30 points........................
write briefly about the efforts of the government to remove untouchability from the country?
Answers
Untouchability is a serious problem, especially in rural areas. It is true that without the eradication of untouchability we cannot think of rural development.
Untouchability poses a great obstacle in the path of all development works. It hinders rural progress to a great Remarkable extend. Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest religious reformer and the father of our nation says “I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world in theory; since there is one God, there can be only one religion.
But in practice no two persons I have known have the same identical conception of God. Therefore, there will, perhaps, always be different religious answering to different temperaments and climatic conditions. The soul of religions is one but it is encased in a multitude of forms, truth is exclusive property of no single scripture.”
Gandhiji did not believe in the Hindu Dharmasastras which prescribe caste customs as sacred. In this context, he remarked “It is a tragedy that religion for us means today nothing more than restrictions on food and drink, nothing more than adherence to a sense of superiority and inferiority. Let me tell you that there cannot be any if, gross ignorance than this, birth and observance of forms cannot determine one’s superiority and inferiority. Character is the only determining factor. No scripture which labels a human being as inferior or untouchable because of his or her birth can command our allegiance; it is a denial of god.”
1. Constitutional Safeguards:
The Constitution of India provides protection and safeguards for the untouchables by way of general rights of citizenship with the object of promoting their socio-economic interests and of removing certain disabilities from which they suffer. The following Constitutional safeguards are provided to the untouchables.
2. The Untouchability Offences Act, 1955:
For the eradication of untouchability, the Untouchability Offences Act was passed by the Parliament in 1955. It came into force on June I, 1955. This Act provides penalties for the following offences:
(a) Preventing a person on the ground of untouchability from entering a place of public worship, offering prayers therein or taking water from a sacred tank, well or spring.
(b) Enforcing all kinds of social disabilities such as denying access to any shop, public restaurant public hospital or educational institution, hotel or any other place of public entertainment, denying the use of any road, river, well, tank, water tap, bathing ghat, cremation ground, sanitary convenience, ‘dharmasalas’, ‘sarai’ or ‘musafirkhana or utensils kept in such institutions and hotels and restaurants.(c) Enforcing occupational, professional or trade disabilities or disabilities in the matter of enjoyment of any benefit under a charitable trust, in the construction or occupation of any residential premises in any locality or the observance of any social or religious usage or ceremony.
(d) Refusing to sell goods or render services to a Harijan because he is a Harijan, for molesting, injuring or annoying a person or organising a boycott of or taking part in the excommunication of a person who has exercised the right accruing to him as a result of the abolition of untouchability.
The untouchability Offence Act, 1955 has been replaced by the Protection of the Civil Rights Act after amendment on 1976. The Bill which was passed in Rajya Sabha on September 2, 1976 and subsequently passed in Lok Sabha had proposed stringent measures against those who still practice untouchability. It sought to make willful negligence on the part of the investigating officers of complaints relating to untouchability tantamount to abatement.
3. Harijan Welfare Departments:
For the all-round development of untouchables the Government of India has established a Harijan Welfare Department and also appointed a Commissioner for Harijan welfare. Some Regional Assistant Commissioners have been appointed in each region to assist the Commissioner.
4. Educational Facilities:
For the upliftment of the untouchables, both Central and State Governments provide many educational facilities to them. Seats are reserved in all educational institutions for the untouchables.
5. Job Facilities:
A fixed percentage of jobs has been reserved for the untouchables in the administrative services of both Central and State Governments.
6. Economic Facilities:
For the improvement of economic conditions of untouchables, both Central and State Governments are spending considerable amount of money. The nationalised banks are also extending their helping hand by lending loans to them for starting small scale and cottage industries.
7. Housing Facilities:
The housing condition of the untouchables is very miserable. They mostly live in the worst type of slums. Therefore, the Government provides housing facilities to them. New Harijan colonies are being constructed where accommodation is cheap.
Explanation:
,Really speaking the whole of the freedom movement was linked with the social reconstruction and reform in the country. One of the most important aspects of the constructive programme of Mahatma Gandhi or his philosophy of Sarvodya was to eradicate the untouchability. He himself ran a paper and named it ‘Harijan’. That was the reason why during the last years of dependent India, the attention of the Government was drawn towards untouchability.Even the British Government took certain measures for removing untouchability .after independence of the country; the programme for removal of untouchability has been taken up in full swing. In these connections, the following efforts are most importantConstitutional Provision:
Really speaking the whole of the freedom movement was linked with the social reconstruction and reform in the country. One of the most important aspects of the constructive programme of Mahatma Gandhi or his philosophy of Sarvodya was to eradicate the untouchability. He himself ran a paper and named it ‘Harijan’. That was the reason why during the last years of dependent India, the attention of the Government was drawn towards untouchability.Even the British Government took certain measures for removing untouchability .after independence of the country; the programme for removal of untouchability has been taken up in full swing. In these connections, the following efforts are most importantConstitutional Provision: to.
Really speaking the whole of the freedom movement was linked with the social reconstruction and reform in the country. One of the most important aspects of the constructive programme of Mahatma Gandhi or his philosophy of Sarvodya was to eradicate the untouchability. He himself ran a paper and named it ‘Harijan’. That was the reason why during the last years of dependent India, the attention of the Government was drawn towards untouchability.Even the British Government took certain measures for removing untouchability .after independence of the country; the programme for removal of untouchability has been taken up in full swing. In these connections, the following efforts are most importantConstitutional Provision: to.A) state.
Really speaking the whole of the freedom movement was linked with the social reconstruction and reform in the country. One of the most important aspects of the constructive programme of Mahatma Gandhi or his philosophy of Sarvodya was to eradicate the untouchability. He himself ran a paper and named it ‘Harijan’. That was the reason why during the last years of dependent India, the attention of the Government was drawn towards untouchability.Even the British Government took certain measures for removing untouchability .after independence of the country; the programme for removal of untouchability has been taken up in full swing. In these connections, the following efforts are most importantConstitutional Provision: to.A) state.2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment of office under the state.