Between Caste and Occupation: Issues of Sweeper Community in Kashmir

Abstract

Caste is a form of social stratification characterized by occupational ranking, intermarrying and ritual hierarchy. The hierarchy here includes disparities in status and access to goods and services. This disparity is mainly found among lower castes like sweepers. Sweepers belong to the lowest rung regarding caste and occupation from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. They use long-handled brooms and carts to sweep roads, gardens, marketplaces and other public places. This study attempted to review the existing literature to exhibit caste and occupation-based issues of this particular community in Kashmir. A systematic review methodology was espoused, and the relevant literature was searched through key databases, such as Google Scholar, Project Muse, PubMed, JSTOR and ScienceDirect, for this review paper by combining the keywords. The systematic review revealed that in Kashmir, the sweeper community was at the bottom of the caste and occupational structure. This mechanism institutionalizes the transmission of unclean work from generation to generation, and it was still a structural flaw that maintained inequality against the sweeper community. The people of this community are found educationally backward, socially ostracized and economically inferior. The upper castes typically forbid these people from entering their homes, whereas living amidst this community is deemed unpleasant. The process of caste mobility, such as Sayyidization, similar to Sanskritization and Ashrafization, is evident among the members of the sweeper community.