there are places in this world where the circumstances of your birth Define everything your opportunities your worth your fate these places don't need physical walls or chains to imprison you simply the act of being born is enough to condemn you to a life sentence in India millions of people have born into such a life Trapped By A system that has dictated their future for thousands of years these people are known as The Untouchables or as they call themselves delitz today despite India's modern achievements its gleaming skyscrapers booming a economy and Global influence the deits remain
trapped in abject poverty exclusion and violence they are part of a car system that while officially outlawed continues to govern their lives in India there are roughly 200 million dallot however this problem is so ingrained that it has followed the Indian diaspora to other countries around the world their story isn't just one of poverty but of a deep rooted belief that some people are born impure and nothing they can ever do will change that to understand the suffering of the deits we need to understand India's cast system one of the oldest forms of social hierarchy
in the world it dates back over 3,000 years and divides Society into rigid groups based on birth the brahin are at the top of this system priests and Scholars considered pure and closest to the Divine below them a chaters Warriors rulers and then there are the vas merchants and Artisans finally at the bottom are the shoers or laborers but even the shudras as low as they are in this hierarchy of a place dullet however don't don't they are outside this system considered too impure to even belong on the lowest rung of society this belief in
Purity and pollution has governed their fate for Millennia dalls have been forced into the dirtiest most degrading jobs one considered too filthy for even the sudras to touch they clean human waste dispose of dead animals and perform other menial tasks that make them in the eyes of others permanently unclean for thousands of years the system was justified by religion and tradition it was seen as divinely ordained the natural order of things and while the car system was formerly abolished in 1950 with the adoption of India's new constitution the reality on the ground was very different
today they might be referred to as scheduled casts or tribes but really we're talking about the same thing laws can change but altering deeply ingrained beliefs is much more complicated dallet continue to live in the shadow of a system that has treated them as subhuman for thousands of years in many parts of rural India cast still dictates every aspect of life who can marry what jobs you can do who you can talk to and even where you can live while the rest of the world moves forward millions of delets remain trapped in a cycle of
poverty discrimination and violence in the eyes of many if you're born a dallot you'll die a dallot no amount of hard work intelligence or ambition will save you from a life of struggle and exclusion this invisible cage surrounds millions of lives a cage built not with iron but with rigid beliefs unlike visible markers of race or ethnicity cast is an invisible status yet everyone knows who belongs where dalls are identified primarily through their family background and surname or which immediately reveals their place in the cast system in rural areas where cast distinctions are most rigid
your last name can determine everything about you in many villages the very location of your home can mark you as a dallot dalls typically live in segregated areas often on the outskirts of town physically separated from higher cast groups this spatial division makes it clear Who belongs to which cast dallet neighborhoods are usually the poorest lacking access to Clean Water Sanitation and basic infrastructure the difference between dallot settlements and those of higher costs is striking making identification all the more obvious occupation is another way that dalls are identified historically dalls were forced into polluting jobs
and although the Indian constitution outlawed cast based discrimination and affirmative action policies were introduced many dalls are still trapped in these menial degrading occupations their work becomes a visible marker of their cast cast identification in schools and work places can be more subtle but no less pervasive teachers and employers may not ask directly about cast but assumptions are made based on a person's appearance surname or background in some cases dallot children and workers are ostracized or treated differently once their cast is discovered but all of this together the effect is akin to a giant brand
on your forehead to us in the west where we're engorged with rags to Rich's taals and entrepreneur or Wonder Stories this reality is alien and uncomfortable you might wonder why don't people just move start a new life somewhere and never breathe the word about your place in society and this leads us to an even bigger problem this system has been in place for thousands of years and the hereditary effect on the Dallas has been catastrophic most people don't see any hope of change or a better life this is what their family has always done and
