Kerala model a non-starter for Dalits

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUG 16: Social scientist and columnist Gail Omvedt has said that the condition of Dalits in Kerala have remained mor...

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUG 16: Social scientist and columnist Gail Omvedt has said that the condition of Dalits in Kerala have remained more or less similar8217; to that in other States in spite of the Kerala model of development.

At a seminar organised here today by Democratic Government College Teachers Association, Gail Omvedt said that the share of the SC landholding in Kerala was only 2.94 per cent in 8217;91 though their population was 11 per cent. Their average landholding was only 0.07 per cent which was significantly worse than the national average, with only the Punjabi SCs being behind in share of land-holding. Though national average of 0.49 hectares for Dalits was significantly lower than the non-SC population, it was still sufficient to provide them a small footing as cultivators.

As regards income, in general, wage labourers in rural Kerala were better off than in most parts of the country, as per the National Council on Applied Economic Research survey in 1994. However, this has not helped SCs inKerala to improve their position much. Overall, monthly expenditure of SCs in Kerala was about three-fourth of non-SC population and this had fallen to 68.2 per cent for urban SCs in 8217;87-88.

Statistics on employment and unemployment showed that Kerala Dalits suffered disproportionately. The overall statistics on poverty showed similar pattern. Dalits were about 1.5 times likely to be in poverty according to the headcount ratio compared to all groups. The much touted land reforms led to giving land to tenants and not to landless farm labour, Omvedt said.

In regard to globalisation, Dalits had a more ambivalent approach. Dalits did not have the same emotional ties invested in opposing globalisation as do the more nationalist, State-oriented upper caste Left. Underlying this was a powerful sense of being ruled by a native Brahminical elite 8211; in comparison with which there was little to fear and perhaps something to gain from a global elite.

The social scientist said the fragmentation of Dalit-OBC-Bahujansas a result of the percolation of Brahminical values and the segregation of labour were the major obstacle to their unity. She stressed that unity centred on Hindu religion-centred Brahminical order would not create a sense of nationhood.

Congress was dying and that BJP had grown in the absence of an alternative. Socialism was in the last gasp in JD and third front was stagnant. An upsurge of Dalits and other deprived sections was evident but it was too complex a phenomenon. As a result of current political developments, the Centre might become weak. The annihilation of castes would help engender a greater unity than that based on traditional religious barriers. Intermarriages and a conscious spreading of computer literacy among children of outcastes would go towards a social levelling.