case study on caste discrimination in india

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Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation

• 4. Attitudes about caste

Table of Contents

• The dimensions of Hindu nationalism in India
• India’s Muslims express pride in being Indian while identifying communal tensions, desiring segregation
• Muslims, Hindus diverge over legacy of Partition
• Religious conversion in India
• Religion very important across India’s religious groups
• Near-universal belief in God, but wide variation in how God is perceived
• Across India’s religious groups, widespread sharing of beliefs, practices, values
• Religious identity in India: Hindus divided on whether belief in God is required to be a Hindu, but most say eating beef is disqualifying
• Sikhs are proud to be Punjabi and Indian
• 1. Religious freedom, discrimination and communal relations
• 2. Diversity and pluralism
• 3. Religious segregation
• 5. Religious identity
• 6. Nationalism and politics
• 7. Religious practices
• 8. Religion, family and children
• 9. Religious clothing and personal appearance
• 10. Religion and food
• 11. Religious beliefs
• 12. Beliefs about God
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix A: Methodology
• Appendix B: Index of religious segregation

The caste system has existed in some form in India for at least 3,000 years . It is a social hierarchy passed down through families, and it can dictate the professions a person can work in as well as aspects of their social lives, including whom they can marry. While the caste system originally was for Hindus, nearly all Indians today identify with a caste, regardless of their religion.

The survey finds that three-in-ten Indians (30%) identify themselves as members of General Category castes, a broad grouping at the top of India’s caste system that includes numerous hierarchies and sub-hierarchies. The highest caste within the General Category is Brahmin, historically the priests and other religious leaders who also served as educators. Just 4% of Indians today identify as Brahmin.

Most Indians say they are outside this General Category group, describing themselves as members of Scheduled Castes (often known as Dalits, or historically by the pejorative term “untouchables”), Scheduled Tribes or Other Backward Classes (including a small percentage who say they are part of Most Backward Classes).

Hindus mirror the general public in their caste composition. Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of Buddhists say they are Dalits, while about three-quarters of Jains identify as members of General Category castes. Muslims and Sikhs – like Jains – are more likely than Hindus to belong to General Category castes. And about a quarter of Christians belong to Scheduled Tribes, a far larger share than among any other religious community.

Caste segregation remains prevalent in India. For example, a substantial share of Brahmins say they would not be willing to accept a person who belongs to a Scheduled Caste as a neighbor. But most Indians do not feel there is a lot of caste discrimination in the country, and two-thirds of those who identify with Scheduled Castes or Tribes say there is  not widespread discrimination against their respective groups. This feeling may reflect personal experience: 82% of Indians say they have not personally faced discrimination based on their caste in the year prior to taking the survey.

Still, Indians conduct their social lives largely within caste hierarchies. A majority of Indians say that their close friends are mostly members of their own caste, including roughly one-quarter (24%) who say all their close friends are from their caste. And most people say it is very important to stop both men and women in their community from marrying into other castes, although this view varies widely by region. For example, roughly eight-in-ten Indians in the Central region (82%) say it is very important to stop inter-caste marriages for men, compared with just 35% in the South who feel strongly about stopping such marriages.

India’s religious groups vary in their caste composition

Most Indians (68%) identify themselves as members of lower castes, including 34% who are members of either Scheduled Castes (SCs) or Scheduled Tribes (STs) and 35% who are members of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) or Most Backward Classes. Three-in-ten Indians identify themselves as belonging to General Category castes, including 4% who say they are Brahmin, traditionally the priestly caste. 12

Hindu caste distribution roughly mirrors that of the population overall, but other religions differ considerably. For example, a majority of Jains (76%) are members of General Category castes, while nearly nine-in-ten Buddhists (89%) are Dalits. Muslims disproportionately identify with non-Brahmin General Castes (46%) or Other/Most Backward Classes (43%).

Caste classification is in part based on economic hierarchy, which continues today to some extent. Highly educated Indians are more likely than those with less education to be in the General Category, while those with no education are most likely to identify as OBC.

But financial hardship isn’t strongly correlated with caste identification. Respondents who say they were unable to afford food, housing or medical care at some point in the last year are only slightly more likely than others to say they are Scheduled Caste/Tribe (37% vs. 31%), and slightly less likely to say they are from General Category castes (27% vs. 33%).

The Central region of India stands out from other regions for having significantly more Indians who are members of Other Backward Classes or Most Backward Classes (51%) and the fewest from the General Category (17%). Within the Central region, a majority of the population in the state of Uttar Pradesh (57%) identifies as belonging to Other or Most Backward Classes.

Indians in lower castes largely do not perceive widespread discrimination against their groups

When asked if there is or is not “a lot of discrimination” against Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in India, most people say there isn’t a lot of caste discrimination. Fewer than one-quarter of Indians say they see evidence of widespread discrimination against Scheduled Castes (20%), Scheduled Tribes (19%) or Other Backward Classes (16%).

Generally, people belonging to lower castes share the perception that there isn’t widespread caste discrimination in India. For instance, just 13% of those who identify with OBCs say there is a lot of discrimination against Backward Classes. Members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes are slightly more likely than members of other castes to say there is a lot of caste discrimination against their groups – but, still, only about a quarter take this position.

Christians are more likely than other religious groups to say there is a lot of discrimination against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in India: About three-in-ten Christians say each group faces widespread discrimination, compared with about one-in-five or fewer among Hindus and other groups.

At least three-in-ten Indians in the Northeast and the South say there is a lot of discrimination against Scheduled Castes, although similar shares in the Northeast decline to answer these questions. Just 13% in the Central region say Scheduled Castes face widespread discrimination, and 7% say the same about OBCs.

Highly religious Indians – that is, those who say religion is very important in their lives – tend to see less evidence of discrimination against Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Meanwhile, those who have experienced recent financial hardship are more inclined to see widespread caste discrimination.

Most Indians do not have recent experience with caste discrimination

Not only do most Indians say that lower castes do not experience a lot of discrimination, but a strong majority (82%) say they have not personally felt caste discrimination in the past 12 months. While members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes are slightly more likely than members of other castes to say they have personally faced caste-based discrimination, fewer than one-in-five (17%) say they have experienced this in the last 12 months.

But caste-based discrimination is more commonly reported in some parts of the country. In the Northeast, for example, 38% of respondents who belong to Scheduled Castes say they have experienced discrimination because of their caste in the last 12 months, compared with 14% among members of Scheduled Castes in Eastern India.

Jains, the vast majority of whom are members of General Category castes, are less likely than other religious groups to say they have personally faced caste discrimination (3%). Meanwhile, Indians who indicate they have faced recent financial hardship are more likely than those who have not faced such hardship to report caste discrimination in the last year (20% vs. 10%).

Most Indians OK with Scheduled Caste neighbors

The vast majority of Indian adults say they would be willing to accept members of Scheduled Castes as neighbors. (This question was asked only of people who did not identify as members of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.)

Among those who received the question, large majorities of Christians (83%) and Sikhs (77%) say they would accept Dalit neighbors. But a substantial portion of Jains, most of whom identify as belonging to General Category castes, feel differently; about four-in-ten Jains (41%) say that they would not be willing to accept Dalits as neighbors. (Because more than nine-in-ten Buddhists say they are members of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, not enough Buddhists were asked this question to allow for separate analysis of their answers.)

About three-in-ten Brahmins (29%) say they would not be willing to accept members of Scheduled Castes as neighbors.

In most regions, at least two-thirds of people express willingness to accept Scheduled Caste neighbors. The Northeast, however, stands out, with roughly equal shares saying they would (41%) or would not (39%) be willing to accept Dalits as neighbors, although this region also has the highest share of respondents – 20% – who gave an unclear answer or declined to answer the question.

Indians who live in urban areas (78%) are more likely than rural Indians (69%) to say they would be willing to accept Scheduled Caste neighbors. And Indians with more education also are more likely to accept Dalit neighbors. Fully 77% of those with a college degree say they would be fine with neighbors from Scheduled Castes, while 68% of Indians with no formal education say the same.

Politically, those who have a favorable opinion of the BJP are somewhat less likely than those who have an unfavorable opinion of India’s ruling party to say they would accept Dalits as neighbors, although there is widespread acceptance across both groups (71% vs. 77%).

Indians generally do not have many close friends in different castes

Indians may be comfortable living in the same neighborhoods as people of different castes, but they tend to make close friends within their own caste. About one-quarter (24%) of Indians say all their close friends belong to their caste, and 46% say most of their friends are from their caste.

About three-quarters of Muslims and Sikhs say that all or most of their friends share their caste (76% and 74%, respectively). Christians and Buddhists – who disproportionately belong to lower castes – tend to have somewhat more mixed friend circles. Nearly four-in-ten Buddhists (39%) and a third of Christians (34%) say “some,” “hardly any” or “none” of their close friends share their caste background.

Members of OBCs are also somewhat more likely than other castes to have a mixed friend circle. About one-third of OBCs (32%) say no more than “some” of their friends are members of their caste, compared with roughly one-quarter of all other castes who say this.

Women, Indian adults without a college education and those who say religion is very important in their lives are more likely to say that all their close friends are of the same caste as them. And, regionally, 45% of Indians in the Northeast say all their friends are part of their caste, while in the South, fewer than one-in-five (17%) say the same.

Large shares of Indians say men, women should be stopped from marrying outside of their caste

As another measure of caste segregation, the survey asked respondents whether it is very important, somewhat important, not too important or not at all important to stop men and women in their community from marrying into another caste. Generally, Indians feel it is equally important to stop both men and women from marrying outside of their caste. Strong majorities of Indians say it is at least “somewhat” important to stop men (79%) and women (80%) from marrying into another caste, including at least six-in-ten who say it is “very” important to stop this from happening regardless of gender (62% for men and 64% for women).

Majorities of all the major caste groups say it is very important to prevent inter-caste marriages. Differences by religion are starker. While majorities of Hindus (64%) and Muslims (74%) say it is very important to prevent women from marrying across caste lines, fewer than half of Christians and Buddhists take that position.

Among Indians overall, those who say religion is very important in their lives are significantly more likely to feel it is necessary to stop members of their community from marrying into different castes. Two-thirds of Indian adults who say religion is very important to them (68%) also say it is very important to stop women from marrying into another caste; by contrast, among those who say religion is less important in their lives, 39% express the same view.

Regionally, in the Central part of the country, at least eight-in-ten adults say it is very important to stop both men and women from marrying members of different castes. By contrast, fewer people in the South (just over one-third) say stopping inter-caste marriage is a high priority. And those who live in rural areas of India are significantly more likely than urban dwellers to say it is very important to stop these marriages.

Older Indians and those without a college degree are more likely to oppose inter-caste marriage. And respondents with a favorable view of the BJP also are much more likely than others to oppose such marriages. For example, among Hindus, 69% of those who have a favorable view of BJP say it is very important to stop women in their community from marrying across caste lines, compared with 54% among those who have an unfavorable view of the party.

CORRECTION (August 2021): A previous version of this chapter contained an incorrect figure. The share of Indians who identify themselves as members of lower castes is 68%, not 69%.

• All survey respondents, regardless of religion, were asked, “Are you from a General Category, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Class?” By contrast, in the 2011 census of India, only Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists could be enumerated as members of Scheduled Castes, while Scheduled Tribes could include followers of all religions. General Category and Other Backward Classes were not measured in the census. A detailed analysis of differences between 2011 census data on caste and survey data can be found here . ↩

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Indian student's fight against caste discrimination raises Dalit hopes

Police try to stop people belonging to the Dalit community as they take part in a protest during a nationwide strike called by Dalit organisations, in Chandigarh, India, April 2, 2018. REUTERS/Ajay Verma TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

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Six decades after India banned caste-based discrimination, Dalit students say they face widespread bullying and mistreatment on campus

By Anuradha Nagaraj

CHENNAI, India, Nov 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Bullied by academic staff, barred from the university laboratory and even denied a chair, Deepa P. Mohanan despaired of ever being able to finish her PhD as a low-caste Indian woman. But then she decided to fight back.

Mohanan, who is researching on nanomedicine, became a poster girl for tens of thousands of fellow Dalit students when she went on hunger strike to protest discrimination and succeeded in winning reform pledges from university authorities.

"I desperately want to finish my PhD and realised that it would not be possible till I publicly called out the campus discrimination I had faced for years," Mohanan, 36, said in a phone interview from her home in Kottayam in southern India.

Mohanan ended her 11-day hunger strike earlier this month after the head of the Mahatma Gandhi university's International and Inter University Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology was dismissed following her complaints.

The university has also set up a committee under the vice chancellor to look into her accusations, which rights campaigners say reflect rampant discrimination against low-caste students on campuses across the nation of 1.3 billion people.

India's 200 million Dalits , who are on the lowest rung of an ancient caste hierarchy, still struggle to access education and jobs six decades after India banned caste-based discrimination and introduced minimum quotas to boost their representation.

"Caste discrimination is very prevalent on campuses ... classrooms have become terrible spaces," said Jenny Rowena, an English professor in Delhi University.

Rowena, who contributes to a YouTube Channel  documenting the experiences of Dalits   and other marginalised communities, said many Dalit students skip classes to avoid being humiliated or drop out altogether - exacerbating their under-representation.

Government higher education  data shows   enrollment of students from marginalised communities or low castes - known as schedule castes - in 2019-20 was 14.7% of all students aged 18-23, missing the mandated quota of 15% in many subject areas.

'EVERYDAY STRUGGLE'

Mohanan, who is researching on building wound-healing scaffolds using nanoparticles, was the only Dalit student in her batch of 100 when she joined her postgraduate programme.

A single mother, she is the first person in her family to go to university and pursue postgraduate research.

"Really, I wasn't expecting so much discrimination," said Mohanan, who prior to her hunger strike had made numerous complaints to the university and filed a legal complaint.

"It was finally spelt out in a conversation that if a Dalit student is favoured it will affect the discipline of the institution. I felt defeated at first but then resolved to fight," she said.

For many Dalit students, campus life is an everyday struggle, said Anuraji P.R., national vice-president of student body Bhim Army, which supported Mohanan's protest.

Many are failed in internal assessments and supervisors often refuse to be their guides for postdoctoral studies or question their abilities, said one postgraduate student, requesting anonymity as he was about to sit for exams.

Intake quotas for students from under-represented groups, including low-caste Indians, have fuelled discrimination, said C. Lakshmanan, a political science professor who is also national convener of the Dalit Intellectual Collective.

"Students coming in through reservation are seen as undeserving by their urban upper-class peers and teachers, who largely come from the same elite space. It is very unfortunate that a hunger strike is needed to fulfill an academic pursuit."

The University Grants Commission, which oversees higher education in India, wrote to institutions in September urging them to strictly prevent caste discrimination on campus.

It asked universities  to ensure complaint registers and websites are available to students and said a committee should be set up to look into them.

The Commission's chairman and secretary were not available for comment.

GASLIGHTING

Abeda Salim Tadvi, whose 26-year-old daughter Payal died by suicide in her college hostel room in May 2019, blames caste discrimination and bullying for her death.

A resident doctor at a Mumbai hospital, Payal was doing a master's in obstetrics and gynaecology, but faced daily abuse - from name-calling and being asked to sleep on the floor by roommates to being banned from attending important surgeries.

"The grief is still in my heart ... I am not able to shake it off," said Tadvi, recalling numerous conversations with her daughter about how she was being harassed by more senior student doctors.

"We tried ignoring it, complaining about it but in the end she could not deal with it. There was no mechanism on campus that reassured or supported her."

Tadvi, along with Radhika Vemula - whose son Rohith, a PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad, took his own life in 2016 and alluded to caste discrimination in a suicide note - have filed a petition in India's top court demanding action.

In their petition in the ingoing case, the two women said all universities and higher education institutions should establish equality units to ensure complaints about caste discrimination are addressed.

At the moment, there are rarely any consequences for college officials if a caste discrimination case is reported on their campus, said the women's lawyer, Disha Wadekar.

