The Public Affairs Index 2017 report on governance in States of India by the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore, ranked Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar at the bottom, while Kerala and Tamil Nadu are good performers and top the list.
The Public Affairs Index has covered a wide range of themes such as essential infrastructure, support to human development, social protection, women and children, crime, law and order, delivery of justice, environment, transparency and accountability, fiscal management and economic freedom.
This poor performances and governance failure of Odisha have been reflected in the contemporary social and economic life of the State and uninterruptedly revealed by various surveys and reports by private as well as Government organisations. It has wider impact over the State in general and its poor marginalized sections, SCs and STs, in particular. It has been observed that the Government of Odisha has been ineffective to ensure protection of SCs and STs against practices of untouchability, social discrimination and caste-based atrocities.
It also failed to provide jobs and education and ensuring development through following the constitutional and legal provisions and budgetary guideline for the excluded communities.
The modern State has a major role in the protection and development of the marginalized sections who are being historically denied their rights to human dignity and equal participation in social and economic and political process. The policies and laws of the State have to be translated to action through programmees implemented through institutional mechanism and State resources.
The constitutional governance of the post-independence India has developed institutional mechanism for effective implementation of policies and laws of the Government for the SCs and STs. In the context of Odisha, there are four major statutory committees such as Committee on Welfare of SCs and STs in Assembly, the State Scheduled Castes Advisory Board as per Odisha SCs Advisory Board Rules 1957, the State Scheduled Tribe Advisory Council as per Tribal Advisory Council rules 1950 and the State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee under the provisions of SCs and STs POA Act 1989. The Chief Minister is the Chairperson of three State level committees. However experience shows these statutory bodies are almost unproductive in discharging their functions in the interest of the SCs and STs of the State. There has been no regular meetings of these forums to conduct business where as they must meet regularly to discuss the issues concerning to the interest of the SCs and STs. The State Home Department in its white paper of 2015 says that there are about 2,500 cases of atrocities against the SCs and STs, out of which 1,816 cases are against SCs and 688 cases are against STs, and about 8,000 cases pending in different courts for trial. The heinous nature of crime includes rape, murder, abduction, physical and metal torture, house burning and loss of crops and property etc.
There have been grievances of victims in rural areas about non registration of FIR by police and delay in submission of charge sheets which further delay the judicial process to access justice. Hundreds of illiterate and poor victims of atrocities in rural areas are being routinely harassed every day. The Government has not developed any social awareness schemes against obscurantist ideas and action.
The major important laws relating to the protection and participation of SCs and STs are, the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities (POA) (amendment) Act 2015, but the execution of these laws and their review lies with the legislative institutions. There has been no periodic review of cases at the State or district level by authorized committees to ensure justice under the provisions of law.
The education and employment provisions are vital to the development of the marginalized but in spite of provision of law, the State Government itself violates it. The Odisha Reservation of Vacancies in Post and Services (for SCs and STs) Act 1975 has to ensure representation of SCs and STs in Government jobs but vacancy continues without any active role of the Government to fullfil these vacancies.
The Chief Minister on March 26 declared to fill up 20,000 vacancies in the State for SCs and STs in various services and posts but unfortunately there has been no administrative process initiated till date to fill up the vacancies.
Rather in the name of contractual appointment and outsourcing, the State Government has been violating all reservation norms which are affecting the scope of employment of the marginalized section in organized sector.
The SC and STs Development Department itself has huge vacancies for which it is not being able to execute its various programmees. The SCs and STs have still inadequate representation in Class one and Class two posts, while they have proportionate representation in Class three and over representation in Class four posts as per their population percentage to the total population of the State. Similarly, the provision of reservation for SC and ST students in educational institutions has not been implemented properly as per their due share.
The State Government has increased the reservation from 20 per cent to 38 per cent in May 2015 but there has been no monitoring of its implementation in educational institutions especially by technical and higher education institutions. The higher educational institutions have not adequately represented by SCs and STs as teaching and non-teaching staff. The privatization of education has drastically limited the scope of education of the poor and marginalized and the state intervention is highly required to ensure education for the poor.
The governance of scheduled area under PESA Act 1996 is very much linked to the good governance and development of tribal areas of the State but the Government has not amended the Panchayatiraj laws and the governance of tribal areas has not been technically and legally handed over to the STs in scheduled areas.
This is affecting a major part of the population in almost half of the geographical area of the State.
It is said that the development of the resourceless poor and marginalized is not possible without the spending by the State but the most important budgetary provision for the development of STs and SCs is Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP). These were initiated since 1979 and special funds are allocated targeting direct improvement of the families. But these plans are not implemented properly.
Unfortunately, there has been only notional allocation and no special scheme has been developed to spend the targeted amount. There has been diversion of funds to other purposes. The persistent negligence of spending of fund for the development of the marginalized has been a major stumbling block. These statutory bodies are represented by legislatures from different parties who have never raised the issues in appropriate forums under the provisions of the constitution. The SC and ST Development Department is the nodal department which is supposed to plan and monitor the implementation of the schemes but it has been suffering due to lack of political and administrative will of the ruling parties. It seems the State is not following the constitutional provision when it comes to the protection and development of the marginalized citizens.
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