Wronging Rights: Eroding Affirmative Action Analysis

Wronging Rights: Eroding Affirmative Action

The constitutional safeguards, programmes, provisions and policy aim to bridge the human development deficits and inter-generational discrimination that Dalits have been subjected to. However, rights won through people’s movements, transformative social reforms’ processes and progressive legislations are easily lost if not backed by programmes and resources, capacitated institutions to deliver the same and a vigilant citizenry to monitor it. There are many challenges which pose a danger to erode the rights and the entitlements scripted in all policies, provisions and programmes, but additionally: dalit under-nutrition cannot be de-coupled from the story of caste-based discrimination and marginalisation
Sunderraman (2013), from National Health Systems Resource Center clearly stated that lack of work on inter-sectionality of food, nutrition and health suppresses the general well-being, e.g. in Chattisgarh, mitanins were more effective in giving early-child feeding and nutrition messages, than the anganwadi workers. Intersectionality of rual employment guarantee act, reproductive and child health, critical care and community management of malnutrition, public distribution system, ICDS and MDM scheme is necessary, but yet to be operationalised.
Bajaj (2013) explained that dalit women, being one of the most productively engaged work force, have negligible access to public funded day-care facility, which has always featured as one of their core demands in participatory appraisals. Persistent discrimination at public service spaces has been acknowledged by dalits self-affirmation. Hence trickling schemes and programmes while dispossessing them at a mass scale, is bound to lead to massive
Knowledge and Evidence: Undernutrition is a multisectoral challenge that is open to various interpretations (eg, health, economic growth, intergenerational rights, or humanitarian issue).
2. Politics and Governance: Various stakeholders and agencies, each with different and frequently competing agendas (especially in decentralised systems of governance), need to work together to reduce undernutrition.
3. Capacity and Resources: Human and organisational capacity need to encompass not only nutrition know-how, but also a set of soft-power skills to operate effectively across boundaries and disciplines, such as leadership for alliance building and networking, communication of the case for collaboration, leveraging of resources, and being able to convey evidence clearly to those in power.
Inclusive Programming
India has many best practices played by different states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. Addressing delivery and structural challenges, building on community partnerships and designing programmes with well-evolved targeting (e.g RCH, NRHM and SCP) or universalizing them with exclusion filters and self-targeting (e.g. MGNREGS or NFSA) will go a long way in addressing dalit distress and consequently under-nutrition. Rights and entitlement won over the years should not be allowed to be eroded via down-stream discrimination or faulty designs. Making every dalit voice count through consultation, is the mantra of inclusive