📖 PART 1: Invoking Fundamental Rights
AI PROMPT FOR IMAGE: An inspiring illustration of a Dalit activist confidently holding up the Indian Constitution book in one hand, while standing outside a court of law. It visualizes the power of using fundamental rights to demand equality.
The marginalised groups have long fought, protested, and struggled against being excluded. They use the Constitution of India to address their grievances.
- They draw on Fundamental Rights in two ways:
- By insisting on these rights, they force the government to recognize the injustice done to them.
- They insist that the government enforce these laws.
Key Articles for Equality
| Article | Provision and Importance for Marginalised |
|---|---|
| Article 15 | States that no citizen of India shall be discriminated against on the basis of horizontal factors (religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth). Used by Dalits to seek equality. |
| Article 17 | States that untouchability has been abolished. This means that no one can prevent Dalits from educating themselves, entering temples, or using public facilities. Practicing untouchability is a punishable crime. |
| Muslims & Parsis | They invoke the right to freedom of religion and cultural and educational rights to preserve their culture and establish their own educational institutions. |
⚖️ PART 2: Laws for the Marginalised
Beyond Fundamental Rights, the government makes specific laws to protect marginalized populations. The government attempts to promote social justice by providing specific policies.
Reservation Policy
This policy is based on the logic that in a society where sections of the population have been denied opportunities to learn and work for centuries, a democratic government must step in to provide them with extra assistance (a level playing field) to help them catch up.
🚫 PART 3: The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989
This powerful law was framed in 1989 to protect Dalits and Adivasis from everyday humiliation and physical violence.
- In the 1970s and 1980s, Adivasis aggressively demanded their right to land, and Dalits asserted their rights by refusing to do traditional degrading tasks. This assertion was met with severe violence by upper-caste landowners.
- Consequently, the government passed this Act to establish severe punishments for those who humiliated, abused, or assaulted SC/ST persons, or tried to dispossess them of their lands.
Manual Scavenging
AI PROMPT FOR IMAGE: A graphic showing a heavy iron manhole cover locked with a giant chain and padlock with a big red 'NO' sign. Represents the Supreme Court ban prohibiting the hazardous and degrading practice of manual scavenging.
Manual scavenging referring to the practice of removing human and animal waste/excreta using brooms, tin plates, and baskets from dry latrines. It is extremely hazardous and degrading, mostly forced upon Dalit women and young girls.
- In 1993, the government passed the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, banning the employment of manual scavengers as well as the construction of dry latrines.
🌲 PART 4: Adivasi Demands and the 1989 Act
The 1989 Act is also significant for Adivasis protesting for their rights.
- Adivasis point out that the Act merely confirms what has already been promised to them: the land belonging to tribal people cannot be sold to or bought by non-tribal people.
- They demand that if non-tribal timber merchants or paper mills have forcefully evicted them from their traditional forests, the government must restore their land, or compensate those who cannot return.
- The activists argue that the government must not spend vast sums of money building industrial/mining projects on Adivasi land at the cost of displacing them without rehabilitation.
📌 Chapter Summary
- Invoking the Constitution: Marginalised groups use Fundamental Rights (like Article 15 and 17) to demand equality and end discriminatory practices like untouchability.
- Reservation Policy: A critical step to provide extra assistance/quotas in education and employment so SCs/STs can achieve a level playing field after centuries of exclusion.
- The 1989 Act: (Prevention of Atrocities Act) was passed due to intense Dalit and Adivasi struggles. It guarantees severe punishments against humiliations, violence, and illegal land grabs by dominant groups.
- Manual Scavenging: Hazardous human waste cleaning, historically forced onto Dalits, is strictly prohibited by law to uphold human dignity.
- Adivasi Land Rights: Adivasi activists use the 1989 Act to demand that their historical forests not be stolen by powerful non-tribal industries, seeking restoration and justice.