P Chidambaram writes: How are the four ‘castes’ doing?

Every year, farmers produce a record-breaking quantity of wheat and rice evidenced by the burgeoning stocks of wheat and rice in the central pool

casteism, caste system in Indian, castes in India, caste survey, varna system, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Sudra, caste, opinion on castes, indian express news

The so-called ‘untouchable’ was placed below the ‘Sudra’ (Express File Photo)

6 min readDec 24, 2023 08:30 AM IST First published on: Dec 24, 2023 at 07:55 AM IST

The accepted wisdom is that there are four castes in India. Actually, there are four varnas and numerous castes running into the thousands. The four varnas are Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra. The so-called ‘untouchable’ was placed below the ‘Sudra’. They are now called Dalits. The varnas have been the bane of India — creating hierarchies, entrenching prejudices, segregating employment, denying mobility and excluding nearly one-fourth of the population from sharing the fruits of development.

I, therefore, welcome Prime Minister Modi’s formulation of four ‘castes’ — poor, youth, women and farmers — although I resent the word ‘caste’. Leave that aside, and let us ask ourselves the pertinent question, How are the four ‘castes’ doing in Mr Modi’s India.

The Poor

The UNDP has estimated that there are 228 million who are poor in India (16 per cent of the population) This is based on a very low poverty bar: earnings per person per month of Rs 1,286 in urban areas and Rs 1,089 in rural areas. Thanks to liberalisation and the opening of the economy in 1991, many millions escaped poverty. But consider these data points. The bottom 50 per cent of the population held only 3 per cent of the country’s assets and earned only 13 per cent of the country’s income.

Among children, 32.1 per cent were under-weight, 19.3 per cent were wasted and 35.5 per cent were stunted. Over 50 per cent of women in the age group 15-49 were anaemic. The government found it necessary to give free ration of 5 kg per person per month to 810 million people (57 per cent of the population) for the next 5 years. These mean there is widespread malnutrition and hunger.

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According to the State of Working India report, 2023 (Azim Premji University) and the Periodic Labour Force Survey, monthly earnings of the three kinds of workers between 2017-18 and 2022-23 have been stagnant in constant prices. The estimate that only 16 per cent of the population is poor is an underestimate.

The Youth

One-half of India is under the age of 28 years (the median age). According to the PLFS (July 2022-June 2023), the unemployment rate of persons of age 15-29 years is 10.0 per cent (rural 8.3, urban 13.8). According to the State of Working India report, 2023, among graduates under the age of 25 years, the unemployment rate was 42.3 per cent. The UR reduced as the graduate grew older (and waited longer), but even among graduates of age 30-34 years the unemployment rate was 9.8 per cent.

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The impact of high unemployment is seen in internal migration and the rise in crime, violence and use of drugs. The claim that the government will create 2 crore jobs a year turned out to be an election jumla. In a written reply to Parliament in July 2023, the government disclosed that there were 9,64,359 vacancies in the government in March 2022. The government has no answer to rampant unemployment. Joblessness among youth is a volcano that can erupt at any time.

Women

Women constitute one-half of the population and their ‘backwardness’ is due to many reasons — patriarchy, regressive social and cultural norms, low education, little property, high unemployment, gender discrimination and crimes against women. According to the NCRB report (December 2023), crimes against women rose 4 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021 and 4,45,000 crimes against women were registered in 2022. Most crimes were of cruelty by family members, domestic violence, kidnapping, sexual assault, rape and demand for dowry.

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Gender disparity and discrimination are found in every walk of life, especially in income. Male casual workers earn 48 per cent more than women and male regular-wage workers earn 24 per cent more than women. Worker:Population ratio for urban women is 21.9 per cent as against 69.4 per cent for men. Labour Force Participation rate for urban women is 24.0 as against 73.8 per cent for men. According to the World Bank, 19.6 million women left the workforce between 2004-05 and 2011-12. Ignoring these disparities will mean that women will remain suppressed for many decades.

Farmers

NCRB data show that the incidence of farmers’ suicides has remained high in the years between 2014 and 2022. If the number of agricultural labourers is added, the number of suicides in 2020, 2021 and 2022 were 10,600, 10,881 and 11,290, respectively. Every year, farmers produce a record-breaking quantity of wheat and rice evidenced by the burgeoning stocks of wheat and rice in the central pool.

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Yet farmers remain poor. When agricultural produce prices are low farmers suffer; when prices rise, the BJP government routinely imposes export restrictions. The main reasons for the plight of the farmers are small holdings, rising input costs, insufficient MSP and uncertain market prices, import and export policies that are biased in favour of the consumer, natural disasters, and insurance money that is either absent or denied. A happy farmer is an oxymoron. One saw the wrath of the farmers when the government tried to implement the farm laws without consulting them.

Large sections of the four ‘castes’ are poor, unhappy and have little faith in the policies and programmes of the Modi government. They know that the government leans in favour of the rich. Their silence is not approval or acquiescence. It is because they are poor, enjoy little power and live in fear.