Class 8 Civics Chapter 8 Important Question Answers - Confronting Marginalisation

Ques 1: What are the ways in which marginalized communities tried to overcome the discriminations they faced?
Ans: The marginalized communities tried many ways to overcome the discrimination they faced. They are:-
Religious solace
Armed struggle
Self improvement
Education
Economic progress.

Ques 2: What did the marginal groups rely on to protect themselves from continued exploitation by other groups?
Ans: Marginal groups relied on the Constitution of India and the Judiciary System to protect them from continued exploitation by other groups.

Ques 3: What are the seven rights stated in the Indian constitution?
Ans: The seven fundamental rights are:
1. Right to equality
2. Right to freedom
3. Right against exploitation
4. Right to freedom of religion
5. Cultural and educational rights
6. Right to constitutional remedies
7. Right to Life and personal liberty.

Ques 4: What is ‘untouchability’, and who were called ‘untouchables’?
Ans: Untouchability is the individual discrimination against certain classes of persons.
Dalits are sometimes called Untouchables. Untouchables are regarded as ‘low caste’ and have been marginalized for centuries.

Ques 5: Mention 4 untouchable practices.
Ans: Some untouchable practices are :-
Segregation in seating and food arrangements in village functions and festivals
Prohibited from entering into village temples
Separate burial grounds
No access to village’s wells and ponds.

Ques 6: What is the ‘Reservation Policy’?
Ans: Reservation Policy confirms that a percentage of seats are reserved in the public sector units, union and state civil services, union and state government departments and in all public and private educational institutions, except in the religious/ linguistic minority educational institutions, for the socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or the Scheduled Castes and Tribes who were inadequately represented in these services and institutions.

Ques 7: What is the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) ?
Ans: The central government passed the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. The Act states that the injustice meted out to the Adivasis must be undone. This Act recognises their right to their homestead, cultivable and grazing land and to non-timber forest produce. It points out that the rights of forest dwellers include conservation of forests and bio-diversity.

Ques 8: Mention a few crimes listed in the Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989.
Ans: The Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989 lists several levels of crimes. Some of them are
I. Modes of humiliation
(i) Force a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe to ; ; drink or eat any inedible or obnoxious substance
(ii) Forcibly removes clothes from the person of a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or parades him or her naked or with painted face or body or commits any similar act which is derogatory to human dignity
II. Actions that deprive Dalits and Adivasis of their possessions
(i) wrongfully occupies or cultivates any land owned by, or allotted to, … a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or gets the land allotted to him transferred
III. Crimes against Dalit and tribal women
(i) Assaults or uses force on any woman belonging to a Scheduled ; ; Caste or a Scheduled Tribe with intent to dishonour her.

Ques 9: Why was the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 framed?
Ans: The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, was framed in response to demands made by Dalits and others groups.
They wanted the government to stop the ill treatment and humiliation Dalits and tribal groups face everyday.

Ques 10: How did the Dalits assert themselves?
Ans: The Dalits asserted themselves and sort the help of law to fight discrimination
In the late 1970s and 1980s in parts of South India the Dalits asserted themselves by refusing to perform their so-called caste duties and insisted on being treated equally.
Adivasi people successfully organised themselves and demanded equal rights, and for their land and resources to be returned to them.
Dalit groups demanded new laws that would list the various sorts of violence against Dalits and prescribe stringent punishment for those who indulge in them.