Treat all as equals

Article 15 begins with Bob Dylan’s iconic song, ‘How many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man?’ As you watch the opening scene of the recently released film, starring Ayushmann Khurrana and directed by Anubhav Singha, a million questions start racing through your mind. Questions that make you feel uncomfortable, agitate you, make you loathe the system and even make you cry. Article 15 isn’t your regular cop drama, it highlights the deep seated caste discrimination in Lalpur, Uttar Pradesh, and how people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are denied basic human rights like education, fair wages and so on. 

The story is based on a true incident — the 2014 Badaun case during which two Dalit girls were gangraped and hung from a tree just because they asked for Rs 3 wage hike. 

Article 15 in the Indian Constitution prohibits ‘discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth’ and the film precisely revolves around this subject. Some of us living in cities may think that the caste system is a thing of the past but it still plagues our society. 

A few youngsters share their views on this discrimination and how it should be banned.  

TIME TO RAISE YOUR VOICE
In the film, when Isha Talwar’s character tells Ayushmann (Ayaan Ranjan) that caste discrimination is prevalent in cities as well — our mothers keep separate utensils for the housemaid — it hits you hard. You may or may not have noticed but almost in every household, the domestic help is not allowed to eat or drink from the same plate/ glass as the rest of the members do. Caste prejudices do exist in cities too and among the educated people too. We turn a blind eye to it because we aren’t at the receiving end. A person from the upper caste who has power and money tends to be intolerant towards the poor and the Dalits, no matter which part of country you dwell in. Often, Dalits are beaten up for entering a temple or even lynched for eating in front of a member of the upper caste. But such incidents are soon forgotten. We never ask questions as to why a human being is denied basic rights that others enjoy. It is time we started raising our voice and stop such discrimination happening around us. 
— Ankit Kumar, 22, Polytechnic student, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand

NO PLACE FOR LOWER CASTE
Would you ever think that in a city like Pune people would be discriminated on the basis of caste? Trust me, it happens here too. One morning, the garbage collector assigned by my residential society pointed it out to me that my house help disposed tissue papers in the trash can that was meant for collecting wet waste. So I politely apologised to him and began to remove the tissues and transferred them to the dry waste. He was petrified! The elderly gentleman kept pleading with me to not ‘dirty’ my hands and that it wasn’t my job, but it was the ‘duty’ of the lower caste to collect trash. He was completely apologetic about complaining. This kept haunting me. A few hours later, in the parking lot, I saw the man being thrashed by the society’s maintenance manager. When I got to know the reason, I was heartbroken. The old man, ‘a leech’ that’s what the manager called him,  pet some resident’s dog in the corridors of the building. The dog, a golden retriever, apparently, became impure because a man belonging to the Schedule Caste touched it. The dog owner complained leading to his punishment. The old guy kept saying that after collecting the garbage, he took a shower and touched the dog with clean hands. But they weren’t concerned about the dirt on his hands but his caste — a dog has more respect than a man who keeps their building clean. This is inhuman and illegal. I brought up this issue and even filed a complaint. And if you think that the old man got justice, you are mistaken. He was thrown out of the society. I myself belong to the lower caste and I can’t ever imagine being treated like this.   
— Sakshi Horo, 19, a student of BA (English), Pune

THE FILM SHOWS THE BITTER TRUTH
I watched Article 15 first day first show and I know why people are protesting against the film and stopping its release in a few cities. The film asks disturbing questions and shows the bitter truth and people in these cities are scared that if the film makes an impact on the minds of the oppressed and downtrodden, it might create a stir. Oppressors are scared that knowledge and enlightenment may snatch away their power to dictate, hence the outrage. It is tough being a Dalit and take it from a guy who is one himself and has seen his parents and grandparents being ridiculed for belonging to the lower caste. I cracked IIM last year based on my merit and not because of the reservation, but people on the campus bully me for my caste. I am cornered by boys who are from the upper caste and are from my village (in Bihar). Things don’t stop there, even some teachers favour them. In fact, back in my village, my father and grandparents are harassed by people of the upper caste because I score better marks than their sons or daughters. I hope people realise that discrimination on the basis of caste or creed is unconstitutional and must stop.   
— Rajiv Kumar, 21, management student, Ranchi

Article 15 in The Constitution Of India 1949, prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth and also states that: 
(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them
(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to:
(a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and palaces of public entertainment; or
(b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.