Business is great leveller, nobody asks my caste: Dalit bizman Kiran Chavda

"Business is a great leveller and does not discriminate on the basis of caste," says Kiran Chavda, a government employee-turned-entrepreneur. He belongs to one of the Scheduled Castes (SCs). At a time when Indian society is facing conflicts based on caste and legal provisions, businessmen from the Dalit community feel that becoming an entrepreneur dissolves caste barriers and unifies society.

"I have never faced discrimination in business because I belong to a certain caste," says Chavda. "All the orders I get are based on the quality I deliver and overall performance. I have never lost a contract because of my caste."

The 45-year-old quit his job at Indo German Tool Room (IGTR) in 2014, at the age of 41, to establish his private tool room Schilltek in Ahmedabad. It is a plastic and metal engineering company that has even provided machining parts for ISRO's Chandrayan -2.

Devendra Khuman, vice president of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI), Gujarat chapter, says Dalit youth are now breaking professional barriers.

Khuman himself is a partner in the tea shop chain 'ChaiWai', that has grown out of Ahmedabad and expanded in other cities. While earlier there was a trend towards safe jobs in the government sector and getting benefits of reservation, now the community is steadily moving towards entrepreneurship, he says. "Kiranbhai is just one of the examples," Khuman says. "Many others have resigned from their jobs, even government jobs, to start their own business. There is a growing realization that becoming competitive is better than relying on government jobs using reservation."