"The most common response to complaints is gaslighting, where students are told it's 'all in your head'," she said.

But Tadvi is hopeful that her case will bring some change.

"Students and parents should keep complaining because that's the only way to record the prevalence and highlight our fight," she said from her home in Jalgaon in Maharashtra state.

Mohanan said she also hoped her fight would help make student life easier for other Dalits.

"So many students from across India called me after I ended my strike saying they felt hopeful," she said.

"For them and for my daughter, I'm glad I spoke up."

Related stories:

Denied a chair, Dalit women confront discrimination on Indian village councils  

Rapes show double struggle of low-caste women in India 

Denied in life, India's lower-caste Dalits fight for land in death 

(Reporting by Anuradha Nagaraj @AnuraNagaraj; Editing by Helen Popper. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

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India's "Untouchables" Face Violence, Discrimination

More than 160 million people in India are considered "Untouchable"—people tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure, less than human.

More than 160 million people in India are considered "Untouchable"—people tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure, less than human.

Human rights abuses against these people, known as Dalits, are legion. A random sampling of headlines in mainstream Indian newspapers tells their story: "Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers"; "Dalit tortured by cops for three days"; "Dalit 'witch' paraded naked in Bihar"; "Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool"; "7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash"; "5 Dalits lynched in Haryana"; "Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked"; "Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits".

"Dalits are not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls," said Smita Narula, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch , and author of Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's "Untouchables." Human Rights Watch is a worldwide activist organization based in New York.

India's Untouchables are relegated to the lowest jobs, and live in constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded naked, beaten, and raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place. Merely walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense.

Nearly 90 percent of all the poor Indians and 95 percent of all the illiterate Indians are Dalits, according to figures presented at the International Dalit Conference that took place May 16 to 18 in Vancouver, Canada.

Crime Against Dalits

Statistics compiled by India's National Crime Records Bureau indicate that in the year 2000, the last year for which figures are available, 25,455 crimes were committed against Dalits. Every hour two Dalits are assaulted; every day three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and two Dalit homes are torched.

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No one believes these numbers are anywhere close to the reality of crimes committed against Dalits. Because the police, village councils, and government officials often support the caste system, which is based on the religious teachings of Hinduism, many crimes go unreported due to fear of reprisal, intimidation by police, inability to pay bribes demanded by police, or simply the knowledge that the police will do nothing.

"There have been large-scale abuses by the police, acting in collusion with upper castes, including raids, beatings in custody, failure to charge offenders or investigate reported crimes," said Narula.

That same year, 68,160 complaints were filed against the police for activities ranging from murder, torture, and collusion in acts of atrocity, to refusal to file a complaint. Sixty two percent of the cases were dismissed as unsubstantiated; 26 police officers were convicted in court.

Despite the fact that untouchability was officially banned when India adopted its constitution in 1950, discrimination against Dalits remained so pervasive that in 1989 the government passed legislation known as The Prevention of Atrocities Act. The act specifically made it illegal to parade people naked through the streets, force them to eat feces, take away their land, foul their water, interfere with their right to vote, and burn down their homes.

Since then, the violence has escalated, largely as a result of the emergence of a grassroots human rights movement among Dalits to demand their rights and resist the dictates of untouchability, said Narula.

Lack of Enforcement, Not Laws

Enforcement of laws designed to protect Dalits is lax if not non-existent in many regions of India. The practice of untouchability is strongest in rural areas, where 80 percent of the country's population resides. There, the underlying religious principles of Hinduism dominate.

Hindus believe a person is born into one of four castes based on karma and "purity"—how he or she lived their past lives. Those born as Brahmans are priests and teachers; Kshatriyas are rulers and soldiers; Vaisyas are merchants and traders; and Sudras are laborers. Within the four castes, there are thousands of sub-castes, defined by profession, region, dialect, and other factors.

Untouchables are literally outcastes; a fifth group that is so unworthy it doesn't fall within the caste system.

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Although based on religious principles practiced for some 1,500 years, the system persists today for economic as much as religious reasons.

Because they are considered impure from birth, Untouchables perform jobs that are traditionally considered "unclean" or exceedingly menial, and for very little pay. One million Dalits work as manual scavengers, cleaning latrines and sewers by hand and clearing away dead animals. Millions more are agricultural workers trapped in an inescapable cycle of extreme poverty, illiteracy, and oppression.

Although illegal, 40 million people in India, most of them Dalits, are bonded workers, many working to pay off debts that were incurred generations ago, according to a report by Human Rights Watch published in 1999. These people, 15 million of whom are children, work under slave-like conditions hauling rocks, or working in fields or factories for less than U.S. $1 day.

Crimes Against Women

Dalit women are particularly hard hit. They are frequently raped or beaten as a means of reprisal against male relatives who are thought to have committed some act worthy of upper-caste vengeance. They are also subject to arrest if they have male relatives hiding from the authorities.

A case reported in 1999 illustrates the toxic mix of gender and caste.

A 42-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped and then burnt alive after she, her husband, and two sons had been held in captivity and tortured for eight days. Her crime? Another son had eloped with the daughter of the higher-caste family doing the torturing. The local police knew the Dalit family was being held, but did nothing because of the higher-caste family's local influence.

There is very little recourse available to victims.

A report released by Amnesty International in 2001 found an "extremely high" number of sexual assaults on Dalit women, frequently perpetrated by landlords, upper-caste villagers, and police officers. The study estimates that only about 5 percent of attacks are registered, and that police officers dismissed at least 30 percent of rape complaints as false.

The study also found that the police routinely demand bribes, intimidate witnesses, cover up evidence, and beat up the women's husbands. Little or nothing is done to prevent attacks on rape victims by gangs of upper-caste villagers seeking to prevent a case from being pursued. Sometimes the policemen even join in, the study suggests. Rape victims have also been murdered. Such crimes often go unpunished.

Thousands of pre-teen Dalit girls are forced into prostitution under cover of a religious practice known as devadasis , which means "female servant of god." The girls are dedicated or "married" to a deity or a temple. Once dedicated, they are unable to marry, forced to have sex with upper-caste community members, and eventually sold to an urban brothel.

Resistance and Progress

Within India, grassroots efforts to change are emerging, despite retaliation and intimidation by local officials and upper-caste villagers. In some states, caste conflict has escalated to caste warfare, and militia-like vigilante groups have conducted raids on villages, burning homes, raping, and massacring the people. These raids are sometimes conducted with the tacit approval of the police.

In the province Bihar, local Dalits are retaliating, committing atrocities also. Non-aligned Dalits are frequently caught in the middle, victims of both groups.

"There is a growing grassroots movement of activists, trade unions, and other NGOs that are organizing to democratically and peacefully demand their rights, higher wages, and more equitable land distribution," said Narula. "There has been progress in terms of building a human rights movement within India, and in drawing international attention to the issue."

In August 2002, the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD) approved a resolution condemning caste or descent-based discrimination.

"But at the national level, very little is being done to implement or enforce the laws," said Narula.

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How India’s caste system limits diversity in science — in six charts

Data show how privileged groups still dominate many of the country’s elite research institutes.

By Ankur Paliwal

11 January 2023

Illustration by Polygon8

This article is part of a Nature series examining data on ethnic or racial diversity in science in different countries. See also: How UK science is failing Black researchers — in nine stark charts.

Samadhan is an outlier in his home village in western India. Last year, he became the first person from there to start a science PhD. Samadhan, a student in Maharashtra state, is an Adivasi or indigenous person — a member of one of the most marginalized and poorest communities in India.

For that reason, he doesn’t want to publicize his last name or institution, partly because he fears that doing so would bring his social status to the attention of a wider group of Indian scientists. “They’d know that I am from a lower category and will think that I have progressed because of [the] quota,” he says.

The quota Samadhan refers to is also known as a reservation policy: a form of affirmative action that was written into India’s constitution in 1950. Reservation policies aimed to uplift marginalized communities by allocating quotas for them in public-sector jobs and in education. Mirroring India’s caste system of social hierarchy, the most privileged castes dominated white-collar professions, including roles in science and technology. After many years, the Indian government settled on a 7.5% quota for Adivasis (referred to as ‘Scheduled Tribes’ in official records) and a 15% quota for another marginalized group, the Dalits (referred to in government records as ‘Scheduled Castes’, and formerly known by the dehumanizing term ‘untouchables’). These quotas — which apply to almost all Indian research institutes — roughly correspond to these communities’ representation in the population, according to the most recent census of 2011.

But the historically privileged castes — the ‘General’ category in government records — still dominate many of India’s elite research institutions. Above the level of PhD students, the representation of Adivasis and Dalits falls off a cliff. Less than 1% of professors come from these communities at the top-ranked institutes among the 23 that together are known as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), according to data provided to Nature under right-to-information requests (see ‘Diversity at top Indian institutions’; the figures are for 2020, the latest available at time of collection).

Diversity at top Indian institutions

Universities in India are failing to meet government quotas for marginalized communities in academia. The government provides detailed national figures for undergraduate and master’s students, but not for academic levels above those; Nature collated figures from right-to-information requests. These data show that the representation of marginalized castes and other groups falls at higher academic levels.

Nationwide figures

Top-ranked IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology)†

Assistant professor

Associate professor

PhD student

Career level

Undergrad (STEM)*

Government quota

(‘reservation’ policy)

Proportion of total (%)

*Science, technology, engineering and mathematics; government data 2019–20. †Data obtained from Nature information requests, 2020 (latest available at time of collection). PhD: IITs: Delhi, Bombay (Mumbai), Madras (Chennai), Kanpur, Kharaghur. All other career levels: IITs: Delhi, Bombay (Mumbai), Kanpur, Kharagpur. ‡Other Backward Classes. The Indian government refers to ‘Other Backward Classes’ as educationally and socially marginalized groups that are not Scheduled Castes (Dalit) or Scheduled Tribes (Adivasi). §‘General’ is the government term for all groups that are not OBC, Dalit or Adivasi: that is, historically privileged castes.

Top-ranked IITs

(Indian Institutes of Technology)†

“This is deliberate” on the part of institutes that “don’t want us to succeed”, says Ramesh Chandra, a Dalit, who retired as a senior professor at the University of Delhi last June. Researchers blame institute heads for not following the reservation policies, and the government for letting them off the hook.

Diversity gaps are common in science in many countries but they take different forms in each nation. The situation in India highlights how its caste system limits scientific opportunities for certain groups in a nation striving to become a global research leader.

India’s government publishes summary student data, but its figures for academic levels beyond this don’t allow analyses of scientists by caste and academic position, and most universities do not publish these data. In the past few years, however, journalists, student groups and researchers have been gathering diversity data using public-information laws, and arguing for change. Nature has used some of these figures, and its own information requests, to examine the diversity picture. Together, these data show that there are major gaps in diversity in Indian science institutions.

Early barriers

The challenge starts in schools and feeds through to university admissions. Adivasis and Dalits are under-represented in undergraduate science courses but not arts courses, higher-education survey data show (see ‘Undergraduate students in India’).

Undergraduate students in India

At undergraduate level, Adivasis and Dalits are under-represented in science courses but not arts courses (2019–20 government data).

Engineering

That is not because arts courses are more popular, but because teachers and mentors specializing in science are rare in the rural high schools attended by these students, especially Adivasis, says Sonajharia Minz, a computer scientist and vice-chancellor of Sido Kanhu Murmu University in Dumka, eastern India. (Minz is the second Adivasi woman to hold a vice-chancellorship in India.)

Sonajharia Minz (front right), an Adivasi, computer scientist and vice-chancellor of Sido Kanhu Murmu University in Dumka, says better support systems are needed for marginalized groups. Credit: Balkishor Tudu (BK)

Samadhan says that when he started a life-science bachelor’s degree in 2009, students from privileged castes often called him and other students from marginalized communities “free off” — a slur referring to students on government aid.

Another marginalized group, termed ‘other backward classes’ or OBCs, makes up around 44% of science students and 30% of medical students at the undergraduate level. India’s national proportion of OBCs is not known, because the country’s census does not count them. But a government household survey from 2006 suggests they make up around 41% of the population. (Reservation policies require academic institutions to have 27% of admissions or recruitments from OBCs.)

In 2012, Samadhan progressed to a master’s degree at a high-ranking university in western India. Student diversity at master’s level is slightly lower than at the undergraduate level, data show (see ‘Master’s students in India’).

Master’s students in India

At master’s level, the under-representation of marginalized castes or groups in Indian universities worsens slightly, compared with undergraduates (2019–20 government data).

During his master’s, Samadhan often considered dropping out because he felt intimidated by the English-speaking culture and intense coursework that he wasn’t used to. This is a common experience among students from underprivileged communities, says Akash Gautam, a Dalit and an assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of Hyderabad. “Many of them are first learners in their families. They need more time and support from the universities, which they don’t get.”

Akash Gautam, a Dalit and an assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of Hyderabad. Credit: Asiqul Ali

At the PhD level, the proportion of marginalized communities dips further — particularly at elite institutions. Data for PhD courses in 2020 at five high-ranked IITs, collected by Nature , show an average of 10% representation for Dalits and 2% for Adivasis — slightly lower than the average for five mid-ranking IITs. India’s top-ranked university, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, fares badly too (see ‘PhD students in India’).

PhD students in India

Data from a dozen Indian universities and institutes, sourced through information requests, show under-representation of marginalized castes in PhD programmes.

Government quota (‘reservation’ policy)

Top−ranked IITs‡

Mid-ranked IITs §

Banaras Hindu

University ¶

*Groups that are not Dalit, Advasi or OBC. †’Other backward classes’. ‡Delhi, Bombay (Mumbai), Madras (Chennai), Kanpur, Kharagpur. § Dhanbad, Patna, Guwahati, Ropar, and Goa. IIT Goa was created too recently to have an official ranking. || Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. ¶ Faculty of Science data shown. All data from Nature information requests, 2020 (latest available at time of collection), except for Patna, Goa and Guwahati from requests by the Egalitarians group.

“Let’s face it, a PhD is somewhat of an elite pursuit” requiring financial support from families, says an IIT Delhi assistant professor from a privileged caste, speaking on condition of anonymity. Students from marginalized castes also often lack the recommendation networks and interview training to get recruited to PhD programmes, the assistant professor says.

Even when they start a PhD, many still struggle to find a good mentor willing to take them on. It is “quite common” for privileged-caste professors not to supervise students from marginalized communities, says Kirpa Ram, who belongs to the OBC grouping and is an assistant professor of environmental sciences at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi.

Kirpa Ram, who belongs to the OBC group, is an environmental scientist at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. Credit: Kirpa Ram

An Adivasi PhD student from a science department at Delhi University, for instance, told Nature that in 2018, when she approached a privileged-caste professor to be her supervisor, he responded that she was a “quota candidate” and could find a supervisor anywhere.

Gautam and other scientists told Nature that sometimes privileged-caste professors don’t provide the extra mentoring that students from underprivileged backgrounds might need — leading some to quit before completing their PhDs. “It’s a tactic,” Gautam says.

Staffing fall

Very few doctoral students from marginalized castes reach staff positions in elite institutes (see ‘Faculty members in India’). At higher-tier IITs and the IISc, 98% of professors and more than 90% of assistant or associate professors are from privileged castes, Nature found. In the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), all professors are from the privileged castes, the data it provided to Nature suggest. TIFR belongs to a class of federally funded ‘Institutions of Excellence’ exempt from following reservation policies.

Faculty members in India

Data from 13 elite institutions in India show that a very low proportion of faculty members are from marginalized castes, especially at the assistant professor level and above.

Proportion of known ethnicities (%)

Top-ranked IITs‡

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Banaras Hindu University

(All departments)

Tata Institute of Fundamental

Research, Mumbai

*Groups that are not Dalit, Advasi or OBC. †’Other backward classes’. ‡Delhi, Bombay (Mumbai), Kanpur, Kharagpur. (IIT Madras didn’t provide faculty data). § Dhanbad, Patna, Guwahati, Varanasi, and Goa. IIT Goa was created too recently to have an official ranking. || Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. All data from Nature information requests, 2020 (latest available at time of collection), except for Patna, Goa and Guwahati from requests by the Egalitarians group.

