For long, India has been the cauldron of casteism,
synonymous with sectarian injustice directed at a segment of the community
deemed “untouchables”, better known today as Dalits. Traditionally occupying
the bottom rungs of the caste hierarchy, the Dalits were inflicted with
all sorts of indignities and sufferings by the upper castes, their occupation
solely dealing with the filthiest of tasks- toilet cleaning and cremating the
dead.
Despite attaining Independence in 1947, and the
Constitution providing for reservations for Dalits in legislatures, government
jobs and education, leading to the emancipation of few of the oppressed, the
vast social divide continued. This deprived them of access to resources in
almost every sphere of civic, economic and political life.
The opening up of the Indian markets in 1991
after liberal economic reforms were initiated was perhaps a watershed moment
for the Dalits, who now had an opportunity to overcome traditional
barriers and explore other occupations. With the abolition of the
license–permit system, they now entered businesses prohibited previously,
ending the monopoly of the upper castes over resources and over knowledge.
Today,
there are millions of Dalits running their own businesses, with a few thousand
of them having successfully emerged as millionaires. Milind Kamble, Chairman of
DICCI attributes this change to Capitalism, stating that while the Dalits
remained in rural areas, they were unable to overcome the socio-cultural
hegemony of the upper castes. With them joining the modern markets undergoing
globalization, in which price and not the caste of a supplier mattered most,
the Dalits were able to overthrow the caste monopoly over business.
On
the lines of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI),
over 3000 Dalit businessmen have come together to create the Dalit Indian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI), signaling a social
transformation, with the Dalits as job-providers rather than job seekers.
A
report published by Cato Institute attributes this ‘Dalit
Revolution’ to the emergence of competitive markets, bringing in its wake
‘creative destruction’ of centuries old caste boundaries, stagnating their
community.
The
report mentions a study by Columbia University with the following results
recorded after initiation of economic liberalization:
- Between 2005-2011, the all-India poverty ratio declined by 15.7 percentage points(pp), but the poverty ratio of Dalits declined by 21.5pp, while that of scheduled tribes fell by 17.0 pp, with GDP growth rate averaging 8.5 percent per year.
- Also in the decade between 1993–94 and 2004–05, Dalit poverty declined by 9.6 pp against all-India decline of 8.0, with GDP growth slightly more than 6 percent per year.
In
their research paper -“Rethinking Inequality: Dalits in Uttar Pradesh in the
Market Reform Era,” Devesh Kapur, Lant Pritchett, and two Dalit
economists, Chandra Bhan Prasad and D Shyam Babu, have aimed at measuring the
social and economic progress of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh.
A
survey which sought to cover every single Dalit household in the two sub
districts – one in the relatively prosperous Khurja district in western part of
the state and the other sub district was in Bilariaganj district, in the
backward eastern part of the state showed the following results by way of
material improvements in their lives from 1990-2008:
(The numbers expressed are as percentage of the
Dalit population in the sub-districts surveyed)
Chandra Bhan Prasad, mentor and adviser to DICCI
was of the opinion that Dalits should not regard Capitalism as the tyranny of
the rich business castes, but view it as a wrecker of historical caste edicts,
and as a force behind all efforts to end caste oppression. Success in business
domains will go a long way in ensuring the Dalits their fair share of social
equality, wealth and power.
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