In Rajasthan’s Jalore, a 9-year-old Dalit boy was beaten to death by a teacher for reportedly touching his water pot. Following his murder, huge processions in support of the Brahmin teachers were observed in Jalore. In one of those Brahmin Sammelans, an IAS officer and a SP was seen attending it and even cheering in support of that teacher.
According to NCRB report, a crime against a Dalit is recorded every 18 minutes. Justice is not served in most of the cases. This is primarily because even in 2022, after implementation of caste-based reservations in public institutions for 75 years, SC and ST communities are still minorities in these institutions and in the affluent class.
About 41% of total wealth in India is owned by upper castes, who comprise only 18% of the Indian population. Brahmins who are 5% of the Indian population hold 34% Government jobs and the general category occupies 75.5% government jobs even after 50% reservations for SC, ST and OBC communities. SC and ST communities comprise about 25% of the Indian population but fail even to get represented in 15% of public institutions.
Reservations help include backward castes in the institutions where the upper castes dominate but do not totally succeed in bringing SC and ST at par with upper castes or even giving SC/ST communities the share of power and influence they deserve. This is because most sectors that are seen as white collar have been dominated by upper castes and will be so. Sectors like IT, Media, Electronics, Science, etc, will always be dominated by upper castes. Most of these sectors appeal to only the top 10% Indian populations which have negligible representation of SC and ST communities.
Blue collar sectors like Agriculture, Handicrafts, Vocational jobs, Handloom, etc, are the sectors where SC and ST people work. These sectors should be empowered so that they replace the existing white collar sectors and become white collar in the future. This can only happen when they receive importance in education. An India where more research happens on Agriculture than on how we can develop a new feature in a social media app; where more students are eager to study Agro-tech and Vocational skills over studying Computer Science in their college course. This is when Indians from SC and ST communities will get their deserved dignity as they already dominate these sectors.
To bring this revolution, the education system should be altered from secondary level. Agro-Science, Agro-Economics, Constitution and Vocational Skills should be made compulsory subjects in secondary level and they should exist as streams in the higher secondary level. Vocations should exist as college degrees and youth will take them up once they are given importance at school level. Following this, such sectors will also gain importance in Research and Industry.
This will ensure that more Dalits and Adivasis get educated and the sector where they already exist becomes the dominating sector in the country. This will be the fastest and the most revolutionary way of giving Dalits and Adivasis their place in the ruling class and even broadening the ruling class.