The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 lists 1,108 castes across 29 states in its First Schedule. Dalits form around 16.6% of India’s population. As per the 2011 census, four States namely Uttar Pradesh (20.5%), West Bengal (10.7%), Bihar (8.2%) and Tamil Nadu (7.2%) account for nearly half of the Country’s Dalit population. Though there is an increase in the population of Dalits in the country, many states with a considerable number of Dalits do not have any legislation to protect the interests of the community.

As per the population study statistics, India witnesses one birth every 1 second and one death every 3 seconds making it a nett addition of one person every 2 seconds to the population. On an average one Dalit is added to the population every 12 seconds adding 2.628 million persons to the Dalit population every year. Studies show that there is one nett migrant every 1 minute and Dalits constitute 85% in rural to urban migration. Treated as second class citizens, they are relegated to dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs which are often flexible, informal, unprotected, low-paid and low-skilled.

Given the tenacity and pervasiveness of the caste system, it is hardly surprising that some of the worst sufferers of the COVID-19 pandemic are India’s Dalits. We see migrants everywhere. Yet, we never imagined migrant workers as a group big enough to be taken seriously. Policymakers failed to visualise the extent of the migrant issue also turning into a refugee issue during the lockdown. Their plight got worsened because of poverty and restricted access to health care and social protection. Social ostracism by higher caste members, even those in the same occupation as themselves added to their owes.

Branding of migrant workers returning to their home states as carriers of COVID-19 made their life miserable. Gross violation of humanitarian charter that insists right to life with dignity, the right to receive assistance and the right to protection and safety became evident. The efforts of  Vande Bharat Mission that began on 6^th of May, 2020 repatriating over 4.75 lakh Indians to India from abroad is appreciated. On the contrary, it also exposes the indifferent attitude of the institutions and structures responsible for the humanitarian crisis of the subaltern that severely affected the lives of  40 million. In the perspective of affected voiceless, it is not the Coronavirus but the State that should be held accountable.

Policymakers in the governance systems may possess vast experience, but they lack sensitivity to what living through generations of trauma feels like. The coronavirus has been called a great leveller but in India, it has reaffirmed caste and class inequalities. The disturbing images of migrants stranded on highways and being sprayed with disinfectants make it obvious.

In a shocking incident, migrants who were returning to their homes in Uttar Pradesh were sprayed with chemicals by a team on sanitising duty at the Bareilly bus stand. According to reports, the migrants who had walked down from Noida and Delhi, were told to sit at the bus stand by officials who said that they would be taken on buses and would be given food. According to sources, the sanitising team sprayed the group with a diluted mixture of Sodium hypochlorite. Sodium hypochlorite is the main ingredient in laundry bleach. It is used extensively as a bleaching agent in the textile, detergents, and paper and pulp industries. It is also used as a disinfectant. (March 30, 2020, 04:55PM IST Source: TOI.in)

The Coronavirus seems to be borderless in terms of nationality, race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or gender before striking. While ‘social distancing’ is the only curative measure of COVID 19, it is reinforcing the collective, discriminative and socially disruptive untouchability practiced against Dalits in the caste-ridden Indian society. This callous use of terminology which may seem frivolous at first necessarily illustrates the fundamental problem with our response and reaction to coronavirus resurrecting servitude for the Dalits. It is adding to one more reason to defend untouchability

The Dalit population was generally considered by caste-people as impure or polluted. This finds its origins in the occupations Dalits were usually given by upper cast people. These occupations were considered as polluting and degrading. Because of these notions of purity and pollution, caste and outcaste, the practice of untouchability spread. Till the arrival of Corona Virus in India, Dalit sub-castes that are mainly engaged in menial jobs as sanitation workers, manual scavengers, cleaners of drains, garbage collectors, removers of dead bodies and sweepers of roads were treated as virus, dirt and were called as ‘scavengers’.

The COVID 19 pandemic has imposed changes in the attitude of so-called discriminative high caste. Even though it is momentary and unavoidable, the opportunists have started to recognise the conservancy workers as saviours and associate them with cleanliness. Here again, Dalits are exposed to fatal risks of COVID-19. When the State is sending an advisory to stay indoors, the sanitary workers are out in the streets doing their destined jobs knowing pretty well that the Coronavirus is non-discriminative. Given the reality to choose between life and food, the marginalised will always choose food. When such is the case, the plight of women belonging to the Dalit community living either in a slum or caste dominant remote village with comorbid conditions is savagely cruel.

Since labour and the dignity given to the labourers is intrinsically connected with the caste-ascribed occupational norms and rituals and in order not to disagree with the Varna hierarchy, the high caste people are not courageous enough to show their respect openly. The lockdown was a preventive lockdown for the haves but it was a lockdown of denial of access to food, water, shelter, medicines, livelihood, employment for the majority of Dalit population legitimising the brutalization of ‘lesser beings’. They have also been left out of the caste blind indifferent government policies and subsidies. High economic growth has masked the dependency and fragile existence of the millions who power it and has always been favouring the upper caste and class maintaining the status quo. The approach of the State seems to be lacking plans for poverty eradication, instead seems to annihilate the poor especially Dalits.

Arul, a social activist working among the slum communities in Chennai says that the malnutrition caused by less intake of food /starving for a long period is taking its toll. “There are 11 deaths in my slum during the last one month mainly as a result of malnourishment. 80% of the Government supported Rs.1000/- is spent on buying 2 quarter bottles (180 ml each) in the black market during this curfew period.

With no means for livelihood, the women find it difficult to feed their family with Rs.200/- and Government supplied rice. This leads to a new set of physical problems and death in some cases” he said. The economic slow down has created catastrophe and future debates will shift the focus on class rather than caste undermining social inclusiveness thus pushing the Dalits to the core of unredeemable marginalisation.

Dr. John Arokiaraj, Thematic Manager for Dalit Rights and Development in Caritas India says that understanding the sacredness and value of life is fundamental for upholding the dignity of oppressed communities. Time has come for complete overhaul of obsolete legislation regulating migrant labour in India which adversely impacts the development of Dalit. The principle of interdependency has come to the fore now. It is an opportunity for CSOs to advocate the significant talents and contributions of Dalit communities and emphasise on their inclusion in the governance for redesigning the Dalit empowerment towards social justice.  The solution to Dalit Empowerment is not straight-jacketed but multifarious, since the issues faced by them are not uniform and varies according to the geopolitical context.