Christian Dalit part of SC list? Government likely to oppose demand

NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to oppose the demand for inclusion of Dalit Christians in the Scheduled Castes list, it is learnt.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday had asked the government to spell out its stand on a PIL seeking amendment to Constitution (Scheduled Caste order) 1950.

Secretary, social justice and empowerment, R Subrahmanyam told TOI, “The government has maintained the stand that Dalit status can’t be extended to anyone outside Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism, since 1950, and there is no change in it.”

The SC on Tuesday noted the government hasn’t yet submitted its view on the issue and posted the case for hearing on October 11.

An opinion submitted by the social justice ministry to the law ministry ahead of the last hearing had specified the reasons to oppose the inclusion of any new religion in the SC list. One argument given for red-flagging the demand was that the Constitution provides reservation in legislatures to SCs to “compensate for social injustice” suffered by them over centuries and extending this benefit to converts would impinge on their rights.

The ministry argued that untouchability was a peculiar aspect of Hindu religion, which denied to the disadvantaged castes the fundamentals of human dignity, and mere social backwardness cannot put converts on par with salits, whose backwardness arises from untouchability. It also argued that recognising SCs among the followers of Christianity would amount to violation of the basic tenets of the religion since it doesn’t recognise the caste system. Also, doing so would require increasing the quantum of reservation beyond 50%, which would be illegal.

The ministry also argued that identifying dalit converts was not easy since conversions had been happening for centuries, and the caste of an individual’s ancestors cannot be ascertained, especially where the descendants have left the original caste-related occupation. The government instead has been of the view that dalit converts form part of the OBCs in states and the Centre, and avail the benefits of job reservations and welfare schemes targeted at backward communities.

The plea for making dalit status religion-neutral has been a polarizing subject. While none of the governments in the past have agreed to the demand, the RSS family is especially sensitive to it, as it believes that stretching the religious frontiers of dalit status would encourage conversions from this marginalized community.

Courtesy : TOI

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