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai

Banaras Hindu University (All departments)

Jawaharlal Nehru University,

Some premier institutes are doing a little better. At the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, a group of 38 labs, 18% of researchers (combining senior staff grades) were Dalits and 4% Adivasis, according to data Nature received from 31 of those labs.

Funding mismatch

Most of India’s research funders don’t disclose data on funding by caste, or don’t collect them in the first place. But the Department of Science and Technology (DST), one of India’s two main science-funding government agencies, did share data with Nature on postdoctoral researchers whom it had awarded INSPIRE Faculty Fellowships — positions aimed at supporting young talent, which represent an important but small part of the DST’s total funding. Between 2016 and 2020, 80% of recipients were from privileged castes, just 6% were Scheduled Castes (Dalits) and less than 1% Scheduled Tribes (Adivasis). The DST says the selection was “strictly based on merit”. Funding given by the DST’s Technology Development and Transfer Division showed a similar pattern (see ‘Diversity in India’s research funding’). In both cases, the DST didn’t share application success rates.

Diversity in India’s research funding

Data on two funding schemes, shared with Nature by India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) under information requests, suggest most money goes to researchers from privileged castes or groups.

INSPIRE faculty fellowship for postdoctoral research, 2016−20

DST Tech Development and Transfer Division grants 2016−20

In the past few years, groups of activists, students and researchers have been pushing institutions not only to follow quotas but also to better support researchers from underprivileged communities . “We are doing this to hold a mirror to these institutes to show how ugly they are,” says a spokesperson for Egalitarians , an organization that tries to collect and publish diversity data.

The issue is part of a wider recognition of how privileged-caste groups have been discriminating against marginalized communities — emboldened by India’s pro-Hindu prime minister Narendra Modi, say some academics who spoke to Nature but did not want their names on record.

Some minority religious groups in India, such as Muslims — who are present across a variety of social and caste divisions, including Dalits — also face structural inequities in society. According to the 2011 census, Muslims make up around 14% of the country’s population, but only 5.5% of those enrolled in higher education in 2019–20 were Muslims, survey data suggest.

Because no more detailed data were available, Nature asked IITs and other institutes for figures to do with Muslim representation. Most replied that they didn’t have the figures, but the sparse data that a few institutions shared suggest that Muslims are under-represented in elite academic institutes. In 2020, Muslims made up less than 5% of PhD students in IIT Madras in Chennai and less than 1% of science-teaching faculty in IIT Kharagpur; both are prestigious institutes. However, in IIT Dhanbad, a mid-ranking institute in a region where Muslims are not unusually numerous, 55% of PhD students were Muslims.

The rising criticism of under-representation and discrimination in academic institutions, particularly around caste, is prodding some institutes into action. India’s Ministry of Education, which didn’t respond to Nature ’s request for an interview, has several times since 2019 told federally funded institutes, including the IITs, to comply with reservation norms when recruiting teachers.

In 2019, Modi’s government expanded the reservation quotas by 10% to cover lower-income people not part of marginalized castes or groups, who would otherwise fall in the ‘General’ category; they would be categorized under ‘Economically Weaker Sections’ of society. The extension is controversial but, after legal challenges, was upheld in a November 2022 ruling by India’s Supreme Court.

Representatives at four IITs talked on record to Nature for this story; others didn’t respond. “Equating under-representation with discrimination is incorrect. There is no discrimination,” said Neela Nataraj, a mathematician and dean of faculty affairs at IIT Bombay in Mumbai. She accepted that the institute had a shortage of students and faculty members from some social categories, but said it was on a mission to improve representation through recruitment without compromising on quality, and through encouraging more students from under-represented communities to start PhDs. Angelie Multani, a professor of literature who was appointed in August 2022 as IIT Delhi’s first dean to increase diversity on campus, says the institute recognized that, like others, it had “under-representation of marginalized sections of society” and was working to improve the situation through measures such as hiring drives. And Amalendu Chandra, dean of faculty affairs at IIT Kanpur, says that the institute had offered appointments to 48 teachers from marginalized communities in the past year. (The institute has 413 faculty members, according to its website).

At IIT Goa, Amaldev Manuel, a computer scientist and chair of PhD admissions in 2022, noted that the institution’s acceptance rate for PhD applicants from marginalized communities was higher (at above 1%) than for the ‘general’ category (below 1%), even though it received fewer applications from people of less privileged castes.

Some researchers, such as Ramesh Chandra, doubt that diversity initiatives by institutions will make a big dent until India’s government takes action against institutes for violating reservation policies. “You have to take punitive action against the [institutes’] directors,” says Chandra. “Remove them.”

At the very least, says Ram, the government should require universities to publicly disclose diversity data and monitor compliance. And Minz thinks that for the situation to change, support systems need to be created at every step from school education to high-level recruitments in academia — such as training on grant-proposal-writing and communication skills for researchers recruited from marginalized communities. “The playing field is not equal at any stage,” she says.

For Samadhan, the marker of change would be more personal. “The day I would be able to say my full name without hesitation in an institute, I will feel that equality has arrived,” he says.

This article is also available as a pdf version .

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Caste Matters: Perceived Discrimination among Women in Rural India

Jasmine khubchandani.

a University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester

Nisha Fahey

Nitin raithatha.

b Pramukhswami Medical College, Karamsad, India

Anusha Prabhakaran

Nancy byatt, tiffany a moore simas, ajay phatak, milagros rosal, somashekhar nimbalkar, jeroan j allison.

To examine the relationship of caste and class with perceived discrimination among pregnant women from rural western India.

A cross-sectional survey was administered to 170 pregnant women in rural Gujarat, India, who were enrolled in a longitudinal cohort study. The Everyday Discrimination Scale and the Experiences of Discrimination questionnaires were used to assess perceived discrimination and response to discrimination. Based on self-report caste, women were classified into three categories with increasing historical disadvantage: General, Other Backward Castes (OBC), and Scheduled Caste or Tribes (SC/ST). Socioeconomic class was determined using the standardized Kuppuswamy scale. Regression models for count and binomial data were used to examine association of caste and class with experience of discrimination and response to discrimination.

68% of women experienced discrimination. After adjusting for confounders, there was a consistent trend and association of discrimination with caste but not class. In comparison to General Caste, lower caste (OBC, SC/ST) women were more likely to 1) experience discrimination (OBC OR: 2.2, SC/ST: 4.1; p-trend: 0.01), 2) have a greater perceived discrimination score (OBC IRR: 1.3, SC/ST: 1.5; p-trend: 0.07), 3) accept discrimination (OBC OR: 6.4, SC/ST: 7.6; p-trend: < 0.01), and 4) keep to herself about discrimination (OBC OR: 2.7, SC/ST: 3.6; p-trend: 0.04).

The differential experience of discrimination by lower caste pregnant women in comparison to upper caste pregnant women and their response to such experiences highlight the importance of studying discrimination to understand the root causes of existing caste-based disparities.

Introduction

Discrimination is unequal treatment based on social structures that allow one group to maintain power and privileges over others ( Krieger 1999 ). Perceived discrimination refers to distinct stressful life experiences of unfair treatment based on personal attributes such as race ( Banks et al. 2006 ). The impact of perceived discrimination has been studied extensively in the U.S., where racial and ethnic minorities experience greater discrimination and adverse health outcomes ( Pascoe and Smart Richman 2009 ; Williams and Mohammed 2009 ; Dolezsar et al. 2014 ; Schmitt et al. 2014 ). Similar to the U.S., where race significantly impacts socioeconomic status and health ( Kochhar and Fry 2014 ; CDC 2016 ), caste may be an important determinant of discrimination and health in India.

Caste in modern India is considerably different from its origins and is the basis for the current affirmative action program, called the Reservation system. An understanding of India’s caste system and its evolution over time is necessary for the examination of caste-based discrimination. Historically, an individual’s jati was determined by the occupation of the family into which he/she was born; it could, albeit rarely, change over time ( Vaid 2014 ). The term caste was introduced by a British ethnographer in 1901; while conducting a census of India, he consolidated more than 3,000 jatis into 7 castes and limited this classification to Hindus ( Risley, Herbert Hope 1901 ). Caste classification in post-colonial India includes religious minorities, is considered to be rigid except through marriage, and has four categories, in the order of increasing social disadvantage: General Caste, Other Backward Caste (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC), and Scheduled Tribe (ST). SC and ST castes are comprised of Dalit and Adivasi people, respectively ( Thomas et al. 2013 ; Lancet 2014 ). Dalit s were considered to be impure in ancient-Indian societies because their occupation involved butchering animals and disposing human waste. Dalits were prohibited from participating in Indian social life and were not to be touched, seen, or approached ( Chalam 2007 ). Adivasis are the indigenous population of India. Unlike Dalits , who lived in the vicinity of other people, Adivasis typically resided in forests and rarely interacted with other groups. The third disadvantaged caste, OBC, was established to classify groups that were socially, economically, and educationally disadvantaged ( Vaid 2014 ). Since its formation in 1955, OBC classification has further expanded to include additional disadvantaged castes in India ( Vaid 2014 ). General Caste includes all people who do not belong to any of the other three castes ( Deshpande 2003 ). 30.8% of India’s population belong to the General caste, 41.1% to OBC, and 28.2% to SC/ST ( Directorate of Census Operations Gujarat 2014 ).

Caste relations in India and race relations in the U.S., while not interchangeable, share similarities ( Slate 2011 ; Reddy 2016 ). Historically, Black Americans and SC are marginalized identities who are subjected to discriminative social norms ( Haynes and Alagaraja 2016 ). While discrimination based on caste is outlawed in India, 93% of people across Northern India, including law makers, reported that they believed atrocities were still committed on SC members ( Naval 2004 ). Of 565 villages studied across 11 states, 33% of villages have public health workers who refuse to enter SC people homes, 25% forbid SC milk buying, 73% do not allow SC to enter homes of other castes, and in 37.8% the children of SC families must sit separately in public schools ( Thomas et al. 2013 ). Moreover, education rates are much lower in SC communities and life expectancy is 4 years less than non- Dalits ( Thomas et al. 2013 ).

While the link between caste and poor health outcomes in India has been studied in the past, a PubMed search in July, 2017, using keywords “perceived discrimination” and “India” produced only six results. Of these, only two were based on research in India ( Kuhlmann et al. 2014 ; Zieger et al. 2016 ), and none investigated the relationship of caste and discrimination. Existing literature indicates that caste is one of the strongest determinants of reproductive and child health outcomes ( Sanneving et al. 2013 ). In rural India, the highest infant mortality is in SC and OBC communities ( Singh et al. 2013 ). Although the cause of such caste health disparities can be multifactorial, perceived discrimination may play a role. Results from discrimination research conducted outside of India have found that discrimination is associated with preterm birth and low birth weight ( Lauderdale 2006 ; Giurgescu et al. 2011 ; Earnshaw et al. 2013 ; Mendez et al. 2014 ). Further, a recent study found that women reporting experiencing perceived discrimination had higher late pregnancy evening cortisol and poorer self-rated health, and their infants had higher stress reactivity at six weeks old ( Thayer and Kuzawa 2015 ).

Considering the paucity of literature on perceived discrimination in India and the significant role caste plays in health and socioeconomic inequality in India, we sought to measure perceived discrimination among pregnant women from rural India. We focused on pregnant women because pregnancy is a time of increased medical care. Understanding the experiences of low caste women during this critical period may provide insight into caste-based disparities in maternal and child healthcare and outcomes. We hypothesized that lower caste women would experience greater perceived discrimination than women of upper caste regardless of socioeconomic class.

Setting and Study Design

Included data are a subset from a prospective cohort study conducted in Anand, Gujarat, India, studying the peripartum experience of rural Indian women and examine the association of their child’s growth with psychosocial, biomedical, and sociocultural factors (n = 220)( Soni et al. 2014 ). Gujarat is located in the western most region of India and Anand district is located in the center of Gujarat state. More than two-thirds (69.7%) of Anand’s population resides in rural villages ( Directorate of Census Operations Gujarat 2014 ).

Participant

Participants were recruited between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014 in one of two ways. First, all patients seen at the OB/Gyn outpatient clinic at the tertiary care Shree Krishna Hospital (SKH), for an initial obstetric visit were approached by research coordinators and screened for eligibility. Second, government-sponsored Accredited Social Health Activists, who are responsible for developing and maintaining a census of all pregnancies in rural India, referred all newly pregnant women from their villages to the research staff at SKH. Eligibility criteria included: age between18–40 years, fetal estimated gestational age between 10w0d – 13w6d, understand Gujarati language, and have no plan to move from Anand for two years. Exclusions were: multiple gestation, surrogate carrier, conceived using assisted reproductive technologies, and chronic health conditions. Of the 220 women enrolled in the cohort study, 170 women responded to the discrimination questionnaire (details in Figure 1 ) and were included in this analysis.

Participant flowchart for the prepartum timepoints of the prospective cohort study (right) and subsample for the discrimation study (left)

Data Sources

Standardized questionnaires, developed and validated by other studies were translated to Gujarati through professional translating services, and were administered by trained female research coordinators during the participant’s prenatal visits. Because these questionnaires were developed in markedly different communities than the study setting, we performed comprehensive cognitive response testing ( Sousa and Rojjanasrirat 2011 ), a process in which all questionnaires were administered to three volunteers from the community who were in the SKH waiting areas. Volunteers were asked to describe their understanding of each question and to note aspects that were difficult to follow or made them feel uncomfortable. Two bilingual investigators reviewed the feedback from the volunteers and made edits to the Gujarati forms to improve the cultural appropriateness and understandability, while maintaining the intent of the questions.

In our study, caste data was self-reported. We asked “What was your caste at birth?” The options given were General, OBC, SC, ST or other. Participants who reported their caste as ‘Other’, were asked to specify.

Socioeconomic class

We used the validated composite Kuppuswamy scale for classifying socioeconomic class by considering education level, household income, and husband’s occupation ( Sharma 2012 ). Based on the univariate distribution, upper and upper-middle class were combined into one category, lower middle class remained distinct, and upper-lower and lower class were combined into one category thus yielding a three category variable.

Perceived discrimination

The nine-item Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS) ( Williams et al. 1997 ) was used to quantify perceived discrimination. Response options included 0: Seldom (never/less than once a year), 1: Sometimes (a few times a year/a few times in a month), and 2: Often (at least once a week/almost everyday). Scores could range from 0 to 18 with a higher score representing greater perceived discrimination. The reliability of EDS measured using Cronbach’s α yielded a scale reliability coefficient of 0.93 in the study sample.

Response to experiences of perceived discrimination

Two questions from the Experience of Discrimination (EOD) questionnaire assessed participants’ response to unfair treatment ( Krieger et al. 2005 ). The first question asked if the respondent accepts unfair treatment as a fact of life or tries to do something about it. The second question asked whether the respondent, after being treated unfairly, talks to others about it or keeps the experience to herself.

Potential Confounders

Based on our a priori knowledge of factors affecting women’s experiences in rural Indian settings, we considered participants’ age, employment status, religion, and age difference of 5+ years with their spouse as potential confounders for the relationship of perceived discrimination with caste and socioeconomic class. These variables influence the frequency and scope of interactions for rural Indian women outside of their homes ( Jejeebhoy and Sathar 2001 ).

