Untouchability

For other uses, see Untouchable (disambiguation).

Untouchability is the social practice of ostracizing a minority group by segregating them from the mainstream by social custom or legal mandate. The excluded group could be one that did not accept the norms of the excluding group and historically included foreigners, nomadic tribes, law-breakers and criminals and those suffering from a contagious disease such as Leprosy. This exclusion was a method of punishing law-breakers and also protected against contagion from strangers and the infected. A member of the excluded group is known as an untouchable.

The term is commonly associated with treatment of the Dalit communities, who are considered "polluting" among Hindus of India, Nepal and Bangladesh, but the term has been used for other groups as well, such as the Burakumin of Japan, Cagots in Europe, or the Al-Akhdam in Yemen. Untouchability has been made illegal in post-independence India, and Dalits substantially empowered, although some prejudice against them continues, especially in rural pockets dominated by certain other backward caste (OBC) groups.

Untouchability in South Asia

Untouchability is not merely the inability to touch a human being of another caste or sub-caste, it is an attitude on the part of a whole group of people that relates to a deeper psychological process of thought and belief, invisible to the naked eye, translated into various physical acts and behaviours, norms and practices.

Untouchability is prompted by the spirit of social exclusion and the belief in purity, contagion and self-righteousness that characterise certain societies. It is generally taken for granted that Dalits pollute people and are at the lowest end of the South Asian society. The jobs considered polluting and impure are expected to be done by Dalits, and many a times Dalits are known to have been prevented from engaging in any work other than removing human waste (known as “manual scavenging”), dragging away and skinning animal carcasses, tanning leather, making and fixing shoes, and washing clothes. They were supposed to reside outside the village so that their physical presence did not pollute the “main” village. Not only had they been restricted in terms of space, but their houses were inferior in quality and devoid of any facilities like water and electricity.The government of India has, however, introduced many measures like low cost or free housing and free electricity for those below the poverty line, to address these problems.

Untouchability is practised in a number of forms in rural India. At the village level Dalits are sometimes barred from using wells used by non-Dalits, forbidden from going to the barber shop and entering temples, while at the level of job recruitment and employment many Dalits are known to be paid less, ordered to do the most menial work, and rarely promoted, except in the government jobs reserved for them. Even at school, there have been instances of Dalit children being asked to clean toilets and to eat separately, although the government comes down heavily in these cases and punishes the offenders, as soon as these are highlighted by the alert Indian media.

Untouchables of Malabar, Kerala (1906)

Untouchability practices and discrimination

In the name of untouchability, Dalits face nearly 140 forms of work and descent-based discrimination at the hands of the dominant castes. Instances of this discrimination at different places and times included:

• Prohibition from eating with other caste members
• Provision of separate glasses for Dalits in village tea stalls
• Discriminatory seating arrangements and separate utensils in restaurants
• Segregation in seating and food arrangements in village functions and festivals
• Prohibition from entering into village temples
• Prohibition from wearing sandals or holding umbrellas in front of higher caste members
• Prohibition from entering other caste homes
• Prohibition from riding a bicycle inside the village
• Prohibition from using common village path
• Separate burial grounds
• No access to village’s common/public properties and resources (wells, ponds, temples, etc.)
• Segregation (separate seating area) of Dalit children in schools
• Sub-standard wages
• Bonded labour
• Social boycotts by other castes for refusing to perform their "duties"

Government action in India

The 1950 national constitution of India legally abolishes the practice of untouchability provides measures for positive discrimination in both educational institutions and public services for Dalits and other social groups who lie within the caste system. These are supplemented by official bodies such as the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Despite this, prejudice against Dalits and others still exists and has been evidenced by events such as the Kherlanji massacre.

Analogous systems of discrimination in other countries

Caste and analogous systems of social hierarchy operate across the world, not only in Asia and Africa but in Europe too , subjecting millions to exclusion, isolation and even mistreatment on the basis of being born into a certain caste or community. Though the communities themselves may be indistinguishable in appearance from others, unlike with race or ethnicity, socio-economic disparities are glaring, as are the peculiar forms of discrimination practiced against them. They are typically at the bottom of the social ladder in the societies where they live and are given the most menial and lowest paying jobs. It is approximated that around 250 – 300 million people across the world suffer from caste, or work and descent based discrimination, a form of discrimination that impinges on their civil, political, religious, socio-economic and cultural rights.

Common features seen in caste and analogous systems across the world include the following:

• Physical segregation
• Social segregation, including prohibition on inter-marriages.
• Assignment of traditional occupations, often being occupations associated with death or filth, coupled with restrictions on occupation mobility
• Pervasive debt bondage and poor remuneration
• High levels of illiteracy, poverty and landlessness as compared to other communities and groups.
• Impunity for perpetrators of crimes against excluded communities
• Use of degrading, contemptuous language to describe excluded communities, based on notions of civilisation and criminality, filth and cleanliness
• Greater exploitation of women by the dominant groups.

Below is a list of some communities in other countries around the world facing discrimination due to caste or some analogous social hierarchical system:

• Bangladesh: Mehtor community (traditionally sweepers and manual scavengers)
• Japan: Buraku community (at the bottom of the Japanese class system; traditionally viewed as filthy and/or non-human)
• Nepal: Dalit community (situation is essentially the same as that of Dalits in India)
• Nigeria: Osu community (traditionally the Osu people are ‘owned’ by deities and considered as outcaste, untouchable, and sub-human)
• Senegal: Neeno & Nyamakalaw communities (largely blacksmiths and leatherworkers, they are considered impure and face explicit segregation and exclusion)
• Sri Lanka: Rodi/Rodiya & Pallar/Paraiyar communities (these groups face discrimination in employment, practices of social distance, and denial of access to resources)

The voices has been raised by many countries to involve caste in the UN resolution against racism too.

Untouchable groups

• Dalit, in India and Nepal
• Al-Akhdam in Yemen
• Burakumin in Japan
• Baekjeong in Korea
• Cagots in France
• Vaqueiros de alzada in Spain
• Madhiban in Somalia
• Ragyabpa in Tibet (see Social classes of Tibet)

See also

• Caste
  • Balinese caste system
  • Caste system in India
  • Caste in Sri Lanka
  • Caste system in Africa
• Outcast (person)
• Homo sacer