a report on the status of dalits in India a must read

Alternate Report

Submitted to

UN committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Geneva

during State Party (India) Report-2007

by

ACJP-INDIA, (Mumbai,India)

(part of the network of Ambedkar Centre for Justice and Peace, Global NGO)

Executive Summary and Recommendations

Right to equality and justice are the basic principles of human society in the contemporary period of globalization and democratic governance. The traditional and historical bases of deprivation and discrimination like –Race, Color, Ethnicity, Religion, and Descent are no more relevant and therefore different governments and non government organizations across the world have been making efforts to prevent such violation of human rights. The UNO under different forms and committees do take cognizance of such incidents and directs/ guides the state party to over come these inhuman acts. The committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is one of such organ of the UNO, under the Council of Economic Social and Cultural Rights.

The caste based discrimination is a major problem in India linked to caste and religion that has roots in its history and traditions. The forms of discrimination are multiple that lead to violation of basic human rights. These forms of violation of rights can be categorized mainly into four major heads:

1. Economic
2. Social
3. Educational
4. Cultural

Based on the main report, one can strongly believe that the Indian State Party has a long way to go ! It is revealed that nearly 200 million Indians are being treated as untouchables – Dalits or Scheduled Castes who are deprived of the basic amenities like drinking water, employment, education, temple entry – rituals, good quality life etc. The crisis do not end with deprivation but are resulted into various atrocities, harassments, boycotts, bonded-forced labour. Rapes, murders, arson, dacoities are common features of every day life.

The national government has the treaty obligations but it passes legislation that the states are expected to enforce, and the social uplift is left to the states, instead of the national government bearing the financial and accountability duties. It is not merely an economic problem but it is about social and state discrimination against Dalits, and about the unjust imbalance in advancement. The national government’s failure to make progress in the uplift of Dalits as measured by the improvement of Hindu castes, and by the wealth of the states and the country (and therefore the capacity to make more progress in uplifting Dalits.

Despite various legal and constitutional provisions, the situation seems to very serious at all fronts due to the social, economic, religious, cultural, educational and political domination of minority (upper castes) which has been inherited from history and tradition of this country. We strongly believe in democracy, equality, social justice and human dignity; and therefore, with humble submission, make following recommendations for consideration of the Committee.

1. Based on the review of available literature, we feel that the facts, data and information are superficial and unrealistic and therefore, we recommend that the committee undertakes a survey at all India level with a trained and experienced research team. The scope of this survey will be to cover all the aspects of human rights violation of Dalits and would evolve the strategies to find out solutions with long term, medium and short term perspectives.

2. We demand to create new rehabilitation centers with special social-economic zones for the Dalits.

3. National government should be held fully responsible for every aspect of violation of human rights and for remedial programs.

4. The UNO should form a guiding and monitoring committee with Dalit appropriate presentation

5. Immediate task is to work on the strategies and plans to sensitize all the instruments of governance and common people with the help of progressive NGOs.

6. Keeping in mind, the coming 20 years are going to be crucial for human resource development and the role of education in it; hence, educational strategies and plans be developed for total coverage of Dalits with vocational education.

7. It is recommended that the UNO should contribute some funds for these activities in addition to the special funding provided by the Indian government.

Ambedkar Center for Justice and Peace (ACJP)

This report is being presented under the universal declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The UN committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is responsible for monitoring states compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination. The convention guarantees rights of non-discrimination on the basis of “race, colors, descent or national or ethnic origin. In the year 1966 CERD concluded that plight of Dalits falls squarely under the prohibition of race based discrimination.

India as a state party is obliged to submit periodic reports with details of implementing the rights guaranteed under convention. In view of the long overdue report India Submitted the 2^nd to 5^th reports together in 2006. However these reports do not mention clear mention of abuses against Dalits documented by its own agencies or any other non-government organizations.

This report is based on the facts collected and documented from the various government agencies pertaining to gross violation of Social Economic and Cultural Rights of the Dalits. In addition, the report provides insights into the issues and plight of sufferings of Dalits from insiders’ perspective. Based on the lifelong struggle launched by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar for liberation and dignity of Dalits, the Indian government adopted the constitution that ensures the equality, justice and fraternity. Therefore, in order to achieve these objectives some special provisions have been made available for the downtrodden in general and for the Scheduled Caste (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in particular. These provisions are mainly in the areas of education, employment in public sector and political representation. Also in addition various Acts have been passed against practice of untouchability (1955) violation of Civil Rights (1976) and prevention of Atrocities (1989). Various schemes and programmes have been introduced for the welfare of these communities. The constitution of India guarantees basic human rights; also known as Fundamental rights. Violation of these rights could be challenged in the court. Also there is a provision in the constitution ensuring non-discrimination based on race, gender, caste, color and religion. There are progressive laws and human rights redressal agencies but these laws are not implemented effectively. Similarly, various plans, programs and schemes that are existing for social and economic upliftment of the vulnerable groups are not implemented uniformly and effectively.

Who are Dalits?

According to the census report of 2001, India’s total population is 1028 million, out of which 532 millions are males and 496 million females. Out of these, 167.2 million people are termed as Scheduled Castes (SCs) constitutionally and traditionally known to be untouchable communities or outcastes. Presently they are called as ‘Dalits’ by many movements and political bodies. However, their history and social roots go back to be “racial group” of aboriginal people. These people are imposed with stigmatized identity drawn from Hindu religion and caste system – based on hierarchy, purity-pollution concepts and graded inequality. The caste system did not grant any freedom to choose their occupation, education and cultural activities and hold property in any form. It is only after independence that the constitution guaranteed them basic rights and adopted special policy for their upliftment.

Despite these provisions, experiences and the facts revealed by various studies/surveys both, government and non-government, tell us that during last six decades of freedom and democratic governance, the over all situation of these communities is far beyond satisfaction. On the contrary, the atrocities, exploitation and subjugation continue to happen on these communities. In his foreword, Justice A. S. Anand in the Report on Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes, published by National Human Rights Commission, 2004 says,

“The humiliation which persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes in general and the Dalits in particular suffer even today, more than half a century after India proclaimed itself to be a Republic is a matter of shame!”

