Published: 5th Jan, 2023
Context
Despite outlawing caste-based discrimination in 1950, Dalits still get discriminated against when applying for programs such as microloan schemes which are actually established to help them.
About
Challenges faced by Dalit Women:
- Plethora of issues:Dalit women continue to suffer from a high degree of poverty, gender discrimination, caste discrimination, and socioeconomic deprivation.
- Violence: Girls face violence at a younger age and at a higher rate than women of other castes.
- Others
- Exploitation by dominant castes
- Lack of justice
- Workplace violence
How caste plays its role in occupation?
- Caste is essentially the stratification of peopleinto a rigid occupational hierarchy.
- Dalits who are the last in the list, often called "untouchables" are excluded from all jobs except the worst paid and most degrading — on the pretext of maintaining the spiritual purity of those in higher castes.
An attempt to help
- In India, microloan programs have been embraced as a poverty-reduction policy.
- Microloans are offered by for-profit, not-for-profit and government-owned banks.
- The Reserve Bank of India regulates the sector and acts as a guarantor of microloans given by banks under national government-sponsored poverty alleviation schemes.
- The Reserve Bank of India underwrites incentives including interest rates about half that offered to other women.
What are the problem with microloans?
- Poor implementation of microfinance programs
- lack of outcomes for Dalit women entrepreneurs in India
- Discrimination at the branch level
- Being humiliated when applying for a microloan — of help being refused when filling in a form, of being told not to sit on the same chairs as other bank customers, and of their application being rejected for no good reason.
How caste certificates ‘too’ creates hurdle?
- To qualify for a program to assist Dalits, they had to prove they're a Dalit by supplying a government-issued caste certificate.
- But this certificate then became the means for them be identified as Dalits and discriminated against.
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Extra information Unsung Dalit women heroes
Initiatives Taken to Promote Transformation
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