In recognition of the unique problems
of the Dalits, Adiwasis and other religious minorities like the Muslims,
the Indian government has developed policies for their economic, social
and political empowerment. Dalits and Adiwasis are the two largest groups,
constituting about 250 million in 2001 (about 167 million and 86 million
respectively). Additionally, Muslims account for about 12% the population.
The deprivation of such a vast mass of population is closely associated
with the process of exclusion and discrimination based on group identity.
The government has used a two-fold strategy for the empowerment of the
SC/ST (Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe) communities, which includes (a)
Anti-discrimination legal and protective measures, and (b) Developmental
or empowering measures. Anti-discrimination measures include the enactment
of the Anti-Untouchability Act of 1955, and the Schedule Caste/Tribe Prevention
of Atrocities Act,1989. Reservations in government services and political
bodies also fall under the purview of protective measures. The reservation
policy is confined to the public sector; and the private sector wherein
more than 90% of the SC/ST workers are engaged remains unprotected. The
focus of the government’s ‘general programmes’ therefore
has been on the educational, social and economic empowerment of the SC/STs
and on improving the private ownership of fixed capital assets (land and
non-land), human resources, and on improving access to basic services
like housing, health, drinking water, electricity etc.
The goal of the government’s interventionist policy has thus been
focusing on the improvement of levels of human indicators of the SC/ST
and on bringing them at par with other non-scheduled groups. The pertinent
question therefore is where do the marginalized groups stand today? Though
there has been some improvement in certain spheres and despite some positive
changes, the standard of living for the marginalized communities has not
improved. In 2000, close to 40% of the SC and 48% of ST were poor as compared
with 20% among others in rural areas. About 36% of SC/ST remained poor
in urban areas as against 20% for others. The poverty level of wage labour
among the SC/ST was also particularly high, varying between 46% and 60%
in the rural and urban areas respectively. In urban areas, the ratio of
poor among casual labourers was also high, 58% for SC, 64% for ST and
45% for non-scheduled population. Among the Muslims, the percentage of
poor was about 30% compared to 21% for other religions groups. Similarly,
the incidence of poverty in urban areas was higher among the Muslims (36.66%
compared to 23% all India average).
What (Minimum) Needs to be Done?
The reasons for the high incidences of poverty and deprivation among the
marginalized social groups are to be found in their continuing lack of
access to income-earning capital assets, (agricultural land and non-land
assets), heavy dependence on wage employment, high unemployment, low education
and other factors.
Therefore, there is a need to focus on policies to improve the ownership
of income-earning capital assets (agriculture land, and non-land assets),
employment, human resource & health situation, and prevention of discrimination
to ensure fair participation of the marginalized community in the private
and the pubic sectors.
Active Role of the State in Planning
It is necessary to recognize that for the vast majority of the discriminated
groups, State intervention is crucial and necessary. Similarly, the use
of economic and social planning as an instrument of planned development
is equally necessary. Economic discrimination, in general and market discrimination
in particular, is a serious market failure. Thus, planned State intervention
to ensure fair access and participation in social and economic development
in the country is necessary.
Improved Access to Agricultural Land
The problem of landlessness is more serious among the SC as compared to
the ST and the Muslims, as 70% of the SC rural households are landless
and near landless (owning less than 1 acre). Government record on land
redistribution has been quite disappointing. So far, only 2% of the total
cultivable land has been distributed under the ceiling to landless and
the share goes up marginally to 10% if we include government land. Only
18 lakh acres of land have been distributed so far to 18.5 lakh SC beneficiaries
with 0.977 acre per beneficiary. Therefore, it is a cause for concern
that a large section of SC households remain without viable land even
today.
Therefore, the CMP should include serious land reform measures to distribute
minimum land to landless households. For this purpose, the Government
should clear the cultivable wasteland and other lands, including land
under ceiling and develop these large tracts of land through employment
programs and thus, create a ‘Common pool of State land’ free
from litigation by private parties and redistribute it to the Scheduled
Castes and others. As the present system failed to give possession of
even legally distributed land to the SCs and STs due to their extremely
powerless position in village societies, a special organization at the
Centre and in the States should be set up for the purpose of acquiring,
developing and distribution of government land and land under ceiling.
For example, there are large tracts of customary lands whose rights were
given to SCs, but which were encroached by the high caste landlords. These
lands include Mahar Vatan land in Maharashtra, Panchami land in Tamilnadu,
and Depressed Caste land in A.P. The government through the new organization
should release these lands from the encroachers and hand them to their
legitimate owners.
Improved Access to Capital
The poverty level among the SC and ST cultivators is 30% and 40% respectively,
which is much higher compared with non-scheduled cultivators (18%). Similarly,
the poverty incidences of those in business is very high 33% for SC and
41% for ST compared with only 21% among non-scheduled businesses. The
viability and productivity of self-employed households need to be improved
by providing adequate capital, information, technology and access to markets.
It is a pity that though the STs do own some land, they lack the relevant
technological inputs to improve the productivity of their agriculture.
The capital at the disposable of SC/ST Finance Corporation at the Centre
and in the States, therefore, needs to be increased so as to meet the
capital requirements of these groups. Under the impact of liberalization
regime, even the priority lending of 10% by commercial banks to the weaker
sections has been reduced to 6%. This trend too needs to be reversed.