Major factors – responsible for such situation are:

1. Lack of strong political will.

2. Traditional strong biases and prejudices against the communities.

3. Weak instruments of governance.

4. General apathy among people.

5. Bureaucracy – upper caste domination.

6. Least priority allotted to these issues.

7. Gross unawareness and inaccessibility to the provisions to the SCs and STs.

8. Lack of proper representation of Dalits at all levels.

9. Poor budget allocation and under utilization of funds.

10. lack of strong scientific approach to identify and analyse the issues with appropriate remedies with strong will power.

As a result of these, the issue of Human Rights violation is missing out from the main agenda at national level and at international level the attitude is to cover up these issues.

Article 2: Caste/Race based discrimination and violence against SCs and STs

Crimes against SC-ST

Since majority of the SC-ST live in rural and remote parts of the country and depend on upper castes both socially and economically, they are subject to various atrocities and suppressions like murder, rape, hurt, arson, boycott, etc. In India the social, economic and political power is determined by castes(upper) that have monopoly over as tradition. These castes find easy to execute their power on powerless and manage to escape legal actions due to nexus between administration and police machineries – with political support (See Tables 1,2,3,4). Such reported cases are 40 per cent only as the upper castes do not allow them to register with police or the police refuse to register the cases.

Social Discrimination: Caste based discrimination is existing both in rural and urban areas, however, we see it happening in latent ways in urban parts and manifest ways in rural parts in different forms like entry into private houses, temples, village festivals, panchayats, village functions etc. In urban areas, it is in the form of physical segregation, deprivation, denying access to good quality life etc. Social discrimination is found in educational institutions also.

Bonded Labour

Under article 23 of the constitution although forced/bonded labour has been forbidden yet the practice of traffic in human beings the shape of beggar or forced labour continued in the country in one from or the other with different names same state Governments had enacted legislations to abolish this evil practice before and after independence. In the earlier Reports of the Commissioner for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes instances of the existence of bonded labour system had been indicated and remedial measures 0had also been suggested to eradicate the same, but it was observed that the lukewarmness on the part of State Government implementing these lows had not improved the situation. In order to eradicate this evil practice, the Central Government enacted the ‘Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act’ in 1976. The provocations of this Act have already been discussed in our previous Report. Consequent upon the enforcement of the provisions of this Act the State Governments made fresh efforts to identify the bonded labours in their respective States. Out of 31 State/Union Territories so far ten States and one Union Territory have acknowledged the existence of the bonded labourers and made efforts for their identification, release and rehabilitation. According to the available information 1,05,180 bonded labourers had been identified in the following States/Union Territory out of whom 1,04,749 were released and 31,844 rehabilitated as on 31^st May, 1978.

Forced and Bonded Labour

As stated in the previous Reports, the money-lending also gave birth to an obnoxious system of forced and bonded labour known by different names in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Maharashtra, Mysore, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

Information regarding the legislative and executive measures adopted by the various State Governments and Union Territory Governments/Administrations, to check the practices of bonded labour, have already been given in the previous Reports. Further information about bonded labour practiced in Kerala, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh is contained in the following paragraphs.

Kerala

The Paniyans and the Adiyans living in the South and the North Wynad Talukas of Kozhikode, and also in Cannanore District, are the victims of this practice. These people, while in search of employment for the ensuing agricultural season, come in contact with landlords in need of labourers for work in their extensive paddy fields and plantations, during the annual festival in Vallurvaru Temple, some two miles from Manantody – the headquarters of North Wynad, in the middle of April every year. The landlords offer money to these tribals, which is, generally a fixed amount of Rs. 10.00 per head. There is a tactic understanding that, in return for the laon, the Paniyan or the Adiyan concerned will work under that landlord for one year i.e. till the next festival; but if he refuses to work under that landlord for one year i.e. till the next festival; but if he refuses to work under that landlord the money has to be refunded and the tribal may be harassed in a number of ways. The Paniyan or the Adiyan, so bound, is allowed to put a hut on the landlord’s land near the field, but if he refuses to work he is forced to vacate his homestead. The wages given to such persons are much lower than those paid to free labourers. In order to help the tribals, the Government of Kerala have recently appointed two welfare officers to work as Liaison Officers among the Paniyans and the Adiyans and also a few Government functionaries to be incharge of law and order and of development activities in that area.

Maharashtra

The survey of indebtedness undertaken by the Commissioner’s Organisation in Maharashtra, made an attempt to ascertain the incidence of bonded labour, also, in this State. The survey revealed that bonded labour was prevalent in Thana District, as a few cases were detected in some of the Tribal Development Blocks in the district. The main feature of this system is that a tribal pledges his labour, and sometimes labour of the other members of his family, in return for a loan, and is released only when the loan is repaid. The period of bond of service ranges from 3 to 5 years. A case, however, came to notice in which a tribal had remained bonded for about 14 years. The creditor is responsible for feeding the bonded persons who also get some clothing from him, but no cash payment is made at all. The bonded person ahs to depend upon someone in his family to procure the required money for securing his release. The agreements are only oral.

Forced Labour

Traffic in human beings and Begar and other similar forms of forced labour have been prohibited under Articles 23 of the Constitution and any contravention of this provision has been declared an offence punishable in accordance with law. The State Government is however, empowered to impose compulsory service for public purposes, but no discrimination can be made while imposing such service in grounds of only religion, race, caste or class or any of them. Force labour, wherever prevalent, is generally practiced to the disadvantage of the backward classes. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes generally belong to such classes and effort has been made to find out the extent to which forced labour is imposed on these people.

