Caste

About: Caste is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5681 publications have been published within this topic receiving 91330 citations. The topic is also known as: caste system.

Problems, acceptance and social inequality: a study of the deformed leprosy patients and their families.

Abstract: Though the impact of social inequality on health conditions is widely known, its impact on the chronic and stigmatized disease, leprosy, has received little attention. Deformity sometimes leads to disabilities and to handicaps causing problems to the patient and his family. In this paper an attempt has been made to understand the impact of social inequality, prevalent in the form of the caste system in India on the deformed leprosy patients and on their families. This impact was examined in terms of the problems faced by the patients. A sample of 150 deformed patients and their families, drawn from two districts in Tamil Nadu, was selected for the study. About 57% of the deformed patients experienced their deformity as a handicap which caused social and economic problems while the rest did not. Of the three caste groups, the Lower Caste group experienced more severe economic problems while the Upper Caste group faced more social problems. The extent of acceptance of deformed patients in their family varied significantly among those facing and not facing problems due to their deformity. The deformed patients without any handicap were accepted in a large majority of their families (82%) regardless of their caste status. In contrast the deformed but handicapped patients were accepted differentially among the three caste groups with the Upper group accepting them in most of their families (80%) while in the Lower group much less number of families (54%) did. All the families of the deformed but not handicapped patients desired to keep their patients till their death irrespective of their caste status. On the contrary, while all the families in the Upper Caste group expressed their willingness to keep their handicapped patients in the family till their death, 10% in the Middle and 22% in the Lower Caste groups did not want to do so. This suggests the gradual marginalization, rejection and dehabilitation of the affected. Thus, one's caste status can be a broad indicator of the nature and the extent of handicaps and acceptance in the family. This factor needs to be appropriately taken care of for rehabilitation and disability management in leprosy control programmes.

Illfare in India : essays on India's social sector in honour of S. Guhan

Abstract: Introduction - S Subramanian and Barbara Harriss-White PART ONE: POPULATION AND WORKFORCE Population and Development Revisited - Robert Cassen Labour Market Characteristics and Employment Generation Programmes in India - K Nagaraj PART TWO: HEALTH AND DISABILITY Technology and Costs of Medical Care - V R Muraleedharan Some Emerging Issues and Policy Imperatives On to a Loser - Barbara Harriss-White Disability in India PART THREE: DISCRIMINATION AND ITS REDRESSAL Caste, Politics and the Reservation Issue - P Radhakrishnan Poverty and Discrimination - D Jayaraj and S Subramanian Measurement, and Evidence from Rural India PART FOUR: LITERACY AND EDUCATION Adult Literacy in India Since Independence - Venkatesh Athreya Policy and Practice Exclusion in Education - Manabi Majumdar Indian States in Comparative Perspective PART FIVE: WELFARE, GOVERNANCE AND POLICY State, Market, Collective and Household Action in India's Social Sector - Barbara Harriss-White Subjective and Objective Indicators of Welfare Change over Time - S Janakarajan and Paul Seabright Evidence from a Resurvey Legal Institutions for Development - Sriram Panchu Some Aspects of Welfare, Governance and the Law in India Public Action and Social Inequality - Jean Dr[gr]eze and Amartya Sen

Caste and democratic politics in India

Abstract: The Indian constitution seeks to prevent the perpetuation of caste and build a casteless social system. But this has not happened over the fifty-odd years since Indian independence, and shows little sign of happening in the near future. Therefore no understanding of Indian politics is possible without a thorough understanding of the complexities of caste. The aim of this book is to bring about such an understanding. This volume offers state-of-the-art essays on the subject of caste and politics in contemporary India. It covers all the important grounds that students and scholars need in order to get to grips with the idea, ideology, and ground realities of India’s caste system.