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The Untold Story of Caste and Class Divide: Separate Elevators in Nagpur Housing

The Untold Story of Caste and Class Divide: Separate Elevators in Nagpur Housing
The Untold Story of Caste and Class Divide: Separate Elevators in Nagpur Housing

In the towering residential complexes that define modern Nagpur's skyline, a disturbing form of social segregation plays out daily behind polished steel doors. Domestic workers, delivery personnel, and service staff are systematically barred from using the same elevators as residents, forced instead into cramped service lifts that stop at basement levels and back entrances.


This practice, euphemistically termed "service elevator policy," represents nothing less than a contemporary manifestation of caste-based discrimination that reveals the deep-seated prejudices plaguing India's urban centres.


What makes this phenomenon particularly alarming is its widespread acceptance among the educated middle and upper classes, who rationalise exclusion through the language of convenience and security whilst perpetuating centuries-old hierarchies of untouchability in vertical form.


The Vidarbha region, already grappling with economic marginalisation, now witnesses how its urban elite reproduce social stratification in the most mundane yet profound spaces of daily interaction.


The Architecture of Exclusion in Urban India


The segregation of elevators in residential buildings has emerged as one of the most visible manifestations of class and caste discrimination in contemporary India.


Research indicates that between 60 and 70 per cent of high-rise buildings in major metropolitan areas enforce separate elevator policies for workers and service personnel.

This practice extends far beyond Nagpur, encompassing cities across Maharashtra, Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, suggesting a systematic pattern of exclusion embedded in urban planning and social organisation.


The mechanics of this discrimination are both sophisticated and dehumanising. Workers must enter buildings through separate basement entrances, use designated service elevators that are often slower and less maintained than residential lifts, and navigate circuitous pathways designed to minimise their visibility to residents.


In many Nagpur housing societies, domestic workers report being subjected to additional humiliations, including mandatory identity cards, bag searches, and time restrictions that treat them more like potential security threats than essential service providers.


What makes this discrimination particularly insidious is its intersection with India's caste system. Research demonstrates that approximately 94 per cent of manual scavengers and domestic workers belong to Scheduled Caste communities, with 65 per cent specifically from the Valmiki community.

The segregation of elevators thus becomes a spatial enforcement of caste hierarchy, where traditional notions of purity and pollution find expression in modern architectural forms. In Vidarbha, where caste-based discrimination has deep historical roots, these practices perpetuate exclusion under the guise of modernisation.


The economic implications of this segregation extend beyond mere inconvenience. Domestic workers in Nagpur report that service elevators are frequently broken, forcing them to climb multiple flights of stairs, which increases their working time and physical strain whilst reducing their earning capacity.

The additional time spent navigating separate entrances and waiting for service elevators translates directly into economic losses for workers who are typically paid by the hour or number of houses served.


Constitutional Violations and Legal Accountability


The practice of elevator segregation represents a clear violation of constitutional principles enshrined in Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth.


More specifically, Article 15(2) mandates that no citizen shall be subjected to restrictions regarding access to places of public resort or those dedicated to the use of the general public.


Whilst residential buildings are privately owned, their common areas and facilities like elevators function as semi-public spaces that should be accessible to all users without discrimination.

Legal experts argue that elevator segregation constitutes indirect discrimination, a concept that remains underdeveloped in Indian jurisprudence but is recognised in international human rights law.


Unlike direct discrimination, which explicitly targets protected groups, indirect discrimination occurs when apparently neutral policies disproportionately affect certain communities. The requirement that workers use separate elevators, whilst ostensibly applied to all service providers, disproportionately impacts Dalit and minority communities, who constitute the majority of domestic workers.


The constitutional challenge to such practices lies in establishing the quasi-public nature of residential elevators.


Lawyer Disha Wadekar notes that Article 15(2) can be interpreted to include "private spaces having public access" such as building elevators, making segregation legally actionable. However, the enforcement of such provisions remains weak due to the private nature of housing societies and the lack of specific legislation addressing workplace discrimination in domestic settings.


Several attempts have been made to challenge discriminatory housing society rules through the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960, which prohibits discrimination based on caste, religion, or community. The Registrar of Cooperative Societies has issued circulars warning housing societies against such practices, but enforcement remains sporadic and reactive rather than systematic.


The gap between constitutional promise and lived reality reflects broader failures in India's approach to addressing caste-based discrimination in urban contexts.

Whilst laws exist on paper, the mechanisms for enforcement, particularly in private residential spaces, remain inadequate. This legal vacuum allows discriminatory practices to flourish under the protection of property rights and societal autonomy.


In Vidarbha, where local governance structures have historically been weak and civil society organisations face resource constraints, challenging such discrimination becomes even more difficult. The region's economic marginalisation means that workers have fewer alternative employment options and less bargaining power to resist discriminatory treatment.


The Social Psychology of Perpetuating Hierarchy


The persistence of elevator segregation reveals the deep psychological investments that upper-caste and upper-class Indians have in maintaining social hierarchy.


