Social Exclusion

Social exclusion is not simply about poverty or low income. It refers to the deeper, structural ways in which a social group or individuals become cut off from full involvement in the wider society. The focus is on the broad range of factors that prevent people from having opportunities that are open to the majority of the population.

To live a full and active life, a person must not only be able to feed, clothe, and house themselves. They must also have access to essential goods and services such as education, health, transportation, insurance, social security, banking, and even access to the police or judiciary. When any of these doors are closed to a group, that group is socially excluded.

A critical point is that social exclusion is not accidental — it is systematic. It is the result of the structural features of society itself, not just the occasional bad behaviour of individuals.

India, like most societies, has been marked by acute practices of social discrimination and exclusion. At different periods of history, protest movements arose against caste, gender, and religious discrimination. Yet, prejudices remain, and often, new ones emerge. This is why legislation alone is unable to transform society or produce lasting social change. A constant social campaign to change awareness and sensitivity is required to break these patterns.

The experience of colonialism brought the meaning of discrimination and exclusion home to even the most privileged Indians at the hands of the British colonial state. Such experiences were, of course, common to various socially discriminated groups such as women, dalits, and other oppressed castes and tribes. Faced with the humiliation of colonial rule and simultaneously exposed to ideas of democracy and justice, many Indians initiated and participated in a large number of social reform movements.

The chapter focuses on four groups who have suffered from serious social inequality and exclusion:

• Dalits (the ex-untouchable castes)
• Adivasis (communities referred to as 'tribal')
• Women
• The differently abled

Apart from these four, two more groups are included in this category: transgender and people of the third gender.