DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE AGAINST DALIT WOMEN ENGAGED IN MANUAL SCAVENGING:

The Indian Constitution guarantees the fundamental rights of Dalits. The Supreme Court is the main safeguard of the human rights of all Indian citizens, interpreting the special provisions of the Constitution which aim to uplift the position of Dalits and other weaker social sections. The government has also passed notable laws and policies which promote several schemes for the development of Dalits; these provisions also include Dalit women engaged in manual scavenging (DWEMS) who are still engaged in the undignified caste based occupation of carrying ‘night soil’1. The justice system from the Supreme Court to the lower courts is considered by many to be strong enough to provide legal remedies against the rights violations to all human beings in the country (Agrawal, 2006). Yet the majority of DWEMS are still unable to access the law and policies formulated for their benefit. The United Nations Sub- Commission’s working paper on ‘Work and Descent-based Discrimination’ also points out that the Indian government has passed prominent legislation but the lack of commitment on the part of the government officials makes enforcement a major problem. Prejudice and caste favouritism prevails and protects dominant caste perpetrators from prosecution under the law (Keane: 2007, 242). This study analyses the forms of social exclusion and injustice faced by DWEMS and discerns the structural causes of multiple forms of discrimination and violations of their rights in the state of Madhya Pradesh (MP) in central India. It looks at how the implementation of laws and government-run schemes fail to address the ways in which violations of the rights of DWEMS are connected not only to the caste they are born into, but also their gender identity, their class and their ‘unclean occupation’. The study looks at the procedural aspects of the law and the dominant norms of castes in the social and legal institutions to show how state and non-state actors all fail to recognize the intersectional aspects of violence which DWEMS face.