Who are Dalits?

I'm working at a vocational training center for Dalits. But who are Dalits, and why do they need vocational training?

India's caste system has been around for 3,000 years and is closely linked to Hindu religion and culture. Though many believe it disappeared when India gained freedom and became a democracy in 1947, anything that has 3,000 years of history behind it cannot disappear so easily. The basic idea of the caste system, rooted in certain Hindu religious texts, is that one is obligated to fulfill one's dharma (role, or responsibility) by practicing the customs of the caste into which one is born. It is sinful to strive to be more than what your caste mandates.

The highest caste is called Brahmin, comprising about three or four percent of the population and traditionally society's priests. They continue to be the most educated and wealthy caste, occupying, for example, about 75% of judicial positions. There are all kinds of intermediate castes of merchants, landowners and farmers, maintaining different degrees of status, and these castes compose the vast majority of India's population.

And then there are Dalits. Commonly called "untouchables" in the West, Dalits are considered the lowest rung on the ladder of India's caste system. Surveys put them at around 16% of India's total population, which would make them about 175,000,000 strong. India's Dalit population is larger than the total population of Japan, roughly half as large as America's population, and about five times as large as Canada's. My point is that there are many, many Dalits, and the conception of a "minority" has to be shifted into larger terms than are usually used.

The dharma of the Dalits is to perform occupations considered ritually impure, including leatherwork, weaving, dealing with dead animals, and human waste disposal. They are sometimes called "untouchables", because of the idea that they are unclean, unholy pariahs. These ideas give rise to the practice of untouchability, avoiding the presence of Dalits as if they had the plague, refusing, for example, to allow them to use a water glass also used by non-Dalits.

At one point or another in India's history, Dalits have been victims of probably every crime imaginable. Many of these crimes continue to be practiced. Even today, a Dalit risks being beaten or murdered for: drinking from the well of a non-Dalit and "polluting" the water with his or her presence, entering a Hindu temple, questioning the authority of higher-caste power figures, trying to change his or her occupation, and so on. Dalit children are often ridiculed at school, and therefore have a higher dropout rate. But Dalit women have it the worst. In some rural areas, they are expected to have sex with members of higher castes whenever the latter desire, or risk injury to themselves or their families. Dalit girls are sometimes sold into sexual slavery for use as prostitutes at a particular temple, "married" to that temple's god but forced to have sex with any temple visitors who so desire. Though technically illegal, these crimes are often tolerated with a shrug or a wink from higher-caste officials and police. This is all well-documented in India, but for some reason it hasn't gained much notice abroad.

Today, Dalits generally fare better in cities than in villages. Cities offer a degree of anonymity, and occupational opportunites are much greater. One teacher here told me that about 20% of Dalits are fairly comfortable financially, and probably nearly all of them live in cities. In villages, however, untouchability is still frequently practiced. In the past, even the shadow of a Dalit was considered impure. Today a major issue is water access. For example, if a village has only one well, Dalits have to rely on a "touchable" to get it for them. Another untouchability issue is temple access. Another big issue is if a Dalit and a "touchable" wish to get married. Even today, this can lead to the murder of the Dalit.

The organization I work with fights for Dalit rights in several ways. One is by registering and legally challenging Dalit human rights abuses and crimes. Another is by training young Dalits at this vocational training center. The idea is to get them a marketable skill, enabling them to escape their caste-mandated occupation and become self-sufficient. Many Dalits (perhaps up to 40 million) serve as bonded laborers constantly in debt, so self-sufficiency is crucial. The courses offered here are geared towards maximum marketability, and include tailoring, mobile phone repair, metal fabrication, furniture construction, videography and photography, and about 12 or 13 others. This center also serves to build the character and self-confidence of the students, allowing them to grow in an atmosphere totally free of discrimination.

One of the things emphasized here is Dalit unity. There are many Dalit subcastes, separating the weavers from the leather-workers from those who deal with sanitation. But the philosophy here is that the only way to overcome discrimination is to not discriminate against others. If a Dalit weaver complains of upper-caste discrimination but discriminates against other Dalits considered lower than he is, his complaints don't have much value.

I didn't know any of this stuff before coming to India, and I may have gotten a few points wrong, but I think the general ideas are all correct. Anyway, that's Dalit 101!