Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The article explores approaches adopted by scavengers to protect themselves from stigma and describes how these approaches are temporal and incomplete. It also addresses the perception of scavenger’s son education and social status for their children’s social mobility. Social mobility has been described among scavengers and its relationship with changes that are taking place among the scavengers of Lucknow. A detailed discussion of ‘social mobility’ is carried out in this document supported by empirical data. At the applied level, the present study may help to identify the aspirations and expectations of the scavengers. In other words, it has been provided as an indicator of measuring the desires and efforts of the scavengers for their status in the caste or the class structure or both. In this article, an effort was made at two levels to know the nature of the status identification of the respondents. At one level, they were asked about their interaction with the non-scavenging community of other Scheduled Castes and their interaction pattern with the upper caste. In further analysis, first, this article has discussed occupation followed by mobility, its various forms and its significance in a scavenger’s life and finally focuses on social mobility in the scavengers’ context.

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
One of the main agendas of our freedom struggle was to have socio-economic freedom and equality for all irrespective of the caste, race, religion, sex or so on. Thus, ever since India got Independence and Constitution of India was enacted, the hopes and aspirations of the weaker sections increased manifold for socio-economic development, social freedom and social transformations. The Government of India too, inspired by the struggle for independence, attempted within its limited economic and other resources to ameliorate the destitute conditions of the downtrodden India, with various plans, schemes and programmes, apart from the socio-economic reservations. In this article, thus, an attempt is being made to examine the developmental process of India with references to the weaker sections such as Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and other backward classes. It is observed from various studies that despite some noble schemes and programmes, the plight of the weaker sections has not transformed into satisfactory levels mainly on account of the failure of implementation process. These issues are critically examined here in this small piece of article.

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
This study explores the association between a couple’s characteristics and women’s reproductive behaviour in India. Generally, the study on the population deals with only women considering women samples for evaluating fertility in India. The current research includes men and women to examine the effect of the differences in their caste, age and educational level on fertility behaviour in India. For this purpose, data from the National Family Health Survey-4 has been used carried out during 2015–2016. Differences in couple’s characteristics were tabulated with the children ever born to see the distribution by the caste, age and educational level differences in India. In order to obtain more accurate results, linear regression was applied to see the variation in children ever born to the couple’s characteristics and different background characteristics. We find that caste, age and education differences among couples significantly impact fertility; as these differences increase, children ever born among couples also increase. The study proposes that satisfactory educational levels have lessened the role of caste and age on fertility in India.

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
In recent days, Tamil cinema has reached a wide range in marketing and popularity across the globe, gaining attention around the world through its style and techniques. Critics and researchers highlight and celebrate the recent changes in Tamil cinema as the ‘New Wave’. It readies to change gears in the aspects of theme, narration and choice of portraying the characters. Tamil cinema became a medium to express the voice of suppressed people. Directors pinpoint issues such as identity crisis, domestic violence and political ideologies. The issues and problems of subaltern people were totally neglected in Tamil cinema, but now they reflect reality. Witness is one of the movies on that list that discusses the pain of manual scavengers. The movie is not an emotional drama; rather, it questions society from different perspectives. It depicts the lives, sufferings and struggles of manual scavengers. The film not only raises questions but also serves as an answer to tangible questions. This paper discusses and highlights the literary works that mainly torched out the problems of manual scavengers in the present and past.

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
In the night of colonial Calcutta, soils were collected by the methars. As per Act VI of 1863 regulations, restrictions were imposed on methars. Thus, suitable depots were made and leased to the tollah methars. Since the 1870s, the disposing of the night soils in the river was stopped, and the duty of tollah methars was shifted to the municipality. Chandals was by profession an excluded social category. Even in prison chandals had to clear the night soils of the others. In protest of that prisoners specially methars declared a strike in the prison for months and hence formed a unique bonding that Putnam called ‘social capital’. This article discusses how methars of late colonial Calcutta while upholding the oppression gradually developed ‘social capital’ and started negotiating to establish their justified claims using party politics.

