Had Dalits been rich and healthy, there would have been no need for generational justice, Professor Gopal Guru, editor of the Economic and Political Weekly, said on Wednesday. Generational justice, he said, should begin with the deprived sections of society, like the Dalits and tribals.
Mr. Guru was speaking during the third edition of the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial Lecture, held at the International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS) in Govandi. This year’s theme was, ‘Contextualising Dr. Ambedkar: Women, Health and Intergeneration Justice.’
Mr. Guru touched upon the kind of future the current generation would leave for the next, and the parameters the next generation would exist in. “We are more worried about population growth because we are not able to match the growth and resources at our disposal,” he said. “Before trying to bring about a change in the incessant growth of population, it is important to change the situation around us first and take a high moral stand,” he said.
Prof. Sanghamitra Acharya of the School of Social Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University and an alumnus of the IIPS, spoke about, ‘Women and Health: Contextualising Ambedkar in times today.’ “It was Dr. Ambedkar who pushed for a limit on the number of children in a family due to the health of the women, instead of the conventional reason of population control,” she said. Dr. Ambedkar was one of the first to come up with the idea of birth control and family planning, she said.
Ms. Acharya also spoke of how the disparities in the health sector have been more evident than ever, in terms of gender, caste, ethnicity and region. She argued the idea of caste as a social determinant. She also highlighted Dr. Ambedkar as a thinker and the work he did as an economist, political scientist, statesman and humanist in the field of health.
Ms. Acharya also mentioned the Mahad Satyagraha in 1927, where Dr. Ambedkar led Dalits to a water tank and made them drink the water, which was otherwise not available for the disavantaged. “While Mahatma Gandhi mobilised people for the Dandi March for salt, Dr. Ambedkar did the same for water,” she said.