Marginalization in India

Raphaela Lin
ENG4USR
Mr. Andersen
Nov 30, 2014

The marginalization in India In recent years, marginalization in world trade has increased. However, the "marginalization" is not simply one thing or just one status, which is a growing problem in the world. It is perhaps the most dangerous form of oppression in the society and the society is potentially subjected to severe material deprivation. Therefore, the government needs to attach importance to marginalized groups. In the past twenty years, the caste system has caused social inequality and poverty in India. This situation still continues until now. In Varanasi, teachers and school staff use discriminatory practices against children from poor and marginalized sections of society, such as "Dalits". The caste system harms these Dalits children 's lives and their futures, which shows in these three specific problems that occur in Dalit children: lower level of social status, health and nutritional problems and oppression of education. To begin with, in India, the caste system is divided into five separate classes. The fifth group, also called "untouchable", is the lowest level in this system, and Dalits are a good example of this level. In some areas of the country, Dalits are not permitted to walk in daylight for their shadows were considered pollution. Even the Dalit children in school are marginalized by their teachers. In the Hindustan Times newspaper, Bajoria says, "In fact, the education officials do not have accurate records of students who have dropped out. In one case, I found 22 Dalit children from the Musahar community in a hamlet at Pindra in Varanasi had stopped going to school because of the prejudice they had faced"(Bajoria). And one of these 22 Dalit children also says, "The teacher always made us sit in one corner of the room, and would throw keys to us. We only got food if anything was left after the other children had been served. Once, the teacher hit a classmate so hard that she broke his hand. After this incident, all Musahar children stopped going to school"(Shyam).To illustrate, the discrimination and mistreatment of individuals of lower castes still occurs in India, which is harmful for the Dalit children, and other marginalized groups. Furthermore, the health and nutritional problem of Dalit children also needs to be worried about. In India, the caste system relegates Dalits, formerly known as 'untouchables ', to a life time of segregation and abuse. Hence, their effect is directly visible when it comes to early pregnancy, infant deaths, maternal death and so on. As the quote in the DNAINDIA, Soha says, "Discriminatory practices exercised by teachers against these Dalit children include corporal punishment, denial of access to school water and indirect discrimination, such as neglect, repeated blaming, and labelling of Dalit students as weak performers, exclusion from the Mid-Day Meal Scheme."(Soha) All of them lead the health and nutritional status of Dalit students in a harmful direction. Finally, the Dalit children also face a serious problem-their education. In India, illiteracy and school drop-out rates among Dalits are very high due to a number of social and physical factors. As a marginalized group, the Dalit children want to study and know more unknown things, because they want to change their life. They know this is the only way to solve their problem. However, the caste system causes people to care about their status all the time. The higher lever groups think that education can also be seen as a means of empowering socially and economically deprived groups into seeking political reform. According to the news from e-ir.info, Ambedkar says," I believe that the value of education is in the empowerment of Dalits to pursue political action for social reform through informed lobbying"(Ambedkar). From this quote, it shows that the government and the senior people put the education of Dalits down and marginalize them. They want to cut off any of opportunity that untouchables have to against rebel them. To summarize, the caste system is really destructive to the Indian society. The unequal society in India leads the Dalit children to lose their opportunities of development in the future. Because education is the key to freeing Dalit children from a life of poverty and oppression, the Indian government does not pay attention to it. Therefore, faced with this situation, the solution is that the Indian government must push up the development of education to include the remote regions. and volunteering organizations can donate money for the children, but the attitude of the government is the most important part to solve this problem. Anyway, international aid help would allow the Dalit children to continue their education without interruption and guarantee that these children will have the opportunity to compete in the growing Indian and global economies.

Work Cited
Erik, Fraser. The Dalits of India: Education and Development.
<http://www.e-ir.info/2010/06/23/the-dalits-of-india-education-and-deveplopment/> e-ir.info, Jun. 2010. web. 7 Nov 2014.

Soha, Moitra. How Dalits are victims of caste discrimination in Haryana 's Samalkha town. <http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/standpoint-how-dalits-are-victims-of-caste-discrimination-in-haryana-s-samalkha-town-2001998> DNAINDIA, Jul. 2014. web. 7 Nov 2014.

Vanita, Srivastava. Discriminated, Dalit kids turn dropouts: HRW.
<http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/1210953.aspx?s=p>
Hindustan Times, Nov. 2014. web. 7 Nov 2014.

Cited: Erik, Fraser. The Dalits of India: Education and Development. <http://www.e-ir.info/2010/06/23/the-dalits-of-india-education-and-deveplopment/> e-ir.info, Jun. 2010. web. 7 Nov 2014. Soha, Moitra. How Dalits are victims of caste discrimination in Haryana 's Samalkha town. <http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/standpoint-how-dalits-are-victims-of-caste-discrimination-in-haryana-s-samalkha-town-2001998> DNAINDIA, Jul. 2014. web. 7 Nov 2014. Vanita, Srivastava. Discriminated, Dalit kids turn dropouts: HRW. <http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/1210953.aspx?s=p> Hindustan Times, Nov. 2014. web. 7 Nov 2014.