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The scope of constitutional morality
Article:
- Kalpana Kannabiran, Professor and Director, has talked about abolition of untouchability in all its forms including manual scavenging.
Important Analysis:
- As per the Author, abolition of untouchability including Manual Scavenging remains an unrealized constitutional rights.
- Author says, there are no visible pathways to freedom in this malign caste society unless we realize untouchability is a crime under the Constitution.
- Article 17 of the Constitution of India states: “Untouchability is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden”.
- Why Author has raised concern:
- Steady rise in deaths of manual scavengers.
- Lack of legal aid and advice programmes to address exploitative conditions of work imposed upon the scavengers and sweepers.
- Clear violation of fundamental rights that strikes at the root of their existence.
- There is neither accountability nor due diligence on the part of the state.
- According to the Author, sanction for manual scavenging lies at the heart of majoritarian mindsets and structures.
- Outgoing Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra set out four important corners of the Constitution which needs to be guaranteed to every citizen:
- Individual autonomy and liberty
- Equality without discrimination
- Recognition of identity with dignity
- Right to privacy
- Justice Misra observes, “the sustenance of fundamental rights does not require majoritarian sanction” and call for constitutional-procedural deliberation on the “progressive realization of rights”
- If decriminalizing “unnatural” sex is one of the “necessary steps on the road to democracy”, abolition of untouchability in all its forms remains an unrealized constitutional right.