Affirmative Action and Special Measures

This chapter focuses on two different affirmative action measures: one impacting India's caste system and the other Apartheid South Africa. In India: The caste-based system in India has a structural hierarchy of those with and without rights based on purity, which caused societal discrimination. To eliminate “untouchability,” or the non-rights status of some individuals (referred to as "Dalit"), the state of India implemented affirmative action reservations to ensure that the Dalits had access to mechanisms to enhance their own rights. In Apartheid South Africa: Two distinct groups—black people and white people—were afforded distinct rights architectures and a legalized system of inequality.

This video is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA license.