Clarion call to put into practise Ambedkar's principles

Veena G | NT

Bengaluru: Ambedkar Jayanti, observed on Friday, is the opportune time for all of us to reflect on the inedible impact he has had on the nation, and where it is heading today. His contribution in shaping modern India has been instrumental with his principles of equality liberty and fraternity enshrined in the country's constitutional frame - work. When one compares to the state of our society in the postIndependence times, we have certainly come forward. But developments are taking a step backwards in recent times.

Advocate Vinay Sreenivasa says, “The preamble speaks about the equality of status and opportunity. It speaks about the dignity of every individual. But with the privatisation of education as also of healthcare, we are going backwards from achieving this goal. If you are poor and you have an illness, it requires so much money to treat that you slip into more poverty. The Constitution is not only the goal for our nation but also for our society. Even though the Supreme Court has recognised the rights of the transgender to allow them to be who they are, we as a society are still not very accepting of them, he added.

Rising Islamophobia acts as another threat to fraternity. Sreenivas said, “Fraternity was always under threat because of caste but now this (hate speech) has come along. We are yet unable to eliminate caste atrocities, we have increasing Islamophobia too now, taking us a step backwards.” DSS Leader Dr Mohan Raj criticises the scrapping of reservations for Muslims in Karnataka, calling it unconstitutional. He recalls Ambedkar's vision to uplift minorities who are socially and educationally backwards.

"Christianity, Buddhists and Parsis, who are all minorities, get reservation but they have removed only Muslims from 2B. Amit Shah says that we are removing unconstitutional elements. They say they have abolished religious reservations. But constitution never offered religious reservations. It was only for those who are socially and educationally backward."

He denounced how politicians are straying from the Constitution today. In 2012, before 505 Reservation was set aside, there was the Sadashiv report. But now they produced no such report. They created some committee and passed these laws, which is unconstitutional.

They are altering reservations however they want. A true feminist Often Ambedkar is spoken of as a leader of Dalits and of Dalit women, but the kind of effort he put in his perusal of rights for women has impacted all women. Shalin Maria, a writer and social activist, found it to be a transformational experience when she started reading Ambedkar’s works.

She says, “If anybody asks whether a man can be a feminist. Yes, a man can be a feminist. Ambedkar was a feminist; one absolute male leader who was also an absolute feminist. He has done a lot of things for this country. He has drafted our Constitution. He founded the basis of RBI, the water laws, the forest laws and the universal adult franchise.” After the promulgation of the Constitution, Ambedkar made a very famous speech where he said that the laws of Manu have ended.

Calling the Constitution an antidote of Manusmriti and Ambedkar a futuristic leader, she recalls all his efforts. In the Hindu Code Bill, Babasaheb speaks about the legal age of marriage for women, abortion laws, right of women to family planning and owning properties and also to sell or lease properties. He legalised registered inter-caste marriages.

He also talked about sanitation facilities for women in public spaces and workplaces. He talks about the prohibition of sex trafficking and forced sex work. He talks about consent in a marital relationship between husband and wife. It was very futuristic of him to think of that in 1947 and most of the upper caste leaders in Congress opposed it. Nehru did not let these pass because of the opposition.

Even women leaders from Congress refused because it ‘would destroy family and traditions’. Ambedkar resigned and shed tears for women. Maria asks, “Name one politician in this country who has resigned because he spoke for women?” Today we speak about how the US does not have abortion rights, while we have it since the 70s.

However, all of this was based on the Hindu Code Bill, which Congress passed after Babasaheb’s death but right now whatever access and choices and fundamental rights women have, came from Ambedkar’s efforts. Advocate Sreenivas criticised non-uniformity in the progress of women. "For some women, education and employment have increased more than the others."

In 2023, we have politicians who do not give representation for women or those who only give token roles to women. The existing laws are not implemented properly. Like Maria says, "None of these