Statistical Analyses

Descriptive analyses were performed to evaluate differences in the distribution of age and socio-economic status characteristics of the participants across the three caste categories. Cuzick’s test for trends was used to assess statistically significant differences across the ordered groups ( Cuzick 1985 ). The association of perceived discrimination and caste and class were evaluated using zero inflated negative binomial regression on the aggregate everyday discrimination score. Zero inflated negative binomial modeling was chosen over Poisson and negative binomial regression methods, because empirical distribution of the outcome data demonstrated over-dispersion and over-representation of zero. This modeling approach yields two separate effect estimates in the form of exponentiated beta coefficients with 95% confidence intervals: 1) odds ratio of reporting zero as an outcome and 2) incidence rate ratio, which are interpreted as count multipliers for the odds of reporting an increasing number of discrimination score. We built three separate models to examine the association of discrimination with caste and class: first model only included caste as an explanatory variable, second model only included class as an explanatory variable, and the third model included caste, class, and analytically selected confounders i.e. age and age difference with spouse. The confounders for third models were included if they produced a 10% or greater change in the effect estimates of any categories of caste and class. The association of caste and class with responses to discrimination was assessed using logistical regression models. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was calculated for two separate models for caste and class, and for a third multivariable model that included both caste and class in addition to other confounders. In addition to 95% confidence intervals, statistical significance was assessed for trends across all models by using an observation-weighted linear polynomial test ( Mitchell 2012 ). We were unable to test statistical interactions due to sparse data issues in certain interaction terms such as SC/ST participants in upper class and vice-versa.

Of the 170 participants included in the analyses, 50 (29.4%) were of General Caste, 99 (58.2%) were of OBC, and 21 (12.4%) self-reported their caste as SC/ST ( Table 1 ). On average, participants from lower castes were younger than General Caste women. Nearly an equal number of participants belonged to the three categories of class. Caste was closely associated with class, as well as education, income, and occupation. There was no discernible association between caste and working status, religion, or five years or greater age difference with spouse.

Characteristics of Indian Women Who Responded to Discrimination Questionnaire at Shree Krishna Hospital in 2014

OBC: Other Backward Caste; SC: Scheduled Caste; ST: Scheduled Tribe; Pro.: Professional; NS: not significant (> 0.05)

115 (67.6%) participants reported experiencing at least some level of discrimination on the EDS. The average discrimination score was 1.5 (SD: 2.7) for General Caste women, 3.2 (SD: 3.4) for OBC women, and 4.3 (SD: 3.9) for SC/ST women (p < 0.001). Results from zero-inflated negative binomial regression models are reported in Table 2 . After adjusting for confounders, OBC women were twice as likely and SC/ST women were four times more likely than women of General Caste to report ever experiencing discrimination (p-value for trend = 0.01). By contrast there was no significant trend for increased odds of experiencing discrimination by women of lower socioeconomic class compared to those of upper socioeconomic class. Lower caste women had a 30% (OBC) and 50% (SC/ST) higher discrimination score in comparison to women of General Caste (p = 0.07). No discernible associations or trends were observed across different socioeconomic class categories with the sole exception of lower class women experiencing a 2.2 times greater odds of experiencing discrimination (95% confidence interval: 0.9 to 4.9).

Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial Regression Models for the Association between Perceived Discrimination and Caste and Class.

Table 3 reports results from unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models that examined the association between caste, socioeconomic class, and responding to experiences of discrimination. After accounting for confounders, women of lower castes were consistently more likely to accept unfair treatment as a fact of life (p-trend < 0.01) and keep to themselves about it (p-trend= 0.04), compared to women of General Caste. Although lower class women were twice as likely to accept unfair treatment as fact of life (unadjusted OR: 2.4; 95% confidence interval: 1.1 to 5.3) than upper class women, this association disappeared after accounting for caste and other confounders. Similarly, there are no consistent trends across the socio-economic status categories for response to experiencing discrimination.

Results of Logistic Regression Models for Responses of Pregnant Women at Shree Krishna Hospital to Experience of Discrimination Questions: “If you have been treated unfairly do you usually:”

In our study, we found nearly two of three participants had experienced discrimination. We found a strong association between caste with ever experiencing discrimination and the intensity of discrimination. We also found that women of disadvantaged castes were substantially more likely to accept unfair treatment as a fact of life and keep to themselves about unfair treatment. These findings persisted even after accounting for socio-economic status and other possible confounders. By contrast, we did not find a strong or consistent link between socioeconomic class and perceived discrimination or response to unfair treatment. These findings underscore the significant role caste continues to play in the day-to-day lives and interpersonal interactions of Indian women regardless of their socioeconomic class.

The complex sociocultural construct of the caste system in India plays a crucial role in discrimination. ( Deshpande 2003 ; Borooah 2005 ). As our results indicate, lower caste women are not only more likely to experience discrimination, but they are more likely to accept unequal treatment as a fact of life. Therefore, the lower caste women in our study appear to experience discrimination that is unacknowledged. This response to experiences of caste-related discrimination can be understood by learned helplessness theory, a process by which people exposed to uncontrollable situations learn that the outcomes of the situation are independent of their actions ( Abramson et al. 1978 ). Such individuals believe that either they inherently lack the ability to control external circumstances (personal helplessness) or that the circumstances simply cannot be changed (universal helplessness). Those with personal helplessness have internal attribution and tend to fair worse in difficult situations, as they believe their actions will not make a difference. This apathy can lead to self-destructive thoughts and further impact maternal and child health ( Tsirigotis et al. 2013 , 2014 ). Our finding that SC/ST women were nearly eight times more likely to accept unequal treatment and three times more likely to not discuss their unfair experiences with others suggests that they may be at higher risk for developing attribution styles that further limit their ability to respond to discrimination. More studies are needed to understand how the development of attribution styles among low caste people is affected by their lifelong experience of being underprivileged and its related psychological and mental health cost.

Our finding that perceived discrimination is associated with caste but not socioeconomic class has important implications for the study of health inequalities in India at a broader level. Our results challenge the commonly made assumption that caste is a proxy for socioeconomic class and poverty when investigating health outcomes ( Nayar 2007 ; Fenske et al. 2013 ). Although caste is closely linked with socioeconomic class, assuming that caste and socioeconomic class are interchangeable conflates these two important determinants of health and may masquerade the unique short and long-term risks experienced by lower caste people. Specifically, unlike class, which can change over a person’s lifetime if not across generations, caste is intransigent and therefore carries a lifelong burden of being underprivileged and its related psychological and mental health cost. Another important consideration for disentangling the differential association of caste and class with perceived discrimination is its implications for our understanding of the role caste plays in modern India. According to the Indian government, the sole purpose of caste classification in India is to accommodate the administration of the Reservation system, wherein education, employment, and social services are reserved in a predetermined quota for low-caste people ( Vaid 2014 ). Our results suggests that caste based discrimination continues to persist in India and caste is a construct that may have a prominent role in the social fabric of modern India.

Our findings are based on a sample of pregnant women from a rural western Indian community and generalizations for the broader population should be made with caution. Our strategy to leverage local health workers’ presence in the community to recruit all newly pregnant women from the surrounding villages and providing free healthcare helps overcome barriers faced by lower caste and social class women. During pregnancy, women receive increased support and enjoy societal privileges compared to non-pregnant times. Therefore, it is possible that our findings underreport the extent of discrimination faced by rural Indian women who are not pregnant. If underreporting occurred, women of lower caste, who tend to be less likely to vocalize their complaints due to a more stringent upbringing, are more likely to underreport than upper caste women ( Inman et al. 2015 ). Therefore, our results may underestimate the association of caste and discrimination. Nevertheless, this approach allows us to better understand the circumstances of a specific population at high risk for adverse health outcomes. EDS aggregate scores do not support analysis of the separate types of experiences that may lead to discrimination. Small sample size limits point estimate precision and precluded our ability to examine interaction terms. Future studies should investigate how intensities of discriminatory experiences varies for people of different caste and class and whether or not there is differential amounts discrimination experienced by people who are of low caste and upper class in comparison this to those of low caste and lower caste.

In conclusion, caste but not socioeconomic class is closely linked with perceived discrimination among pregnant women in rural India and their responses to unfair treatment. Given that 1) India’s maternal and child health outcomes are among the world’s worst, 2) India has one of the largest gender gaps globally, and 3) these pitfalls disproportionately impact those of lower caste, it is necessary to understand the experiences of low caste, pregnant women and identify opportunities for empowering low caste women to more effectively deal with unfair treatment as well as sensitize healthcare providers, particularly those who care for mothers and children, to the discriminatory experiences of low-caste women.

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to Dr. Deborah Plummer for her thoughtful comments on understanding discrimination within the context of historically disenfranchised populations.

Funding: This study was supported by 2013 University of Massachusetts Medical School Office of Global Health Pilot Project Grant. Contribution by co-authors was partially supported by TL1-TR001454 (to A.S.) and KL2TR000160 (to N.B.) from National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, P60-MD006912-05 (to J.A.) from National Institute on Minority Health and Disparities, and Joy McCann Endowment (to T.M.S.). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute if Health.

Ethical approval:

Consent for participation was obtained by trained interviewers prior to enrollment. Interviewers read the consent to participants in Gujarati, shared a single-page fact sheet about the study with them, and answered questions. Willing participants were asked to sign a separate consent form and a copy of the form was provided to the participants. Human Research Ethics Committee of HM Patel Center for Medical Care and Education at SKH reviewed the study and approved it. University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) Institutional Review Board reviewed the study and exempted it because of the approval by a local ethics committee in India and the absence of interaction of UMMS researchers with study participants or their identified data. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of Interest

Jasmine Khubchandani, Apurv Soni, Nisha Fahey, Nitin Raithatha, Anusha Prabhakaran, Nancy Byatt, Tiffany A Moore Simas, Ajay Phatak, Milagros Rosal, Somashekhar Nimbalkar, and Jeroan J Allison report no conflict of interest.

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Survey at an IIT Campus Shows How Caste Affects Students' Perceptions

In order to further the discussion of appropriate policy interventions to reduce caste inequality, we need to understand better how caste affects individuals  in their economic and social lives, how caste values affect perceptions, and the social and individual behaviours based on such perceptions that perpetuate inequality and deprivation for certain caste groups.

It is widely accepted that caste disparities continue to exist in India. After Independence, the state moved towards creating a “casteless society.”  Caste was formally abolished and a system of quotas or reservations was created for the formerly “untouchable” caste groups (Scheduled castes or SCs and Scheduled tribes (STs)) in university admissions, government jobs, and political posts.  Despite affirmative action, the gap in average socio-economic and education status between high and low caste groups remains large as research documents.   

While previous research has examined inequality in income and education, it has not explored much about whether such inequality is solely due to denial of social and economic rights and opportunities in the past, or whether there are channels of social exclusion and psychological impact of discrimination that persist in the present.  To further the discussion of appropriate policy interventions to reduce caste in¬equality, we need to understand better how caste affects indi¬viduals in their economic and social lives, how caste values affect perceptions, and the social and individual behaviours based on such perceptions that perpetuate inequality and deprivation for certain caste groups.  

This article emphasises the education gap in the caste system.  Although education is supposed to be a leveler of inequality in opportunity, access to reasonable quality of education greatly differs by caste. The fraction of population belonging to SC or ST groups gets smaller the higher the level of educational attainment (Chakravarty and Somanathan 2008).  For example, in urban India in 1999–2000, individuals belonging to the SC/ST groups constituted 18.3% of the population in the 17–25 age group, but barely 11.3% of them had completed high school (Chakravarty and Somanathan 2008).  The proportion of individuals from SC and ST groups in college graduates was only 7.4% (Sundaram 2006).   These statistics show that the education system has a long way to go towards achieving caste equality. Educational attainment is one of the channels through which caste gaps continue to persist.  But it cannot be assumed that a difference in educational attainment is the only factor that keeps individuals from disadvantaged caste groups from moving forward socially and economically.  

Once students complete their studies and enter the labour market, they are likely to face discrimination.  Deshpande (2011) shows that discrimination is common in the workplace, in part because employers value “family background.”  Madheswaran and Attewell (2007) examined discrimination in the labour market using National Sample Survey (NSS) data.  They found that in urban salaried jobs, employees belonging to SC/STs received 30% lower wages on average compared to those from other caste groups. Fifteen percent of the wage differential was unexplained by education attainment and work experience. Thorat and Attewell (2007) designed a field experiment and found that companies discriminated by caste and religion in how often they contacted job applicants who had submitted identical resumes. Banerjee et al (2007) conducted similar experiments and found lower discrimination in the call-centre industry and none in the software industry.

Using placement data of MBA graduates from Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, Chakravarty and Somanathan (2008) find that graduates from the SC or ST categories get significantly lower wages than those in the general one.  This difference disappears once their lower grade point average (GPA) scores are accounted for, suggesting that the large wage difference is due to the lower academic performance of SC/ST candidates.  The authors conclude that in the absence of any serious attempt to equalise school-level education opportunities, the current policy of reservations at elite educational institutions does not suffice to equalise labour market outcomes even for the minority of SC/ST candidates who benefit from them.

In this article, we examine the academic performance of students from SCs or STs compared to other caste groups at one of the top engineering institutes, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) located in Banaras Hindu University (BHU).  The three caste categories, General, OBC (Other Backward Classes), and SCs/STs are in hierarchical order according to the beliefs of the caste system, with the SCs/STs at the bottom and General Caste at the top.  Caste discrimination faced by SC/STs is undeniably the worst.  Therefore, we are primarily interested in looking at the gap in performance of SC/ST students compared to general caste students although we also report comparisons with the OBC category.  A significant gap exists in the academic performance of SC and ST students compared to those in the general caste group exists.  The gap remains even after controlling for different socio-economic backgrounds of students.  

In the survey, students from the SC/ST categories report facing negative attitudes from fellow students.  A majority of students from these categories believe that students from the general caste category have higher or same academic ability as others and that those from the reserved caste category have same or lower ability than others.  Most students from the general caste have similar beliefs about inferior abilities of students from lower caste groups and superior abilities of students from general caste groups.  We posit that such beliefs and perceptions create a psychological barrier to academic performance of students from lower caste groups. 

The recent suicide by Dalit scholar, Rohith Vemula, who was a doctoral candidate at the University of Hyderabad is a poignant reminder of the humiliating impact of caste discrimination in university campuses.  According to one estimate, 18 SC students at institutes of higher education chose to end their lives in the last four years ( Hindu 2016).   In an experiment involving students in sixth and seventh grades in rural Uttar Pradesh, Hoff and Pandey (2013) found no caste gap in performance of students when caste identity was anonymous.  When caste identity was made salient, there was a drop in performance of low caste students and a significant caste gap emerged favouring the general caste category students.

Our results reiterate that reservation policy in education is far from successful in levelling the playing field for students belonging to disadvantaged caste groups.  Policy intervention has to begin sooner, in the early school years, to attempt to equalise opportunities in education.  In addition, negative attitudes, perceptions and stereotypes about the ability of students belonging to the SC/ST groups are a major hurdle.  Policy should recognise how such perceptions hold back individuals and groups, and seriously attempt to think of ways to alter these.

Survey design

Students studying chemical engineering at IIT-BHU were contacted to participate in a survey online, where 121 students completed the survey.  In the survey, students were asked about their GPA for last six semesters, parental education, parental income bracket, parental occupation, type of school attended prior to coming to IIT, language of instruction in school prior to IIT (English or Hindi), and whether the student took the IIT entrance test in English or Hindi.  They were asked to indicate their caste category: general, OBC, or SC/ST.  

They were also asked about the attitudes of teachers and fellow students towards them and their opinion of the academic ability of other students from the general caste category and reserved caste category.

Table 1 lists the variables in the survey and the average characteristics of students in the sample. Table 2 describes sample characteristics by caste category.   

Students in the general caste category have higher average GPA compared to students in the OBC and SC/ST categories.  Those from SC/STs have the lowest GPA.    

While there is not a large difference in the percentage of students who attended private versus government schools between the three caste categories, those in the general and OBC category are more likely to have attended an English medium school prior to joining IIT, and more likely to have taken the entrance exam to IIT in English as compared to the SC/ST students.  

