SOCIAL PERCEPTION TOWARDS CASTE IDENTITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF DELHI

Environmental pollution is known as one of the biggest challenges for human development. Thats why the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have also focused on reducing environmental pollution. However, harmful chemicals and air, water and land pollution and contamination have been targeted to reduce the diseases and mortality rate by 2030. Especially in India, the road sweepers and scavengers have contributed a lot in reducing the pollution rate. They have performed a lot in cleaning up the dirt, not only from garbage to sanitizing the roads they contributed when the whole world, even India was fighting with the Covid-19 pandemic but it was very unfortunate that their caste identity has become a stigma on their head which becomes the matter of inclusion of caste in common congregation. They have been suffered the most for the centuries on the basis of the same. Even after doing so much service to the society, oppression with this community has not been reduced because of the constructed perception of the society that these people are considered inferior and polluted. Therefore, this paper tries to explore the real factors behind this social perception towards caste identity and examine the role of lower caste community in sustainable development by cleaning the city especially in Delhi during the pandemic Covid-19.