It is true that this practice is not found generally, except in rare cases, in some of the interior areas, but it is still prevalent in one form or the other. I have noticed that in the villages of Dasmauthpur and Narayanpatna of Koraput Sub-Division and in the Sundergarh district of Orissa State ‘Gothi’ system is in force. In Sundegarh district, ‘Gothi’ system which is a kin to forced labour, is still in force, in which the Scheduled Tribe people are the victims. In some of the areas in Vindhya Pradesh, a system called ‘Harwahi’ Pratha’ is prevalent. According to this custom, the Scheduled Tribes are forced to work on the farms of individual zamindars without adequate remunerations. Recently it was reported that in Pandhurna Municipal Committee in Madhya Pradesh, the municipal sweepers in addition to their normal duties, were required to bring stones and sand from the stream beds for the construction of municipal works, such as houses and roads, without extra remuneration. This case was, however, taken up with the State Government and it was possible to have the matter amicably settled. It is reported that in the villages of Akkalkot taluka of Sholapur District in Bombay, the Mahars, Ramoshis, etc., have to work as inferior village servants without any remuneration. The State Government is looking into this complaint.

. It is interesting to note that with the abolition of forced labour and the practice of Untouchability under the Constitution, the Scheduled Caste persons have been to exercise their civic rights at some of the place. This has annoyed the sanarnas resulting in a few cases in the social boycott of the depressed class people. In the some of the villages in Punjab when Harijan refused to do begar, they were denied passages through the fields of zamndars their cattle were not allowed to graze even in common lands and some cases they were even socially boycotted. Similar, things happened to Mahars in some of thevilalges in MadhyaPradesh and Rajasthan. Most of these cases have, however, been amicably settled by the intervention of Government and social workers.

It is necessary that the caste Hindus should be given to understand that exploitation of human labour without adequate remuneration is not only illegal but immoral. I trust that in a few years such stray instances of forced labour will become rare and disappear. This can be expedited if instructions are issued by the State Governments to their touring officers to ensure that whenever they find the prevalence of this evil practice, the persons concerned are suitably warned and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe victims of this custom encouraged to report such illegal acts practiced against them to the authorities concerned. There is, however, no doubt that main cause of such un-social practices is the economic dependence of the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes on the caste Hindus.

Forced Occupation

Devadasi/Jogini (Divine Prostitution)

Tradition of Divine Prostitution wherein a woman is dedicated to a deity body as a sacred body has been a part of customary practice in India for a long time. The practice continues even today due to the extreme poverty of Dalits and other sections of the society who under the compulsion of circumstances and exploitative mechanism allows this practice.

Manual Scavenging

The inhuman practice of manual removal of human excrements from dry toilets with base hands, brooms or metal scrappers; carrying excrements in the basket to the dumping site is still prevalent in most parts of India even today. According to the report (Local Daily Loksatta, July 21, 2004), there are 6.5 million Dalits in India engaged in scavenging out of which 65000 of them carry night soil on their heads.

Child Labour

According to the Census report of India, 2001, there are as many as 17 million children in the age group of 5-14 years engaged in child labour, of which majority belong to Dalit community.

Child Prostitution

Despite the stringent Provision of PITA, it is estimated that there are 500,000 child sex workers in India and there is an annual increase of 8% to 10%. India’s child-flesh industry is considered the second largest in the world. It is obvious that majority of children engaged in this trade belong to Dalit Community due to poverty, exploitation and force. Of the total, there are 52.94% boys and 47.06% girls in the trade.

Article 3 : Residential Segregation

Residential segregation is a rule rather than exception attributed to impure status attached to their occupations which are imposed on them and supposed to be unclean. This segregation limits interaction and exchange, nurtures myths and misconceptions, easy for social boycott, atrocities. There has been demand for rehabilitation where they are in majority.

Article 6: Accountability of State

The national government has treaty obligations but it passes legislation that the states are expected to enforce and the social uplift is left to the states; instead of the national government bearing the financial and accountability duties. The Indian government is hiding behind federalism.

Article 7:

Under this article the state party is obliged to adopt immediate and effective measures in the fields of education, information and culture with a view to combating prejudices which lead to racial discrimination.

Reservation Policy

The policy was introduced as compensation to their traditional and historical deprivation applicable only in government and public sectors. However, the gains of the policy are poor and limited mainly to urban areas because its implementation is poor due to bureaucracy which is dominated by upper castes, and the issue is politicized. The SC-ST in general are unaware of provisions under the policy. Lack of proper publicity, lack of positive and proactive attitude and biases among common people are some of the prominent reasons behind such a situation (Table 5, 6).

Article 11: Right to an adequate Standard of Living

An adequate standard of living is determined by socio-economic and health conditions. Dalits in India have no access to good socio-economic opportunities and therefore get deprived of the right to adequate standard of living. Invariably, they are employed in unorganized/traditional occupation that have very low wages and have no regular employment. They are under paid and also the females are paid less wages as compared to males.

Article 12: Right to enjoyment of Physical and Mental Health

Due to physical segregation and practice of untouchability, these communities are deprived of the right to enjoyment and of physical and mental health. Government medical facilities are inadequate and rare in rural parts and private treatment is not affordable for them. The medical staff refuse to treat them or visit their localities. All the medical schemes and national-international health schemes do not reach them due to prejudices and discriminatory attitude of medical personnel.

Further, physically, they are found to be not healthy due to lack of nutritious food hunger and thus are prone to all kinds of diseases.

Article 13 and 14: Educational Backwardness

Education is considered an important means of socio-economic development of these communities. However, the best or quality education is inaccessible to them as it is urban biased, rich biased and language (English) biased. The literacy rates among these community are poor compared to general population. It is revealed by various studies that access to and performance in education is very poor. For example, according to 2001 census report, the literacy rate at all India level is 64.8 percent; out of which it is 75.3 percent among males and 53.7 percent among females. Among the SCs it is 54.7 among SCs at all India level and their male-female distribution is 66.6 and 41.9 percent respectively. Generally, at higher level of education they go in for general education (Arts, Science, Commerce), take longer time to complete and remain unemployed or underemployed. Enrollment, sustenance and drop out are some of the problems continue to exist. The causes are rooted in the policy planning, management of education besides poor budget allocation (See Table 7, 8, 9). In order to meet the national academic standards and international demands for educated youth, it is necessary to introduce ‘Dalits’ specific education by evolving proper implementation mechanism.`

Economic Conditions

The rural poor in the 1960’s comprised of pauparised peasants, agrarian workers belonging mostly to the depressed castes and tribes and other marginal groups and a large section of women. The issues of poverty became a central question during 1964-71by the Lohia-Nehru-Nanda debates in Lok Sabha about the nature of poverty and its extent. It was only during the fifth plan onwards (1974-79) that poverty has become the main thrust with the slogan of ‘Garibi Hatao’. The Anti-poverty programmes of today’s India involves 1 percent of GDP or 6 percent of the Central budget, 55 percent of which is allocated for food subsidy (PDS), 35 for Rural Works Programme and 5 percent is provided for self-employment programme (Kumar, Anand., 2006 and Saxena, N.C., and John Farrington, 2003).

