India is the largest democracy in the world. In India, People have equal rights despite caste, creed, class, race and religion. The government is stable and law and order are also maintained to a great extent. This could be possible due to our constitution. The Constitution plays a vital role in making a country democratic. The constitution of India is drafted by DR. Bhim Rao Ambedkar. He is called the father of the Indian constitution.
Ambedkar was a social reformer, political leader and a great philosopher. He was born in a scheduled caste family. At that time, SC and St were treated as untouchable and there was exploitation of service class rights. He fought all his life for the right of the scheduled caste.
The life lessons one can learn from bhim rao ambedkar :
- Life should be great rather than long – Dr. was 65 years old when he died. In his whole life, he did such things that he is still in the heart of every Indian. The way he utilized his life towards the betterment of society is remarkable. He became the voice of the weaker society of India. During his schooling, He was not even allowed to sit with other students in the classroom and was not allowed to drink water from the common well. But these things did not distract him from the purpose of getting an education. Now, Indians work under the constitution he made. What would be better than this?
- I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress women have achieved – See, The society in which we live was not the same a few decades back. Now, everyone is empowered with rights and everyone has the right to raise their voice against any problem he/she is facing. Both Girls and boys are getting a good education. This didn’t change automatically. This is the result of struggles for years of many social reformers. One of them is Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar. India used to follow a strong level of casteism and gender discrimination. He strongly believed that society can progress if women are empowered. He strongly endorsed equal rights for women to get higher education and jobs. Over 100 years ago, he introduced the concept of maternity leave and maternity benefits. He was the first person in India, who used to say “ equal pay for equal work” should apply at all.
- Be educated, be organized and be agitated – Dr. B R Ambedkar held his doctorate from the London School of Economics and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Colombia. He has great legal and constitutional knowledge that’s why he would draft the constitution of India. Ambedkar was the first person who got a high level of education from his community. According to him, Education is a tool that can empower you to conquer the world and he proved it.
The contribution of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar to empower the Dalit
- Conversion to Buddhism: In 1956, Rao held a ceremony to convert around 5 lahks of his supporters to Buddhism. He also converted from Hinduism to Buddhism and he embraced the beauty of Buddhism in front of people and he succeeded to influence people in converting the religion. Behind all this movement, he just wanted to escape Dalits from the exploitations which were done in Hinduism on the basis of caste.
- Education: He always put emphasis on education as education is the weapon that can empower the person to cut social slavery. He gave the slogan: “Educate-Agitate-Organize”. Education enlightens the way to gain social respect and status. He made people aware of the importance of education to weaker sections of society.
- Reservation in the election: Because of his continuous efforts, Dalits could get a reservation in the election. First time in 1930, he showed Harijans on the round conference table which eventually caused the seat reservation for Harijans so that they would be able to contest elections.
- Political party: There are three political parties, viz. Independent labor party, the republican party of India and all India scheduled caste federations formed in the guidance of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar works to raise the voice of Dalits and works to organize the Dalit community.
- He always demanded the right of Dalits to drink water from the source where all other people had water and to get an education to sit with other communities and to remove the practice of untouchability.
Final words
Education is the best tool that helps in influencing people. Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar is an inspiration to many Indians. The issue he raised 100 years ago helped India to modernize.
The modern society of India is a dream of his which could succeed over the years. He was too much dedicated to women’s empowerment and the elimination of the caste system. We need more leaders like him. Present leaders should take lessons from him.
