• Dr. Balveer Singh Abhay

Dalit means ‘oppressed’. We are all aware of Mahatma Gandhi’s campaign against untouchability. Do you know that Dr B R Ambedkar, who headed the Drafting Committee for the Indian Constitution, was himself a Dalit? The influence of these two great people is evident in the Constitution of India and in a number of laws that have followed over the years. The main ones of these are listed here: • The Constitution of India forbids untouchability in Article 17, 1950; • The Untouchability Offences Act, 1955; • The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1976, and • The SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Other than these major legislations by Parliament, several state or local laws have been framed to combat the evils of the caste system; these include the tenancy laws to protect land rights and the temple entry laws, which opened temples to Dalits, who were earlier forbidden to enter these. Imagine your teacher telling you that you have to sit alone in a corner of the class every day and that however hard you study and however well you may score in the examinations, you will always fail. What kind of a system is that, you might ask. The caste system works somewhat like that.

Constitution , untouchability, Dalit, Hierarchy, Bonded Labour, Low Social Position

"Rights of the Dalits in Indian society", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 3, page no.48-56, March-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1803422.pdf

"Rights of the Dalits in Indian society", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 3, page no. pp48-56, March-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1803422.pdf