8 Backward classes and Scheduled Caste

Prof. Anup Kumar Kapoor

epgp books

 

Learning objective

  • Able to describe Caste.
  • Describe the term “Backward caste” and “Scheduled caste”.
  • Able to write about Composition and characteristics of backward caste.
  • Describe about Dalits.

 

Introduction

 

Caste is a root base of Indian social system. Some scholars see India’s caste system as a defining feature of ‘Indian culture’. The Constitution of India recognizes three categories of backward segments of Indian society i.e., Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other backward classes. The categorization of first two has been listed from the beginning. The third segment, that is, the other backward classes carried lot of ambiguity, But it was generally assumed that this category of OBCs include the whole of middle bands of caste. In simpler terms and popular terms, the agde (forwards) are the dwija caste like the Brahmins and the Kshtriyas but the Kayasthas (north India), Vaids (Bengal) and Nayars (Kerala) have also joined this division on the strength of their economic, political and Bureaucratic power. The Pichhade (backwards) are lower castes, other than Untouchables, who do not exercise control over sources of power-political, social and economic. The framers of the constitution, instead of using the term ‘Castes’ the term ‘Classes’ for this segment of backward population. Under Article 341 of the constitution certain backward castes/communities suffering from untouchability and other social disabilities were declared as scheduled castes. Economically, social and educationally, all these castes are at the lowest rung of society. In the past, education among them was rare, but now the position has considerably improved. There is an urge among them for getting education at all levels. Until 1985, the affairs of the Backward Classes were looked after by the Backward Classes Cell in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

 

 

OBCs – Other Backward Classes are described as “socially and educationally backward classes”, and government is enjoined to ensure their social and educational development. The Central Government of India classifies some of its citizens based on their social and economic condition as Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class (OBC). The OBC list presented by the commission is dynamic (castes and communities can be added or removed) and will change from time to time depending on Social, Educational and Economic factors.

 

Do you know CASTE?

 

The term ‘Caste’ is not Indian term, it has been derived from the Portuguese word ‘Casta’ which mean ‘chaste’ which mean pure. Caste refers a basic ideology or notion of social stratification in and around Indian society. Caste is the special forms of social classes where there is no scope of movement of individuals. Each caste is closed system within itself, making social mobility for its members impossible. Social position of a person is determined by birth. A notion of purity and pollution is associated with it.

 

M.N.Srinivas(1969) has stated that, “the idea of hierarchy is central to Caste. The customs, rites and way of life were different among the higher and lower castes.

 

According to Herbert Risley Caste define as a : “Caste is a collection of families, bearing a common name, claiming a common descent from a mythical ancestor, human or divine, professing to follow the same hereditary callings, and regarded by those who are competent to give an opinion as a forming a single homogenous community.”

 

In short Caste may be understood and explained as a social stratification which involves:

 

Concept of Backward caste

 

The backward communities in India have been divided into three broad divisions-The Scheduled caste (SC), the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and other backward caste (OBC). The term backward classes have been used in terms of the weaker section of society. The framers of the Constitution, instead of using the term ‘Castes’, applied the term ‘Classes’ for this segment of backward population. There are many reason for this the first one is that they followed the old historical process (whereby the term ‘depressed classes’ was used even for the untouchables castes, now scheduled castes). Secondly, the word ‘Caste’ sounded obscurantist and outdated and the torchbearers of modern India. Thirdly, the usage might have created problems visa the placement of the non-Hindu counterparts of the other backward castes in the list. Earlier the term ‘depressed classes’ was used for the “untouchables” and other backward groups. As a matter of fact, the backward classes are above the so- called ‘untouchables’ groups and below the ‘twice-born’ castes. In terms of criteria of caste, the backward classes would comprise intermediate agricultural and functionary castes. Andre Beteille considers peasant castes the core of backward classes.

