Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The constitutional protections in India have a moderately good effect on the lives of Scheduled Castes (SCs). Additionally, the social movements helped marginalized communities’ voices to some extent by empowering them to assert their rights and participate in the decision-making process. The Constitution has opened up political entry to underprivileged groups as a part of the decentralization movement at the grassroots level. Given an opportunity on par with other social groups, the SCs are showing more interest and are ahead in contesting in the elections with the support of their respective political parties. An effort has been made in this context to emphasize the problems and difficulties experienced by the elected SC members in local bodies in rural Telangana. The main objectives of the study are to examine the participation rates of SC representatives in Gram Sabha, analyse experiences in the political system in terms of gender and examine the discriminatory practices that elected officials have to deal with. The findings show that the SC representatives’ participation in Gram Sabha is weak and lacking in the decision-making process because of a lack of official backing and covert discrimination by the officials. Additionally, the SC representatives experience covert prejudice on the part of other castes. Since the bulk of the representatives are new to the election process, they are unaware of the duties that they are expected to carry out. According to the findings, the Gram Sabha should plan and finalize the village development plans in front of the people without the involvement of the local MLAs.

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The question of the development of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and its analysis received considerable attention during the post-Independence period. The Central and State governments have been launching several programmes and institutions for the economic and social progress of the SCs as well as raising the consciousness of their rights. The Ambedkar statues and the construction of Ambedkar Bhavans/community halls are a platform for organizing the SCs to debate and articulate key issues and concerns; fostering solidarity among SCs is an important initiative of the government, across the country. The core objectives of the study are to examine the distribution of Ambedkar Bhavans/community halls in the districts and budgetary allocations and the expenditure incurred towards the construction of the halls. The other objective is to assess the utilization of Ambedkar Bhavans/community halls and the activities undertaken in them and their impact on the empowerment of Scheduled Castes in the selected districts. The empirical study highlights that the members of the community are making use of the community halls to debate the issues of their surroundings and the implementation of government schemes, besides organizing their social functions and economic activities. However, there is no rationality in allocating the budget for the land and the construction of buildings across the districts in the state.