Percentage of Population below poverty line among SC/ST and rest of the Population Category

Year	SC	ST	All Population
1977-78	56.3	68.10	48.30
1983-84	50.10	57.20	37.40
1987-88	41.50	49.90	29.90

Source: Government of India

Poverty estimates for the year 1993-94 among SC/ST and Others (percentage)

SC		ST		Others
Rural	Urban	Rural	Urban	Combined
48.11	49.48	51.94	41.14	35.9

Source: Government of India

Poverty Estimates for the Year 1999-2000(NSS 55^th round) Among SC/ST and Others Based on Official Poverty Line.(percentage)

Others	SC/ST
24.5	35.8

Source: Meenakshi, J.V., and Ranjan Ray (2002), Table 3&4

The economic condition of SC and ST continuous to be worse off than the other sections of Indian society. Around 50 percent of the SC and ST population is below poverty line whereas for the rest of the population it is around 36 percent only in 1993-94. Though the tribals of India are only about 8 per cent of the total population, they accounted for 40 per cent of the internally displaced population, another major characteristic of poverty. Further the percentage decline in poverty is around 13 percentage points for rest of the population from 1977-78 to 1993-94, where as for SC the decline is around 7 percentage points the same for STs shows a decline by around 17 percentage points, however they continue to have preponderant share in poverty. When we look at the states scenario of rural poverty, we find that Bihar (70%), U.P (59%), Orissa (49%), Haryana (46.6%), Karnataka (46.4%), Madhya Pradesh (45.8%), W.Bengal and Assam (45%) have higher percentage of SC population below poverty line. Whereas for ST the states which rank higher are Orissa (71.2%), Bihar (70%), Himachal Pradesh (64%), W.Bengal (62%), Madhya Pradesh (56.7%), and Maharashtra (50.6%). Though the data presented is for 1993-94, the change in poverty decline has not been much among SC and ST groups over the years, as most of the states are allocating less budget to the welfare of SC/ST in the post liberalization era and states which record highest poverty like Bihar are also the states with lowest budgeted outlay and expenditure of central assistance and needs to be looked into quite seriously.

Though poverty estimates have declined from 35.9 percent in 1993-94 for other categories to 24.5 percent (1999/2000), a decline of 11 percentage points. However poverty for SC/ST continues to be around 35.8 percent (Table 10, 11, 12, 13). Since the data selected for study is based on samples of NSS survey one should be cautious in interpreting the data as the selected sample for different states may not bring the true picture of overall poverty. Further since the other socio-economic conditions of the SC/ST did not show any significant improvements over these years, the data needs to be interpreted as only indicative.

Study on Poverty among SC/ST and Others by Meenakshi, J.V., and Ranjan Ray (2002), reveals that states which have higher or closer to all-India SC/ST percentage of population below poverty line(35.8%) include Orissa (63.1%), Bihar (61.8%), Madhya Pradesh (50.9%), Uttar Pradesh (41.3%), Assam (38.4%), West Bengal (35.7%) and Maharashtra (32.7%). In fact one can correlate the socio-economic deprivation which SC/STs faced from centuries in those states as being the major cause of Poverty.

Employment Programmes and Their Evaluation

Jawahar Rozgar Yojana was launched on 1.4.1989 with the main objective of generating additional gainful employment for the unemployed and underemployed in rural areas through creation of rural infrastructure and community assets 22.5% of funds under Jawahar Rozgar Yojana are required to be spent on the SC/ST beneficiaries. The Planning Commission while considering the performance of this programme has quoted the concurrent evaluation of the programme by the Ministry of Rural Development during June 1993-May, 1994, which has brought out that roughly 11 days of employment was generated per person. At this level of performance, the programme could not have made any significant impact on the income levels of the beneficiaries. The programme was not implemented in its true spirit and many a times the emphasis was on creation of assets rather than on employment generation and in many States the contractors executed the works using trucks and tractors instead of labour intensive approaches. The Planning Commission has also noted the fudging of musters rolls and of measurement books. There are complaints about providing employment to the personal supporters of the Pradhans or workers willing to sign for higher wages while accepting the lower wages (Planning Commission evaluation Reports on employment programmes). (See Tables 10, 11, 12, 13)

Employment Assurance Scheme was started in 1993 to create additional wage employment in the backward blocks. After universalisation of the scheme it could not be continued as a demand driven scheme due to shortage of funds and large demand from the landless agricultural labourers for employment continues.

IRDP is the earliest self employment programme, which was started in 1980-81. IRDP had several allied programmes like Training of rural Youth for Self-employment (TRYSEM), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA). Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY) and Supply of Improved Tool Kits to Rural Artisans (SITRA). These programmes envisage considerable flow of benefits to SCs as well as to STs. However, the targets have not been set up separately for the SCs and the STs. Under IRDP 50% of the funds were earmarked for SC/ST beneficiaries.

• The multiple IRDP and allied programmes were implemented as separate programmes without keeping in mind the overall objective of generating sustainable incomes. Only 3% of the IRDP beneficiaries received training under TRYSEM and only 23% of those trained under TRYSEM were assisted under IRDP.

• The management of inherently unviable projects was in the hands of often illiterate and unskilled beneficiaries with little or no past experience of managing an enterprise. The IRDP did not take into account the disabilities from which the poor suffer, notably their exclusion from the community decision-making.

• For fear of default the banks were unwilling to lend to the poor and preferred the better off applicants or the unscrupulous who would pocket the subsidy and repay the loan in connivance with the bank staff.