 

Scheduled Tribe

 

From 1971 through the census 1931, the term referring Tribes undergo successive changes, involving primarily changes in descriptive adjective such as “aboriginal” or “depressed classes”. After Independence the word Scheduled Tribe arrives or they simply called as Adivasi.

 

Ralph Linton defines Tribe as a-In its simplest form the tribe is a group of bands occupying a contiguous territory or territories and having a feeling of unity deriving from numerous similarities in culture, frequent contacts, and a certain community of interest.

 

According to D.N.Majumdar, tribe define as

 

1.  Territorial affiliation

 

2.  Endogamous

 

3.  No specialization of function

 

4.  Ruled by Tribal officers

 

5.  United in language

 

6.  Distance with other tribes or castes

 

7.  Beliefs and customs

 

8.  Illiberal of naturalization of ideas from alien sources

 

9.  Conscious of homogeneity of ethnic and territorial integration

 

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes comprise about 16.6 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively, of India ’s population (according to the 2011 census). The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 lists 1,108 castes across 29 states in its First Schedule, and the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 lists 744 tribes across 22 states in its First Schedule. Since independence, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were given Reservation status, guaranteeing political representation. The Constitution lays down the general principles of affirmative action for SCs and STs.

 

The Constitution of India, Article 366 (25) defines Scheduled Tribes as “such tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to the scheduled Tribes (STs) for the purposes of this Constitution”. In Article 342, the procedure to be followed for specification of a scheduled tribe is prescribed. However, it does not contain the criterion for the specification of any community as scheduled tribe. An often used criterion is based on attributes such as:

 

  • Geographical isolation – they live in cloistered, exclusive, remote and inhospitable areas such as hills and forests.
  • Backwardness – their livelihood is based on primitive agriculture, a low-value closed economy with a low level of technology that leads to their poverty. They have low levels of literacy and health.
  • Distinctive culture, language and religion – communities have developed their own distinctive culture, language and religion.
  • Shyness of contact – they have a marginal degree of contact with other cultures and people.

 

Particularly vulnerable tribal groups

 

The Scheduled Tribe groups who were identified as more isolated from the wider community and who maintain a distinctive cultural identity have been Known as ‘Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups’ (PTGs) which are previously known as Primitive Tribal Groups by the Government at the Centre. So far seventy-five tribal communities have been identified as ‘particularly vulnerable tribal groups’ in different States of India. These hunting, food-gathering, and some agricultural communities, have been identified as less acculturated tribes among the tribal population groups and in need of special programmers’ for their sustainable development.

 

Social Institution Among Indian Tribes

 

2.  Family

 

1.   Simple or Nuclear Family

 

2.   Extended or Joint Family

 

3.  Economic Activities

 

1.   Food gather and hunter

 

2.   Shifting cultivation

 

3.   Cultivator

 

4.   Pastoralist

 

5.   Artisan

 

6.   Industrial Labour

 

Reasons for indebtedness common to almost all affected groups:

 

1.        Loss of trible rights over land and Forests

 

2.        Poor and primitive mode of agriculture resulting in deficit supply of food grains.

 

3.        Ignorance

 

4.        Expenditure beyond their means due to extravagant spending on marriages, deaths, fairs and festivals;

 

5.        Fatalist attitude and locally-oriented worldwide; and

 

6.        Adherence to panchayat decicision regarding fines for fear of excommunication.

 

Major tribal groups and tribal state in India

 

1.        The Bhil, in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

 

2.        The Gond, in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Gujarat.

 

3.        The Santhals, in Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal.

 

4.        The Oraon, in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal.

 

5.        The Mina, in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

 

6.        The Munda, in Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

 

7.        The Khond, in Bihar, Orissa, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

 

8.        The Ho, in Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal.

 

9.        The Naga, in Nagaland and other north-eastern states.

 

 

Other Backward Class

 

On 26th November, 1949, our Constitution was enacted. The First Backward Class Commission was appointed on 29th January, 1953 by Presidential Order (under Article 340 of the constitution of India) with Kaka Kalelkar as the Chairperson. The Commission formulated the following criteria for socially and educationally backward classes:

 

  • Low social position in the traditional caste hierarchy of Hindu society.
  • Lack of general educational advancement among the major sections of a caste or community.
  • Inadequate representation in the field of trade, commerce, and industry.

