Book Review
Dalits in India: Search for Common Destiny
Author: Sukhadeo Thorat
Publication: Sage Publications, New Delhi
ISBN: 978-0-7619-3573
Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat has established himself as one of the pioneering economist working on the issues of discrimination and marginalization of the Dalits and Tribals in the varied economic spheres. His latest work Dalits in India: Search for Common Destiny is another important contribution in this field.
Dalits are the erstwhile untouchable caste or the current Scheduled Castes (SCs). These castes suffered perpetual social discrimination, economic exploitation and political marginalization. Acknowledging such grave injustice, many reformers, political activists and leaders waged relentless struggle for the empowerment of these deprived masses. As the result of many vibrant social movements, the independent nation-state in India has provided these castes multiple policies of affirmative action, special safeguards and other rights to overcome their depraved conditions.
Thorat’s Book analyzes the changes and impacts stimulated by state’s public policies on the conditions of the Dalits. He examines the current status of the Dalits especially in the last three decades by providing a vast statistical database on multiple indicators of growth. According to the author the main objective of this book is to present the economic and social status of SCs, to study the changes in their status with respect to important indicators of human development and to provide a policy direction for the empowerment of Dalits.
Thorat argues that the agricultural sector has remained discriminatory towards the Dalits. They consistently suffered discrimination with respect to land, labour and capital. Thorat presented a comprehensive data to show that a small section has access to land and a miniscule section cultivates it. However as the wage labourers they are almost twice to other social groups. He argues that there are discriminatory disparities which must be ended by a responsive policy framework. At the all India level the Dalits also remained poorer in comparison with other social groups. Thorat argues that the greater dependency of SCs on agriculture for livelihood, mainly as landless labours with low wage rates has created the condition for such chronic poverty. Such discriminatory disparities remained also in the educational sectors. Even though there is a significant rise in the literacy rate among the SC, their participation in elementary and higher education lagged behind significantly in comparison with the non-SC/ST counterparts. Further from his studies on the health status of the Dalits Thorat claims that the health conditions of the SCs is really poor and more deprived in comparison with other sections of the population. Almost on all the indicators of health, the SC suffers worst kind of inaccessibility with the basic health care facilities like maternity and immunisation.
The most significant part of Thorat’s book is his extensive study on the current nature of discrimination and widespread practice of untouchability in various spheres of public life. He argued that social discriminations like non-access to tea shops, denial of water facilities, denial of barber and washer men’s services, ban on marriage procession on roads, denial of right to seat with the upper caste and other such practices are still reluctantly observed in many states. Further, the labour market is also blotted with such practices through exclusion and discrimination in hiring, wage payments and as low as preventing Dalits from selling in local market.
On the positive side Thorat analyzes that the economic conditions of the Dalits have relatively improved in the government sectors because of the reservation policy. The percentage of employment of the SC employees in the government sector has increased in average up to seventeen percent. However, he explains that most of the SC representation in the government jobs is in the lower cadre groups of C and D and the quota policy in the A and B cadre jobs has not been implemented fairly. In his conclusion, Thorat projects the necessary framework of new policy imperatives to bring further empowerment among the Dalits. Apart from the existing system of reservation, the new policy must articulate the newer demands by the Dalits in the changed socio-economic milieu.
The book provides rich empirical evidences with insightful analysis on the status of Dalits in contemporary India. In the critical sphere, it lacks the theoretical objective for Dalit emancipation as it looks upon the state as the sole instrument for the welfare of the Dalits. However, this book stores valuable information necessary for the students, academicians and policy makers concerned with Dalits and their empowerment.
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