In order to build a socially-inclusive Odia society, we must ensure the social inclusion of excluded communities such as the Dalits in all spheres of socio-political and socio-economic life. The first step in this regard is to fully identify the suffering of the people and have an openness to recognise the persistence of the issues in various forms and its ramifications in different spheres.
The fact is many people publicly denounce untouchability but privately practice it and the most shocking part is that many vested interest people are not ready to accept the ground reality and incidents happening in our day -to-day life. This sheer hypocrisy in the social life has a negative impact on our society in many ways.
There have been two approaches to fight these historical issues that have burdened our society for a long time and very negatively contributed to our overall social progress. The first is the socio-religious reform approach that has actively impacted our society till 1950 and the second is the constitutional approach that started with enforcement of anti untouchability laws. The socio-religious reform approach has taken a backseat with increasing influence of international human rights laws and constitutional provisions in a political democratic setup and governance system having dedicated institutional mechanisms with power and programmes for intervention that aims towards fully eradication of untouchability.
Historically, the painful struggle against social inequality in Odisha must recognize the early contributions made by Chaitanya, Balaram Das, BhimaBhoi, Sadhu Sunder Das and Madhusudan Das and many others who have attempted on their own way in shaping an inclusive Odisa society. Unfortunately literary discussion on social reforms especially referring to untouchability in India has very rarely acknowledged the inspiring local struggles before independence. We should not forget that the understanding of freedom during the struggle against feudalism and British imperialism was largely inclusive of social freedom. Our freedom fighters made an all-out effort to encompass the aspiration of people from all sections to build an egalitarian society that recognizes equality and dignity for all human beings.
Even before the commencement of the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955(PCR Act) based on Article -17 of the constitution , the pre- independence Odisha had the Odisha Removal of Civil Disability Act 1946 and Odisha Temple Entry Authorization Act 1948. So the fact is along with tradition of social reform movement the State of Odisha has also had a strong legal instrument but regrettably why the implementation of the law has been so weak and slow to abolish one the worst system against human dignity is not known. The post independent ruling class of Odisha must answer to this question how long it will take to ensure that a dignified social mobility of untouchable communities to all public places including temples become possible in the State. The two major Acts that govern the criminal justice administration against the practice of untouchability are The Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955 and The SCs and STs Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989 amendment 2015. The implementation of these two acts is being monitored by a dedicated Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of GOI and the SCs and STs Development Department in the State. The Ministry has been routinely making available grants to promote awareness about the anti-untouchability laws and sustain social awareness campaigns in public through engagement of media and civil society organisations. The other programme against untouchability is promoting inter –caste marriage among caste Hindus and Scheduled Castes. This inter caste –marriage has been suggested as a major process of intervention to build social inclusion by bringing so-called low caste closer to upper Hindu castes by a social bonding of marriage and blood relationship.
This has also been commonly suggested as a major solution by many reformers of Hindu society including Gandhi, Ambedkar and Sabarkar. However, they all have different views and contradictions on many other issues. Savarkar in his book on social thoughts having an article on abolition of caste has suggested seven principles including promotion of inter caste marriage and abolition of untouchability. Ambedkar also in his book Annihilation of Caste very well suggested a set of ideas including inter-caste marriage. In the later stage of his life Gandhi was attending only inter-caste –marriages to encourage the couple but the social reform process has been slowed down by post Gandhian followers. Many atheist-Marxist and progressive people in Odisha though they do not practice untouchability in their personal life and always insist on a class approach over caste but donot have a concrete joint programme against abolition of untouchability in the public sphere of the State.
The GOI has been supporting inter caste marriage by providing financial grants to encourage such couples in public and all district Collectors are instructed to felicitate such couples in public functions. But experience shows barring a few institutions such as AMOFOI there has been no such encouragement to such couples and in reality in majority of the cases such couples ran away for life without any social moral protection, shelter, or financial support from anywhere, even the local Government officials specially police who are supposed to protect them but unnecessarily make use of all the gaps in laws to harass them. The followers of Gandhi , Ambedkar and Savarkar never came together to the rescue of such couples; rather there are instances where casteist violence is being engineered to punish most of the caste bride or grooms belonging to low caste. It is good that the State Government has started a site SUMANGAL to facilitate early financial support to such couples but the Government has virtually no role to ensure the protection of such couples denouncing caste and untouchability in both their private and public life and by that building a caste neutral family and society in Odisha.
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