What are affirmative action and special measures?
The term affirmative action describes many policies intended to promote access to education or employment for historically and socio-politically disadvantaged and non-dominant groups. The motivation for affirmative action is to redress negative effects of past or current discrimination that has negatively affected the possibilities of discriminated groups to participate in society on an equal footing with other groups. Some countries in South Asia have affirmative action programmes in the form of reservation of seats for Dalits in electoral bodies or in public universities, as well as jobs in the public sector. These programmes exist to compensate for the disadvantage that Dalits face due to discrimination experienced in almost every sphere of life. Likewise, special measures are necessary in social, development, health and education programmes to make sure that Dalits and other groups subjected to caste discrimination are not excluded due to the deeply rooted culture of discrimination
