Caste-based discrimination is generally common in India and nowadays it is severely affected by society. It has had a bad impact on society. A lot of discriminatory and exploitative cases have been coming from the past to till date. Caste-based discrimination destroys social harmony and peace. It is also a bad sign of the nation's image in the global platform. 

Caste-based discrimination always creates social tension, violence, and disturbance in society. In a country like India where there is a presence of variety or diversity in culture, caste, creed, language, ethnicity, linguistics, region, religion, etc. it shows the true democracy and secularism of India. In India every occasion, the festival is celebrated by all elements in our society irrespective of Hindu, Muslim, Christian, forward caste or backward caste, etc. but the word "discrimination" is real and discrimination on the basis of caste or religion is also true even today. 

Caste-based discrimination generally shows the exploitation, injustice, and violence of the upper class or upper caste to the lower ones. In India, 80% of Hindus are in the majority. In Hindu religion, there are several castes present and they are divided into four groups such as Brahmin who possess knowledge of religious textbooks, scriptures, and ritual tradition expertise. He is generally a priest in the temple. 

In the Hindu religion, Brahmin is a supreme caste next one is Kshatriya, who are generally warriors who fought battles and protected the kingdom in ancient times. They are in the army to fight war against enemies and save the state. The next one is Vaisya who are generally experts in commercial activities, trade, and business. They are the wealth creators in society. The next one is shudra who generally faces discrimination because of their identity, their position, and their place in society. They offered services to society in the form of barbers, carpenters, pottery, washing clothes known as washers man. They are lower in the caste hierarchy and Brahmin is the upper level in the caste system. Brahmin generally controls the society. Its laws, customs, traditions, rituals, rules, etc. The Shudras are controlled by the upper caste group in the caste hierarchy and also discriminated against by them, especially by Brahmins. This is not new to the Shudra community, they have been targeting upper-caste groups since ancient times. In shudras, there are various groups involved such as SC, ST, Dalits, Adivasi, minorities, etc. They do not receive better treatment from other upper castes in the caste hierarchy. 

The Dalits are victimized by the upper castes; they have faced severe discrimination from society. They were generally considered untouchables because their major work was sweeping and toilet cleaning before the partition of India they did not participate in education or represent in the administrative or legislative system. They were barred from the judiciary system. They don't have educational rights. If someone from their group wanted to study or do a job service they were not allowed. The school administration does not allow that child to come inside the classroom. Nobody wants to sit with them, eat with them, or share food, water, or anything with them in the school or the village. They did not have the right to use water in the village. They cannot use local resources or participate in local cultural festivals with others. They are mistreated by the upper caste politically powerful people. They did not have any rights over jobs, social activities, and employment. the lower caste people had no representation in politics they did not have voting rights to choose their leader, and they did not have the privileges to participate in cultural and religious functions with upper caste people. The lower caste people cannot attend the wedding events of upper caste people or marry their girl to upper caste boy. But after the partition of India with the effort of Dr. Ambedkar the constitution was made and this constitution gave the right to live, equality, education, development, speech expression, choice of profession, and freedom. The lower caste people did not have their land, they were generally occupied or captured by the privileged class, if they had agricultural land then the land was controlled by the upper caste which imposed taxes on the lower ones. The discriminated group has no involvement in any kind of activities operated by the upper ones. But after Constitution was made a lot of things changed. In Constitution article 14 states that "no one may be denied equality before the law or equal protection under the law within the boundaries of India. 

The Constitution gives equality, social justice, liberty, and equal rights to all its citizens without any discrimination. Article 15 of the constitution of India forbids discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste, gender, or place of birth. Our father of the Indian constitution Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar also faced discrimination in his childhood days, these discriminations were done by upper caste socially, politically, and economically dominant groups of people. Ambedkar was denied to drink water in his school or sit with fellow students; he had no rights over education and jobs. But he fought every situation, discrimination, and exploitation and became a leader of the Dalit community, he represented himself as a social activist for Dalits, and he fought for the rights of Dalits in education, jobs, equality, social justice, etc. Recently we heard about mob lynching of lower caste people these attacks are done by upper castes. In some cases, they killed the Dalits. Due to this kind of atrocities our father of the constitution Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar quit Hinduism and adopted Buddhism, he changed his religion and converted to Buddhism.

CONCLUSION

Around 80% of Dalits live in rural areas. Economic exploitation remains their most acute problem. They are almost all marginal farmers or landless laborers. They are in debt and are obliged to work off their debts as bonded laborers even though this practice was abolished by law in 1976. The majority of Dalits work as manual scavengers, cleaning feces from latrines and disposing of dead animals with their bare hands. We need and have to eradicate all these atrocities and inhuman behaviors against Dalits from society. 

Education and awareness-raising programs must function especially in rural areas. If someone violates the law and tries to harm the lower caste people then he must be punished under the Indian penal code. Today several things have changed. Today constitution gives special power to protect the identities of Dalits. We need to change our attitude and behavior towards the weaker section of people. We need to accept them and treat them like our family members. 

The Constitution also gives special provisions and guidelines to the court, police administration, judiciary, and legislative to protect the interest of the lower castes and monitor the activities, if any kind of caste-based discrimination happens then legal action must be taken against the criminal. Over 1.8 lakh cases of crimes against Dalits were registered between 2018 and 2021. Charge sitting percentage for the atrocities against scheduled castes ended at 80% and 81.4% for scheduled tribes. A total of 263512 cases of atrocities against SCS and 42512 cases of atrocities against STS came for trial in the court. Recently mob lynching of Dalits has increased significantly. Because Dalits are involved in transportation or the business of dead animals, they are economically backward. Economically and financially with strong political backgrounds people with upper caste and class trying to control them and exploit them. 

The govt must seriously put effort into these cases, the no of cases of atrocities against Dalits has increased and it is not good for the democracy and integrity of our country India. These discriminations affect the sovereignty of our nation. Dalits are targeted for cow slaughtering and cow smuggling which generally are doubts or simply accusations from the powerful side. Based on doubt, they are discriminated against and exploited badly. Most of these cases are found false, so these kinds of actions need to be stopped by govt and our society. These atrocities are not good for the social harmony and brotherhood of our society.

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