In terms of socio-economic status, students from the general caste tend to be at the highest, those from the OBC are in the middle and SC/ST students are at the bottom.  For students from the general caste, both parents are more likely to have at least college-level education, they are more likely to be in a higher family income bracket, and more likely to have a mother who works as a professional.  Students in the SC/ST category have the reverse of these outcomes.  

The difference in the GPA between students in the general caste and SC/ST caste is about 0.84 points and significant below one percent level.  The difference in the GPA between students in the OBC and SC/STs is about 0.56 points and also significantly below one percent level (Table 3, column 2).  

Some of the difference in the GPA across caste categories is likely to reflect differences in family and class background. We analysed the difference in GPA after controlling for family characteristics.  A linear regression of GPA on caste category also includes student’s observed socio-economic characteristics.  After including controls for student background variables, the difference in GPA between general caste students and SC/ST students is smaller in magnitude, but stays significant below 1% significance level (columns 3–4, Table 3).   Parents’ education and mothers’ occupations are not significantly correlated to the GPA.  Having taken the IIT entrance exam in English positively correlated with GPA (column 4) and so was having attended a government school (versus private) prior to IIT (columns 3–4).  

How do we explain the caste gap in GPA between those from general caste category and SC/ST students after controlling for family background variables? We hypothesise that caste continues to affect student’s academic performance in other ways: unobserved socio-economic and psychological factors.  

Students from lower caste categories are likely to face humiliation and harassing attitudes from others in their daily lives.  The survey tried to capture some likely channels of such psychological influences through additional questions.  They were asked how they feel about the attitudes of fellow students and teachers towards themselves.  They were asked about their perception of the academic ability of other students who belong to general caste and reserved caste categories.   

Figures 1a, 1b and 2a, 2b present the responses:

When asked about teachers’ attitudes, most students from each of the three caste categories find teachers helpful or neutral (Figure 1 and Table 4A).  Note that however 13% of students in the SC/ST caste category felt teacher attitudes towards them were hostile.   

When asked about the attitudes of fellow students, 72% of general caste students said helpful, and 28% said neutral.  In the SC/ST category, 46% said that attitudes of fellow students was helpful, 33% said that it was neutral and 21% said that it was hostile (Figure 1b).  Responses of OBC students fell in the middle of general and SC/ST categories.  Note that 21% students in the SC/ST category found the attitudes of fellow students hostile compared to none in the general category.

Students were asked their opinion of the academic ability of other students in the general caste category.  43% of students in the general category respond that it is the same as others, 55% say more than others, and 2% say less than others.   Students in the SC/ST category have a similar response:  54% say same as others, 46% say more than others, and 0% say less than others (Figure 2a).  In other words, at least 98% students from general caste category as well as in SC/ST caste category feel that the former have higher or same ability as others.  Responses of students from the OBC category are similar.

Students were similarly asked about the ability of other students in the reserved category.  In the general caste category,  61% of students said it is less than others,  and 39% said same as others.  Students in SC/ST category responded as follows:  46% said less than others, and 54% said same as others (Figure 2b).   Students in the OBC category have similar responses.  More than half the students in general caste and about half the students in OBC and SC/ST category believe that students from the reserved caste category have lower academic ability than others.  

In other words almost everyone in both the general and reserved caste categories believes that general caste students have higher or same ability as others.   And a majority of students in both caste categories believe that reserved category students are less able.  Almost no one in any of the caste categories believes that the reserved category students have more ability than others.  

It is also possible that using the phrase “reserved category” in the survey question leads the respondent to associate students in this category with lower ability.  In this case, the answer to the question about the ability of reserved category students can be attributed to both mindsets as well as the effect of using the term “reserved category” in the question and we are unable to distinguish between the two channels of effect.    

We discuss results from a survey of students belonging to general caste, OBC and SC/ST at one of the elite engineering institutes in India, IIT-BHU.  We find that GPA is lower for students from SC/ST caste category.  The difference in GPA continues after controlling for socio-economic characteristics and family background which is not surprising.  

Students belonging to SC/ST group report facing hostile attitudes from teachers and fellow students.  A majority of general caste, OBC and SC/ST caste students believe that general caste students have higher academic ability and reserved caste students have lower ability.

Despite constitutional remedies like caste-based reservation in higher education and jobs, the effects of caste continue to persist.  The reservation policy has not succeeded in levelling the playing field in higher education.   Further, income gaps exist after students’ from lower caste categories graduate and find a job (Chakravarty and Somanathan 2008).  Policy intervention in education has to begin sooner, in pre and early-school years, to attempt to level the playing field.  

Negative attitudes, perceptions and stereotypes about the ability of SC/ST caste category are a major hurdle too.  Our survey indicates those from SC/ST caste category face several reminders of their caste identity in day to day life on a campus of higher learning.  In an experiment involving students in sixth and seventh grades in rural Uttar Pradesh, Hoff and Pandey (2012) find no caste gap in performance of students when caste identity is anonymous.  But when students are reminded of their caste identity, a significant caste gap in performance emerges favouring general caste students.  Hoff and Pandey (2008) find that low caste students had internalised the values of their discriminatory system, and heeded its “narrative” which kept them from achieving outcomes comparable to those from higher caste categories.  This validates discriminatory ideology and reproduces the effects of discrimination over time.  

The good news is research in the behavioural science reveals that perceptions and attitudes are malleable.  A study in social psychology found that when African-American students were encouraged to see intelligence as something fluid and changeable as opposed to fixed at birth, they obtained higher grades and enjoyed academics more (Aronson et al 2002). In another study, students from a minority background were asked to write about a value that was important to them while those in the control group were told to write about something least important to them (Cohen et al 2006).  Those in the first group increased their academic performance relative to the control group.  The authors attribute the result to the fact that students in the first group reaffirmed their self-worth and so were able to mitigate the anxiety or stress that minority students have to deal with.   Policymaking can attempt to recognise how negative perceptions hold back individuals and groups, and find ways to change them.   Interventions can target shifting perceptions and mindsets about castes and this needs to be explored. 

Acknowledgement: We wish to thank the students who participated in the survey. We give special thanks to Surabhi Agarwal, MPhil student at University of Hyderabad, for help in survey design, implementation, and useful comments. We also thank Karla Hoff for useful comments.

In light of the triple talaq judgment that has now criminalised the practice among the Muslim community, there is a need to examine the politics that guide the practice and reformation of personal....

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Ending Caste Discrimination in India: Human Rights and the Responsibility To Protect (R2P) Individuals and Groups From Discrimination at the Domestic and International Levels

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... As Jeremy Sarkin and Mark Koenig explain, ‘famously, the Indian government decided that low-caste Hindus who convert to other religions may no longer be legally considered for the benefits being extended to their caste groups’.(126) For its part the state submission to ...

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Child Labour, Caste Discrimination Closely Interlinked In India: UN Report

The human rights council special rapporteur said deep-rooted intersecting forms of discrimination, in combination with multiple other factors, are the main causes of contemporary forms of slavery affecting minorities..

The UN report said child labour exists in all regions of the world. (Representational)

Child labour, caste-based discrimination and poverty are closely interlinked in India, according to a UN report which highlighted contemporary forms of slavery, including severe discrimination against Dalit women in South Asia due to which they are systematically denied choices and freedoms in all spheres of life.

Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Tomoya Obokata, in his report on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, said that deep-rooted intersecting forms of discrimination, in combination with multiple other factors, are the main causes of contemporary forms of slavery affecting minorities.

They are often the result of historical legacies, such as slavery and colonisation, systems of inherited status, and formalised and state-sponsored discrimination, he said.

Obokata said in the report to the UN General Assembly Wednesday that child labour (among children 5 to 17 years of age), including its worst forms, exists in all regions of the world.

In Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, the Americas and Europe, between 4 and 6 per cent of children are said to be in child labour, and the percentage is much higher in Africa (21.6 per cent), with the highest rate in sub-Saharan Africa (23.9 per cent).

"In India, child labour, caste-based discrimination and poverty are closely interlinked. Child labour among minority and migrant children have also been reported in Angola, Costa Rica, Honduras and Kazakhstan, in various sectors,” the report said.

The report also notes that systematic discrimination has profound implications for the ability of affected individuals and communities to live a life of dignity and enjoy human rights on equal footing with others. Marginalised communities often remain overlooked in public policies and national budgetary allocations, and their access to justice and remedies in cases of human rights violations, including contemporary forms of slavery, is generally limited.

It said that the stigmatisation of some communities is perpetuated by negative stereotypes in the media, textbooks, or on the Internet, which contributes to their disempowerment.

People discriminated against on the basis of work and descent represent one example. They are bound by their inherited status and subjected to dehumanizing discourses that refer to “pollution” or “untouchability”, with no respect for human dignity and equality.

"Consequently, such people have limited freedom to renounce inherited occupations or degrading or hazardous work and are often subjected to debt bondage without sufficient access to justice,” the report said.

“Additional intersectional factors, such as class, gender and religion are also affected by caste realities. Dalit women in South Asia face severe discrimination, and as a result they are systematically denied choices and freedoms in all spheres of life," it said, adding that consequently their access to services and resources is very limited, increasing their risk of being subjected to contemporary forms of slavery.

The report further notes that bonded labour continues to be prevalent among people discriminated against on the basis of work and descent, such as Dalits in South Asia.

Dalits in Bangladesh are forced to undertake certain types of labour as a consequence of their assigned caste status and are almost exclusively working in “unclean” jobs in urban areas, like street sweeping and burying the dead.

“Manual scavenging, predominantly carried out by Dalit women, is widely regarded as forced labour and a contemporary form of slavery, entailing harsh working conditions that have a negative impact on mental and physical health.” Obokata said in the report rates of child marriage spike among marginalized communities in particular, such as Roma girls in South-Eastern Europe.

Official data collected by the Forced Marriage Unit of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland suggests that a large majority of forced-marriage cases relate to Pakistan and, to a lower extent, to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Somalia.

Forced marriage of women and girls is a concern in Asia, including Cambodia, India, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.

It noted that various States have taken legislative and other measures to address inequality and discrimination experienced by minorities.

In the United States, federal contractors and subcontractors must take affirmative action to recruit and advance qualified minorities, and other initiatives including vocational training and outreach are simultaneously facilitated. Similar measures to enhance employability among minorities have been promoted in Albania, Australia, Belgium, India, Iraq, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Trade unions also make important contributions in advocating for the rights of minorities and migrant workers. It is “encouraging” that trade unions in Chile, Colombia, Ghana and India provide dedicated support and services for women workers.

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It added that based on an independent assessment of available information, including submissions by stakeholders, independent academic research and testimonies of victims, the Special Rapporteur regards it as reasonable to conclude that forced labour among Uighur, Kazakh and other ethnic minorities in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing has been occurring in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Beaten To Death For Touching Food: Ugly Cases Of Caste Violence In India

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A day earlier, a 25-year-old Dalit youth was thrashed to death by upper-caste men in Madhya Pradesh's Chhatarpur because he touched food served at a feast. The deceased, Devraj Anuragi was called to clean up after the party held by the accused.

In yet another case of caste discrimination, a groom belonging to a Dalit community was forced to get down from the horse at Shivpur village in Rajashthan's Karera. A day earlier, a 25-year-old Dalit youth was thrashed to death by upper-caste men in Madhya Pradesh's Chhatarpur because he touched food served at a feast. The deceased, Devraj Anuragi was called to clean up after the party held by the accused.

These are just two of the many incidents that take place on a daily basis.

Here are a few such cases:

In April 2019 , the same year, a 23-year-old Dalit man was allegedly beaten up by the upper caste people for eating in front of them at a wedding reception in Uttarakhand's Tehri district. The victim later succumbed to his injuries.

In June the same year, a horrific incident was reported, where a Dalit minor was tied with a rope and beaten up allegedly by a group of upper-caste men after he tried to enter a temple in Rajasthan's Pali district.

In July 2020 , a Dalit man was allegedly stripped and beaten up in Karnataka's Vijayapura district – located near capital Bengaluru -for touching an upper-caste man's motorbike.

In October , a 22-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped on gunpoint by two men, including a former village head in Uttar Pradesh. According to the report, the two barged into her house and raped her, taking turns at it, at gunpoint.

In November , two Dalit brothers were beaten up, and their house was set on fire by a group of 15 men in Madhya Pradesh's Datia district, for objecting to withdraw a two-year-old case against an upper-caste man.

Few weeks later, on November 16 , two minor Dalit sisters were allegedly killed and their bodies dumped in a pond in one of the villages in Uttar Pradesh.

In another incident highlighting casteism, a Dalit man in Gujarat was allegedly denied common crematorium for his last rites. The Police booked a man from Anand district under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Even as India moves towards urbanization at a faster pace, caste discrimination remains ubiquitous. According to the data recorded by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) in 2019, nearly 45,935 cases of crime or atrocities against Dalits were reported.

The report showed an increase in crimes against Dalits by 7.3 as opposed to 2018.

Uttar Pradesh topped the list, reporting more than 11,000 cases alone, which is 25.8 per cent of the total cases, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.

To add to the shocker, a crime is committed against a Dalit every 15 minutes, six Dalit women raped every day, the report revealed. Only a few cases make it to the mainstream media reports.

When we talk about stringent actions taken against such crimes, the answer stays a resounding no. The conviction in crime against Dalits was abysmally low 25.2% and 22.8%, respectively between 2009 and 2018.

Caste discrimination is like an epidemic and has been set apart as a 'culture'.

Of the heed that is given to the current crisis (coronavirus pandemic), not a part is paid to another virus that has existed in our society for centuries. For the rest of the world, the idea of 'social distancing' at the time of the coronavirus outbreak signifies physical distancing between two individuals, but it is a familiar concept for Indians, as it happens to be a part of India's long-standing practise of 'Untouchability'.

Article 15 of the Indian Constitution of India secures its citizens from all kinds of discrimination on the basis of caste, religion, race, sex or place of birth. Yet discrimination on the basis of caste pervades every level of our society.

Also Read: "China, Pakistan Behind Farmers' Protest", Says Union Minister, Sikh Committee Calls It 'Shameful'

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Race, Caste, and the Model Minority Myth

If the construction of the “model minority” myth for Indian Americans rides on the back of their alleged casteless-ness, then their anti-Blackness, or at least a deliberate effort to separate themselves from marginalized Black Americans and other “less desirable” Indian immigrants, has also played a massive part in its edifice. 

Even as Indian Americans prefer to assert their model behavior by touting their selectively handpicked IT professionals, tech workers, and entrepreneurs, forgotten is the swelling population of undocumented Indians, which according to the Migration Policy Institute as of 2019 is approximately 553,000 (5%) of the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. Nor included are the working-class Indians, some of whom moved to the United States in the late 1800s and continue to form a significant population of Indians, especially in areas like New York City and Philadelphia, and parts of California. 

Bengali Muslim peddlers and Punjabis from rural immigrant communities in the nineteenth century experienced and responded differently to discrimination from the largely “upper”-caste educated professionals during the time and were among the most targeted by the “yellow peril” racist American policies of that era. 

“While those who came to work the land, work in lumberyards, or work on the railroads bore the brunt of physical attacks, educated professionals who did not confront such direct hostility began crafting a racial politics that would distinguish them from their poorer compatriots, from other nonwhite immigrants, and from Black Americans,” notes [Harvard-based anthropologist Ajantha] Subramanian.

The notorious case of Bhagat Singh Thind —an Indian immigrant who, in 1923, argued to be considered white, since he was a “high caste Aryan full of Indian blood”—is a remarkable insight into the period’s eugenics-flavored “upper”-caste ideology, by which several “upper”-caste Indians considered themselves genetically superior to Dalits and Adivasis, and instead more aligned with white Caucasians. 

