Dalit identity, social and economic mobility and challenges in India

This paper argues that Dalits today are not only passive participants, now they have a systematic programme. In the era of globalisation and liberalisation, they are not only restricted to the government job, but now they are also increasingly venturing into other forms of occupations, professions and as a result, they are forming a new form of Dalit identity based on their occupational shift accrue significant levels of achievements in socio-economic and political status but not as compared to the caste Hindus. Dalits seem to have slowly made an entry into the professions and occupations of modern times, this happened out of the rigorous social, economic and political interventions, which enabled social and economic mobility. Several policies induce by the states’ such as reservation in education and subsequent employment in particular help in the upward social and economic mobility of Dalits. Dalits face the question of identity both at the social-collective level and at an individual level. Regarding mobility, their reference point is individual and collective, consisting of Dalit identity and ideology which furtherleads to the agenda of Dalit empowerment and hence makes them identify with both.