Research by scholars studying caste in urban contexts demonstrates that practices of spatial segregation serve to reinforce cognitive boundaries between groups, making discrimination appear natural and inevitable rather than socially constructed and changeable.

The rationalisation offered by residents for elevator segregation typically centres on claims of efficiency, security, and convenience. Residents argue that service elevators prevent overcrowding during peak hours, ensure faster movement for residents, and maintain building security by controlling worker access.


However, these justifications mask deeper anxieties about spatial proximity to lower-caste bodies and the symbolic threat posed by shared space to upper-caste identity.


The anthropological concept of pollution and purity, central to caste ideology, finds new expression in modern elevator spaces. The confined nature of elevators intensifies anxieties about bodily proximity, breathing shared air, and temporary equality that challenge hierarchical positioning.


For brief moments in an elevator, traditional markers of status become less visible, creating what sociologists term "liminal spaces" where hierarchies are temporarily suspended.


Anti-caste scholar Suraj Yengde observes that separate elevators function as "vertical untouchability," where modern technology becomes a vehicle for ancient prejudices.

The practice ensures that upper-caste residents never have to confront the humanity and dignity of those who serve them, maintaining the psychological distance necessary for exploitation.


The children growing up in these segregated environments internalise these hierarchies as natural and normal. They learn to see certain categories of people as inherently different and unworthy of equal treatment, perpetuating discriminatory attitudes across generations. In Vidarbha, where traditional caste hierarchies remain strong, such early socialisation reinforces existing prejudices and reduces the possibility of social change.


The pandemic period witnessed an intensification of these segregationist practices, with housing societies using health concerns to justify even stricter separation of workers. However, the selective application of such concerns exposed their discriminatory nature.


The same workers deemed dangerous in elevators were considered safe enough to enter homes, prepare food, and care for children, revealing the arbitrary and prejudicial basis of segregation policies.


Resistance, Reform, and the Path Forward

Resistance, Reform, and the Path Forward for caste based spatial discrimination in Nagpur and Vidarbha urban centers
Resistance, Reform, and the Path Forward

Despite the pervasive nature of elevator segregation, pockets of resistance and alternative models demonstrate that change is possible.


Several housing societies across Nagpur have explicitly rejected discriminatory policies, allowing all residents and workers equal access to common facilities.


These inclusive communities report no negative consequences and often develop stronger social cohesion as a result of treating all members with dignity.

Domestic worker organisations have begun challenging segregationist practices through collective action and legal intervention. In Pune, workers associated with various trade unions successfully pressured housing societies to end discriminatory elevator policies through sustained protest and negotiation. The Maharashtra Domestic Workers Welfare Board, established through decades of struggle, provides a platform for addressing such workplace discrimination.


However, meaningful reform requires addressing the structural inequalities that make discrimination possible. The informal nature of domestic work, the absence of employment contracts, and the lack of workplace protections leave workers vulnerable to arbitrary treatment.


Comprehensive labour legislation specifically addressing domestic work, including provisions for dignity at work and non-discrimination, represents an essential step forward.

Urban planning and architectural design must also be reimagined to promote integration rather than segregation.


The automatic inclusion of separate service entrances and elevators in building plans reflects discriminatory assumptions that should be challenged at the design stage. Planning permissions could be made conditional on ensuring equal access to common facilities for all building users.


In Vidarbha, addressing elevator segregation requires connecting it to broader struggles for social justice and economic equality in the region.


The combination of caste discrimination and economic marginalisation creates compound disadvantages that cannot be addressed through isolated interventions.


Regional development strategies must explicitly address social inclusion alongside economic growth.


The education system also bears responsibility for challenging discriminatory attitudes. Schools and universities must actively teach the principles of equality and human dignity, helping students recognise and reject practices of exclusion. In a region like Vidarbha, where educational institutions play crucial roles in social mobility, this responsibility becomes even more significant.


Legal reforms should focus on strengthening indirect discrimination jurisprudence and extending anti-discrimination protections to semi-private spaces like housing societies. The development of specific guidelines for housing societies, with clear penalties for discriminatory practices, would provide both a deterrent effect and remedial mechanisms for affected workers.


The elevator segregation practised in Nagpur and across urban Vidarbha constitutes a systematic violation of constitutional principles, a perpetuation of caste-based oppression, and a failure of urban India to live up to its promise of equality and modernity.

The practice reveals how traditional hierarchies adapt to contemporary contexts, using new technologies and spaces to maintain ancient forms of exclusion. For the workers forced to navigate basement entrances and service elevators, these policies represent daily humiliations that reinforce their marginal status in Indian society.


The challenge facing Indian cities, particularly in regions like Vidarbha where social change has been slow, is whether they will continue to enable such discrimination or embrace the constitutional vision of equality that promises dignity and respect for all citizens regardless of their caste, class, or occupation.


References


 

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The NewsDirt is a trusted source for authentic, ground-level journalism, highlighting the daily struggles, public issues, history, and local stories from Vidarbha’s cities, towns, and villages. Committed to amplifying voices often ignored by mainstream media, we bring you reliable, factual, and impactful reporting from Vidarbha’s grassroots.

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