What is discrimination?

Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different

categories of people, especially on the grounds of ethnicity, age, sex, or disability. Unfortunately,
we live in a world where when we don’t understand something, we tend to look at it from a
prejudicial point of view, leading to discrimination. In our country, we read the news and
encounter tales of discrimination on a daily. One such instance occurred in Maharashtra’s
Four Dalit men were allegedly hanged upside down from a
Ahmednagar district.
tree and beaten up with sticks by six persons on suspicion of stealing a
goat and some pigeons The police apprehended one person in connection
with the assault on Saturday after a video of the incident went viral on
social media.
Five others involved in the attack are absconding, an officer from
Ahmednagar police said. The accused have been identified as Yuvraj
Galande, Manoj Bodake, Pappu Parkhe, Deepak Gaikwad, Durgesh Vaidya,
and Raju Borage, the official said. The injured men were later taken to a
nearby hospital, the official said, adding that one of the victims, Shubham
Magade, complained to the police. A case under sections 307 (attempt to
murder), 364 (kidnapping) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal
Code and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act has been registered, the official said.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said the incident was a blot
on humanity, and demanded that all the accused be arrested immediately
and given strict punishment.

"Such incidents are a result of hate being spread by BJP for its political
gain," he alleged.

Nationalist Congress Party's chief spokesman Mahesh Tapase accused the

government of failing to protect the self-respect of Dalits.

Caste-based discrimination isn’t something new to us. We read about it

almost every day, perhaps the real magnitude of it goes unreported by our
newspapers. There are over 200 million people in India who are considered
“untouchable.” That is approximately 25% of the population being treated
like they don’t belong in society. Being ostracised simply for existing. For
something they can’t control. One of the most horrific instances of caste-
based discrimination that comes to mind is the Hathras rape case. A young
Dalit girl was raped mercilessly and her body was cremated by the cops of
her very village without the knowledge of her family. Something of this
magnitude happening to a Brahmin girl would cause national uproar and
political leaders to take action effective immediately but the girl’s Dalit
background gave her case approximately 2 months of publicity. The caste
system is over 2,000 years old. What started as something as innocent as a
division of occupation has turned into something so heinous is truly
mortifying.