The Scavenger's Drum

Three days ago, I watch a television reporter stting on her haunches, patiently giving us a ground report on the day's events at the battlefield, AIIMS. No, she's not giving us an account of the body count inside the hospital but the 'determination and unmitigated commitment' of the striking medicos outside, in a tent. Despite the 'stubborn' attitude of the government and the refusal of the Prime Minister (don't you find that puzzling, dear viewer? shame on you for thinking the Prime Minister is not a tehsildar!) to come and talk to them.. It's now the turn of one of the medicos to speak, and the reporter, aware of the solemnity of the moment holds the mike as steadily as Barkha Dutt held the grieving, Kashmiri terror victim, and asks him, what do they want?

The substance, as I understood, of what he was trying to say was this: apart from the usual refrain that they would talk only to the Prime Minister (which rigid stance they seemed to have relaxed a little, the next day) and not to any underlings like Arjun Singh (who don't know their place), he made three other points. What were these?

One, he wanted the government to come clear on the latest proposal on reservations, if there was one (fair enough); and if there was one, it should be rolled back,
Two, when asked what if the seats were increased to accommodate students from the general category..he tried to explain to the reporter that given the infrastructure and the 'unsustainability' of the proposal (of the increase) he wasn't in favour of any increase,
Three, he wanted the government to undertake a review of all existing reservations and an appraisal of their efficiency..

I'll deal with the third point first: a review of the existing reservations would mean, given the context that the medicos are students of AIIMS, essentially a review of SC/ST reservations because there has been no provision for OBC reservations in Central Government run educational institutions until now.

So one goal of their fight for 'equality' is to secure a commitment to review SC/ST reservations in the light of experiences gained from fifty years of its existence?

So that's a primary goal : to question even the small efforts of positive discrimination made by the government and press for their repeal because, in their view, they have failed. (Yesterday I saw the same student, I think, repeat the outrageous demand on IBN-Live on a show hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai). I believe reservations (at the moment there is a backlog 22.5 lakhs unfilled jobs, reserved for the dalits in the central government and if you consider the figures from all the states the total backlog would touch a whopping 5 million) did not succeed to the extent envisaged only because the government did not try hard enough and civil society wasn't understanding enough . And the entrenched upper caste interest groups in the government were/are strong barriers to its success. But this commitment to promote dalit participation in national life is two decades older than our existence as an independent nation. It is one of the core values of our nationhood - without it, other ideals which hold our nation together become meaningless.

So that's their view- that caste based discrimination didn't/doesn't exist, that caste doesn't limit/restrict opportunities. And even if it did/does exist, caste shouldn't be given any weightage when admitting students into educational institutions.

Is that your opinion too educated, middle class India and all those signing petitions endorsing this idea of 'equality' that caste is irrelevant and it should be ignored ? Even when you consider a dalit applicant?

Let's consider this for a moment :' It became obvious during the conference that Indian diplomats, in their extreme activism to keep caste out of the final declaration of this world gathering and its work programme, not only brought the Indian government into high disrepute, but also brought down the moral standing of India before the eyes of the world. India lost any possibility of claiming to be a world leader in the promotion and protection of human rights until it changes its public position on the caste issue. The international conscience, which is being awakened to one of the cruellest forms of discrimination after many centuries of neglect, is naturally questioning the Indian stand and is asking "What kind of nation is this?"'

That was an observation of an NGO on what happened during the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance at Durban, in 2001, when the issue of Dalits came up. Here's another report. The Indian government did succed in keeping caste out of the agenda of the states meeting at the conference-but only by the skin of its teeth. But caste (and discrimination based on it) did make it to the agenda of the NGOs gathering which preceded the governmental conference.

And now caste discrimination, as directed against the Dalits, is on the watchlist of not just NGOs and human rights groups but also some governments and ordinary people, across the world. As the NGO says ' it is time the international community, particularly the human rights community, speaks with one voice in support of the Dalits and calls for a quickening of their liberation. It is also time to tell the Indian government: "Shame, shame." Likewise, it is also necessary to blame the United States and several European countries for their failure to support the cause of the Dalits. It is time as well to appreciate those countries which had the courage to support the Dalit issue despite heavy pressure not to do so. Above all, it is time to tell the United Nations, in particular Kofi Annan, the secretary-general, and Mary Robinson, the human rights commissioner, to show resoluteness and their proactive support for the cause of the Dalits. It is also time to remind everyone that history is in the making on this issue.'

Next time, the Indian government might not be so very lucky - going by the way it's trying its best not to displease some people fighting for 'equality', like one of the commenters on my previous post ('..truly a lallu') who observed that '.. and to be a bhangi one does not require any talents' implying a bhangi takes up scavenging only because he lacks talents and not because, as the section on Dalits in the declaration produced by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) at their forum-Caste and Discrimination Based on Occupation and Descent, before the WCAR says "(21) 'Untouchability' is a manifestation of caste based discrimination that labels people as "polluted" or "impure", thereby denying them entry into places of religious worship, assigning them menial and degrading work such as cleaning toilets, skinning and disposal of dead animals, digging graves and sweeping ' And another commenter (non obc voice) think they work as bhangis because that is their core competency- '...we are open to have reservations in you core competency areas like bhangis, barbers, chamars for the ppl...' And yet another keen observer: 'Btw, u have done quite a good research on these pages.. seems work of some Upper caste..May be some blood in your veins ;-) '

Yes, next time the Indian government will have to own up to not doing anything about a system that breeds prejudices like those that I cited above.

Are those, like the student I referred to in the beginning of this post, fighting for 'equality' aware of the implications of what they are saying? At least, think of all those visas to the U.S., and Australia and wherever that might suddenly disppear.

To conclude I'd like to quote from the AHRC report again :'A little more should be said of the Dalits' drum, however. This was at one time called derogatorily the "scavenger's drum." After days of working under the most savage of conditions, these people, the poorest people of India, used to create a short spell of humanity in their own ghetto by dancing to the tune of their drums. The drum, therefore, was the sound of the ghetto and the sound of people who were silenced through the cruellest of punishments and religious sanctions.'

Now, the 'scavenger's drum' is echoing around the world. Beware.