 

The majority of members were against to the view of linking caste with backwardness. They were also opposed to the reservation of posts on the basis of caste.

 

The new commission, the second backward classes’ commission is popularly called Mandal Commission. Its chairman B.P Mandal was appointed by a Presendial order under Article 340 of the Indian Constitution on 20th December 1978.

 

11 indicator or the criteria for Social and educational backwardness were derived under three heads-Social, Educational and Economic.

 

A.      Social:

 

1.   Caste/classes considered as socially backward by other.

 

2.   Caste/classes which mainly depend on manual labour for their livelihood.

 

3.  Caste/classes where at least 25% females and 10% males above the state average get married at an age below 17 years in rural areas and at least 10% females and 5% males do so in urban areas.

 

4.   Caste/classes where participation of females in work is at least 25% above the state average.

 

B.  Educational:

 

5.    Caste/classes where the number of children in age group of 5-15 years who never attended school is at least 25% above the state average.

 

6.   Caste/classes where the rate of student drop-out in the age group of 5-15 years is at least 25% above the state average.

 

7.    Caste/classes amongst whom the proportion of matriculates is at least 25% below the state average.

 

B.       Economic:

 

8.   Caste/classes where the average value of a family assets is at least 25% below the state average.

 

9.   Caste/classes where the number of families living in kuccha houses is at least 25% above the state average.

 

10.Castes/classes where the source of drinking water is beyond half a kilometer for more than 50% of the households.

 

11.   Caste/classes where the number of households having taken consumption loan is at least 25% above the state average.

 

Weightage was given to the indicators in each group for evaluation. The social indicators were given 3 points each, educational indicators, 2 points each and economic indicators one point each. This came to a total score of 22 points. All these 11 indicators were then applied to each one of the castes covered by the survey in each state. The castes obtaining a minimum of 11 points on this scale were listed as socially and educationally backward. A Research Planning team of sociologists-anthropologists was also constituted to help the commission in the identification of the deserving backward castes.

 

Identification of Socially and Educationally Backward Castes (SEBCs)

 

On analysis of the judicial decisions, the Indian Law Institute noted the following points relevant to the identification of the SEBCs:

 

  1. In the matter of their backwardness the SEBCs are comparable to SCs and STs.
  2. The concept of backward classes is not relative, in the sense that any class which is backward in relation to the most advanced class in the community must be included in it. Hence the division of Backward Classes into ‘backward’ and ‘more backward’ is unconstitutional.
  3. Backwardness must be both social and educational.
  4. A classification based on caste without regard to other relevant factors is not permissible under Article 15(4).
  5. Relevance of both caste and poverty for determining the backwardness.
  6. The occupation which is looked down upon as inferior or unclean and the place of habitation may contribute to social backwardness.
  7. In order that the reservation could benefit the really needy ones among the socially and Educationally Backward Classes of people, the fixing of income limit is valid.
  8. Rural population as a whole cannot form a socially and Educationally Backward Class. However, the population in hilly, backward areas from such a class.
  9. This inclusion of a class in the list of backward classes should not be perpetual.
  10. Educational backwardness determined on the basis of state of the last two or three high-school classes per 1000 people of the community has been held to be valid. However, the class to be eventually backward must be well substantially below the state average.

 

A perusal of this summary of judicial decisions indicates that the occupational and territorial basis of social and educational backwardness, apart from the community basis, has been held to be valid by different courts. But Mandal Commission has either failed to take notice of the manner of the same or has made use of the court decisions only in a tangential manner.

 

Composition, Characteristics and Empowerment

 

Ambiguity in the use of term and derived status

 

Marc Galanter indicates that the term backward classes had a less fixed and definite reference. It has different things at different places. He goes on to ten such denotations of the term backward classes.

