Infographics
The Dalit world, in numbers
Single-page summaries built for sharing, classroom use, and embedding alongside our reporting. Each figure is sourced; treat them as starting points, not last words.
Milestones in Dalit history
From Jyotirao Phule's 19th-century challenge to Brahmanical authority to the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling on sub-classification, this timeline traces a century and a half of struggle, legislation, and landmark moments that have shaped Dalit political identity and rights in India.
Sources: Wikipedia; Wikipedia; Wikipedia; Constitution of India
The Dalit world, at a glance
Scheduled Castes — constitutionally recognised as Dalits — are India's largest marginalised group: 201 million people spread across 1,108 officially listed communities. Though 84 parliamentary seats are reserved for them, structural exclusion persists at every level. Beyond India, the United Nations estimates caste-based discrimination touches 260 million lives across South Asia and its global diaspora. International legal recognition has been slow and uneven: Seattle became the first US city to ban caste discrimination in February 2023, while the United Kingdom still has not enacted its own long-standing statutory duty to add caste as a protected characteristic.
Sources: census2011.co.in (Census of India 2011 data); Wikipedia (citing Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950); Wikipedia (citing Delimitation Order 2008 and Art. 330, Constitution of India); Human Rights Watch
Crimes against Scheduled Castes, in figures
In 2024 India registered 55,698 crimes against Scheduled Castes — one case every nine minutes — yet courts acquit or discharge more than six in ten SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act prosecutions. The National Crime Records Bureau's most recent report (released May 2026) shows caseloads up 30 percent since 2018, a crime rate of 27.7 per lakh SC population, and 4,262 rapes of Dalit women in a single year. Police file charge sheets in 82 percent of cases. The accountability gap lies downstream: impunity in court remains the structural norm.
Sources: The Quint (citing NCRB Crime in India 2024, Vol. II); The Quint (citing NCRB Crime in India series 2018–2022); The Wire (citing NCRB Crime in India 2024); Feminism in India (citing NCRB Crime in India 2024)
India's caste economy, in figures
Scheduled Castes — roughly one in six Indians — face entrenched economic exclusion on every measurable dimension. They hold a disproportionately small share of agricultural land, earn less than the national average from farming, are nearly twice as likely to be multidimensionally poor as upper-caste households, trail the national literacy rate by seven percentage points, see 40% of their children go stunted, and receive only 55 paise for every rupee earned by advantaged social groups. Taken together, these gaps are not statistical noise: they are the arithmetic of caste.
Sources: National Statistical Office / MoSPI, via Rural India Online; National Herald India (citing NSS 77th Round, NSO); Drishti IAS (reporting Oxfam India / PLFS 2018–19); PLOS ONE / PMC (using NFHS-4 data)