Dalits in India have been kept out of business and industry for centuries but many of them are now breaking into the domain and charting success despite caste prejudice.

A heartening example is that of HK Pipal, who runs a heritage hospital in Agra. A Jatav by caste, Pipal speaks six languages, but could not pass high school. The hospital, for him, is the fulfilment of a dream.

It was not easy for a Dalit to build the institution. Pipal made his money manufacturing shoes for Hush Puppies and several other companies in former communist countries.His business slowed down after the unification of Germany and the disintegration of the USSR, and he invested his energies in setting up the hospital.

But he found he could not get any doctors because no one wanted to work for a Dalit. "The problem with these doctors is that they are very highly educated and so they think it lowers their dignity to wish a Dalit 'good morning'," Pipal says. "I always greeted them with respect and thought that one day they would reciprocate. I'm still waiting."

Pipal advertised for doctors from outside the city. He also hired Dalit physicians and surgeons, who were given only administrative jobs in other hospitals. "Today I have five Dalit doctors on my staff, who were earlier working in hospitals where they were treated shabbily. Here they have proved themselves as hardworking and intelligent".

These include Dr Saini, a Dalit surgeon who never got the chance to operate in the private hospital where he earlier worked. In Pipal's hospital, Saini operates everyday in the operation theatre made at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore.

"When I applied for jobs in other hospitals, they would see my name in the biodata and never call me for an interview. How could I ever prove that I was a good doctor?" he recalls. "Here in the last one year I have done several operations, some of them serious ones, and all have been successful".

Pipal has two sons, one a successful automobile dealer in Agra and the other an IT graduate working with the multinational IBM. The sons like their father dream of bigger things.

"Many new IT companies are coming up, and I think that with the kind of hard work we are capable of putting in, we can also start a successful IT venture," says Girish Pipal, HK Pipal’s son.

Clearly, Dalits like Pipal from all across the country are now rewriting their own destiny.

(Courtesy: NDTV)