The dispensable India: Data shows how DNTs, Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims bore lockdown brunt -Anusha Chandrasekharan

-Down to Earth

These communities have suffered on most social indicators due to a mix of poor logistics as well as prejudice and ostracisation  

Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi households and neighbourhoods have suffered terribly in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the months following the declaration of the countrywide lockdown, data collected by a group of civil society organisations has showed.

These communities were not able to avail food often due to government food distribution centres being located farther from their settlements and nearer to those of dominant castes. Communities like Muslims and denotified tribes have also suffered from Islamophobia and prejudice, that has taken a toll on food, education, healthcare and other social indicators, the data showed.

The initiative to collect data was led by civil society organisations including Partners in Change and Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices, the National Alliance Group of Denotified and Nomadic Tribes and Gethu Group workers’ think tank.

The initiative tries to get the real picture of the state of India’s poor from the horse’s mouth. Termed ‘COLLECT’ (an abbreviation for Community-Led Local Entitlements & Claims Tracker), the initiative consists of a flow of information between those at the margins, the authorities and wider society.

The users of this information are the people who collect it and who the data is about - communities marginalised by social identity, occupation, gender and age.

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