Why caste discrimination and atrocities still persist despite laws?

Within a few months after the US enforced a law abolishing slavery, the practice disappeared; because there was a law in place. But although the Indian Constitution is based on equality of everyone and there are laws against untouchability and caste discrimination, they still persist.

In Maharashtra, atrocities appear to have actually increased and intensified since 2013, prompting several sections of society to allege that Dalits have been registering false cases. There have been demands that the law be either abandoned or amended to impose penalty for lodging false cases.

In this lecture in the memory of Dr Asghar Ali Engineer, the former UGC chairman and Professor Emeritus at JNU, Sukhdeo Thorat dwells at length on the changes which have come about, why untouchability still persists and what the Government can do.