Discrimination based on caste status is a root cause of the high poverty levels that caste-affected people experience. Most Dalits, live below the poverty line, earn less than the minimum wage, have no access to education, experience segregation in access to housing and suffer from numerous diseases, not least because of lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation. This inequality is exacerbated by the lack of implementation of existing laws to protect the Dalits.
|
Household amenities (% population) |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
2001 |
2011 |
Variance 2011 |
|||||
|
Sl |
Amenity |
SC |
ST |
National |
SC |
ST |
National |
SC % |
ST% |
|
1 |
Concrete roof |
13.14 |
6.12 |
19.8 |
21.93 |
10.11 |
29.0 |
24% |
65% |
|
2 |
Tap drinking water |
32.17 |
20.04 |
36.7 |
41.28 |
24.44 |
43.5 |
5% |
44% |
|
3 |
Electricity access |
44.32 |
36.51 |
55.9 |
59.02 |
51.70 |
67.3 |
12% |
23% |
|
4 |
Toilet within the house |
23.7 |
17.00 |
36.4 |
33.86 |
22.64 |
47.0 |
28% |
52% |
|
5 |
LPG as cooking fuel |
7.95 |
5.38 |
17.5 |
16.92 |
9.26 |
28.5 |
41% |
68% |
|
6 |
Banking |
25.17 |
19.17 |
35.5 |
50.94 |
44.98 |
58.7 |
13% |
23% |
|
7 |
Telephone |
3.47 |
2.51 |
9.1 |
53.14 |
34.82 |
63.2 |
16% |
45% |
|
Source: Census of India 2011, House-listing data. |
|||||||||
Only three states (Andhra, Telengana and Karnataka) have passed the required legislation for proportionate budget spending for the Dalits and Adivasi, the SCSP and TSP respectively. Governance Accountability came to the conclusion that the amount denied to SCs from 2005 to 2009 amounts to US $20.8 billion and this means that annually around US$ 5.2 billion have been denied through non-implementation as per the policy requirements of the SCSP for SCs. The total plan expenditure of Union Budget 2012-13 for SCSP is US$ 79.80 billion and for TSP is US$ 74.22 billion. The allocation of US$ 43.42 billion is 14.7% of the budget as compared to the legitimate allocation of 24.4%. There is 9.3% allocation for SC development and 5.4% for ST development. For STs there is decrease of 0.1% .There is gap of US$ 29.81 billion for both communities. Spending on SCs and STs within the total budget of US $2981.5 billion, the share of both communities comes to only 3.9%.
|
Sl |
MEASURE (%) |
ST |
SC |
OBC |
Others |
India |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Under 5 malnutrition of children (weight for age) |
55 |
48 |
43 |
34 |
43 |
|
2 |
Children’s anaemia |
77 |
72 |
70 |
64 |
70 |
|
3 |
Women below 18.5 body mass index (BMI) |
47 |
41 |
36 |
29 |
36 |
|
4 |
Anaemia among women |
69 |
58 |
54 |
51 |
55 |
|
5 |
Men below 18.5 BMI |
41 |
39 |
35 |
29 |
34 |
|
National Family Health Survey 3 |
||||||
According to the NHRC statistics put together by K.B. Saxena, a former additional chief secretary of Bihar, 37% Dalits live below the poverty line, 54% are undernourished, 83 per 1,000 children born in a Dalit household die before their first birthday, 12% before their fifth birthday, and 45% remain illiterate. The data also shows that Dalits are prevented from entering the police station in 28% of Indian villages. Dalit children have been made to sit separately while eating in 39% government schools. Dalits do not get mail delivered to their homes in 24% of villages. They are denied access to water sources in 48% of our villages because untouchability remains a stark reality even though it was abolished in 1955.
Karnataka and Maharashtra had passed separate legislations abolishing “Devadasi” system, the practice still continued at several places as per the report of the National Commission for Women report which said that 250,000 Dalit girls were dedicated to temples in Karnataka-Maharashtra border.