Why was untouchability banned

Despite it being more than half a century since the anti-untouchability law came into existence, how is the practice still prevalent? In , Galanter acknowledged the difference between the existence of a law and the reality in practice. There is, of course, no exact correspondence between this higher law and the behaviour that it purports to regulate, nor even with the day-to-day operations of the magistrates, officials, lawyers and police who staff the lower levels of the legal system.

His observations are applicable even today. He asks :. In the end the question is that why do higher caste persons continue to practise untouchability, and discrimination in social, cultural, religious, political and economic spheres. Why do they resort to physical and other violence whenever the untouchables try to gain a lawful access to human rights and equal participation in social, political, cultural, religious and economic sphere of community life?

The reasons for the wide spread practice of untouchability, discrimination and atrocities as well as violent reaction by high caste persons are to be found in continuing belief and faith of the high caste Hindus in the sanctity of institution of caste system and untouchability. View the discussion thread. Skip to main content.

Untouchability in India: A Reading List. Galanter goes on to refine this definition: A … somewhat narrower sense of the term would include all instances in which a person was stigmatised as unclean or polluting or inferior because of his origin or membership in a particular group—ie, where he is subjected to invidious treatment because of difference in religion or membership of a lower or different caste.

Prashad writes: Only one community is made to bear the burden for the perversion of the polity in these and other tracts: the Muslims. As Galanter notes: Caste groups did enjoy active support of the courts in upholding their claims for precedence and exclusiveness. Indian Liberalism and the Question of Untouchability Vijay Prashad notes that in the s, members of the untouchable communities of Chuhra, Bhangi and Mehtar now known as Balmikis joined the chamar community in escaping caste oppression by converting, fleeing bonded labour and forming political associations.

But Thorat and Joshi have noted that: Although the practice of untouchability has been constitutionally banned since the passage of the Untouchability Offences Act of , it continues in certain forms not only in private social interactions, but also in the public sector. He asks : In the end the question is that why do higher caste persons continue to practise untouchability, and discrimination in social, cultural, religious, political and economic spheres.

More Image courtesy: Canva. Must Read. Feminism in the Last Decade: An Interactive. Building Blocks of Brahmanical Patriarchy. The Price of Development. Do water policies recognise the differential requirements and usages of water by women and the importance of adequate availability and accessibility? The State shall endeavour to secure, by suitable legislation or economic organisation or in any other way, to all workers, agricultural, industrial or otherwise, work, a living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities and, inparticular, the State shall endeavour to promote cottage industries on an individual or co-operative basis in rural areas.

The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India. Provision for free and compulsory education for children.

The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years. Promotion of educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections.

The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. Provided that the number of offices of chairpersons reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in the Panchayats at each level in any State shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of such offices in the Panchayats at each level as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the State or of the Scheduled Tribes in the State bears to the total population of the State:.

Provided further that not less than one-third of the total number of offices of Chairpersons in the Panchayats at each level shall be reserved for women:. Provided also that the number of offices reserved under this clause shall be allotted by rotation to different Panchayats at each level.

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