. Such extensive work or widespread awakening may remain a distant dream, but one organisation has tried to document one facet of the discrimination Dalits face, one that strikes at the very root of their life in a democracy—disenfranchisement. The National Dalit Election Watch (NDEW) has analysed and documented 478 complaints it received during all the five phases of the recent general elections from a sample of 3,770 polling stations across 226 constituencies in 13 states.

According to NDEW's analysis, disenfranchisement of Dalits takes the following forms: threat, intimidation or violence by dominant caste elements (29 per cent); exclusion from voter lists (13 per cent); non-acceptance of voter ID proof by officials or early closure of the polling booths in areas where Dalit voters abound (11 per cent); prevention of Dalits from voting by panchayat or party heads or by gangs (21 per cent); rigging (10 per cent); influencing poor and illiterate Dalit voters by providing them money, liquor or transport (12 per cent); and using violence, intimidation, and threats from the police (three per cent).

It is clear that most of the cases enumerated are of serious intimidation and violence, either by dominant caste elements who are functionaries of political parties, panchayats, the police or the government polling machinery. The NDEW analysis also shows that the highest incidence of such offences is in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. South India, at least in this matter, is nearly as bad as the supposed badlands of the north. While Bihar tops in cases of direct violence, intimidation and threats against Dalit voters, Andhra Pradesh topped in subtler methods, such as impersonation and influencing of Dalit voters through corrupt practices.

The NDEW is correct in suspecting that election-related violence will continue against Dalits even after the election results are out. Its delegation, led by a former commissioner of the SC-ST commission and former secretary to the government of India even requested the chief election commissioner to initiate measures against this with the state governments and take other steps to enable Dalits to fearlessly exercise their voting rights. It is encouraging that the chief election commissioner has suggested that the NDEW engage with the Election Commission to fine-tune a methodology for mapping Dalit vulnerability during polling.

It's high time our system faces up to the problem of caste-based exclusion and stops brushing it under the carpet.