Confronting Marginalisation and the Constitution

Confronting Marginalisation

• Marginalized groups have historically fought against inequality and discrimination using various strategies like religious solace, armed struggle, self-improvement, education, and economic uplift.
• The choice of struggle depends on the specific circumstances faced by the marginalized.
• Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims, women, and other marginalized groups assert equal rights as citizens in a democratic country and look to the Constitution to address their concerns.
• The Constitution of India is often invoked by marginalized groups during their struggles.
• Rights are translated into laws to protect groups from continued exploitation, and the government formulates policies to promote access to development for these groups.

Invoking Fundamental Rights

• The Constitution lays down the principles that make society democratic.
• Fundamental Rights are a crucial part of the Constitution and are equally available to all Indians.
• Marginalized groups use their Fundamental Rights to force the government to recognize injustices and enforce laws.
• Struggles of the marginalized have influenced the government to create new laws that align with the spirit of the Fundamental Rights.
• Article 17 of the Constitution abolishes untouchability, ensuring Dalits can access education, temples, and public facilities.
• Practicing untouchability is illegal and a punishable crime.
• Article 15 prohibits discrimination based on religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth, aiding Dalits in seeking equality.

Laws for the Marginalised

• Dalits can invoke Fundamental Rights when they believe they've been mistreated by an individual, community, or the government, demanding the government's adherence to the Constitution and justice.
• Minority groups also rely on Fundamental Rights, particularly the right to freedom of religion, culture, and education.
• Constitution grants cultural rights to cultural and religious groups like Muslims and Parsis, allowing them to preserve their culture.
• Cultural rights ensure cultural justice and prevent the culture of minority groups from being dominated or erased by the majority culture.
• Government makes laws to protect its citizens, especially the marginalized, and formulates specific policies and schemes through committees or surveys.
• State and central governments create specific schemes to implement the Constitution in tribal areas or areas with high Dalit populations.
• Government provides free or subsidized hostels for Dalit and Adivasi students to access educational facilities that aren't available in their localities.
• The government operates through laws like the reservation policy to end inequity in the system, which reserves seats in education and government employment for Dalits and Adivasis.
• The reservation policy addresses historical denial of opportunities to certain sections of the population.
• Governments across India and the central government maintain lists of Scheduled Castes (Dalits), Scheduled Tribes, and backward castes.
• Applicants for educational institutions and government posts must provide caste or tribe certificates to avail reservation benefits.
• Governments define cut-off marks for college admissions, especially in professional education, and offer scholarships for students from backward classes.

Protecting the Rights of Dalits and Adivasis

• The country has specific laws against the discrimination and exploitation of marginalized communities.
• In Jakmalgur a Dalit man named Rathnam refused to participate in a traditional ritual of washing the feet of priests because he did not have no faith in this practice and that his family members were forced to perform this ritual because they were Dalits which angered powerful castes within his village.
• After Rathnam’s defiance his community was ordered to ostracize him and his family, and when that did not work, his home was set on fire.
• Rathnam then filed a case with the local police station on the grounds of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) act of 1989.
• The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, offers legal support to Dalits and tribal groups against ill-treatment and humiliation.
• The Act was created in 1989 in response to demands made by Dalits and others that the government must take seriously the ill treatment and humiliation Dalits and tribal groups faced in an everyday sense.
• The Act addresses violence and aims to punish those who indulge in such acts.
• Adivasi people in the 1970s and 1980s also organized themselves and demanded equal rights and for their land and resources to be returned to them.
• For this reason, the Act lists crimes, modes of humiliation and lists actions that dispossess Dalits and Adivasis of their resources.
• The Act also recognizes that crimes against Dalit and tribal women are of a specific kind and, therefore, seeks to penalise anyone who assaults or uses force on any woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe with intent to dishonour her.

The Scourge of Manual Scavenging

• Manual scavenging involves removing human and animal waste from dry latrines using brooms and baskets, predominantly done by Dalit women and young girls.
• Safai Karamchari Andolan, reports that one lakh persons from Dalit communities are employed as manual scavengers who work in 26 lakh private and community dry latrines.
• Manual scavengers face subhuman conditions, serious health hazards, and low wages, with constant exposure to infections.
• The practice of untouchability has been abolished by the Indian Constitution, manual scavengers in places like Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu are still considered untouchable.
• The government passed the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act in 1993, prohibiting the employment of manual scavengers and construction of dry latrines.
• The petitioners complained that manual scavenging still existed and it continued in government undertakings like the railways and there fore sought enforcement of their Fundamental Rights.
• The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act came into force on 6 December 2013.

Adivasi Demands and the 1989 Act

• Adivasi activists use the 1989 Act to defend their right to occupy land that was traditionally theirs.
• Adivasis are often unwilling to move from their land and are forcibly displaced.
• Activists have asked that those who have forcibly encroached upon tribal lands should be punished under this law.
• C.K. Janu, an Adivasi activist, has pointed out that one of the violators of Constitutional rights guaranteed to tribal people are governments in the various states of India.
• Tribal people must be compensated, with the government drawing up plans and policies for them to live and work elsewhere..

Conclusion

• The right struggles for equality, dignity, and respect are ongoing processes in a democratic society that require struggle, writing, negotiation, and organizing.