CLAIMS

With its slogan ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ (Taking everyone along for everyone’s development), the Modi Government claimed that it has created an environment in which all sections are safe and secure.

Increase the allocation for the SC component plan to 16.6 per cent of the central budget.

TRUTH

In reality, the BJP is working on implementing its Manuvadi agenda which especially discriminates against Dalits, along with tribals and women. 

Atrocities

In 2018, the Supreme Court judgement severely diluted the SCs, STs Prevention of Atrocities Act (POA). The BJP has silently in favour of this judgement. Dalit groups reacted very strongly and organised a Bandh that was very successful in much of North India. BJP governments in UP, MP and Rajasthan attacked dalits in many places. More than 9 were killed – including in firing by known and identified BJP workers against whom no action was taken – and hundreds, including minors, were tortured, beaten and sent to jail. The parliament was forced to pass a legislation to nullify the changes made by the Supreme Court.

The number of cases registered under the Act have increased every year since the BJP came to power. In 2014, cases registered under the Prevention of Atrocities Act was 40,401. The numbers went up to over 58,000 in 2020. According to the National Crimes Records Bureau recorded crime against SCs went up by over 13 per cent between 2021 and 2022. Between 2018 and 2022, Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 49,613 cases of atrocities and attacks.

The period after the BJP came power has been witness to several atrocious cases in which those committing atrocities against Dalits were given the open protection of the BJP headed State Government. The Una incident (2016) and the Hathras incident (2020) are examples of this.

Crimes against Dalit women have increased manifold. According to a UN report, the cases of rape against Dalit women jumped almost 50 per cent between 2015 and 2019.

Dalit students in schools and institutions of higher education including IITs, IIMs, Medical Colleges, Engineering Colleges etc. have also had to face casteist discrimination, humiliation and violence.

Economic conditions

Government sources admit that only one fifth of rural Dalit houses are pucca (brick) and around 16 per cent of Dalit homes in urban areas are in slums. According to the National Sample Survey the poverty rate among Dalits is above 30 per cent,  higher than the national average of 21 per cent. Five out of six multi-dimensionally poor people are from lower tribes or castes.

Budgetary allocation for welfare schemes for SCs and STs are consistently being reduced. The BJP government has intensified ‘economic discrimination’ by drastically curtailing expenditures on SC, ST welfare.

In 2017-18, the Modi government, by dispensing with Scheduled Caste sub-plan and Tribal sub-plan further sabotaged the mechanism meant for focused intervention for the development of Scheduled Castes and Tribes. In its second term (2019-20 to 2023-24), the average allocation for SCs was only 11.06 per cent of the amount earmarked for central and central sector sponsored schemes. According to Government guidelines, it should have been 15 per cent. Of this, the amount allocated to the targeted schemes for SCs was only 3.3 per cent, the rest being spent on general schemes.

Reservations

The Central Government has directly and indirectly weakened the constitutional provisions for empowerment of the weaker section of society. Its performance in filling the backlog in reserved posts is appalling. According to the information given in Parliament on March 24, 2022, nine ministries and departments of the Central government (Railways, Finance, Atomic Energy, Defence, Housing and Home Affairs etc.) had 82,022 vacancies reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs. Out of these only 42 per cent were filled.

The case of Universities and institutes of Excellence is not any better. Forty five central universities have not filled 42 per cent of reserved vacant posts of SCs. The worst case is that of the Indian Institute of Science which had a 80 per cent backlog in the vacancies reserved for SCs.

Privatization

Under the Modi Government, privatization of public sector industries and public services and higher education, has been accelerated which has considerably and adversely affected the access to jobs in these sectors for the SCs and other categories.

Education

Scholarships and fellowships for students from deprived sections have been curtailed drastically. The lack of timely release of around Rs 80 billion of Br. Ambedkar post-matriculation scholarship which affected around 5.1 million students many of whom were forced to drop out of colleges. Most of the special skill development and joint loan schemes for Dalits have suffered under the BJP Government due to lack of funds. The central government has stopped its funding of various such programs initiated by state governments citing various reasons. BJP ruled States like UP are witnessing non-payment of scholarships to Dalit students at all levels of education.

The institutional murder of Rohit Vemula in the Central University of Hyderabad was one that provoked huge protests and the numbers of dalit students committing suicide has continued to rise. Government figures show that of all 122 student suicides between 2014 and 2021, 68 were by SC and ST students.  Additionally, more than 13000 SC and ST students have dropped out from IITs, IIMs and Central Universities since 2018.)

Manual scavenging

Despite the fact that the Prime Minister washed the feet of female sanitation workers after the Kumbh in Allahabad, and despite the fact that manual scavenging has been outlawed by the courts, it continues to be practised in many BJP-ruled states and deaths of sanitation workers take place regularly. They are forced to perform demeaning and dangerous work without any safety equipment and, since most of them are contract or outsourced workers, their families do not receive compensation after these deaths. Ironically, the most common form of ‘compensation’ is to give the same dangerous job that caused the death to a family member.

While 520 districts across the country had declared themselves free of manual scavenging and a much hyped National Action Plan for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem had been launched, the situation on the ground is quite different. Only Kerala has been able to rid itself of this inhuman practice and is also the only State to have started the use of robots etc. for hazardous sanitation work.

The BJP’s real intention is not to cater to the welfare of the dalits and other downtrodden sections. One of its MPs has already declared that the real intention of the BJP in asking for more than 400 seats in parliament is to change the constitution. It wants to re-write the constitution to include the discriminatory practices prescribed in the Manu Smriti.

DEFEND DALIT RIGHTS!  DEFEAT BJP!

Published by Communist Party of India (Marxist)