Rohit Vemula, a PHD student was the victim of cast discrimination, forced him to take his own life.
Dalits in India: Battling oppression and discrimination even today Gandhi believed in raising the status of Dalit people while retaining elements of the traditional caste system while Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, who was himself a Dalit, believed that change can be brought about only by destroying the caste system. He demanded separate legal and constitutional recognition similar in status to that accorded to Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, which was not agreeable to The philosophy of caste is contained Gandhi. So, he gave up that demand and in the Manusmriti, a sacred Hindu text converted to Buddhism and many Dalits dating from the second century BCE. followed his footsteps. ‘Untouchable’ outcast communities were forbidden to join in the religious As per the 2011 National census, the total and social life of the community and female population of India stands at 58.7 were confined to menial tasks that were crore of which 16.68% are Dalit women. In viewed as polluting, such as animal India, Dalit and Adivasi women’s gender, slaughter, garbage picking, cleaning compounded with their caste, makes sewers and so on. Even in 2020, more them the most vulnerable to systemic and than 90%1 employees in sanitation and structural discrimination. The COVID-19 cleaning sector are Dalits. pandemic outbreak has created another layer of hardship for them. According to Two great leaders had two different the NCRB, 2018 every day 10 Dalit and approaches for their upliftment. Mahatma Adivasi women are raped and there is a Dalits are a class of people peculiar to India where the caste system is so stringent, it is being followed even in the 21st century. The term Dalit means ‘oppressed’, ‘broken’ or ‘scattered’ in Sanskrit and is used for people belonging to castes in India who have been subjected to untouchability. In legal and constitutional terms, Dalits are known in India as scheduled castes.
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