Social Exclusion is maintained through the rules of purity and pollution which have deep roots in religion. Comment.

1. Certain occupations are considered impure. They are reserved for certain castes excluding them from wider economic participation. eg > 95% of manual scavengers are from lower caste.

2. Rules of endogamy prohibit marriage between pure and impure castes. This results in exclusion from intermixture. eg < 5% of marriages are intercaste in India as per NCAER.

3. Violence is the worst form of social exclusion. Rise in Dalit atrocities against SC by 9.4% (NCRB) are a testimony.

4. Lower castes are further not allowed to participate in politics, festivals, rituals and so on. Prof Dipankar Gupta tells that each caste develops separate cultural traditions.

Deep roots in religion

As Louis Dumont said, values of Hinduism creates a binary of purity and impurity which is valid across people, events, objects & so on. E.g. vegetarianism, cleanliness etc. are considered pure.

However, modern society sees social exclusion due to more reasons as well -

1. Class → Lower class, poorest of poor (eg slum dwellers) remain excluded.

2. Gender → Women, especially tribal lower class & caste are not allowed to participate in public life.

3. Political conflicts → Despite having affluence, people living in unstable regions can't participate in social life. eg in Sri Lanka, Taliban.

4. Lack of basic amenities of education, health also exclude people.