India has a beautiful, colorful, and rich culture. Her roots go back for thousands of years from the Mughal Empire, Ashoka the Great, and long forgotten stories and empires. Historically India has been religiously diverse but maintained Hinduism as their main religious thread. The current caste system finds its origins and continued practice in Hinduism. There are four main castes -- priests, warriors, businessmen, and servants; all of which were created from a different part of the Supreme Divinities’ body (Ghose 84). The dalits are missing from these categories, due to the belief that they were created separately from the divinities’ body; hence, they are less than human.
Life for a dalit is one of hard labor and meager commodities. The average dalit works a menial job as a field worker, street sweeper, or gravedigger. Essentially, untouchables do menial and dirty jobs. One of the most striking occupations is that of a “ragpicker”. They acquire their source of income from gathering sellables and recyclables from the gutters and streets of India. Little children wander the streets in search of a bottle, rag or paper -- anything to make some money. Those who live or visit the city of Delhi become used to the sight of these ragpickers. Employment for a dalit is best summarized by Samuel Jayakumar’s words in relation to dalit poverty, “Poverty involves lack of empowerment, lack of knowledge, [and] lack of opportunity” (Jayakumar 74).
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