this is what they expect they will always do the upper casts have held their boot firmly on the dallot neck for as long as anybody can remember they don't want the dads to develop ambition or dreams and they discourage anything that might lead to it when a child is born into a dallet family in a rural Village from the moment they take their first breath their life is already set in stone a life that is not shaped by their talents or dreams but by an ancient system that says they are less than human firstly the
chances of them making a past infancy are much smaller with infant mortality rates among dallet children being 66.4 deaths per thousand live births higher than the national average of 27.6 N5 life expectancy for dallad is about 5 years lower than the national average largely due to a lack of access to healthcare clean drinking water and nutritious food the child will likely grow up in a cramped dirty Village living in a segregated area with other dads more than 64% of dallot households in rural areas lack access to clean water and basic sanitation while wealthier casts live
in proper homes with brick walls dallet often live in slums Shacks made of mud straw or tin where the child is old enough to attend school they will likely face immediate discrimination even though education is supposed to be a universal right cast still dictates who is considered worthy of it dlet children are often forced to sit at the back of the classroom and in some cases they're not allowed to attend school at all and even when they do they might be ostracized by their classmates or treated with disdain by their teachers many of whom come
from High casts in extreme cases teachers might even refuse to touch them seeing them as unclean now the consequences of this discrimination are obviously severe many dallet children drop out of school early with Dropout rates of dalls often exceeding 50% before high school the rates among dallat are significantly lower than the national average with only 66% being literate compared to 74% as a national average without education their chances of lifting themselves out of poverty are slim to non-existent by the time this child reaches adulted they will likely be condemned to the same kind of work
their parents and grandparents did before them dallot have historically been forced into jobs that are considered impure or polluting such as manual Scavenging literally cleaning human excrement by hand for many dads it's the only work available over 90% of dalls are part of India's informal labor sector meaning they have no job security no benefits and no real way to escape poverty even when employed dallot face enormous wage disparities on average dallot laborers earn 30 to 40% less than their upper class counterparts but this isn't just about poverty it's also about exclusion in some places dalls
are shut off from almost every aspect of mainstream Society they're not allowed to enter certain temples drink from the same Wells as upper casts or even walk on the same roads in some Villages dalls are still required to take off their shoes when walking through areas where harass people live a reminder that they are considered beneath them if poverty and exclusion weren't enough dallot also face frequent violence and this isn't just random acts of Cruelty it's systemic violence deeply embedded in the cast system according to India's national crime records Bureau a crime is committed against
a dallot every 10 minutes dalls are beaten raped murdered for the smallest of fractions drinking from the wrong well walking on the wrong road or falling in love with someone from a higher cast there are approximately 50,000 cases of violence against DS reported every single year however many go unreported and the conviction rate in cast related crimes remains low hovering at just 26% showing widespread impunity for perpetrators every now and again stories emerge that shock India leading to plenty of hand ringing and talk of change without much change actually happening in 2019 in C A
group of upper cast men beat up a 21-year-old dallet man at a wedding so badly that he died N9 Days Later his crime simply eating food in their presence and the worst part due to the fear of reprisals not a single one of the hundreds of guests at the wedding would go on record about what had happened then there's the kangi massacre in 2006 where four dallet family members were brutally killed by uppercases In masarra This exposed Dee rooted cast violence in India then there's serea botm d woman known for asserting her rights who was
lynched with her children for intervening in a conflict and testifying against local men despite legal proceedings cast based motives were downplayed leading to commuted sentences from the death penalty to 25 years in prison for all those involved but the violence is not just physical there's also the constant grinding emotional and psychological violence of living under this oppressive system dalls are made to feel inferior every single day in ways that can cut far deeper than any physical wound imagine growing up in a world where you are constantly reminded that you are lesser than where you can't
touch certain people enter certain places or even drink from the same well as your neighbors this is starting to all sound a bit Jim Crow or South African apar well that's cuz it absolutely is however there's one significant difference this has been going on so much longer and has encompassed far more people for daret women the situation is even worse they are doubly oppressed first by the cast system and then by a patriarchal system that continues to shame India Dolly women are often targets of sexual violence assaulted by upper cast men who know they will