• Leakages, misappropriation of funds, violation of programme guidelines, selection of non-poor as target group, absence of proper maintenance of accounts and poor quality of assets – all these have been documented in various studies.

The emerging sectors of the industrial development have opened up new opportunities for employment to the people. Educated youth of Scheduled Castes should be given training by arranging special training programmes so that they can also avail of these opportunities (National Commission on SC& ST, 2002).

Occupational Status

Occupational Status of SC reveals that the work force has shifted from cultivators and house hold industry in 1961 to predominantly as agriculture labourers and other workers by 1991. Whereas for ST the shift is again towards agricultural labourers though around 55 percent are still into cultivation by 1991. Overall there has been a decline in status of rural occupations from self-employed in cultivation and household industry towards mostly market oriented agriculture labourers and other services. However, for general population the shift is mostly towards the other services whereas the shift for SC and ST has occurred mostly as agricultural labourers. Since agricultural operations are only seasonal in nature agricultural labourers remain under-employed for most of the year and are also paid lower wages than the prescribed amount. Under-employment, poverty and lower wages force of land less labourers, force even their children and women to work at even lower levels of wages and in an exploitative conditions. Although considerable diversification has taken place in the occupational profile of the Scheduled Castes many of them continue to follow their traditional caste occupations. It has been estimated that in 1961 about 2 crore Scheduled Castes were engaged in their traditional occupation of leatherwork about 47 lakhs were weavers and 30 lakhs fisherman. Most of these professions continued to be undeveloped and carried on a very small scale. The educational deprivation of the Scheduled Castes has further hampered the development of these professions on scientific lines. It may be mentioned that in most of the developed countries of the world these occupations are organized on commercial lines with attractive remuneration of those engaged in such occupations. The Government should take steps for training, skill upgradation, co-operation and better organization of the traditional occupations of the SCs to provide them help in the form of access of raw materials, finance and marketing of the products.

The Table shows that in 1985-86 although SC cultivators formed 12.4 percent of all the cultivators, the area operated upon by them was 7.7 percent of the total area and the size of their average land holdings was only 1.05 hectares and that area operated upon by SCs was the lowest and size of their holdings were the smallest amongst all the social groups. The Agricultural Census – 1990-91 shows that average size of operational holdings of all the cultivators have further decreased to 1.55 hectares from 1.69 hectares in 1985-86. The number of Scheduled Castes operational holdings in the country was estimated as 13.42 million in 1990-91 while their number in 1985-86 was 12.04 millions, which indicated an increase of about 11.5% in 1990-91. The total area operated by the Scheduled Caste holdings increased from 12.64 million hectares in 1985-86 to 13.17 million hectares, in 1990-91, representing an increase of 4.2 percent. Thus the area of Scheduled Caste holdings has not increased in proportion to their numbers. Most of the Scheduled Castes cultivators (72.2% in 1990-91) fall into the category of marginal farmers (land holdings less than 1 hectares). This calls for effective implementation of land reforms and distribution of surplus among SCs and proper recording of the occupancy rights of the tenants to ensure that tillers are not vacated from the land they are cultivating. Studies like (Suryanarayana, M.H) on land holdings have concluded that though land being one of the important physical endowment is sufficient for economic upliftment. However capital, both human and physical are necessary for promoting their welfare in a more realistic way.

Special Component Plan

Special Component Plan (SCP) for the development of SC and ST is under implementation since the Sixth Five Year Plan. All the States, which have sizable SC population and the Central Ministries, are expected to prepare SCP for the development of the Scheduled Castes.

In the case of States like Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka. Himalachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi the outlay provided for SCP was only half of the proportion of their SC population. In the case of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Sikkim, Tripura and Chandigarh also outlay was considerably short of the percentage of SC population in these States. Similar is the case of ST communities across different states. Among these States Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh reported full utilization of the outlay provided for the SCP.

Since all the programmes of the State Govts are coordinated under the program of SCP for development of the Scheduled Castes, it is important that this programme be made effective.

Special Central Assistance

The main objective of SCA to SCP is to supplement the State’s efforts for additional thrust for speedy development of the Scheduled Caste population by providing additional support to the SC families to enhance their productivity and income to bring about occupational diversification. Against release of Rs.36.20 crores in 1998-99, Bihar utilized Rs.18.21 crores only. One can see form previous data on poverty in Bihar is around 60 percent and it becomes imperative on part of Bihar state government to take concrete action against removal of poverty which is not even attempted as is reflected from the data on utilization of funds for development of SC/STs. Since further releases of the amount under the scheme depend upon the progress of utilization, delay in reporting of the utilization to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (SJ&E) would hamper further release and consequently progress in the implementation of programmes for development of SCs.

States with large SC population, Maharashtra in 1997-98 and 1999-2000, Punjab and Rajasthan in 1998-99, Tamil Nadu in 1999 and Delhi in all three years have reported under utilization of the SCA released by the government of India to these states. There is a need for preparing time bound action plans to provide basis civic facilities like education, water supply, electricity, sanitation at part with other sections of the society, to completely eradicate poverty and provide them employment opportunities.

Special Component Plan (SCP) by the Central Ministries

The central ministries are also required to prepare the special component plans for the development of the SC/STs at the time of formulation of their annual plans. needs to be allocated for the special component plan. According to this plan Central Ministries and Departments have to open separate budget heads/sub-heads with at least 15% of the total annual plan outlay is to be earmarked under the special component plan. However at present 27 ministries/departments have expressed their inability to formulate the special component plan because they feel that their activities cannot be divided community-wise and only 14 ministries or departments are formulating the special SCP. There is a definite need for creating separate statistics which also considers the social-economic dimensions of the expenditure to really evaluate the outcome of the plan expenditure on most of the ministries.

Education

Special attention to the educational needs of socially marginalised communities such as the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes is a national commitment, pursued in all the Five Year Plans. In many States, the progress with respect to enrolment and participation of children belonging to these sections has been quite satisfactory. However, statistics reveal that the objectives of equity are still elusive in many parts of the country. Considering that the SC/ST population is not homogeneous in all respects, the endeavour would be to refine the identification of target groups even among the SC/STs and identify particular sub-groups which are seriously handicapped and require greater attention Kaushik, Amik, (2003).

