leaders’ participation in growth plan minimal
The Scheduled Caste (SC) population in Odisha constitutes about one-fifth of the total population of the State. But it lags behind other social groups in every aspect of human development indicator. The SC representatives’ participation in monitoring bodies is a matter of concern in backward State like Odisha having a SC population of 72 lakh. The protection and development SCs is linked to the overall development of the State. Odisha has 3.6 per cent of the total SC population of India covering 93 sub-castes where as the county has SC population of about 21 crore covering 1,241 sub-castes.
The Government of India (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1936, the first SC order, identified 54 sub-castes in Odisha in list of SC but till recently the total number has become 93 and a few others are in the process to join. Odisha has enlisted more number of castes as SC in comparison to other States in the country. Many SC organisations are very much critical about the validity of the SC list as they observed that a few of the sub castes included in the list are not fulfilling the basic criteria of untouchability and joined through manipulation and political mobilisation. The relatively socially acceptable caste among SCs are gaining all the advantage of reservation in education, job and political participation while the most untouchable within the SCs such as manual scavengers are still lagging behind and even discriminated by other sub-caste groups. The SC communities are not emerging as socially homogeneous group due to caste based occupations and caste based social identity though they all bear the suffering of social discrimination. The social unification process of the SCs is further disintegrated with conversation to other religion as untouchables converting to other religion except Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs are losing their SC status.
It is observed that many of the reservation beneficiaries are economically well of but their social status has not been changed because economic development has not been contributing much to change the caste identity in social life. The SCs living in scheduled areas are even discriminated by STs in recent times, may be due to communal and casteist mobilisation with discourses of superiority and inferiority injected to them.
The value of symbiotic relationship among SCs and STs has been changing with caste based identities. A large majority of SCs are habitants of costal and rural areas. They are a part of the caste Hindu villages. The different sub caste groups among the SCs in villages have no social relation among themselves. The issues of untouchability in public places like schools, Anganawadi centers and caste based atrocities, violence against untouchable Christians, ethnic conflicts over land and discrimination in accessing Government programmees have been a matter of concern. The social discrimination and social unrest have been disintegrating the social fabric and destroying peaceful co existence which has largely impacted over the development process of the State. Social discrimination needs to be understood from larger development prospective in backward States like Odisha.
The historical social injustice manifested in illiteracy and landlessness has led to abject poverty among the SCs. land has been a matter of concern in the context of development of the SCs because their dependency is very closely linked to land as agricultural workers and sharecroppers. The backwardness of the State’s agriculture sector has been seriously affecting the rural agro based economy, along with farmers. The worst sufferers are agricultural workers and share croppers who depend on agriculture for livelihood.
The natural calamities like flood, cyclone, and drought that routinely happen in the State always add extra burden to their misery. The absence of State investment in agriculture sector and the failure of employment generating programme like MGNREGA have forced many of the illiterate and landless labourers to opt distress migration. This has ramifications over the food production and ultimately food security of the people. The much controversial Rs1-a-kg rice has not been able to stop distress migration in rural areas.
As per constitutional provision, there are dedicated institutions like the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment ( MSJ&E ) and monitoring body the National Commission for Scheduled Caste (NCSC), budgetary provisions like Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and protective Central legislations like the PCR Act and SC and ST (POA) Act for the protection and development of the SCs.
The SCSP is being implemented since 1979 for the development of the SCs having provisions of allocation in the budgetary spending in proportion to the percentage of SC population of the State. The Planning Commission guideline says the SCSP should be an integral part of annual plans and the funds allocated for SCs are non-divertible and non-lapsable and it should be primarily targeted to reduce poverty and unemployment among SCs and bridging the gaps in their socio-economic development. The MSJE had introduced SCSP Bill in 2013 in the Parliament to ensure formal legal sanction to this provision. The State SC and ST Development (SSD) department is the nodal department to monitor the implementation of the SCSP in the State at different levels by involving the elected representatives.
At the State-level there is the Odisha Scheduled Caste Advisory Board with the Chief Minister as the chairperson, the SSD Minister as deputy chairperson and a SC MP and SC MlAs as its members. This committee has to sit regularly to review and discuss about the development of SCs but the role of such an important board is almost non functional in Odisha. The State Assembly has 27 SC MlAs and there is a House committee of SC and ST MlAs. The Chief Minister is the chairperson of the State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee under the POA Act to monitor the atrocities. At the district level, the vigilance and monitoring committee is headed by the district Collector where the SC MlAs and MP are also members but very few meetings of such committee are held to discuss the issues of atrocities and development of the SCs.
The ruling BJD has won all the three lok Sabha seats reserved for SCs and out of 24 reserved MlA seats for SCs, the BJD has won in a majority of seats followed by the Congress and the BJP. The parties like the BSP, the RPI, the Ambedker Party of India and Bahujan Mukti Party which are more identified with the cause of the SCs have performed very poorly in the last elections. The ruling BJD has two SC MlAs as Ministers with one having got a Cabinet berth. The Rajya Sabha has no SC member from Odisha.
The elected representatives are members of different monitoring bodies to monitor the development programmees and implementation of protective laws for SCs but the members are not playing their role as expected. In order to make them active in such monitoring bodies the elected people’s representatives should be informed about their role and responsibility through learning exposure and SC representatives irrespective of their party affiliation should get united to solve the issues of the communities and work for the development of the State.
(The writer is a rights activist who can be reached at ojaabbsr@gmail.com)