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The large and prosperous Indian diaspora in the USA has earned the epitaph of ‘model minority’, but it obscures the spectre of caste discrimination within. The caste has travelled with the Indians across the globe and keeps rearing its ugly head of discrimination within the community. The article explores the emergence of the Indian diaspora and presence of caste discrimination in the USA. The recent case of caste discrimination against Cisco (MNC) and its Indian employees in California has opened the Pandora box. Since caste is not recognized under any American law, the case has been filed under Civil Rights Act, 1965, which forbids discrimination on the basis of religion, ancestry, national origin/ethnicity and race/colour. Hence, Cisco case is the first opportunity in the United States for caste to be incorporated as a protected legal category at par with race, religion ethnicity and so on. Moreover, it situates the case within larger global Dalit rights movements, their efforts to incorporate caste within the ambit of racism at various international forums and its inclusion as a protected characteristics within the Equality Act, 2010, of the United Kingdom. These efforts are to challenge the caste hegemony at both local and global levels and strive for its eradication.

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Kerala’s social sphere is well-stocked with the elements of modernity like literacy, democracy, equality and fraternity, which makes it difficult to identify and classify casteism and its effects. The projected image of modernity makes Kerala’s public sphere more accessible and permissible to minority groups when compared to other states. The state’s emergence after independence manifests through its learning and employment institutions. These motifs of development camouflage the existing casteism present in the state, thus making it invisible. Here, Dalit literature becomes pivotal as it becomes a storehouse of implicit caste references and stereotyping, which the statistics often fail to see. The article puts into perspective two Dalit short stories, ‘Mea Culpa’ and ‘Karthik Immanuel’s Spiritual Musings’ written by Raju K. Vasu and Prince Aymenem, respectively. They represent a public sphere where no explicit casteism occurs, whereas its repercussions are nevertheless felt. The stories showcase how micro-level manifestations of casteism occur, which are neither identified nor quantified. Taking the concept of microaggression proposed by Psychologist Derald Wing Sue, the research attempts to do a narrative analysis of the primary texts, delving deep into the invisible but pervading casteism.

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Caste-based social stratification is strong in India. Scheduled Castes (SCs) are weaker section of the society facing multiple inequities and discrimination in India. The state of Haryana has enacted Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015, by which educational qualifications have been made mandatory to fight Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) elections since 2016. Based on secondary data collected from the Haryana Panchayati Raj Institutions Election Reports for the year 2010 and 2016, the study reveals that the share of elected SC PRIs increased from 22.94% in 2010 to 25.39% in 2016, after the introduction of educational qualifications for the PRIs election. Empowerment has been gauged on account of extra seats SCs have won than the seats reserved. SC PRIs empowerment composite score increased from 71.07 in 2010 to 116.55 in 2016. Mewat district had low educational level among rural SCs recorded highest PRIs empowerment index. The study highlights that the SCs, particularly of Panchkula, Kaithal, Sonipat and Jind districts require some motivational support to encourage their participation in PRIs elections.

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
In Jasmine, the conceptual understanding of Bharati Mukherjee’s protagonist Jyoti is often caught between two worlds and cultures. This is the story of a simple Indian village girl Jyoti’s journey from India to America. During her journey, her transformation and feminist role are significant to understand the cultural changes in her life. This article analyses Mukherjee’s Jasmine with the diasporic postcolonial theoretical framework. This article explores Jyoti’s struggles, assimilation and accommodation in the Third Space with scholars like Bhabha, Lin and Schwartz et al. The postcolonial concepts like a Third Space, identity transformation and acculturation process create a space to explore Jasmine’s journey. To conclude, her efforts to assimilate and identity construction attracts us to explore diasporic space in women’s life. This research finds a potential scope to explore the cross-cultural psychology of the female character in the novel to (re)present the diasporic journey from India to America. This research finds that Jasmine’s role as a diasporic figure creates a Third Space and acculturation.

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Dalits have gradually developed different emancipation strategies during their struggle. While all of them fight against untouchability and discrimination, their positions on other issues may differ. Most of them espouse the ideas of Dr Ambedkar, for whom the prime objective was the eradication of caste. He openly rejected Hinduism and converted to Buddhism. Millions of Dalits followed his example, and many venerate him as a supreme leader to this day. Devendrakula Velalars are an exception to the rule. They reject Dalit ideology. Instead, they prefer to strengthen their caste identity and move up the social ladder. They try to prove that the three Tamil dynasties, that is, Pandyas, Cholas and Cheras, originated from among them. It was only after the ascendency of the Nayak kings that their proud name Mallar was changed into the derogatory Pallar and they were deprived of their land and turned into untouchables. Now they are trying to get themselves removed from the Scheduled Castes list and thus rid themselves of its stigmatizing influence. The aim of this article is to follow the intellectual journey of the main ideologues of this caste and to match their arguments with recent steps taken towards their political representation.