🧾 Topic: Untouchability in Contemporary India

📌 Caste System

• Continues to be hereditary, hierarchical, endogamous, and linked to traditional occupations and social status.
• Despite modernization and legal reforms, caste-based divisions remain entrenched in society.

📌 Legal vs Reality

• Article 17 of the Constitution abolishes untouchability.
• However, it persists in both subtle (social exclusion) and overt (manual scavenging, segregation) forms.

📌 Job Discrimination

• 📚 Thorat & Newman Study:
  • Dalits and Adivasis are disproportionately found in informal, low-paid, stigmatized jobs.
  • Face discrimination in hiring, wages, and workplace dignity.
• 🚆 Example: Manual scavenging, particularly in Indian Railways, despite legal prohibition.

📌 Survey Data

• 📊 India Human Development Survey:
  • 30% rural and 20% urban households admit to practising untouchability.
  • Practiced not just by upper castes but also by dominant SC/OBC sub-castes.

📌 Forms of Social Exclusion

• 📚 Thorat & Joshi:
  • Denial of access to shared kitchens, utensils, or public/religious spaces.