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Low Castes Languish at the Bottom of the Heap

by Bharat Dogra
***Discrimination forces low-caste and tribal people in India Into dangerous living and working conditions. And when development damages the environment, they are again the first to suffer.****
TRAVELLING with local activists In Orissa state, the tranquillity of paddy fields and coconut palms was rudely shattered by a violent confrontation on the road ahead A group of toughs had stopped a bus and was ■fragging out the passengers, beating therp with fists and leather belts. Some victims were bleeding: others were crying for help.
As our car sped to get help. ' arrying a few of the injured, an activist explained that the people being attacked were poor traditional fishers who had lodged a complaint in an effort to "protect their fishing rights In nearby Lake Chliika. Their assailants were among those who had been tempted by the prospect of cashing in on a large-scale high-tech prawn business proposed fot the area.
Villagers and activists say the Industrial prawn farming would disrupt the ecology of the area and threaten local incomes, And the prospect of higher cash earnings from prawn exports had increased** social tensions, as the attack on the road attested.
Economic deprivation Is often accompanied by environmental and social discrimination. Among the groups in India to have Suffered most from this trio of Injustices are the low. "scheduled" castes, called harmans and dalits For centuries they have languished at the bottom of an increasingly rigid caste system. In most villages they have least access to land, clean water and other resources. They generally do the dirtiest Jobs and live in a squalid, low lying corner of the village which is most at risk from flooding and water-borne diseases.
A study of harljans in Gujarat state found they had equal access to clean water in
only five out of 69 villages surveyed. In some cases, they were banned from touching water^used by higher castes. Hut no alternative sources were provided. The influence of higher casts on development projects has resulted In new sources of clean water and other benefits being diverted away from the scheduled castes, even when the schemes were Intended to
help th< poorest.
Dangerous and polluting industries are shifting to rural areas, away from offices that monitor pollution or working conditions. In all these industries. labourers tend to be from the scheduled castes, driven by lack of access to resources to accepting the most hazardous work. Labourers in stone quarries, in particular, suffer high levels of silicosis.
Injustices seen in the countryside are often reproduced in urban slums, whose residents tend to be migrants from the poorest parts of villages. They settle on land in the cities which Is not fit for habitation, such as the hut clusters of Jebangirpurl in Delhi, because none other Is available. During the monsoon, when the capital s middle classes welcome the cooler
temperatures the rain brings, slum areas are awash with mud and sewage.
Indias scheduled tribes often suffer even more than the harijans. They tend to live in remote areas, and their territory is frequently, chosen for mines, quarries, dams and tourism. The 1987-89 report of the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Tribes said that nearly 15 per cefit of tribal peoples had been displaced. '
"It is not now a question of just a few people being displaced.” the report said. "Instead entire villages, entire communities are being forced to leave their ancestral homes. They are obliged to roam about aimlessly in an unknown and strange world."
Tribal peoples rarely have legal documents to prove they own the land they farm, so they have difficulty winning compensation. And no provision is made for replacing the large portion of their livelihood that they traditionally derive from the forest.
A study of people displaced by the Ukai dam in Gujarat found that the Kathudia and Kotwalla tribes faced enormous problems because they were resettled in a deforested zone. Many tribal people, who had been self-sufficient farmers, end up as labourers in city slums, struggling to survive.
The government has introduced measure to protect the scheduled castes and tribes, but these are not always implemented. Some of these groups, however, are now be ginning to fight the injustices, and some — such as a movement In Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh — are linking their economic demands with de mands for environmental protection.
- PANOS