PGP-18-234 Individual Learning Paper – Sustainability & Distributive Justice Varun Singh

The deepest conundrum of my life – The irreversible tag of caste

Caste has always been an uneasy topic of discussion for me and I have consciously tried to avoid the topic of caste
and reservation in public spheres owing to the reason that I myself belong to one of the backward caste and even
though I have been lucky enough to not have to vest the positive affirmative action due to my father rising above
all this, I still have witnessed the discrimination even though its’ been subtle on most occasions. Having listened
many of the harrowing anecdotes my father had shared with me throughout his life, I can’t even begin to
apprehend how difficult it might’ve been for the population that makes up the Scheduled Castes and Tribes in
India. Having had my fair share of anecdotes that have left a bitter taste in my mouth ranging from being abused
through the words “Tumhari Caste ka kaam to doodh bechna hai na? Tu bhi jaa aur doodh bech!” while
studying in a Tier-1 Government Engineering college after having gained admission through the General Merit
route made me question whether I will ever be able to break through the shackles that my caste has put around
my identity. Coupled with this, the anecdote where, segregation based on caste that my father had to face while
he was pursuing Engineering from an IIT where a separate division/section was made for the OBC/SC/ST
students perhaps as a retaliation to the Mandal Commission ruling for the OBC reservation implementation in
higher education institutes across India. Having garnered admission in a supposedly elite-tier B-school in the
country on general merit has done little to change that perception as I could see a majority of my batch mates
seemingly oblivious of the actual ground reality of the issue of caste and rather have formed dogmatic views based
on manipulated data and extreme viewpoints spewed on social media. Everyone seems to have had their first tryst
with the issue of caste when they gave the respective entrance examinations and based their purported bias on the
fact that they had to score significantly higher than aspirants belonging to the backward castes and that they don’t
deserve their seats and that merit should be the only criteria could not be more wrong. All these factors have
inadvertently led to a growing disconnect between the reality of caste and what is being fed to everyone. Everyone
seems to be concerned about the discarding of the reservation system but no one ever talks about the
dismantling of the caste system itself.
So how did this entire issue rose to arguably be the most misunderstood thing by majority of the Indian diaspora.
The country's affirmative action plan was initiated in 1950 and is the oldest such programme in the world with
1
PGP-18-234 Individual Learning Paper – Sustainability & Distributive Justice Varun Singh

an aim to boost the social and educational status of underprivileged groups and thus improve their lives. It
was deemed important by the government of India to give aid to people who have been historically denied
access to social and economic assets so that they have a way to establish a livelihood. And over the years, the
categories for affirmative action, also known as positive discrimination, were extended beyond those to the
OBCs through Mandal Commission. The forefathers of modern independent India such as Dr. B.R Ambedkar
proposed and went through with this with good intent to bridge the gap and give equal opportunities to the
disadvantaged section of the society from where Jyotiba Phule and other visionaries came up. But the issue that
needed to be addressed through this was far more difficult. All upper castes needed to shed off their prejudice
and supposed birth rights that they were endowed with. This was something that was difficult to attain with just
positive discrimination especially in rural areas. In rural India, extremely inhumane practices of not giving access
to potable water through wells to the Shudra community/varna, no land holding was given to them leading
them into the vicious cycle of occupation where they were technically forced into the occupation of disposing off
waste, sweeping etc. and other lowly occupations like working as manual labor in the agricultural field and for the
unfortunate lowest of the lowest caste, the Bhangis were virtually forced into the occupation of disposing off
night soil which was illustrated painfully through the documentary shown to us during the sessions, Lesser
Humans. On a similar note, while researching on this topic, I came across another such unabashed documentary,
India Untouched which chronicled the rampant issue of Untouchability even in today’s world. Back at my
paternal village, even I had witnessed such divisive practices where separate schools were constructed and no child
from any of the Shudra caste can attend school with the upper caste kids. With lack of good teachers and non-
existent motivation from others, most of them drop out leading them back into the vicious cycle. This section of
the society is hungry for their upliftment but the legal provision is not enough, treating them equal and motivating
them holds the key for their holistic social upliftment.
Statistically speaking, almost half a century after the Indian Constitution mandated reservations for SCs and
Scheduled Tribes and a quarter century after the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, caste-based
reservations and caste inequality linger to remain contentious issues in the Indian polity sphere. For example, SCs
are stuck in deep distress and lag behind in ownership of productive resources in farming as shown,

In non-agricultural establishments, the ownership of SCs/STs and OBCs is lower than overall figures,
signifying that India’s socially deprived groups archetypally face greater barriers in the non-farm sector of the
economy. While a significant reason for this type of economic inequality could be lack of access to capital, a few
research put forth that social discrimination may be playing a part in deterring the entry of Dalits in certain
businesses. In a 2013 research paper [1], Smriti Sharma and Ashwini Deshpande at the DSE perused data from
2
PGP-18-234 Individual Learning Paper – Sustainability & Distributive Justice Varun Singh

the Indian MSME Survey to showcase that the share of SC-owned firms in the beverages and food category
was much lower than the overall national average and the average for other social sections of the society.

