The Indigenous People Foundation (IPF) has requested people of the State to cooperate with it in observing August 10 as Black Day to protest discrimination against Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims by not providing them SC status.
Notably, the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) order 1950 was signed on August 10, 1950 by the then President of India which says that “No person who professes a religion other than Hinduism shall be deemed to be a member of the Scheduled Caste” which was later amended to include Sikhs (1956) and Buddhists (1990) in the Scheduled Caste net.
As the order is against the Secular nature (Preamble of the Constitution) of the country, against fundamental rights of the Dalit Christians and Muslims, they observe the day as Black Day to mark the protest.
later the Dalit Christians and Muslims had challenged the constitutional validity of paragraph 3 of the 1950 order in the Supreme Court.
Due to heavy pressure from the judiciary and popular protests, the Government of India constituted the National Commission for Religious and linguistic Minorities on October 29, 2004 headed by former Chief Justice of India Ranganath Mishra.
Justice Ranganath Misra Commission report, which was submitted on May 21, 2007, had recommended that Para 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 should be wholly deleted by appropriate action so as to completely de-link the Scheduled Caste status from religion and make the Scheduled Castes net fully religion-neutral like that of the Scheduled Tribes.
Seven years have already passed, but the Central Government is yet to implement the recommendation of the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission. Even twelve State Governments, Union Territories and several political parties have recommended to the Centre for granting the SC status to these communities, but the Centre is silent on the issue.
“It could be one more powerful step to urge the Union Government to pay heed to their just demand,” said the IPF members, adding, “We will continue the protest till our demands are fulfilled.”