As Thind lost the case (ultimately leading to scores of Indians having their citizenships neutralized by 1926), equating “upper” casteness to whiteness became a losing strategy. However, by the 1960s, around the second big wave of Indian “upper”-caste immigration, identifying as “not Black” was quickly becoming a go-to for Indian Americans. “There was a common thread of understanding that emerged: the path to social and financial security was to avoid the taint of Blackness. While professional Indians no longer did so through recourse to whiteness, as had earlier elite migrants, they now leveraged class, nationality, and, most importantly, educational achievement, to fashion themselves as members of a model minority,” writes Subramanian in The Caste of Merit . 

Regardless, Indian Americans who moved to the U.S. over the last century were treated with racism, with many of them still considered “Black” regardless of their effortful delineations. During her interviews with [Indian Institutes of Technology] IIT graduates from the sixties, Subramanian discovered the tactics which several immigrant Indians employed to distinguish themselves as “not Black,” especially in the South, which was still in its Jim Crow era. Men started wearing a turban, whether or not they wore one back home in India, while women were encouraged to wear a sari to identify themselves as distinctly Indian. 

“I got the impression that the South was embarrassed to be mistreating foreign visitors,” one of the interviewees told Subramanian. “They had no problem discriminating against U.S. Blacks, but they went to lengths to ensure that we were fine.” This disposition, although prevalent in the “upper”-caste Indian immigrant professionals of the time, more or less ignored the efforts of the Black civil rights movement that, after decades of exclusion, made Indian immigrants’ reentry in the U.S. possible with the changes in the 1965 U.S. immigration laws. 

“Immigrants from India, armed with degrees, arrived after the height of the civil-rights movement, and benefited from a struggle that they had not participated in or even witnessed. They made their way not only to cities but to suburbs, and broadly speaking were accepted more easily than other nonwhite groups have been,” reads an Atlantic piece titled “The Truth Behind Indian American Exceptionalism.” Mindsets towards those who were “lower” than them on the hierarchy of caste among “upper”-caste Indian Americans easily transferred to those who they saw as now being “lower” on the hierarchy of race. 

By not treating Indian “foreigners” with the same disdain and disgust they did Black folks who had helped build their country, white Southerners, among others, inscribed a racial hierarchy, where Indians—neither the highest but not the lowest either—found themselves squarely in the middle. This new racial marker perfectly aligned with the self-ordained myths of “upper”-caste Indian tech graduates who, according to Subramanian, already equated their middle-class identity with a constructed idea of “upper”-caste merit, and further propelled this notion leading them to define themselves as different if not “better” than Black Americans. 

In her interview with the famous angel investor who launched the first Indian American company on Nasdaq, Subramanian finds him saying that Indians in Silicon Valley were “seen differently, as people who engaged in self-help, not asking for handouts,” echoing an anti-welfarist rhetoric targeted against Black and Brown Americans that is also often used against Dalits and Adivasis who avail reservations. 

The model minority ideal, created by “upper”-caste Indians with more than a little help from white Americans who first coined the term to describe Japanese immigrants, suffocates all other modes of existence and helps Indian Americans deny the existence of caste-based distinctions in the United States. There has been a long history of Black and South Asian solidarity, including the relationship between Ambedkar and W. E. B. Du Bois; the Dalit Panther Party; the early relationships between Black civil rights leaders and the gandhian movement (including Martin Luther King and Bayard Rustin); and the rich tapestry of Bengali Muslim and Punjabi immigrants who settled in New York’s East Harlem and in Baltimore, New Orleans, and Detroit, and married and partnered with Black and Caribbean women since the early 1900s. 

Yet, they are rarely heard, recounted, or remembered. “It was the more prosperous sector of South Asians, the post-1965 professionals, who had the means to represent the community as a whole, so it was their image that came to dominate the image of South Asian-Americans,” says documentary filmmaker, historian, and MIT professor Vivek Bald , who painstakingly traced the narratives of Bengali immigrants in Bengali Harlem and the lost histories of South Asian America. 

The lid has been held tight for too long. Breaking free from this mold will allow the Indian American community to not only reckon with their denial of caste but also allow more vulnerable members, Dalit, Adivasi, and otherwise, to get the attention, care, and justice they deserve. Caste has successfully escaped our attention for far too long, not in small part as a result of the concerted efforts by the Indian American “upper”-caste majority who have willfully erased, denied, and blurred its existence while continuing to benefit from the privileges their higher status provides them. It’s time to stop accepting wafer-thin excuses on why we should not pay greater attention to this damaging segregation and discrimination of people on the basis of their birth. And it’s time to start rethinking our models. 

Excerpted from Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir of Surviving India’s Caste System by Yashica Dutt (Beacon Press, 2024). Reprinted with permission from Beacon Press.

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Casi election conversations 2024: rachel brulé on the promise and pitfalls of gender quotas in indian politics.

There are more women holding elected office in India than anywhere else in the world. Much of this is due to quotas, instituted three decades ago, that reserved 33 percent of seats in local offices for women. In 2023, India’s Constitution was amended to extend those path-breaking quotas to the Indian Parliament and state assemblies—a development that will usher in a massive infusion of women politicians at the highest levels of government. Yet, questions have been raised about whether reforms like these lead to just token representation or have deeper effects on governance itself.

In the third interview of the casi election conversations 2024, casi consulting editor rohan venkat speaks to rachel brulé, assistant professor of global development policy at the pardee school of global studies, boston university, about the successes of india’s quotas for women, her own research into the backlash they have caused, and how extending quotas to parliament and state assemblies are set to alter indian politics. .

Rohan: Could you tell us about the questions that have animated your research on India?

Rachel: I absolutely consider India a global leader when it comes to state-led reforms to advance political gender equality. One of my primary questions is how do state-led reforms rebalance gendered power not just in politics, but also in the economy and society? You see something similar if you look at what's happening in the economic sector. India has had landmark reforms granting Hindu women equal property rights through the Hindu Succession Act and its amendments over time, first at the state level and then nationally. This is another case where we expect this formal reform to fundamentally alter local politics, the economy, and social power as well.

This speaks to the questions that animate my work overall, which is my attempt to study the dynamic processes through which political, economic, and social systems rebalance gendered power. One stream of questions focuses on top-down reforms to advance gender equality and how they rebalance gendered power. A second set of questions looks at bottom-up changes in social norms about the gender distribution of power, and then seeks to figure out how those change systems as a whole, how they percolate upward instead of downward.

One stream of work looks at variation in lineage norms, particularly in Northeast India and how those affect the political economy more generally. Another stream of research looks at changes and space for gendered solidarity amongst female-elected officials, and trying to see if that changes their agency to represent constituents as well as changing broader systems of power. The last, on this front, is thinking about the ability of climate change-induced extreme weather to change broader systems of power in families, economies, and states specifically by its impact on the gender division of labor.

Rohan: You mentioned India as a global leader on these reforms. Where is India in the broader scheme of things? What do we understand about political representation in India and what that has meant for female empowerment, especially over the last decade?

Rachel: I would say it is disputed—if I had to summarize it in one word—in terms of where things have stood as of a decade prior. It's easy to break things down into two camps of scholars starting off with just gendered representation within India, and they each have very deep and important empirical grounding, as well as theoretical grounding.

In India, we have had reservations for women as heads of local government since the Panchayati Raj Amendments that were legislated in 1992, and a longer history of reservations for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. We've got this great natural experiment that allows us to causally identify the impact of descriptive representation. This enables us to ask: does descriptive representation matter for women?

On one hand, we have people who I would call pessimists or skeptics, whose work says the answer is no, we don't actually see much change once we have these reservations. I think of Pranab Badhan and Dilip Mookherjee— their 2010 paper on how West Bengal’s reservations impact local government’s anti-poverty targeting. Thad Dunning and Jahnavi, Nilekani— their 2013 paper on the distributive effects of reservations for members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes in Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Bihar. And Francesca Jensenius— her 2015 paper examining the impact of reservations for members of Scheduled Tribes on local development and caste-based redistribution over thirty years. They all conclude that we don't actually see much change. And at best, especially when we're talking about women, they are often considered as token appointments by powerful elites in a given village, as is discussed in Ban and Rao’s 2008 paper on the impact of women’s reservations in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, for example.

There are lots of good reasons why we would expect very little to change with reservations because we know women have had much lower levels of literacy, they’ve had much narrower political networks, they’ve been deliberately excluded from not just political networks, but also economic and social networks. So, people talk about this selection bias regarding women elected in the presence of reservations. It's very difficult to get women with the same capacities, the same networks, the same experience as men able to stand for elections and to occupy political office. And then on top of that, we have additional layers of bias and resistance that can inhibit the effectiveness of women who otherwise might not just meet but exceed the standards that we apply for men. So, there's good grounding for the skeptics in terms of the capacity of even these radical reforms to enable equitable and effective political representation by women.

Then there are optimists, starting with Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Esther Duflo’s 2004 paper on “Women as Policy Makers,” studying the impact of reservations in Rajasthan and West Bengal. Irma Clots-Figueras as well, in her 2011 paper on “Women in politics” across 16 states. They find reservations do shift government expenditures toward women's policy preferences, and Irma Clots-Figueras finds this is particularly true, that we actually see radical shifts in things like support for land redistribution when we have women from scheduled castes and tribes who are elected into office. We also see Lakshmi Iyer and her co-authors , Anandi Mani, Prachi Mishra, and Petia Topalova find a drop in reporting of crimes against women and higher levels of responsiveness to women's concerns where we have reservations for women in office. And we see Rikhil Bhavnani finds women are more likely to run for office in the future where there have been reservations in the past.

We also learn from Lori Beaman and her co-authors, Raghabentra Chattopadhyay, Esther Duflo, Rohini Pande, and Petia Topalova, in West Bengal, where they find that exposure to two consecutive rounds of reservations diminished perceptions that women are ineffective at governance. In a subsequent paper, Beaman, Duflo, Pande and Topalova find that families increase their aspirations for daughters and their investment in daughters’ education as well, after one round of reservations and even more so after two consecutive rounds. We also see increased participation by descriptively represented groups, as Simon Chauchard finds in his 2014 APSR paper and Cambridge book . And so, at this point, looking a decade back, I would say it's disputed because both of those pieces of evidence come from extremely careful, well done empirical research.

The second part of your question is, so how do we put India in context? Here, I would say we have some of the best empirical work on women's political representation coming out of the Indian context, in part thanks to the central state's decision to mandate reservations for women in local elected governments as of 1993. Much of the work elsewhere really begins by referencing the case of India. India is seen as the gold standard here for research in political science and economics and related fields as well.

This is a Janus-faced context because on one hand, there is important research that says we should be really concerned about women's capacity to engage in politics not because of disinterest, but because of extensive discrimination and violent backlash that women face upon entering politics, whether it's formally as representatives or informally in broader political campaigns or campaigns for redistribution of power and justice.

On the other hand, when we look to the institutionalized inclusion of women in politics, we again see India being a leader in this field. Since the 1880s, every meeting of the Indian National Congress included some women. We see active mobilization by women, not just in existing political parties, but in organizations like the All India Women's Conference since 1926 and the Women's Indian Association in Madras from a similar time period. We see women's representation extend up to the highest levels of office in the Indian state, well before places like the United States even considered enabling women to legally participate in politics, let alone to run as candidates on ballots. It's not unsurprising that we see the absolute largest number of women in elected offices anywhere in the world in India.

Rohan: If I could ask a very reductive non-academic outsider’s question, who's winning? The optimists or the pessimists? Which direction is it tilting in?

Rachel: That's a great question. I think academics are always so cautious in trying to answer those questions, but they need to be asked. You might call this a cop out, but I think the cautious optimists are winning. From my work as well as others’, we see that reservations really do have the power to fundamentally disrupt broader systems of power in much more holistic ways than I think early work gave them credit for. But I call the “winning” camp cautious optimists because we also see with these meaningful shifts or disruptions in gendered political power, massive backlash that extends across generations. Where women are able to access equal inheritance rights that are negotiated through elected officials, we see parents—women and men—being more likely to carry out female infanticide, so we see fewer women in future generations.

I don't think we can say optimists win in an absolute sense with the stakes being that high, but I think it suggests cautious optimism, where we take seriously the impact of disrupting power and realize that there isn't a silver bullet to bringing about gender equity. But this requires thoughtful, incremental, meaningful engagement with the women who seek to benefit from these changes and engaging with them in ways that ensure that not only they benefit, but everyone in their families and communities benefit. This is possible, but it requires more holistic interventions than we've been willing to conduct to date and more holistic forms of support than I think states—whether this is the Indian case or others—have been willing to commit to for the most part.

Rohan: I was hoping to look at Reform, Representation, and Resistance , and your book as well. What did you set out to do there and what did you find?

Rachel: A bigger question that I sought to answer with this paper and the subsequent book is: how do we close the gender gap that exists extensively in politics and economics? To date, I would say most of the work that we had at our disposal would pick one of two sides. They would either say, if we want to have change, this has to come through political tools. And we know that quotas do make the state more responsive to citizens, so that should be our approach. And then on the other side, we have the argument for economic change as being really meaningful. Property rights reforms are a crucial tool for poverty reduction and sustainable development. Yet, when it comes to gender equal property rights reform, according to the UN Commission on the Status of Women , only 37 out of 161 countries have laws that mandate gender equal property rights. And we know enforcement is even harder than just mandating these kinds of reforms.

My contribution in this paper and in my book is to consider how these two tools, politics and economics, work together. To answer this question, I ask, can quotas that mandate women's local political representation improve the ability of women to effectively claim gender-equal property rights? To think about how this could actually work, I propose what I call “gatekeeper theory,” which explains how local political institutions determine the impact of these fundamental changes in property inheritance rights. Through the lens of property inheritance reforms, the Hindu Succession Act Amendments, we turn to study the land revenue bureaucracy as the arm of the state that's formally responsible for enforcing property rights. And yet, what I found through over two years of field research is that they rarely enforce women’s property rights. Why? Because their incentives align with the men who are the traditional taxpayers with whom they have regular interactions—which are important for them to do their jobs successfully, to secure land revenue, whereas they rarely interact with women, if at all.

In speaking to land revenue bureaucrats, their response was: no one asks us to enforce these rights, we don't do it, we're not going to disrupt the peace by proactively enforcing them. And women themselves, typically in many communities that I visited, didn't even know where land revenue bureaucrats sat. They were not proactively seeking out these bureaucrats to request their enforcement of their equal inheritance rights, if they even knew about them to begin with, which many women didn't.

And so, what is required to actually catalyze enforcement of women’s property rights is change in another space. Elected heads of local government, pradhans or sarpanches, whom I call gatekeepers, can actually utilize power to improve bureaucratic responsiveness to women's claims for equal inheritance rights. Absent quotas for female elected heads of local government, we have nearly all men in this gatekeeper role and they rarely act to enforce women’s inheritance rights. In speaking to some of these local gatekeepers, they would say that enforcing women's inheritance rights is purely women's responsibility alone. And they would emphasize that they couldn't guarantee the security of those women or their communities if they did indeed want to make these claims because they saw them as so disputed, as so disruptive of the status quo.

And official bias, I found, really actively justified bureaucratic inaction. It really enabled this context where men had an extreme amount of tools to advance the status quo, and women had very few tools to disrupt the status quo.

What I found is where you have reservations for female sarpanches, they fundamentally restructured the state itself in three crucial ways. They reconfigured public space—they change expectations of who can approach the state and how they can do so. In the absence of reservations, male elected officials would typically hold meetings in times and spaces that were convenient for them. That was often in their living room or in a room inside their private home late at night after all their other official duties had ended. This is a really convenient time for men to travel and convene, but it's really unsafe for women. In contrast, when women were elected primarily through reservations, they would hold meetings and times and spaces that were much more accessible to women.

But not only did they change the space and the time of meetings, they also mobilized women proactively, in part, because women elected through reservations don't have a political coalition in advance. Altruism doesn't necessarily have to be a part of this story at all. There's a clear political strategy at work here where women most likely have greatest access to and are most responsive to other women. I found that women officials would often work to create new public spaces for women to gather and to use the time in that space to inform women about their legal rights, politically and economically. And these legal rights now include gender equal rights to inherit property. These women heads of local government essentially made the state valuable to women to create loyal bases of political coalitions.

