Revision summary
Untouchability and dominant-caste power organise SC exploitation. Landlessness and stigmatised labour are the economic core. Reservations help a layer; most remain informal and dependent. Local police and panchayat often sit with the exploiters. Ambedkar’s constitution is the legal counter, not yet the social fact.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Exploitation of Scheduled Castes is organised extraction of labour, land, and honour. It is not a leftover custom only. It is a living structure of jati power.
Body
Ritual and social factors
- Untouchability and purity rules, which Dumont centred, still restrict wells, temples, and marriage.
- Srinivas’s dominant caste uses those rules as a labour discipline, not only as a philosophy.
- Sanskritisation rarely opens the bottom rungs; it may even tighten distance.
Economic factors
- Landlessness, attached labour, and low-paid sanitation and leather work keep dependence.
- Green Revolution and later markets often enriched the dominant caste first.
- Urban jobs and reservations help a minority; most remain informal.
Political and legal factors
- Ambedkar’s constitutional safeguards exist. Atrocities continue where police and panchayat sit with the locally strong.
- Communal and party uses of Dalit votes can be another harvest without land reform.
- Village studies from Dube to Bailey already showed faction as a machine that can include or punish Dalit clients.
Gender
- SC women face caste plus sexual control in field and town, a double exploitation.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD P[Purity untouchability] --> E[SC exploitation] L[Landless labour] --> E S[Local state capture] --> E
Conclusion
SC exploitation rests on purity ideology, landless labour, and captured local state. Law named the wound; dominant-caste economy still profits from it.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
Write in detail various provisions provided by the Constitution of India for the scheduled tribes under Fifth and Sixth Schedules
Next question on this syllabus topic (2016 · Q8(a)). View answer →
-
Is poverty the only factor?
Poverty is central. Honour, well, and temple bans are extra levers of exploitation.
-
Did Sanskritisation end this?
No. Mobility of middle jatis can leave SC labour in place.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
-
2025 · Q4(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
What are the different types of caste mobility in India? Highlight the various factors responsible for it -
2023 · Q6(b) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Distinguishing between ethnic identity and ethnicity, discuss the factors responsible for ethnic conflict in tribal areas. -
2021 · Q6(b) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Examine the factors responsible for malnutrition in tribal India and suggest interventions required to overcome the problem -
2026 · Q8(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Make a critical appraisal of Surajit Sinha's line of argument that tribes and castes may not be isolated social categories, but are a part of the great Indian civilization
More from this topic
Q7(c) · UPSC Mains 2026 · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks · Solution
Write an account on Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST)
Problems of exploitation and deprivation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. Constitutional safeguards for Scheduled Tribes and…
• DAPST (formerly Tribal Sub-Plan) is a central financial mechanism ensuring earmarked fund allocation for ST development. • It originated during the 5th Five-Year Plan (1974) and was later renamed to streamline planning and fund allocation. • Central ministries must allocate 2.5% to 17.5% of their scheme outlays proportional to the national ST population. • The primary goal is to bridge critical infrastructure, health, education, and livelihood gaps in tribal regions. • Major hurdles include historical fund diversion, under-utilization, poor data disaggregation, and local administrative bottlenecks. • Strengthening statutory backing and decentralized monitoring via Gram Sabhas are key to improving its ground-level impact.
Q5(e) · UPSC Mains 2024 · Anthropology GS 2 · 10 marks · Solution
Constitutional Safeguards for Backward Classes.
Problems of exploitation and deprivation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. Constitutional safeguards for Scheduled Tribes and…
Backward Classes (OBCs) are covered by Articles 15(4) and 16(4), the 340 commissions, and constitutional NCBC (338B). The 105th Amendment restored state OBC lists after the 102nd Amendment controversy. 15(5) supports education reservation; 16(6) EWS is a separate economic quota. Indra Sawhney set 27 percent, creamy layer and a general 50 percent ceiling. OBC safeguards differ from SC/ST list protections and from Fifth/Sixth Schedule land autonomy.
Q2(a) · UPSC Mains 2023 · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks · Solution
"Tribes are backward Hindus." Critically comment with reference to the contributions of G.S. Ghurye.
Problems of exploitation and deprivation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. Constitutional safeguards for Scheduled Tribes and…
Ghurye held that Indian tribes are incomplete Hindus who should be absorbed into caste civilisation. He was right that many middle-Indian groups already share festivals, rank, and landlords with peasants. Bose, Srinivas, Roy, and Bailey document that continuum. He was wrong to treat Khasi matriliny, Naga polity, Munda khuntkatti, and sarna or church as mere backwardness. Elwin, Haimendorf, and the Xaxa Committee keep tribe as a distinct historical and legal category.