The authors also explained that in case of leather-related industries, SCs had a disproportionate ownership.
Even though the paper shows that these numbers have fallen down through the third and fourth census which
were conducted in 2001-02 and 2006-07, it also highlights that urban areas appear to display a higher level of
segregation than rural areas.
On the employment front, category wise break up of social sections provided through the 2011-12 NSSO
continues to point towards the glaring inequality in socio-economic status between SCs, STs and other castes.

The condensed data highlighted that Dalits were the least probable to start their own enterprises and
contrastingly, the most likely to pursue work as labourers for others, with the Scheduled Castes having the
highest share in casual labourer category and the lowest relative share in self-employed category. Drilling further
down in the employment front, data collection from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) provides

3
PGP-18-234 Individual Learning Paper – Sustainability & Distributive Justice Varun Singh

better clarity on the nature of employment of different caste sections where it can be seen non-Muslim upper
castes have a significantly higher share among the pool of white collar employees, while Adivasis and
Dalits have a much higher share amongst the unskilled workers while comparing to the OBCs.

Hence, even though OBCs and SCs might have an analogous share amongst the regular workers, the nature of
jobs SCs and STs are engaged in are qualitatively different.
Addressing the caste issue on an economic parameter, it’s not surprising to find that the poverty levels are highest
among STs and SCs. Almost half of the SC population goes to the poorest two quintiles established through
the consumption expenditure data. The figure for STs is same as that of SCs, as shown below in the chart

4
PGP-18-234 Individual Learning Paper – Sustainability & Distributive Justice Varun Singh

What I was able to infer from this set of data was the poor condition of Muslims on many of these indicators,
which has also been emphasized in official reports like that of the Sachar Committee. The prevailing framework
of caste-based affirmative action has been almost ineffective to Muslims, particularly the lower caste Muslims.
The statistics are also not adequate to actually predict and it is possible that the headline figures on STs might
be quite different from the condition of tribal population outside the states in the north-east as the relatively better
off ST population in the north-east are in contrast of the tribal population in regions especially in the states of
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are extremely backward and poor.

To make a deduction, these statistics underscore the need to adopt a nuanced view of inequality and caste based
discrimination in India. Even though the aggregate data for diverse social groups showcases the differences in
well-being of different social sections such as SC/ST and OBC from each other, there is presence of a significant
intra-group differences as well and it has been mentioned and underlined, the fact that while a section of OBCs
ties with the upper castes in terms of socio-economic indicators, there are several sections within the OBCs
whose socio-economic status are even worse than SCs.

In the business and social context of India, there is a need to approach this issue with an open mind and be
empathetic of the issues that the disadvantaged section of the society has had to face from time immemorial and
to understand that the positive discrimination was never intended for the economic upliftment of these sections
but rather for their social upliftment, to invoke a feeling of self-respect, a belief in their abilities. For this, a positive
reinforcement on the lines of American private higher education institutions are required in the private higher
education institutions and firms in India where this is currently being followed only for the government funded
institutions. As the majority of jobs and education opportunities lie in the private sector, unless such a directive is
not adopted by the business community, there will always be lack of representation and holistic upliftment across
all the social sections in India. Similarly, there is a growing onus on the current generation to break through the
caste barrier and marry across castes to significantly diminish this rigid and arcane system of caste.

In my personal capacity, being part of this system and belonging to a backward caste, I have followed through my
way of life where I have never differentiated between anyone based on caste or creed and the only thing I have
always kept in my mind is not to jump to conclusions as we do not know how difficult the life is/has been
for others, just because they are well off financially does not mean that they are not prone to prejudice and having
gone through a similar sort of discrimination has certainly led me to be more empathic towards this issue and I
aspire to be able to inspire and provide motivation and help fellow people belonging to the disadvantaged section
to rise as much as they aspire for as I firmly believe that,

Just because you are an athlete, who runs 100 m in 10 seconds and win a race, while a swimmer who
swims that exact 100m in 50 seconds and wins too, does not mean that the swimmer is not as good as
the athlete, the only difference are the circumstances, that’s all.

REFERENCES:

1. Deshpande, A., & Sharma, S. (2013). Entrepreneurship or survival? Caste and gender of small business in
India. Economic and Political Weekly, 38-49.
2. Deshpande, A., & Sharma, S. (2016). Disadvantage and discrimination in self-employment: caste gaps in
earnings in Indian small businesses. Small Business Economics, 46(2), 325-346.

5
PGP-18-234 Individual Learning Paper – Sustainability & Distributive Justice Varun Singh

3. Gupta, D. (2005). Caste and politics: Identity over system. Annu. Rev. Anthropol., 34, 409-427.
4. India Untouched - https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2255&v=lgDGmYdhZvU
5. Moffatt, M. (2015). An untouchable community in South India: Structure and consensus (Vol. 1375).
Princeton University Press.
6. https://www.quora.com/What-is-your-experience-as-a-general-category-candidate-in-
India/answer/Varun-Singh-Yadav-2
7. https://www.livemint.com/Politics/ino3tfMYVsd6VVGUdWXB8H/The-many-shades-of-caste-
inequality-in-India.html