Culture And Caste

The caste system has been in place for more than 3,000 years and was created for the division of labour among the community. At the top of the caste system are the Brahmins, who are the priests and arbiters of what is right and wrong in matters of religion and society. Next come the Kshatriyas, who are soldiers and administrators. The Vaisyas are the artisan and commercial class, and finally, the Sudras who are the farmers and the peasant class. These four castes are said to have come from Brahma's mouth (Brahmin), arms (Kshatriyas), thighs (Vaisyas) and feet (Sudras).

Beneath the four main castes is a fifth group, the Scheduled Caste. They literally have no caste. They are the untouchables, the Dalit's, which means "crushed", "downtrodden", "broken".

A Dalit is not considered to be part of the human society, but something, which is beyond that. They are called untouchables because people believe that they are so dirty that they are not fit to be touched by other people in higher castes. Their jobs involve doing most of the cleaning, or what we might call "dirty work." The Dalit's perform the most menial and degrading jobs. The girls in the image below are making dung patties.  The dung from cows are taken and made into patties and set out to dry (as you can see the rows of them), these patties are then used to be burned as fuel or for heat.

In India there are approximately 250 million Dalit's. Dalit's have very little access to enough food, health care, housing and clothing. They also do not have access to education and employment. Officially everyone in India has the same rights and duties, but the practice is different.

Education will help provide the opportunity to change the future -- and transform a child's life now and forever.

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