Ritika
Indian Govt On Quotas: Central government A panel is going to be formed soon to know the status of Scheduled Castes who have converted to Christianity and Islam. Its preparation is going on. government In view of the far-reaching implications of this matter, it is ready to constitute a National Commission to study the social, economic and educational status of Scheduled Castes or Dalits. among these Scheduled Castes The focus is on those who have adopted religions other than Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. The proposal to set up such a commission is being actively discussed at the Center and a decision is expected soon.
Got the green signal for the panel
According to sources in the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Department of Personnel and Training-DoPT, they To form a panel to know the status of Scheduled Castes who converted to Christianity and Islam. The green signal has been given for Discussions are going on between the Ministries of Home, Law, Social Justice and Finance on this proposal. The formation of such a commission is very important in view of the many petitions pending in the Supreme Court for Dalits.
These petitions want the benefit of reservation given to SCs for Dalits who convert to Christianity or Islam. It was said in the petitions that even converting to religion does not end social boycott. It remains intact even within Christianity, even if it is not valid in this religion. It may be noted that under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, Article 341 stipulates that any person professing a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism cannot be considered a member of a Scheduled Caste. Whereas under the original order only Hindus were considered as SC. It was amended to include Sikhs in 1956 and Buddhists in 1990.
Bench gave 3 weeks time to the government
On this matter, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on August 30 that he would take the government’s stand on the issue raised by the petitioners. Will keep on record. Justices Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath were also included in this bench. The bench gave the Solicitor General three weeks’ time and fixed October 11 for the next hearing on the matter.
The Solicitor General told the bench that the issue has deep ramifications and he wants to take on record the prevailing position on the issue, which is related to the request for extension of reservation claim of Dalit communities to religions other than specified people. Is. Then the court gave him three weeks on his request. On the other hand, the bench told the lawyers of the people who filed the petition on this issue that if there is any reply within a week after this, they will file it.
Central level ministers will be the chairman of the panel
According to the Indian Express, this proposed commission may have three or four members. The chairman of this proposed commission will be at the level of Union Cabinet Minister. This commission is expected to be given a possible time frame of more than one year to submit its report. Apart from drawing a complete blueprint of the change in the status and status of Dalits who have converted to Christianity or Islam, this proposed commission will also study the impact of adding more members to the existing SC list.
This issue is confined to Dalits as there is no specific mandate regarding religion for STs and OBCs. The DoPT website states, “The rights of a person belonging to a Scheduled Tribe (ST) are independent of his religious belief.” Apart from this, after the implementation of the Mandal Commission report, many Christian and Muslim communities have found a place in the list of OBCs at the Center or in the states.
At present, 15 per cent reservation for direct recruitment in central government jobs is among the key benefits available to the SC community. In these jobs, there is a quota of 7.5 percent for ST and 27 percent for OBC. It is not that the question of SC reservation benefits for Dalits who have adopted Christianity or Islam has not come before the earlier governments. This question has also been important in the governance of the earlier governments of the country.
This issue was raised in the previous governments also.
The then UPA government headed by Dr. Manmohan Singh took a step in this direction in October 2004. Then the Linguistic Minorities Commission was constituted to recommend measures for the welfare of socially and economically backward sections of religious and linguistic minorities. The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities was constituted under the chairmanship of Justice Ranganath Misra, the former Chief Justice of India.
In May 2007, the Ranganath Mishra Commission submitted its report, which recommended that the status of Scheduled Castes be completely delinked from religion and made religion-neutral like STs. However, the then UPA government did not accept this recommendation on the ground that it was not confirmed by field studies.
What is the condition of Dalits who adopted Muslim-Christian religion
A separate study conducted by the National Commission for Minorities in 2007 concluded that there is a need to give Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. However, this result was also not agreed to. It was sidelined on the ground that the study was conducted on a very small scale and the reliability of the estimates based on it could not be relied upon.
Sources in the Ministry of Minority Affairs said the latest proposal to set up the commission was necessitated because of the perception that the issue was of utmost importance. But no precise data exists to study its various aspects and arrive at a clear and precise position.
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