face no consequences reporting such violence often leads to further harassment or even death threats as the justice system offers little protection for daret women in 2022 in lenur District Two daret Sisters aged 15 and 17 were kidnapped from their home raped and left hanging from a tree now this story did cause a mighty uproar in India and the f following year two men were given life sentences for the crimes but this was only after some less than well- handled policing in the immediate aftermath in which the police tried to spin the story that the two
girls have been in relationships with the men it wasn't a good look and sadly one that dallat are used to the cumulative effect of this violence physical emotional and economic is devastating it creates a sense of hopelessness of being trapped in a world that refuses to see you as fully human for many dallet the idea of a better life is just nothing more than a fantasy they might be wondering if the car system was abolished in 1950 why hasn't life improved for Dallas and the truth is while the laws have changed Society hasn't in theory
India's Constitution grants dallard the same rights as everybody else and affirmative action policies are supposed to help them secure government jobs University placements and political representation but in practice these laws are often ignored or Twisted until they're just barely recognizable dallet can technically run for office but in many areas they're controlled by upper class Elites who hold the real power behind the scenes in local elections especially in rural regions Dall candidates are often placed as figureheads while the higher casts pull the strings even in villages where dallot are elected to positions of power they are
expected to bow to the will of upper casts or face violence India soaring economy has also largely left dallet behind while upper class communities have thrived in Industries like technology and finance dallet remain trapped in low wage menial jobs many are still trapped in bonded labor a form of modern slavery where families are forced to work for Generations to pay off debts that they can never truly repay and even when dads do manage to secure higher education or government jobs they often face discrimination at work what's worse the Deep seated of belief in cast Purity
hasn't disappeared over 50% of rural households still practice untouchability in some form refusing to share food water or social spaces with dalls this belief isn't just about social status it's about power for those at the top the cast system ensures they stay at the top for those at the bottom like the dallat any attempt to rise up is met with resistance and this is why progress has been agonizingly slow the car system is not just a set of rules you can tear up it is a mindset one that has been passed down through generations changing
laws is one thing but changing hearts and Minds that's another so is there any hope for the Dallas and the answer to that is it's complicated while the situation remains D for Millions there are signs of Hope especially among the younger Generations education has become a beacon of possibility for many doots more doots are attending universities becoming lawyers doctors and engineers and using their education to fight back against the system that oppressed them for so long people like bz Wilson born into a dallet family of Manuel scavengers who refused to accept his fate Wilson educated
himself and became an activist today leads national campaign to abolish manual Scavenging and improve the lives of Dallas across India his work has brought International attention to the horrors the dallot face and force the government to take some steps however small towards a addressing these injustices daret political activism is also on the rise movements like the dalet Panthers modeled after the Black Panthers in the United States of United dalls and other marginalized communities in fighting for social justice while these movements face incredible resistance they are starting to make their voices heard in India and the
rest of the world the internet has also become a tool of resistance many dlls social media platforms have allowed them to share their stories organize protests and challenge the narratives that have kept them in the shadows for so long Dall AC are using these platforms to build networks to demand Justice this is a new kind of fight one that relies not on the Goodwill of those in power but on the Collective Strength of the oppressed but let's not get carried away here for millions of dalls life is a Relentless cycle of poverty humiliation and violence
while incremental changes might happen the sheer numbers mean that the vast amount of dallad will experience the same life as their grandparents the car system while outlawed on paper still governs their every move they are born into a world that tells them they are less than human their value is determined not by what they do but by an ancient belief in their inherent impurity no matter how hard they work they remain trapped generations of doots have lived and died under this crushing weight the gleaming modern cities of India might Stand Tall but for the dallat
nothing has really changed their struggle is as old as the car system itself ancient pervasive inescapable for them the future looks disturbingly like the past
