Dalits have suffered enough. We want a new social order now, says Ashok Bharti

At least for five years now, Dalits have been feeling very resentful. Not long ago, a Dalit mother and her baby were burnt alive in a caste war in Faridabad. One of the central ministers publicly called the Dalit a dog. That minister is still serving. Then Rohith Vemula happened, and now Gujarat. Una was the last straw.

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In India, Dalits face over 50,000 atrocities each year. By the government's own records, six Dalits are raped every day; more than 25 cases of atrocities take place every day but only one is registered. Enormous indignity, atrocity and humiliation is heaped upon Dalits every single day. So, keeping quiet is no longer an option. And through this protest, we want to tell the government that enough is enough.

Our demands are not only political in nature, they concern fundamental issues. Our first demand is for equal dignity for all through the efforts of all arms of the government and the judiciary. Second is about the developmental needs of Dalits. Adivasis and Dalits are poor and deprived because natural resources are unequally distributed. We demand equal distribution of resources - land, mining etc. - so that the developmental needs of Dalits and Adivasis are taken care of.

The Poona Pact was a progressive social contract among Hindus with Gandhi on one side and Dalits led by Ambedkar on the other. The pact was aimed at rectifying centuries of social discrimination. It's ineffective because it only translated into reservation for Dalits in the parliament and the assemblies. Even after seven decades of parliamentary democracy, we see that no Dalit elected from a reserved seat represents our cause because they are bound by the whips and policies of their parties.

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Unfortunately, in the past few decades, we have seen Dalits being isolated politically. Though they are emerging as a political force on their own, other parties don't raise their issues as well as they should. Only when Dalits are allowed to directly elect their leaders will true Dalit leadership emerge. Take Ram Vilas Paswan, for instance, who was "made" a Dalit leader. This is a shortcoming of our parliamentary democracy: leaders who do not have the backing of Dalits still become their leaders.

I was a government officer for 17 years and I resigned without even taking the VRS benefit. When you go to office, your caste reaches there before you do. When your surroundings are predominantly upper caste, it makes a Dalit feel insecure. The stigmas and the caste-based interpersonal relationships are set in stone and not easy to navigate through. A political change alone is not enough to address this. It requires a social change.

There are two definitions of 'Dalit' - one is that of the Dalits themselves and the other of the Brahminical intelligentsia. If you look at the 1972 manifesto, Dalits were defined as Schedule Tribes, Schedule Castes, socially backward classes, minorities, women and anybody who was downtrodden. But these intellectuals could not grasp this definition. So, they defined Dalits as only the Scheduled Castes.

But when Mayawati came to power we saw that class and caste merged. Now Una has led to an even bigger merger. In rural areas, even a poor Brahmin will say, "I am also a Dalit!". The poor understand the definition of 'Dalit' better than anybody.