By Rev. Helen Chukka | 8/3/2021 PhD candidate Rev. Helen Chukka. Photo: Private LWF scholarship holder explains her focus on Dalit women The caste system is a brutal, systematic, and intentional social construct that stratifies the society into a strict social order, which sacralizes some bodies while dehumanizing others. Although its origins can be traced to the Hindu social system, it has infiltrated all religious traditions in India today. Its ideology of purity and pollution has penetrated both the private and public spheres, ostracizing communities that do not fit in the hierarchical order. While the beneficiaries are the dominant caste communities, who enforce violence and maintain the status quo, the victims are the Dalits, formerly referred to as untouchables.