Forced Migration and Tribal Identity: Analysing the Valmiki Community through Ambedkar’s Lens of Social Justice

Abstract

Out here, life for the Valmiki group hasn’t changed much over time - they’re still boxed into the lowest rungs because of old systems that never really let go. Though labelled as Scheduled Castes by law, they’ve long been stuck doing backbreaking cleaning jobs handed down like inherited sentences. Because of caste cruelty baked deep into daily life, many had little choice but to leave villages behind, chasing survival in city edges where odds aren’t better. Forced moves keep happening - not by desire, yet pushed along by lack of money, threats, and silence from those meant to protect rights. Moving cities doesn’t reset status; instead, new places repeat old patterns of invisibility and blocked chances. Generation after generation ends up caught - on the move, yet going nowhere. Out of Ambedkar’s core ideas - ending caste, living by constitutional ethics, and exposing how untouchability works - the journey of the Valmikis takes shape here alongside wider struggles for fairness. Because he saw money-based oppression tied tightly to shame and exclusion, moving cities did not free the Valmiki people; instead, it carried old power lines into new spaces. Where tribal roots meet low-caste reality shapes their story in ways that break flat labels like ‘tribal’ or ‘Dalit thought’. Looking closely at history and society, this piece draws from existing records plus deep reflection on Ambedkar’s ideas. Not by choice do Valmikis move - their journeys come from pressure built into caste systems. Movement shaped this way ties back to long-standing hierarchies deciding who works where. Real fairness means more than adding them to current plans. It requires reshaping how work links with caste status, matching what Ambedkar imagined: equality without hierarchy. Ideas here rest on legal rights written in the Constitution, efforts joining multiple struggles, and power growing from within communities themselves.