Improved Employment in Public and Private Sectors
Public Employment
In 2000, about 61% of rural and urban SC households and about half of
ST households were wage labourers, and poverty levels among them were
about 46% for SC and 61% for ST households respectively. The poverty levels
among casual labourers’ households were as high as 58% and 64% in
urban areas for SC and ST respectively. The unemployment rates were also
high among these two groups as compared with non-scheduled groups. There
is a need to review and strengthen employment guarantee schemes both in
rural and urban areas, particularly in drought-prone and poverty-ridden
areas. Rural infrastructure and other productive capital assets can be
generated through large-scale employment programmes. This will serve the
duel purpose of reducing poverty and ensuring economic growth through
improvement in the stock of capital assets and infrastructure.
Private Sector Employment
Due to privatization, the subsequent withdrawal of the State and the decline
in government and public employment, the employment of SC/ST under reservation
has declined quite significantly. Therefore, reservation should continue
in the undertakings that have been privatized during the 1990s under the
policy of privatization.
Reservation in the Private Sector
The CMP has promised to undertake necessary steps to incorporate reservation
in the private sector. Given the prevalence of significant discrimination
in employment in the private sector, the formulation of a reservation
policy is necessary to ensure fair access to the discriminated groups.
For this purpose, a Committee at the Central Government level should be
set up to formulate the policy of reservation in the private sector.
Firstly, the government should enact the ‘Equal Opportunity Act’
of which ‘Equal Employment Opportunity Act’ should be a part,
so that legal provisions are in place.
Secondly, legislation should be passed by the Central government for reservation
both for private and public sector, to ensure fair access to the discriminated
groups like SC and ST in private employment.
Thirdly, the ‘Equal Opportunity Act’ and reservation measures
should be applicable not only to employment in private sector but be extended
to other areas or markets like private capital market, product and consumer
market etc.
Fourthly, ‘Equal Opportunity Act and Reservation should be applicable
to private education. ’Equal Opportunity Act’ is also necessary
for private housing sector to prevent discrimination in the housing markets.
Fifthly, reservation should be applicable in government contracts given
to private contractors for construction and a number of other dealings
and also in purchase of goods by the State. Certain quotas should be fixed
for SC/ST contractors as they face discrimination in the sale of some
consumer goods due to notions of purity and pollution.
Lastly, an ‘Affirmative Action Policy’ of some sort should
be envisaged for multinational companies in the framework of UN provisions.
Some countries have taken initiative in this respect under the provisions
of the Global Compact and other UN Equal Employment Opportunity provisions.
Education and Human Resource Development
Firstly, lower literacy/level of education and the continual discrimination
of SC/STs in educational institutions pose a major problem. The government
should take a second look at the Education Policy and develop major programmes
for strengthening the public education system in villages and cities on
a much larger scale than today. There is a necessity to reallocate government
resources for education and vocational training. For millions of poor
students located in rural areas, the loan schemes do not work. We should
develop an affordable, uniform and better quality public educational system
up to the university level. Public education system is our strength and
needs to be further strengthened. Promotion of such private education
systems that creates inequality and hierarchy should be discouraged. In
this regard, we may draw some lessons from Sweden, where only 3% of educational
institutions are privately managed, but their syllabus, tuition structure
and infrastructure facilities are similar to that of public education
institutions. The gradation and hierarchy that we are introducing in the
private sector at rapid rate should be discouraged and public education
system should be strengthened in terms of infrastructure, quality of teacher
and other facilities.
Vocational training should be made part of the normal education system.
In this respect, the system of vocational education developed by Germany
could be tried in India.
Secondly, there is hardly any financial support to SC/ST students at higher
levels of education and research. The University Grants Commission should
institute a special fellowship scheme for these groups. The UGC had earlier
introduced a special fellowship for SC/ST Ph.D. students from which many
students had benefited. This scheme too should be reviewed.
Public Health System
The public health system in rural areas has also been by and large neglected.
Therefore, the primary health system for rural areas and public health
system in urban areas must be revived and more funds should be allocated
for the same
Food Security Programs
The public distribution system should also be revived and strengthened.
In distributing Fair Price Shops in villages, priority should be given
to the SC/ST female and male groups, as a number of studies have pointed
out that they are discriminated upon in the Public Distribution System
and in Mid-day Meal schemes.
Untouchability and Discrimination
The practice of untouchability and the large number of atrocities inflicted
on Dalits continue even today mainly because of hidden prejudices and
neglect on the part of officials responsible for the implementation of
Special Legislations; i.e. the Protection of Civil Rights Act (PCRA) and
the Prevention of Atrocities Act (POA). The Government should make a meaningful
intervention in this regard so as to mitigate the sufferings of Dalits
due to practice of untouchability and atrocities inflicted upon them and
should also treat this matter on a priority basis to ensure that the officials
and the civil society at large are sensitized on this issue.
The government should also establish a special department to continue
the social reform process and to educate the masses on the evils of untouchability
and caste discrimination on the pattern of Tamil Nadu government. The
law by itself often does not help to remove the practice of untouchability,
unless there is change in the attitude and behaviour of high castes. So
there is a need to have a program of social and moral education of high
caste individuals in the society.