According to Institute of Statistics, UNESCO, India has never spent above 4%, and the average for the past three decades is 3.3% the world average is 4.9% in this respect, even above our highest score, even though there is repeated declaration of spending 6% or more on education. The Tapas Mazumdar Committee, in 1999, calculated this cumulative gap between promise and reality, and estimated that it will require an additional investment of Rs. 13,700 crores per year for the next ten years to make up the short fall in budgetary commitments, which amounts to about 0.6% of the current GDP (merely 60 paise of every Rs.100).Consider that recent increase in Defence spending alone was twice this amount.

The table and graph on education expenditure clearly pinpoints the lack of commitment by the government in spending on education. The average expenditure is around 3 percent of GDP which should be much higher as the economy is growing at 6-7 percent per annum. It can also be hypothesized that the scholarship and other programmes which are quite critical for the development of marginalised groups needs to be further strengthened to enhance their socio-economic status. There is no data separately available for education expenditure according to the socio-economic status. Therefore it is imperative to generate separate date which takes into consideration the socio-economic dimensions of the expenditure on education to really evaluate the outcome of the plan expenditure on education.

Reservation

Reservation was the second most important political intervention in meeting the challenges of poverty and deprivation. However persistent vicious circle of poverty and illiteracy force many children to got to work when they should be in schools. Children who are labourers, lose education and therefore employment opportunities when they are adults. Though reservation has been effective in bringing some guranted employment at the lower levels. However it has not contributed towards any qualitative shift in the lives of the poorer sections of theses communities.

Summary and Conclusions

It was only during the fifth plan onwards (1974-79) that poverty has become the main thrust with the slogan of ‘Garibi Hatao’. The Anti-poverty programmes of today’s India involves 1 percent of GDP or 6 percent of the Central budget, 55 percent of which is allocated for food subsidy (PDS), 35 for Rural Works Programme and 5 percent is provided for self-employment programmes. Though poverty estimates have declined from 35.9 percent in 1993-94 for ‘other categories’ to 24.5 percent (1999/2000), a decline of 11 percentage points. However since the other socio-economic conditions of the SC/ST did not show any significant improvements over these years, the data needs to be interpreted as only indicative. State level data shows that states which have higher or closer to all-India SC/ST percentage of population below poverty line(35.8%) include Orissa (63.1%), Bihar (61.8%), Madhya Pradesh (50.9%), Uttar Pradesh (41.3%), Assam (38.4%), West Bengal (35.7%) and Maharashtra (32.7%). In fact one can correlate the socio-economic deprivation which SC/STs faced from centuries in those states as being the major cause of Poverty.

Jawahar Rozgar Yojana provided roughly 11 days of employment. At this level of performance, the programme could not have made any significant impact on the income levels of the beneficiaries. Employment Assurance Scheme could not be continued as a demand driven scheme due to shortage of funds and large demand from the landless agricultural labourers for employment continues. IRDP is the earliest self employment programme. However, leakages, misappropriation of funds, violation of programme guidelines, selection of non-poor as target group, absence of proper maintenance of accounts and poor quality of assets. In terms of occupational status, for general population the shift is mostly towards the ‘other services’ whereas the shift for SC and ST has occurred mostly as agricultural labourers. Since agricultural operations are only seasonal in nature agricultural labourers remain under-employed for most of the year and are also paid lower wages than the prescribed amount. Under-employment, poverty and lower wages, force even their children and women to work at even lower levels of wages and in an exploitative conditions. Although considerable diversification has taken place in the occupational profile of the Scheduled Castes many of them continue to follow their traditional caste occupations. It has been estimated that in 1961 about 2 crore Scheduled Castes were engaged in their traditional occupation of leatherwork about 47 lakhs were weavers and 30 lakhs fisherman. Most of these professions continued to be undeveloped and carried on a very small scale.

The area of Scheduled Caste holdings has not increased in proportion to their numbers. Most of the Scheduled Castes cultivators (72.2% in 1990-91) fall into the category of marginal farmers (land holdings less than 1 hectares). This calls for effective implementation of land reforms and distribution of surplus among SCs and proper recording of the occupancy rights of the tenants to ensure that tillers are not vacated from the land they are cultivating. Further, capital, both human and physical are necessary for promoting their welfare in a more realistic way.

As regarding the Special Component plan in states like Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka. Himalachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi the outlay provided for SCP was only half of the proportion of their SC population. In Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Sikkim, Tripura and Chandigarh the budgeted outlay was considerably short of the percentage of SC population in these States. Similar is the case of ST communities across different states.

India has never spent above 4% of its GDP for education, the average for the past three decades is 3.3% and the world average is 4.9% in this respect, though there is repeated declaration of spending 6% or more on education. However, statistics reveal that the objectives of equity are still elusive in many parts of the country. There is a need to refine the identification of target groups even among the SC/STs and identify particular sub-groups which are seriously handicapped and require greater attention.

Thus, for good governance and successful democracy, protection of social, cultural and economic rights of the traditionally marginalized communities like Dalits is a demand of the hours; especially in the present era of globalization, human rights and justice. Since the issue under reference is that of 160 million people, the Indian government cannot any more depend on ad-voc arrangements with half hazard efforts. The UNO has a lot of scope to intervene positively which stands of human rights and human dignity.

Table: 1

Volume of Criminal Cases Reported

Sr. No.	Years	No. of Cases
1.	1995	32996
2.	1996	31440
3.	1997	27944
4.	1998	25638
5.	1999	25093

Source: Report of Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes and Tribes NHRC,

2004, New Delhi.

