CASTE-BASED DISCRIMINATION IN INDIA
AUTHOR – G R RADHIKA, B.COM.,LL.B (HONS)., LLM (CRIMINAL LAW), THE TAMILNADU DR. AMBEDKAR LAW UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EXECLLENCE IN LAW
BEST CITATION – G R RADHIKA, CASTE-BASED DISCRIMINATION IN INDIA, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (10) OF 2026, PG. 01-12, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
Abstract
This article provides a comprehensive socio-legal analysis of caste-based discrimination in India, tracing its origins in ancient religious texts through its contemporary manifestations in education, employment, criminal justice, and digital spaces. It examines the constitutional and statutory architecture constructed to combat caste oppression — including Articles 14, 15, 16, and 17 of the Constitution, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 and its 2015 Amendment, the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013, and the recently enacted Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023. Drawing on documented empirical research, NCRB data, judicial pronouncements, and socio-historical scholarship, the article identifies seven overlapping forms of caste-based deviance — untouchability, educational discrimination, occupational bondage, economic exclusion, physical and sexual violence, honour killings, and digital harassment — and analyses the structural causes that sustain them despite formal prohibition. Key judicial decisions from Indra Sawhney (1992) to Sukanya Shantha (2024) are examined for their contribution to, and occasional retreat from, the constitutional promise of substantive equality. The article concludes that the persistence of caste discrimination is not a failure of law alone but of institutional composition, enforcement culture, and political will, and that genuine transformation requires reform of the very agencies charged with implementing the law.
Keywords: caste-based discrimination, Dalits, untouchability, SC/ST Atrocities Act, reservation policy, caste violence, manual scavenging, social exclusion, constitutional equality, India