Is Ambedkar’s Dream Of Social And Economic Equality A Bridge Too Far?

68 years after Independence, political rhetoric and Constitutional protection have failed to end atrocities against Dalits. Is Ambedkar’s dream of social and economic equality a bridge too far?

- Ajit Kumar Jha

“The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker section of the people, and in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.”

—Article 46 of the Indian Constitution.

Today, 68 years after Independence, as Dalits continue to bear the brunt of violence and discrimination—highlighted in recent weeks by the tragic suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Ph.D student in the Hyderabad Central University who hanged himself, blaming his birth as a “fatal accident” in a chilling final note—we could not be any further away from what the Constitution had demanded from a free and fair India.

Rohith’s is not the lone tragedy. A spectre of suicide deaths by several Dalit students is haunting India. Out of 25 students who committed suicide only in north India and Hyderabad since 2007, 23 were Dalits. This included two in the prestigious All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, and 11 in Hyderabad city alone. Systematic data does not exist for such suicides, but the problem runs far deeper than a few students deciding to end their own lives after being defeated by the system.