Table: 2

Incidence of Crime against SCs during 1999-2000

Sr. No.	Crime	Year 1999	Year 2000
1.	Murder	506	486
2.	Hurt	3241	3298
3.	Rape	1000	1034
4.	Kidnap & Adb.	228	242
5.	Decoity	36	37
6.	Robbery	109	93
7.	Arson	337	260
8.	PCR Act.	678	667
9.	SC-ST (POA) Act.	7301	6616
10.	Other Offence	11657	11009
	Total	25093	23741

Source: Report on Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Caste, NHRC, 2004, GOI

Table : 3

Incidence and Rate of Crimes Committed Against SCs/STs during 2005

Sr. No.		Total		Percentage
		SC	ST	SC	ST
1.	India	26,127	5713	100	100
2.	Andhra Pradesh	3117	515	11.9	9.0
3.	Madhya Pradesh	4356	1615	16.7	28.3
4.	Rajasthan	3795	863	14.5	15.1
5.	Karnataka	1780	-	6.8	-
6.	Gujarat	1307	237	5.0	4.1
7.	Bihar	1824	-	7.0	-
8.	Maharashtra	865	224	3.3	3.9
9.	Uttar Pradesh	4397	-	16.8	-
10.	Orissa	1439	602	5.5	10.5
11.	Assam	-	216	-	3.8
12.	Chhatisgarh	-	497	-	8.7
13.	Jharkhand	-	483	8.0

Source: National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, 2005 GOI.

Table : 4

Incidence of Crimes against SC/ST during 2005 (Crime-wise)

Sr. No.	State	Murder		Rape		Kidnapping & Abducting		Dacoity		Robbery		Arson		Hurt		PCR		SC-ST Pof. Atro. Act		Other Offences		Total		Grand Total
1.		SC	ST	SC	ST	SC	ST	SC	ST	SC	ST	SC	ST	SC	ST	SC	ST	SC	ST	SC	ST	SC	ST
	India	669	164	1172	640	258	72	26	27	80	49	210	38	3847	767	291	162	8497	1283	11077	2511	26127	5713	31840
2	Andhra Pradesh	37	12	74	34	21	2	0	0	0	1	9	1	459	70	61	0	1244	196	2112	199	3115	515	3632
3.	Madhya Pradesh	96	48	340	294	19	14	0	1	9	3	38	15	950	199	1	0	344	252	2559	789	4356	1615	5971
4.	Rajasthan	56	11	136	29	18	3	0	0	4	1	32	5	399	117	1	0	415	91	2734	606	3795	863	4658
5.	Karnataka	18	5	30	6	8	0	2	0	2	0	4	0	86	7	28	0	1108	85	494	88	1780	191	1971
6.	Gujarat	10	4	20	19	18	6	7	17	17	20	8	2	270	32	6	0	434	73	517	64	1307	237	1544
7.	Bihar	12	0	16	2	5	3	4	0	6	2	19	0	319	11	95	0	1141	59	207	5	1824	82	1906
8.	Maharashtra	15	10	83	41	8	4	5	1	6	2	7	0	52	7	32	0	258	52	399	107	865	224	1089
9.	Uttar Pradesh	323	0	224	0	99	0	5	0	22	0	57	0	427	2	28	0	1623	0	1589	4	4397	6	4403
10	Orissa	9	15	33	30	6	4	0	2	4	2	5	5	259	96	0	0	639	204	484	244	1439	602	2041
11.	Chhatisgarh	6	20	59	104	3	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	71	81	1	0	115	93	199	190	454	497	951
12.	Jharkhand	13	13	8	20	1	4	0	0	0	0	8	3	71	30	8	160	64	152	104	101	277	483	760
13	Assam	21	23	14	19	25	21	3	4	8	14	7	5	111	63	0	0	0	0	93	67	282	216	498

Source: National Human Rights Commission, 2004, GOI.

Note: Figures are drawn only from reported cases which are roughly 40 percent

TABLE NO. 5

Representation of SC/STs in Central Government Services

(As on 1 January1999)

Group	Total	SCs	Percentage	STs	Percentage
A	93520	10558	11.29	3172	3.39
B	104963	13306	12.68	3512	3.35
C	2396426	378115	15.78	145482	6.07
D
Excluding Safai Karamchari	949353	189761	19.99	66487	7.0
Safai Karamchar	96435	63233	65.57	5314	5.51
Total (Excluding Safai Karamchari)	3544262	591740	16.07	218653	6.17
Total (Including Safai Karamchari)	3640697	654973	17.99	223967	6.15

Source: India 2002, Government of India, p. 247.

Table No. 6

Position of SCs and STs in Teaching Posts at all the Department of the University of Delhi and its affiliated Colleges as in 1995.

Position	Total No. of Teacher		No. of SCs		No. of STs
	Department	College	Department	College	Department	College
Professors	311	4*	2	0	0	0
Readers	247	2545	1	3	1	0
lecturers	142	1963	4	8	1	0
total	700	4512	7	11	2	0

Note: *The Post of Professor in college has been introduced only in very recent years.

However the source mentioned below points to four posts of professor in the

Colleges (cited in Virginius Xaxa, Economic and Political Weekly, XXXVII

No. 28, p. 2853.)

Table : 7

Table on Expenditure of Education in India

Years	Education Expenditure as Proportion of GDP	Education Expenditure as Proportion of Total expenditure
2000-01	3.17	11.3
2001-02	2.98	10.6
2002-03	2.97	10.3
2003-04	2.78	9.7
2004-05(RE)	2.87	9.9
2005-06(BE)	2.81	10.1

Source: Economic Survey 2005-06, GOI

TABLE NO. 8

ENROLMENT OF SCHEDULED CASTE AND SCHEDULED TRIBE CASTE STDENTS IN SCHOOLS

DURING 1980-81 TO 2000-2001.