Finally, the most radical work that I found women did in office was that they repurposed the private sphere. They made the household, which is already an inherently political space, one in which the state could and did actively intervene to help women mediate rights to which they were legally entitled. This threefold change enables women to actively claim and effectively access these gender equal rights to inherit property.

Rohan: Your findings see the impact going further…

Rachel: This leads me to look at change in three empirical ways. First, I look at whether or not women’s reservations actually change the probability that women inherit in places with versus without equal inheritance rights. What I find is that, prior to inheritance reform, we see a fundamental shift in the impact of political reservations on women's inheritance. Women are six percentage points more likely to inherit in the presence of female gatekeepers, which translates into a rise from about 10.3 to 16.3 percent of women inheriting in the presence of female gatekeepers. That is 23.6 million more women inheriting property if we estimate India's population at about 1.34 billion, 67 percent of whom are rural, 92 percent of whom own land. This is a really fundamental shift.

However, absent reservations, I find inheritance reform doesn't change the probability that women inherit at all. What happens for women where they have gatekeepers and equal inheritance reforms? There we see a striking impact—which is a decline in the probability that women inherit property by nine to 10 percentage points. I argue that we should interpret this as substantial resistance to the enforcement of women's economic rights when they are really meaningful.

What I look at, given we see this meaningful resistance, is whether or not variation in women's bargaining power affects the level of female gatekeepers’ impact on their capacity to enforce property rights reforms. I look at this based on women's age at the time that they receive access to gender equal inheritance rights. Women who are less than 20 years old are substantially less likely to be married. These are the women whom I argue we should think of as having bargaining power within their households because they can trade something of value to their families—their traditional form of inheritance, which is via dowry. Despite being illegal, dowry is still practiced by the vast majority of families in India today. These women under 20 can argue, with female gatekeepers’ help, that they don't want this monetary dowry, which typically goes to their in-laws. Instead, they can ask for something that's much more meaningful to their future security and autonomy, which is land inheritance in their own name.

I find for those women with bargaining power, we see a significant positive impact of female gatekeepers to help them enforce inheritance reform. We see the probability that they inherit increased by nine percentage points. In contrast, the women without bargaining power, those that are 20 or older at the time they receive access to equal inheritance rights, experience backlash. They're already seen by their families as receiving their rightful share of inheritance in the form of dowry. We see the likelihood that they inherit anything drops by 9 to 10 percentage points. Again, this is resistance, but particularly where women's claims are most costly. Whereas we see empowerment where bargaining power is possible.

The final part of this story is the mechanism that I've proposed, which is dowry. I look at whether or not women who are eligible for these equal inheritance rights and have access to female representatives are able to trade dowry for inheritance. I find the answer is yes. Eligible women with bargaining power are 10 to 28 percentage points less likely to receive dowry relative to an ineligible woman, whereas we don't see any change in the receipt of dowry for women who we would expect can't bargain over it, who have already married by the time they have the chance to bargain.

Rohan: Could you tell me a little bit about your choice to study how representation plays out in the form of economic outcomes?

Rachel: While it was intuitive to me, I don't think it was expected for the field as a whole. The first response was deep skepticism to say, why should we care? We're political scientists, we think about power in formal institutions. Why should we care about these negotiations within families? Isn't this either economics or sociology?

I take your point that this is not a typical approach to study these questions. My broader goal in structuring this work was to study how changes in informal or legal institutions affect individual behavior and fundamentally change power where it matters. What is the most meaningful informal space to think about the distribution and redistribution of power? To me, it is the family. This is the first space in which we organize politically. If we can change things at this level, we fundamentally have the capacity to change power to bring about much more egalitarian systems writ large. And this you can see in some related work , for example, that I have with Nikhar Gaikwad, where we study the impact of lineage norms on gender gaps in political participation and preferences.

What is the greatest predictor of wealth and power over time? Families and inherited wealth. With that in mind, it brought me to this three-pronged methodological approach, which is so substantively studying this one reform, the Hindu Succession Act Amendment, with the power to fundamentally change the structure of families.

I conducted over two years of field research to understand the navigation of informal and formal power in daily life. Not only did I reside in places where I could actually observe this, but to me, part of the way that I did this was not a typical political science approach, but more of an anthropological approach of living within families where these were real questions that people were navigating in their own lives and in the lives of their extended families.

That's where I really started before I dove into empirical research. I used that granular understanding of what mattered in individual lives to then think about the large-scale data that I need to access or build both through survey methods, but also through digging through archives to enable me to test these arguments about when we should see fundamental shifts in informal power as a result of these shifts in informal laws. I think it's really difficult to capture dynamics in informal institutions and is thus vastly understudied in political science. A little better studied, but still insufficiently, I would say, in economics and other fields. And so, this was my approach to try to obtain some more analytic leverage to answer these questions.

Rohan: You mentioned a little bit of that critical response. Since the paper and the book have been out, have people come around to it?

Rachel: I would say, yes. Some of the early responses were that I was either being too pessimistic or too optimistic about the impact of these reforms. And I think this comes down to the importance and the challenge of pinning down these dynamic shifts in informal institutions. That early challenge has really shifted into this exciting, fruitful, fertile domain of work in political science and related domains, particularly in India, to think about a few things.

One is work on negotiating power, particularly in the presence of deep stereotypes, about the absence of women's capacity to take up space in elected politics and move from purely descriptive to substantive representation of constituents. There is work , for example, by Aliz Tóth and myself on whether multidimensional quotas improve social equality, intersectional representation, and group relations. We move from thinking about one dimensional quotas—gender quotas alone—to thinking about two-dimensional quotas, which mandate representation by women from scheduled tribes or castes. We do find that they can bring about fundamental shifts in relationships across castes, which endure after two-dimensional quotas are withdrawn.

There's also excellent work by Nirvikar Jassal that maps just what stereotypes are activated by a parallel intervention to quotas: all-women police stations across North India (Bihar, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh). This provides important documentation of the ways in which, with greater exposure to women's descriptive representation in the criminal justice system, we see the use of police stations starting to shift on the ground as well as in unintended ways: survivors of gendered violence are more likely to be counseled to reconcile with (male) family members rather than to register cases, and women at the helm of these stations receive lower formal responsibilities that prevent their advancement in the police bureaucracy and perpetuate stereotyping by citizens and bureaucrats. And work by Alyssa Heinze, Simon Chauchard, and myself , where we also seek to investigate this popular notion that where women's reservations are in place, it's actually the Sarpanch-pati, the husband of the woman elected representative, who's really doing the work. Indeed, we find that institutional constraints are actually the most consequential limitations to women’s political agency, and it is exactly these barriers whose magnitude we seek to identify. There's a broader body of work on the dynamics of women’s political agency. The one other person I would cite at this moment is Soledad Artiz Prillaman's book called The Patriarchal Political Order: The Making And Unraveling Of The Gendered Participation Gap In India , which looks at the ways in which families are really crucial to women's navigation of political power and how economic organization around self-help groups can enable women to build political networks that are meaningful and that are otherwise potentially difficult, if not impossible to build, given the structure of patriarchal families.

I think all of that work is really exciting and really generative, and I feel really honored to be a part of this broader community that really investigates the nature of gendered power inequities and the transformative spaces for leveling those inequities.

Rohan: In the months ahead of elections in India, Parliament passed a huge bill mandating 33 percent quotas for women at the Parliamentary and State Assembly level, though it isn’t coming into effect right away. How do you see this, both as someone who studies it as well as someone who might have ideas on how this intervention ought to be designed?

Rachel: The one phrase that I am mentioning maybe too many times is a cautious optimism, so that's how I would approach these recent reforms as well. On one hand, there's immense opportunity, and part of me is just deeply excited. We know from my and many other people's work, that women's descriptive representation has the power to fundamentally transform inegalitarian political, economic, and social systems into more egalitarian spaces that are really welfare improving for everyone.

However, I also think we need to be really, really careful and cognizant of the potential for extreme backlash that comes from this fundamental disruption of gendered power, now at a much higher level than has thus far been legislated. We need to take the concerns about backlash very seriously. And that brings me to the last part of your question—what should we do? How should we think about this as we now, for better or worse, have time to prepare before these reservations are actually implemented?

I think my modest request would be that we think really carefully about how to build more holistic infrastructures for support. We don't expect that one reform is a silver bullet. There's work that I have right now with Alyssa Heinze and Simon Chauchard, the first paper of which is forthcoming with the Journal of Politics , where we look at micro level rules in gram panchayats, which can be utilized to silence women even after they're elected into office. Governance in India within councils is expected to be one where all voices are heard and taken seriously. And in the wake of quotas, there have been active efforts to unravel those forms of consensus to explicitly exclude women. This is one example of ways in which we should be looking very carefully at what constitutes formal rules and whether they're implemented, as well as what the informal rules of governance look like and whether or not those are truly inclusive or not.

But there's something that I also think is important to be doing outside of the space of formal institutions, which is to think about informal spaces for gendered solidarity. This is another set of work I'm doing that compliments broader work out there that looks at what happens if we work with elected women officials and create more spaces for them to regularly meet with other women elected officials. Does that enable more meaningful forms of solidarity that enables women to leverage as much political agency as possible to represent their constituents? This is work that I am piloting right now, in partnership with a great team, including Bhumi Purohit and Alyssa Heinze.

This is just one of the ways in which we should be thinking much more broadly about holistic forms of support for women, from the local level up to the national level, that enables them to really mobilize the most fulsome form of political agency possible to utilize this representation to advance the interests of their constituents rather than to advance gendered exclusion.

Rohan: Finally, do you have three recommendations of works for those interested in reading further on the subject?

Rachel: You would expect by now that I have a traditional answer and a non-traditional answer for you. In the academy, I want to go from narrower to broader in thinking about work that's recently come out that I think is really exciting and important. One is a short but really powerful article in Science from 2022, “ Policing in Patriarchy: An Experimental Evaluation of Reforms to Improve Police Responsiveness to Women in India ,” by Sandip Sukhtankar, Gabi Kruks-Wisner, and Akshay Mangla. A second is “ On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms ,” published in 2021 in American Economic Review by Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Natalia Rigol, Simone Schaner, and Charity Troyer Moore. The third I've mentioned already, but I think it’s just really exciting so I'll mention it one more time—Soledad Artiz Prillaman's 2023 book with Cambridge University Press, The Patriarchal Political Order: The Making And Unraveling Of The Gender Participation Gap In India .

I also want to add one non-traditional recommendation. There are a lot of really exciting, powerful novels coming out right now that merit reading as well. One that came out last year was The Woman Who Climbed Trees by Smriti Ravinda, published by HarperCollins, India. It’s a story about a woman whose life traverses the border between India and Nepal, who also experiences a lot of political change in the stretch of her life. And it's about her navigating empowerment and disempowerment that happens over this time within her family and within the broader community. It's an extraordinary encapsulation of the high stakes and the real dynamics of gendered political, economic, and social power. It epitomizes the ways in which, if we think of gendered power as static, we're missing so much. And it's really changing around us on a minute-to-minute basis, with the borders of our own personal, as well as political identities.

Rachel Brulé is an Assistant Professor of Global Development Policy at the Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University.

Rohan Venkat is the Consulting Editor for India in Transition and a CASI Spring 2024 Visiting Fellow.

As millions of Indians set out to vote over the next two months, India in Transition brings you CASI Election Conversations 2024, an interview series featuring renowned scholars reflecting on the factors and dimensions of politics, political economy, and democracy that will define India’s 2024 election. Earlier in the series, we featured Louise Tillin on federalism in India and Yamini Aiyar on the BJP’s “Techno-Patrimonial” welfare model . 

India in Transition ( IiT ) is published by the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI) of the University of Pennsylvania. All viewpoints, positions, and conclusions expressed in IiT are solely those of the author(s) and not specifically those of CASI.

© 2024 Center for the Advanced Study of India and the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved.

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The Supreme Court Takes Up Homelessness

Can cities make it illegal to live on the streets.

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Katrin Bennhold. This is “The Daily.”

This morning, we’re taking a much closer look at homelessness in the United States as it reaches a level not seen in the modern era. California —

As the number of homeless people has surged in the US —

More than 653,000, a 12 percent population increase since last year.

The debate over homeless encampments across the country has intensified.

It is not humane to let people live on our streets in tents, use drugs. We are not standing for it anymore.

People have had it. They’re fed up. I’m fed up. People want to see these tents and encampments removed in a compassionate, thoughtful way. And we agree.

With public officials saying they need more tools to address the crisis.

We move from block to block. And every block they say, can’t be here, can’t be here, can’t be here. I don’t know where we’re supposed to go, you know?

And homeless people and their advocates saying those tools are intended to unfairly punish them.

They come and they sweep and they take everything from me, and I can’t get out of the hole I’m in because they keep putting me back in square one.

That debate is now reaching the Supreme Court, which is about to hear arguments in the most significant case on homelessness in decades, about whether cities can make it illegal to be homeless. My colleague Abbie VanSickle on the backstory of that case and its far-reaching implications for cities across the US.

[THEME MUSIC]

It’s Friday, April 19.

So Abbie, you’ve been reporting on this case that has been making waves, Grants Pass versus Johnson, which the Supreme Court is taking up next week. What’s this case about?

So this case is about a small town in Oregon where three homeless people sued the city after they received tickets for sleeping and camping outside. And this case is the latest case that shows this growing tension, especially in states in the West, between people who are homeless and cities who are trying to figure out what to do about this. These cities have seen a sharp increase in homeless encampments in public spaces, especially with people on sidewalks and in parks. And they’ve raised questions about public drug use and other safety issues in these spaces.

And so the question before the justices is really how far a city can go to police homelessness. Can city officials and police use local laws to ban people from laying down outside and sleeping in a public space? Can a city essentially make it illegal to be homeless?

So three homeless people sued the city of Grants Pass, saying it’s not illegal to be homeless, and therefore it’s not illegal to sleep in a public space.

Yes, that’s right. And they weren’t the first people to make this argument. The issue actually started years ago with a case about 500 miles to the East, in Boise, Idaho. And in that case, which is called Martin v. Boise, this man, Robert Martin, who is homeless in Boise, he was charged with a misdemeanor for sleeping in some bushes. And the city of Boise had laws on the books to prohibit public camping.

And Robert Martin and a group of other people who are homeless in the city, they sued the city. And they claimed that the city’s laws violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

And what makes it cruel and unusual?

So their argument was that the city did not have enough sufficient shelter beds for everyone who was homeless in the city. And so they were forced to sleep outside. They said, we have no place to go and that an essential human need is to sleep and we want to be able to lay down on the sidewalk or in an alley or someplace to rest and that their local laws were a violation of Robert Martin and the others’ constitutional rights, that the city is violating the Eighth Amendment by criminalizing the human need to sleep.

And the courts who heard the case agreed with that argument. The courts ruled that the city had violated the Constitution and that the city could not punish people for being involuntarily homeless. And what that meant, the court laid out, is that someone is involuntarily homeless if a city does not have enough adequate shelter beds for the number of people who are homeless in the city.

It does seem like a very important distinction. They’re saying, basically, if you have nowhere else to go, you can’t be punished for sleeping on the street.

Right. That’s what the court was saying in the Martin v. Boise case. And the city of Boise then appealed the case. They asked the Supreme Court to step in and take it on. But the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. So since then, the Martin v. Boise case controls all over the Western parts of the US in what’s called the Ninth Circuit, which includes Oregon where the Grants Pass case originated.

OK. So tell us about Grants Pass, this city at the center of the case and now in front of the Supreme Court. What’s the story there?

Grants Pass is a town in rural Southwestern Oregon. It’s a town of about 38,000 people. It’s a former timber town that now really relies a lot on tourists to go rafting through the river and go wine tasting in the countryside. And it’s a pretty conservative town.

