Charles M. Blow, Opinion Columnist of NewYorkTimes penned a painful article: Social Distancing Is a Privilege in which he argued that “the idea that this virus is an equal-opportunity killer must itself be killed”. He shows how Coronavirus is against equal opportunities. We tend to believe that the viruses do not discriminate and this belief is true, but the viruses affect different people differently. For example, African Americans are dying more in proportions to other Americans and if the virus spreads unchecked the poor countries will be affected more.

While the disproportionate impact of virus on races that are discriminated is well documented and well represented, hardly anything is discussed or heard about the impact on India’s discriminated castes.

For Indian society is strictly stratified and the stratification based on caste is reflected in all the areas of public life. The Indian system of social stratification is also known as graded inequality. The people are parcelled into strict hierarchical endogamous groups.

While this system of strictly graded social stratification benefits 15 per cent of privileged strata, the rest 85 per cent are affected adversely by the caste system. Among these groups, the Dalits (discriminated as the untouchables) and Tribals (discriminated and sidelined by both the state and other social groups) suffer the most.

Majority of the people affected by the unplanned and sudden lockdown in India are the Dalits, tribals, and lower OBC castes. India saw a historic movement of people perhaps never seen in the history of the world in one day. In this forced movement, the people got intermingled and it is difficult to imagine how many people might have been infected. Only time will tell.

The unfortunate use of the term social distancing reminded many activists and anti-caste thinkers the practice of untouchability and memes were circulated lauding genius of Manu to invent the practice of untouchability as the social distancing, thus reinforcing the deep hatred and divisions in the society.

Reports are revealing that the slums of India’s major cities are increasingly affected by the coronavirus. Who are the slum dwellers in India? The majority of them are Dalits, tribals, and lower OBC castes, along with the minorities like Christian and Muslims, majority of them are converted.

For a pious Hindu, practicing caste discrimination is a religious fatwa. It is a duty to practice the Caste system. There is an incident that a quarantined person from a privileged caste refused to eat the food offered by a Dalit. How deep is the hatred and its practice part of Indian social life!

The small shopkeepers, rickshaw pullers, auto drivers, daily wagers, and redywalas are severely affected for the Coronavirus lockdown. The amount of psychological pressure to sustain their families is huge and no one has any idea or plan to support them when the economy is bound to collapse. Millions will be reduced below hunger line and millions will die due to lack of food.

It is difficult to know the scale of the spread of Coronavirus in India. The people are not tested and where they are tested the percentage is high. If diseases due to Coronavirus becomes the full-blown crisis like USA and Italy in India, it is predicted that India might see 30,00,000 deaths as the medical infrastructure in India is next to nothing. This surely spells the doom and death for India’s discriminated caste who are also poor by the virtue of the caste discrimination.

This is a difficult time for India’s discriminated and poor classes who make up to India’s 25% of the population.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist

Image credit – The Economist