Year	Primary (I-V)		Middle (VI-VIII)		High-Hr. Secondary (IX-XII)
1980-81	SC	ST	SC	ST	SC	ST
	10981	4660	2223	742	1152	329
1981-82	11343	4921	2454	835	1246	358
1982-83	12051	5331	2647	926	1421	412
1983-84	12473	5729	3296	1057	1777	427
1984-85	12691	4059	3666	1216	1953	521
1985-86	13921	6580	3619	1283	1810	585
1986-87	12526	6557	3414	1434	1466	557
1987-88	14676	7229	3736	1455	2028	611
1988-89	15202	7596	3841	1503	2103	716
1989-90	15400	7798	3921	1569	2331	797
1990-91	15794	7869	4160	1707	2338	805
1991-92	16037	8033	4693	1794	2581	843
1992-93	17351	8365	5411	2029	2531	882
1993-94	17581	8595	5580	2164	2808	997
1994-95	18432	9095	5213	2248	2591	1129
1995-96	19176	9415	5445	2285	2741	1122
1996-97*	17906	8793	5956	2545	2940	1208
1997-98*	18445	9011	5765	2355	3156	1249
1998-99*	19500	9301	6136	2556	3217	1308
1999-2000*	20435	10650	6301	2905	3784	1422
2000-01*	21195	10995	6694	3084	3812	1490
Provisional

Source: Azimji Premji Education Foundation

TABLE NO. 9

ALL INDIA LEVEL EDUCATIONAL ENROLMENT AT HIGHER EDUCATION AMONG SCs AND NON SCs, 2001-2002

LEVELS	ALL INDIA (GENERAL)			ALL INDIA (SCs)
	BOYS	GIRLS	TOTAL	BOYS	GIRLS	TOTAL
Ph.D.	(63.66)	(36.33)	53119	(6.82)	(4.26)	3133 (5.89)
*Post Graduate	(59.76)	(40.23)	647016	(14.00)	(9.72)	79466 (12.28)
**Under Graduate	(58.32)	(41.67)	6442789	(13.98(	(8.17)	745181 (11.56)
***Professional	(69.47)	(30.52)	790040	(8.81)	(9.10)	70367 (8.90)
****Others	(63.19)	(36.82)	696608	16.13)	(16.08)	112291 (16.11)
XI-XIIT	(60.22)	(39.77)	10453229	(9.95)	(9.08)	1004772 (9.61)
Total Enrolment in Higher Education	5300281 (60.08)	3520814 (39.91)	8821095	706769 (13.33)	309813 (8.79)	1016582 (11.52)

Source: Selected Educational Statistics-2001-2002, Govt. of India.

*Includes M. A., M. Sc., and M. Com.

**Includes B.A., B. Sc., and B.Com.

***Includes B. E., M. B. B. S., and B. Ed.

****Not includes in specified faculty.

Table 10

Percentage of Population Below Poverty Line by States

S.No.	States	Rural		Urban
		Scheduled Castes	Scheduled Tribes	Scheduled Castes	Scheduled Tribes
1	Andhra Pradesh	26.02	25.66	43.82	46.68
2	Assam	45.38	41.44	14.34	7.11
3	Bihar	70.66	69.75	55.16	35.76
4	Gujarat	32.26	31.20	44.99	35.47
5	Haryana	46.56	41.55	23.58	0.00
6	Himachal Pradesh	36.89	63.94	18.52	0.00
7	Karnataka	46.36	37.33	61.59	0.00
8	Kerala	36.43	37.34	31.59	62.05
9	Madhya Pradesh	45.83	56.69	65.00	1.08
10	Maharashtra	51.64	50.58	52.56	61.06
11	Orissa	48.95	71.26	47.45	64.85
12	Punjab	22.08	27.00	24.96	0.00
13	Rajasthan	38.38	46.23	48.63	13.21
14	Tamil Nadu	44.05	44.37	61.50	30.08
15	Uttar Pradesh	58.99	37.11	58.02	36.88
16	West Bengal	45.29	61.95	37.73	19.41
	All India	48.11	51.94	49.48	41.14

Source: National Commission on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (2002)

Table : 11

Poverty estimates for the year 1999-2000(NSS 55^th round) among SC/ST and Others Based on Official Poverty Line for Major States in India.(percentage)

Sl.No	States	Others	SC/ST
1	Andhra Pradesh	10.8	14.9
2	Assam	38.6	38.4
3	Bihar	44.6	61.8
4	Gujarat	10.1	17.9
5	Haryana	6.3	15.3
6	Himachal Pradesh	4.8	5.6
7	Karnataka	14	20.8
8	Kerala	6.7	13
9	Madhya Pradesh	37.1	50.9
10	Maharashtra	20	32.7
11	Orissa	47.5	63.1
12	Punjab	3.7	7.4
13	Rajasthan	10.2	17.7
14	Tamil Nadu	18.3	24.7
15	Uttar Pradesh	29	41.3
16	West Bengal	28.4	35.7
	All India	24.5	35.8

Source: Meenakshi, J.V., and Ranjan Ray (2002), Table 3&4

Table : 12

Occupational Status of SC/ST

		1961			1991
		Genl	SC	ST	Genl	SC	ST
1	Cultivators	52.78	37.76	68.18	39.74	25.44	54.50
2	Agricultural Laborers	16.71	34.48	19.71	19.66	49.06	32.69
3	Household Industry	6.38	6.56	2.47	2.56	2.41	1.04
4	Other Workers	24.13	21.20	9.64	38.04	23.08	11.76

Source: Census of India for 1961 and 1991

Table : 13

Number Of Operational Holdings and Area Operated in India by Various Social Groups in 1980-81,1985-86 And 1990-91.

Social Group	Number of Holdings (in Lakhs)			Area Operated (in lakhs hec.)			Average land holding (in hect.)
	1980-81	1985-86	1990-91	1980-81	1985-86	1990-91	1980-81	1985-86	1990-91
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Scheduled Castes	100.52 (11.3)	120.41 (12.4)	134.22 (12.6)	115.22 (7.0)	126.39 (7.7)	131.73 (8.0)	1.15	1.05	0.98
Scheduled Tribes	68.54 (7.7)	76.48 (7.9)	86.70 (8.1)	167.04 (10.2)	172.34 (10.5)	179.09 (10.8)	2.44	2.25	2.07
Others	719.77 (81.00)	774.66 (79.7)	845.45 (79.3)	1355.71 (82.8)	1346.89 (81.8)	1344.25 (81.2)	1.88	1.74	1.59
All Social Groups	888.83 (100.00)	971.55 (100.0)	971.55 (100.00)	1637.97 (100.0)	1645.62 (100.0)	1655.07 (100.00)	1.84	1.69	1.55

Source: National Commission on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (2002)

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