When I did interviews, people talked about having a very strong libertarian streak. And when I talked with people in the town, people said when they were growing up there, it was very rare to see someone who was homeless. It just was not an issue that was talked a lot about in the community. But it did become a big issue about 10 years ago.

People in the community started to get worried about what they saw as an increase in the number of homeless people that they were noticing around town. And it’s unclear whether the problem was growing or whether local officials and residents were worried that it might, whether they were fearing that it might.

But in any case, in 2013, the city council decided to start stepping up enforcement of local ordinances that did things like outlaw camping in public parks or sleeping outside, this series of overlapping local laws that would make it impossible for people to sleep in public spaces in Grants Pass. And at one meeting, one of the former city council members, she said, “the point is to make it uncomfortable enough for them in our city so they will want to move on down the road.”

So it sounds like, at least in Grants Pass, that this is not really about reducing homelessness. It’s about reducing the number of visible homeless people in the town.

Well, I would say that city officials and many local residents would say that the homeless encampments are actually creating real concerns about public safety, that it’s actually creating all kinds of issues for everyone else who lives in Grants Pass. And there are drug issues and mental health issues, and that this is actually bringing a lot of chaos to the city.

OK. So in order to deal with these concerns, you said that they decided to start enforcing these local measures. What does that actually look like on the ground?

So police started handing out tickets in Grants Pass. These were civil tickets, where people would get fines. And if police noticed people doing this enough times, then they could issue them a trespass from a park. And then that would give — for a certain number of days, somebody would be banned from the park. And if police caught them in the park before that time period was up, then the person could face criminal time. They could go to jail.

And homeless people started racking up fines, hundreds of dollars of fines. I talked to a lot of people who were camping in the parks who had racked up these fines over the years. And each one would have multiple tickets they had no way to pay. I talked to people who tried to challenge the tickets, and they had to leave their belongings back in the park. And they would come back to find someone had taken their stuff or their things had been impounded.

So it just seemed to be this cycle that actually was entrenching people more into homelessness. And yet at the same time, none of these people had left Grants Pass.

So they did make it very uncomfortable for homeless people, but it doesn’t seem to be working. People are not leaving.

Right. People are not leaving. And these tickets and fines, it’s something that people have been dealing with for years in Grants Pass. But in 2018, the Martin v. Boise case happens. And not long after that, a group of people in Grants Pass challenged these ordinances, and they used the Boise case to make their argument that just like in Boise, Grants Pass was punishing people for being involuntarily homeless, that this overlapping group of local ordinances in Grants Pass had made it so there is nowhere to put a pillow and blanket on the ground and sleep without being in some kind of violation of a rule. And this group of local homeless people make the argument that everyone in Grants Pass who is homeless is involuntarily homeless.

And you told us earlier that it was basically the lack of available shelter that makes a homeless person involuntarily homeless. So is there a homeless shelter in Grants Pass?

Well, it sort of depends on the standard that you’re using. So there is no public low-barrier shelter that is easy for somebody to just walk in and stay for a night if they need someplace to go. Grants Pass does not have a shelter like that.

There is one shelter in Grants Pass, but it’s a religious shelter, and there are lots of restrictions. I spoke with the head of the shelter who explained the purpose is really to get people back into the workforce. And so they have a 30-day program that’s really designed for that purpose.

And as part of that, people can’t have pets. People are not allowed to smoke. They’re required to attend Christian religious services. And some of the people who I interviewed, who had chronic mental health and physical disabilities, said that they had been turned away or weren’t able to stay there because of the level of needs that they have. And so if you come in with any kind of issue like that, it can be a problem.

That’s a very long list of restrictions. And of course, people are homeless for a lot of very different reasons. It sounds like a lot of these reasons might actually disqualify them from this particular shelter. So when they say they have nowhere else to go, if they’re in Grants Pass, they kind of have a point.

So that’s what the court decided. In 2022, when the courts heard this case, they agreed with the homeless plaintiffs that there’s no low-barrier shelter in Grants Pass and that the religious shelter did not meet the court’s requirements. But the city, who are actually now represented by the same lawyers who argued for Boise, keeps appealing the case. And they appeal up to the Ninth Circuit just as in the Boise case, and the judges there find in favor of the homeless plaintiffs, and they find that Grants Pass’s ordinances are so restrictive that there is no place where someone can lay down and sleep in Grants Pass and that therefore the city has violated the Eighth Amendment and they cannot enforce these ordinances in the way that they have been for years.

So at that point, the court upholds the Boise precedent, and we’re where we were when it all started. But as we know, that’s not the end of the story. Because this case stays in the court system. What happened?

So by this point, the homelessness problem is really exploding throughout the Western part of the US with more visible encampments, and it really becomes a politically divisive issue. And leaders across the political spectrum point to Boise as a root cause of the problem. So when Grants Pass comes along, people saw that case as a way potentially to undo Boise if only they could get it before the Supreme Court.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We’ll be right back.

Abbie, you just told us that as homeless numbers went up and these homeless encampments really started spreading, it’s no longer just conservatives who want the Supreme Court to revisit the Boise ruling. It’s liberals too.

That’s right. So there’s a really broad group of people who all started pushing for the Supreme Court to take up the Grants Pass case. And they did this by filing briefs to the Supreme Court, laying out their reasoning. And it’s everyone from the liberal governor of California and many progressive liberal cities to some of the most conservative legal groups. And they disagree about their reasoning, but they all are asking the court to clarify how to interpret the Boise decision.

They are saying, essentially, that the Boise decision has been understood in different ways in all different parts of the West and that that is causing confusion and creating all sorts of problems. And they’re blaming that on the Boise case.

It’s interesting, because after everything you told us about these very extreme measures, really, that the city of Grants Pass took against homeless people, it is surprising that these liberal bastions that you’re mentioning are siding with the town in this case.

Just to be clear, they are not saying that they support necessarily the way that Grants Pass or Boise had enforced their laws. But they are saying that the court rulings have tied their hands with this ambiguous decision on how to act.

And what exactly is so ambiguous about the Boise decision? Which if I remember correctly, simply said that if someone is involuntarily homeless, if they’re on the streets because there’s no adequate shelter space available, they can’t be punished for that.

Yeah. So there are a couple of things that are common threads in the cities and the groups that are asking for clarity from the court. And the first thing is that they’re saying, what is adequate shelter? That every homeless person situation is different, so what are cities or places required to provide for people who are homeless? What is the standard that they need to meet?

In order not to sleep on the street.

That’s right. So if the standard is that a city has to have enough beds for everyone who is homeless but certain kinds of shelters or beds wouldn’t qualify, then what are the rules around that? And the second thing is that they’re asking for clarity around what “involuntarily homeless” means. And so in the Boise decision, that meant that someone is involuntarily homeless if there is not enough bed space for them to go to.

But a lot of cities are saying, what about people who don’t want to go into a shelter even if there’s a shelter bed available? If they have a pet or if they are a smoker or if something might prohibit them from going to a shelter, how is the city supposed to weigh that and at what point would they cross a line for the court?

It’s almost a philosophical question. Like, if somebody doesn’t want to be in a shelter, are they still allowed to sleep in a public space?

Yeah. I mean, these are complicated questions that go beyond the Eighth Amendment argument but that a lot of the organizations that have reached out to the court through these friend of the court briefs are asking.

OK. I can see that the unifying element here is that in all these briefs various people from across the spectrum are saying, hello, Supreme Court. We basically need some clarity here. Give us some clarity.

The question that I have is why did the Supreme Court agree to weigh in on Grants Pass after declining to take up Boise?

Well, it’s not possible for us to say for certain because the Supreme Court does not give reasons why it has agreed to hear or to not hear a case. They get thousands of cases a year, and they take up just a few of those, and their deliberations are secret. But we can point to a few things.

One is that the makeup of the court has changed. The court has gained conservative justices in the last few years. This court has not been shy about taking up hot button issues across the spectrum of American society. In this case, the court hasn’t heard a major homelessness case like this.

But I would really point to the sheer number and the range of the people who are petitioning the court to take a look at this case. These are major players in the country who are asking the court for guidance, and the Supreme Court does weigh in on issues of national importance. And the people who are asking for help clearly believe that this is one of those issues.

So let’s start digging into the actual arguments. And maybe let’s start with the city of Grants Pass. What are the central arguments that they’re expected to make before the Supreme Court?

So the city’s arguments turn on this narrow legal issue of whether the Eighth Amendment applies or doesn’t. And they say that it doesn’t. But I actually think that in some ways, that’s not the most helpful way to understanding what Grants Pass is arguing.

What is really at the heart of their argument is that if the court upholds Grants Pass and Boise, that they are tying the hands of Grants Pass and hundreds of other towns and cities to actually act to solve and respond to homelessness. And by that, I mean to solve issues of people camping in the parks but also more broadly of public safety issues, of being able to address problems as they arise in a fluid and flexible way in the varied ways that they’re going to show up in all these different places.

And their argument is if the court accepts the Grants Pass and Boise holdings, that they will be constitutionalizing or freezing in place and limiting all of these governments from acting.

Right. This is essentially the argument being repeated again and again in those briefs that you mentioned earlier, that unless the Supreme Court overturns these decisions, it’s almost impossible for these cities to get the encampments under control.

Yes, that’s right. And they also argue they need to have flexibility in dealing actually with people who are homeless and being able to figure out using a local ordinance to try to convince someone to go to treatment, that they say they need carrots and sticks. They need to be able to use every tool that they can to be able to try to solve this problem.

And how do we make sense of that argument when Grants Pass is clearly not using that many tools to deal with homeless people? For example, it didn’t have shelters, as you mentioned.

So the city’s argument is that this just should not be an Eighth Amendment issue, that this is the wrong way to think about this case, that issues around homelessness and how a city handles it is a policy question. So things like shelter beds or the way that the city is handling their ordinances should really be left up to policymakers and city officials, not to this really broad constitutional argument. And so therefore, the city is likely to focus their argument entirely on this very narrow question.

And how does the other side counter this argument?

The homeless plaintiffs are going to argue that there’s nothing in the lower courts’ decisions that say that cities can’t enforce their laws that, they can’t stop people from littering, that they can’t stop drug use, that they can’t clear encampments if there becomes public safety problems. They’re just saying that a city cannot not provide shelter and then make it illegal for people to lay down and sleep.

So both sides are saying that a city should be able to take action when there’s public disorder as a result of these homeless encampments. But they’re pointing at each other and saying, the way you want to handle homelessness is wrong.

I think everyone in this case agrees that homelessness and the increase in homelessness is bad for everyone. It’s bad for people who are camping in the park. It is bad for the community, that nobody is saying that the current situation is tenable. Everyone is saying there need to be solutions. We need to be able to figure out what to do about homelessness and how to care for people who are homeless.

How do we wrestle with all these problems? It’s just that the way that they think about it couldn’t be further apart.

And what can you tell me about how the Supreme Court is actually expected to rule in this?

There are a number of ways that the justices could decide on this case. They could take a really narrow approach and just focus on Grants Pass and the arguments about those local ordinances. I think that’s somewhat unlikely because they’ve decided to take up this case of national importance.

A ruling in favor of the homeless plaintiffs would mean that they’ve accepted this Eighth Amendment argument, that you cannot criminalize being homeless. And a ruling for the city, every legal expert I’ve talked to has said that would mean an end to Boise and that it would break apart the current state that we’ve been living in for these last several years.

I’m struck by how much this case and our conversation has been about policing homelessness rather than actually addressing the root causes of homelessness. We’re not really talking about, say, the right to shelter or the right to treatment for people who are mentally ill and sleeping on the streets as a result, which is quite a big proportion. And at the end of the day, whatever way the ruling goes, it will be about the visibility of homelessness and not the root causes.

Yeah, I think that’s right. That’s really what’s looming in the background of this case is what impact is it going to have. Will it make things better or worse and for who? And these court cases have really become this talking point for cities and for their leaders, blaming the spike in encampments and the visibility of homelessness on these court decisions. But homelessness, everyone acknowledges, is such a complicated issue.

People have told me in interviews for the story, they’ve blamed increases in homelessness on everything from the pandemic to forest fires to skyrocketing housing costs in the West Coast, and that the role that Boise and now Grants Pass play in this has always been a little hard to pin down. And if the Supreme Court overturns those cases, then we’ll really see whether they were the obstacle that political leaders said that they were. And if these cases fall, it remains to be seen whether cities do try to find all these creative solutions with housing and services to try to help people who are homeless or whether they once again fall back on just sending people to jail.

Abbie, thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Here’s what else you need to know today. Early on Friday, Israel attacked a military base in Central Iran. The explosion came less than a week after Iran’s attack on Israel last weekend and was part of a cycle of retaliation that has brought the shadow war between the two countries out in the open. The scale and method of Friday’s attack remained unclear, and the initial reaction in both Israel and Iran was to downplay its significance. World leaders have urged both sides to exercise restraint in order to avoid sparking a broader war in the region.

And 12 New Yorkers have been selected to decide Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, clearing the way for opening statements to begin as early as Monday. Seven new jurors were added in short order on Thursday afternoon, hours after two others who had already been picked were abruptly excused.

Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment made to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign. If the jury convicts him, he faces up to four years in prison. Finally —

This is the New York Police Department.

The New York Police Department said it took at least 108 protesters into custody at Columbia University after University officials called the police to respond to a pro-Palestinian demonstration and dismantle a tent encampment.

We’re supporting Palestine. We’re supporting Palestine. 1, 2, 3, 4.

The crackdown prompted more students to vow that demonstrations would continue, expressing outrage at both the roundup of the student protesters and the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.

Free, free Palestine.

Today’s episode was produced by Olivia Natt, Stella Tan, and Eric Krupke with help from Rachelle Bonja. It was edited by Liz Baylen, fact checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Will Reid Pat McCusker Dan Powell and Diane Wong and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Katrin Bennhold. See you on Monday.

• April 22, 2024   •   24:30 The Evolving Danger of the New Bird Flu
• April 19, 2024   •   30:42 The Supreme Court Takes Up Homelessness
• April 18, 2024   •   30:07 The Opening Days of Trump’s First Criminal Trial
• April 17, 2024   •   24:52 Are ‘Forever Chemicals’ a Forever Problem?
• April 16, 2024   •   29:29 A.I.’s Original Sin
• April 15, 2024   •   24:07 Iran’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel
• April 14, 2024   •   46:17 The Sunday Read: ‘What I Saw Working at The National Enquirer During Donald Trump’s Rise’
• April 12, 2024   •   34:23 How One Family Lost $900,000 in a Timeshare Scam
• April 11, 2024   •   28:39 The Staggering Success of Trump’s Trial Delay Tactics
• April 10, 2024   •   22:49 Trump’s Abortion Dilemma
• April 9, 2024   •   30:48 How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall
• April 8, 2024   •   30:28 The Eclipse Chaser

Hosted by Katrin Bennhold

Featuring Abbie VanSickle

Produced by Olivia Natt ,  Stella Tan ,  Eric Krupke and Rachelle Bonja

Edited by Liz O. Baylen

Original music by Will Reid ,  Pat McCusker ,  Dan Powell and Diane Wong

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

Debates over homeless encampments in the United States have intensified as their number has surged. To tackle the problem, some cities have enforced bans on public camping.

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments about whether such actions are legal, Abbie VanSickle, who covers the court for The Times, discusses the case and its far-reaching implications.

On today’s episode

Abbie VanSickle , a Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading

A ruling in the case could help determine how states, particularly those in the West, grapple with a rising homelessness crisis .

In a rare alliance, Democrats and Republicans are seeking legal power to clear homeless camps .

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Fact-checking by Susan Lee .

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Katrin Bennhold is the Berlin bureau chief. A former Nieman fellow at Harvard University, she previously reported from London and Paris, covering a range of topics from the rise of populism to gender. More about Katrin Bennhold

Abbie VanSickle covers the United States Supreme Court for The Times. She is a lawyer and has an extensive background in investigative reporting. More about Abbie VanSickle

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