The Untouchables Of The Caste System

In India, the Dalit’s, or lower class citizens, experience tragic moments in their day-to-day lives. They are discriminated against greatly, but a policy named affirmative action wants to fix this. This proposed law, however, is controversial and is opposed by certain people living in India.

The Untouchables of the caste system are seen by many as outcasts, unwanted humans who are simply unworthy of being seen on earth. Members of this class are considered impure from birth, because they perform unsanitary jobs, with little pay. For example, citizens who handle items polluted by blood or human waste, a leatherworker who works with animal skins, a weaver who creates cloth, a person who cremates or buries the dead, and a manual scavenger, are all considered Untouchable. A Dalit woman describes her day-to-day job as a “sweeper,” (collecting feces on the street), “I feel very sick. I can’t breathe. I can’t bend and lift the

"Modern India should be built on merit, not caste," (Baker) says Dr. Sudip Sen, 34, a Ph.D. student in biochemistry at AIIMS. Students do not want help from the government. Deepika Gupta, 18, a first year student at AIIMS, and a lower class citizen herself explains, "If everyone comes here on their own steam then they will get equal respect for what they have achieved" (Baker). Students oppose this new quota, not just because of merit, but they believe it is not addressing the real problem in India. Riven Decor, a sociology professor believes the law enlarges the issue on caste division, when this controversy should be disappearing. Decor explains that he has been observing his students for the last 10 years, “and most of them would say that they don't know what the caste of the person sitting next to them is. But after this they will” (NPR). If the lower castes and classes had equal opportunities earlier in life, quotas would not be necessary for higher