Comparison of the discrimination faced by two contrasting groups
Douglas McKay Comparison of the discrimination faced by two contrasting groups Poverty and inequality can have many interpretations, but the way I view poverty is that it is a deprivation of those things that determine the quality of life, including clothing, food, shelter and safe drinking water, but also such aspects as the opportunity to learn, to engage in meaningful employment, and to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens. There is lots of statistics about global poverty and here is just a few. Each year, more than 8 million people around the world die because they are too poor to stay alive. Over 1 billion people—1 in 6 people around the world—live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 a day. More than 800 million go hungry each day. Over 100 million primary school-age children cannot go to school. These are just a small handful of data regarding poverty. Poverty may affect individuals or groups, and is not confined to the developing nations. Poverty in developed countries is manifest in a set of social problems including homelessness and the persistence of "ghetto" housing
clusters. I will be looking at two contrasting groups facing discrimination, the Dalits (India) and the Indigenous (IA) Australians. India’s population is around 1 billion, while India’s major religion is Hinduism, it is also home to many Muslims, Buddhists and Christians. It is the Hindu influence that has produced the caste system, on which India’s culture hinges. This social structure has 4 very distinct levels, and comprises about 2/3rd of India’s population, the remaining 1/3rd of the population are known as Dalits or “untouchables”. In total they number 300 million people – more than the population then the United States. ...
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clusters. I will be looking at two contrasting groups facing discrimination, the Dalits (India) and the Indigenous (IA) Australians. India’s population is around 1 billion, while India’s major religion is Hinduism, it is also home to many Muslims, Buddhists and Christians. It is the Hindu influence that has produced the caste system, on which India’s culture hinges. This social structure has 4 very distinct levels, and comprises about 2/3rd of India’s population, the remaining 1/3rd of the population are known as Dalits or “untouchables”. In total they number 300 million people – more than the population then the United States. For more than 300 years, the Dalits have been oppressed by the Hindu religion, which created them to serve the caste system. The Dalits are excluded from the caste system, so literally they are outcasts. Most live in extreme poverty, in huts which have no electricity & gas, no running water and no sewage systems and they are barely able to feed their families. When they do need water, their nearest water supply is often miles away. This is because they are forbidden from public water wells, and also places of worship. They are also forbidden to wear shoes in the presence of a caste Hindu, travel public roadways or if they have money, stay in public hotels and eat in public restaurants. They have been given the worst jobs such as grave diggers, toilet cleaners, discarders of animal and human wastes and slave workers on the land of the rich. If there is any income at all it amounts to less than $1 a day which is defined as extreme poverty. Indigenous Australians are descendants of the first known human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. British colonisation of Australia began in Sydney in 1788. The most immediate consequence of British settlement - within weeks of the first colonists' arrival - was a wave of Old World epidemic diseases. Smallpox alone killed more than 50% of the Aboriginal population living in the vicinity of Sydney. The second consequence of British settlement was appropriation of land and water resources. The combination of disease, loss of land and direct violence reduced the Aboriginal population by up to 80% between 1788 and 1900. A wave of massacres and resistance followed the frontier of British settlement. Only until 1967 they were given proper citizenship and furthermore all the states apart from Tasmania allowed them to have land rights. There are many inequality factors facing the IA’s and it leads to barriers in accessing important social resources such as healthcare, housing, employment and the justice system. Being born an IA leads to an underclass and underprivileged citizen, as they live in relative poverty (defined as the inability of a citizen to participate fully in economic terms in the society in which he or she lives), they do not have to power or authority to change their situation, especially with their small numbers (400,000 left). Politian’s ordered the forceful removal of IA’s from their families which is known as “cultural genocide” and the children are referred to the “lost generation”. This also led to the degradation to their society and culture and thus continuing to diminish their numbers To conclude this comparison of these two groups, the Dalits in India and the Indigenous Australians, I believe their situations can be linked and related to. The Dalits in India are regarded as the lowest of the low and are treated like “rats”. They are not given proper education and healthcare and not allowed to mix with non-Dalits. The IA on the other hand had there numbers decline mostly due to the European diseases brought to the country and also due to cultural genocide (the process of taking the aboriginal children and breeding them with non IA’s, thus “killing” off the IA population). These two groups are closely related however in the case of the IA’s they were the first natural inhabitants of Australia. This is the opposite to the Dalits, they were originally from India however the caste system in India has forced them into poverty. What has forced IA into poverty is the massive presence of the white population and has made the IA into a minority. However there have been recent apologies by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia to the indigenous Australians, which I would say is respectful. However there has been no sympathy towards the Dalits from the upper classes, they want the Dalits to stay in this low status for as long as possible. To conclude I believe the Dalits suffer more than the IA’s, not just because of the way they are treated but the sheer number of them as a whole. Words: 961 Bibliography: Research on Dalits: Internet (“www.wiki.com”, “www.dalitnetwork.org”) Research on IA’s: Internet (“www.wiki.com”, “www.indigenous.gov.au”, “www.pm.gov.au/media/Speech/2008/speech_0073.cfm” Research using class notes on IA’s and Dalits.
