Caste System as a Health Determinant in Caste-Oppressed Communities

ANAGHAH SANIKAPALLY – The origins of the caste system are placed somewhere from 4000 BCE to 1000 BCE , marking its conception with the advent of Vedic Hinduism. It intends to fragment the society based on ritual purity. Vedic caste consists of Brahmins or the priestly classes, Kshatriyas or the land-owning classes, Vaishyas or the merchant classes, Shudras or the servant and peasant classes, and finally, those viewed as outside the system itself. This class has unfortunately been given the title of Untouchable. Parallel to South Asia’s diverse people and groups, caste in a way manifests similarly, shifting its implications depending on the region. Speaking from a South Indian point of view, caste does not maintain this strong five-group division. Instead, it is usually divided into only three to four categories, in which further sub-divisions occur.

This system in South Asian society and, more broadly, Indian systems has resulted in a violent and neo-feudal state. It has allowed dominant and forward castes to perpetuate a violent form of purity culture in which caste-oppressed groups are displaced and ostracized. With resistance against this system being met with violence, caste-oppressed classes were and continue to be left without adequate educational resources, land-owning rights, and most disastrously, healthcare. 

The Indian healthcare system is often criticized for its rampant systemic inequality. An example of which would be that those able to seek care are almost only the affluent and forward castes of Indian society. This is due, in part, to the Indian government’s lack of budget for the public healthcare sector. According to Oxfam India’s Inequality Report in 2021, Dalits and social and religious minorities are significantly more affected by pandemics and epidemics such as COVID-19 and sexually transmitted diseases. Dalit communities also struggle with higher infant mortality rates compared to their caste-beneficiary counterparts; the infant mortality rate for Dalit communities is around 45 deaths per 1000, compared to the 32 deaths per 1000 for the general Indian population. Looking outside India, Bangladesh has also neglected the public health and healthcare issues of the Dalit. Intergenerational poverty of the Dalit communities of Nepal have shown that access to safe and adequate healthcare is strained due to socioeconomic status.

In particular, lack of adequate nutrition and unsanitary eating conditions has contributed to caste-oppressed children having higher rates of anemia, with over sixty percent of Dalit children having anemia compared India’s average of fifty percent. The lack of accessibility to safe healthcare has also resulted in Dalit children having higher rates of stunted growth; the general population’s households with stunted children is around thirty one percent, while the caste-oppressed population’s households with stunted children is around forty three percent . Dalits are vehemently ostracized to the point that the only forms of employment left are cleaning toilets, removing excrement, skinning cattle, and sweeping streets and houses. Due to this coupled with little to no access to medical care, Dalits have been recorded to be afflicted in more instances by skin diseases, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and diarrhea than the caste-beneficiary population. Dalit and caste-oppressed communities are also disproportionately affected by waterborne diseases due to the lack of clean water sanitation sites in the areas where Dalits and caste-oppressed peoples live. 

Due to caste-oppressed peoples having little to no access to adequate medical care, unsanitary living conditions and hygiene practices, and receiving no vaccinations, otherwise preventable and infectious diseases like Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Hepatitis spread rapidly among these communities. These groups, including the Adivasis or the indigenous populations of South Asia, are exponentially more prone to illnesses such as Sickle Cell Anemia, an inherited disorder that produces abnormally shaped hemoglobin amongst other things.

While this article does discuss a basic introduction of caste and its manifestations in healthcare and inadequate health conditions of South Asia’s caste-oppressed peoples, the author acknowledges that this resource is limited with the reasons that more research and application should be done to further counter and fix this ongoing issue. Also, a very important caveat of this article is that the author, as a caste and class beneficiary, should not be taken as a first-hand account on the issues of caste and class discrimination, and intends that this article should be used for the purposes of gaining awareness of the topic.

Copy Editor – Yeongseo Son

Photography Source – https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/bodies/2022/11/21/confronting-caste