Making Dalits and Adivasis strong is the need of the hour

Dalit organizations have called for a Bharat Bandh on 21 August across the country. This protest is happening in the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s order on August 1 giving the right to state governments to sub-classify Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Dalit organizations say that the proposal of sub-classification and creamy layer among Dalits will end their reservation in future.

Dinkar Kapoor

By the way, there is no mention of creamy layer in the Supreme Court’s order. This was the opinion of Justice B.R. Gavai of the 7-member bench, which has been supported by many judges. But it has not been included in the operative part of the judgment. As far as sub-classification is concerned, the Supreme Court has said that it should be implemented only when the data of backwardness of caste groups is available. This has strengthened the demand for conducting Socio-economic Caste Census by including the job column as well. If the Supreme Court had also ordered Socio-economic Caste Census and talked about sub-classification on that basis, it would have been better. However, the current situation is that many posts of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are remaining vacant in the country. This situation is even more frightening, especially in high-class jobs. In fact, if we look at the statistics, we will find that 4.42 crore families in the country belong to Scheduled Castes. Out of which 3.95 Dalit families have jobs, out of which 0.93 percent families are in government jobs and 2.47 percent families are employed in the private sector. 83 percent Dalit families run their livelihood on an income of less than Rs 5000, 11.74 percent families run their livelihood between Rs 5000 to Rs 10000, 4.67 percent families earn more than Rs 10000 and only 3.50 percent families run their livelihood on an income of more than Rs 50000. If we see, 42 percent of Dalit families are landless and 35.30 percent of tribal families are landless. 94 percent Dalits and 92 percent tribals earn their livelihood through labour and other means. Dalit families have 18.5 percent unirrigated, 17.41 percent irrigated and 6.98 percent other land. Among Dalits, 23 percent live in good houses, 2 percent in habitable houses, 12 percent in dilapidated houses and 24 percent in houses made of straw, polythene and mud.

If we look at the budget of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, the Union Budget for the year 2024-25 is Rs 48 lakh 20 thousand 512 crores. Out of which Rs 165493 crore i.e. 3.43 percent has been allocated for Scheduled Castes and Rs 132214 crore i.e. 2.74 percent for the development of Scheduled Tribes. Even in the schemes being implemented in the name of welfare of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, the government is only fulfilling the interests of the corporate world. Telecom, semiconductors, large scale industries, transport industry, fertilizer import, chemical production etc. have also been included in the schemes made for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Tribes.

If you see, the Modi government has not allocated any budget for the self-employment and rehabilitation of sanitation workers in the financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25. For 2024-25, the National Safai Karamchari Finance and Development Corporation which is responsible for providing loans and financial assistance to sanitation workers in India has been allocated a very meagre amount of only Rs 1 lakh. There was a budget of Rs 70 crore in 2022-23 for the welfare of these most vulnerable castes of the society, out of which only Rs 11 crore was spent and about Rs 58.5 crore lapsed.

Schemes like National Mechanized Sanitation Program have been given a huge budget of Rs 236.99 crore which is only to give money to the corporates. Rs 2140 crore from SC and ST Welfare Fund was allocated for compensating service providers for building and enhancing telecom infrastructure. Rs 1035 crore from SC and ST funds was used for manufacturing semiconductors and displays. Rs 22052.5 crore was given to importers and manufacturers for schemes like subsidy for import and indigenous manufacturing of urea and other fertilizers phosphorus potassium which have no relation with SC-ST development.

If we look at the condition of tribals, it is even worse. Tribals constitute 8.6 percent of the country’s population and their population is around 10 crore. 52 percent of their population lives below the poverty line. 54 percent of the population does not have communication and transport facilities. 42.02 percent of tribals are workers, of which 54.50 percent are farmers and 32.60 percent are farm laborers. That is, about 87 percent of the population works in the primary sector. Among tribals, 87 percent of the population is in the primary sector.

The literacy rate is 58.96 percent in which 68.53 percent are men and 49.35 percent are women. If it is classified, then 35.8 percent tribals are literate, 26.4 percent below class 5, 18.3 percent below class 8, 11.1 percent below class 10, 5.7 percent below class 12, 0.6 percent in diploma and certificate courses, 2.2 percent graduates. According to the report of Social Education, about 70.6 percent tribal boys and 71.3 percent tribal girls leave studies after class 10.

Right now, the matter of 69000 teacher recruitment in Uttar Pradesh is also in a lot of discussion. Due to non-compliance of reservation rules by the Yogi government, the High Court has canceled the entire recruitment on August 13 and has asked the government to make a new list. In this recruitment, out of 1380 seats of Scheduled Tribes, 1133 seats remained vacant. This is also mentioned in the decision of the High Court. According to media reports, these vacant posts of tribes were filled from Scheduled Castes. Around 17 lakh Scheduled Tribes, 0.6 percent, live in Uttar Pradesh. These include Gond, Kharwar, Chero, Baiga, Panika, Bhuinya, Agariya, Tharu, Bhoksa, Bhotia, Sahariya etc. castes. They have been given the status of Scheduled Tribes in some districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Mainly, the maximum number of Scheduled Tribe people in the state live in Sonbhadra district. The situation there is that there are not enough government degree and inter colleges for tribal children to study. There are only three government degree colleges in the entire district. One of which is a women’s degree college. As a result, despite contributing to the society and wanting a government job, the dreams of tribal children are shattered due to lack of education. Girls associated with Yuva Manch demanded the construction of a government degree college for free higher education of tribal girls in the tribal dominated Duddhi tehsil from the tribal President to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. But the government is not paying heed to it. The condition is so bad that even the Government Degree College built in Pokhra of Babhani Block is not being made operational. The condition of primary and secondary education is also bad in this area. Most of the schools are being run by Shikshamitras which is a blatant violation of Right to Education Act 2009. Therefore, the first need is that the government should guarantee free and quality education to tribal children from primary to degree level so that they can make themselves eligible for government jobs.

Along with this, there is a great crisis of livelihood of the people in Duddhi of tribal dominated Sonbhadra. Farming done with plough and bulls is unproductive and it is very difficult to run the livelihood of the family with it. This crisis of livelihood also acts as an important obstacle in providing education to people’s children. People are migrating here on a large scale due to lack of livelihood, even young girls are migrating. Not only are laborers migrating but capital is also migrating. According to the government data of 2021, the people here got a loan of only Rs 3034 crore against the Rs 9623 crore deposited in the banks, that is, 69 percent of the capital has migrated. In such a situation, women self-help groups and youth should be encouraged for self-employment by giving them interest-free loans so that they can prosper financially and spend adequate money on the education of their children. The surprising thing is that the forces of social justice and those who also ran the governments in the state did nothing about this backwardness of the tribals.

Therefore, the need of the hour is to empower the Dalits and tribals. The budget on SC and ST sub-plans should be increased, the provision of not suitable for their participation in government jobs should be abolished and their posts should not be filled by other classes under any circumstances, reservation should be given in media, judiciary and private sector, the vacant government posts in the country should be filled immediately. It is hoped that the forces of social justice will also pay attention to these important questions of Dalits and tribals. (Dinkar Kapoor is the state general secretary of All India People’s Front)

Courtesy: Hindi News