Why are dalits so oppressed?
Review by Kuldip Kalia Scheduled Castes of Rural India: Problems and Prospects by Victor Sunderaj. APH. Publishing, New Delhi. Pages xx+228. Rs 500. IT has become customary to show concern over incidents of atrocities on the dalits so that what prevails in one state does not spread to other states. States must appear to be more humane and democratic. However one cannot avoid agreeing with President K.R. Narayanan when he laments “the lowering the tolerance level in society”. In Tamil Nadu, the dalits fight the enemy within the community. Moreover there are apparent inadequacies of welfare programmes targetted at the Scheduled Castes. Perhaps what is lacking is political will and sincere effort. The book under review presents an overview of the rural Scheduled Castes; deals with various social welfare schemes; comprehensively studies the effect of changes in terms of upward mobility; profiles innovative and non-innovative rural Scheduled Castes, and offers suggestions to uplift and prom