 

These include: depressed classes, untouchables, SCs, aboriginal and hill tribes, criminal tribes, all communities deserving special treatment expecting the untouchables, all communities above the untouchables but below the most advanced ones, communities other than the highest or most advanced, and communities meeting non-communal tests of backwardness.

 

After separating SCs and the STs, he states, two major species emerged:

  •  As the more inclusive group of all those who need special treatment.
  •  As a stratum higher than the untouchables but nonetheless depressed.

 

The former usage of BCs in the wider sense (including SCs and STs) and the latter in the usage as equivalent to OBCs (Galanter 1991).

 

Decomposition: Occupational sub-classification of the OBCs

 

The working group for the development and welfare of Backward Classes set up by the Planning Commission to recommend measures for the empowerment of the OBCs during the Tenth Five Year Plan in its report of May 1996 grouped the OBCs into the following 5 occupational subcategories:

 

(a)    Castes/Communities of poor peasantry including poor peasantry of former zamindar and other intermediary tenures.

 

(b)    Castes/Communities providing traditional services (i.e. haircutting and grooming, washing of clothes, scavenging, etc).

 

(c)   Castes/Communities of artisanal producer.

 

(d)  Artisan castes/communities with traditional skills engaged in various traditional crafts providing a variety of goods at family.

 

(e)   Communities without resources or skills.

 

Problems of the OBCs and empowerment tasks- Sheth and Pratap categorize peasantry forms of five sub-groups into two groups: the numerically large but socially and educationally backward communities of owner-cultivators of small landholdings and those of tenant-cultivators and landless labour.A large number of communities such as iron smiths, carpenters, potters, etc. have virtually lost their occupation due to the introduction of mechanized and large-scale system of production and changes in the life styles of the population. Some have changed occupations with the help of education and outmigration. Some of the occupation of OBCs service communities (washermen, fishermen) has been taken over by others belonging to the upper strata.

 

Development and empowerment: Tenth Five Years Plan

 

The Working Group (WG) Report (India 2001) is a qualitative departure in viewing the problematic. It considered it necessary to start with an integrated vision of Indian society and with clear understanding of where the OBCs have reached after centuries of India’s socioeconomic history. The Working Group felt that the OBCs should secure self-reliance in their traditional activities or in other diverse activities, given full benefits of technology, access to finance, control over raw material resources, marketing facilities, etc.There objective and elements of development and empowerment as indicated by WG are:

 

1.  Removal of social backwardness.

 

2.  Creation of educational parity at each stage, phase, and course of education.

 

3.  Removal of economic underdevelopment, dependency, inadequacy and exploitation.

 

Process and approach of empowerment

 

Empowerment, according to WG has two aspects: the outcome and the process. The outcome would consist of realization of the objective. The process consists of the role to be accorded to the groups of the OBC communities in conceptualizing, formulating, planning, designing, implementing, supervising, monitoring and correction of the schemes for and programme for their development. This can be done by agencies of the state like the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC).

 

Different OBC communities are at different stages and levels of backwardness in different socio-cultural-geographical locales. At one end of this continuum are the Vimukta Jatis (VJs), nomadic, semi-nomadic (NSN) and non-SC safai karamcharis (SKs), these are small in numbers and have been ignored in terms of empowerment measures. On other hand peasants communities have land resources base skills. Irrigation and power have enabled them to make greater progress than other sub-categories of the OBCs.

 

The artisan castes/communities of artisanal or artisan-like producers are located between the VJs and NSN and the peasant subcategories of the OBCs. These categories have no resources but possess only skill. Since the most advanced category of the OBCs are still backward, there is a need for state support for advancement to reach the level of socially advanced sections of the Indian society.

 

Scheduled caste

 

The term ‘Scheduled caste’ has been in vogue for about half a century. The term appeared first time in the Government of India Act 1935. In April 1936, the British Government issued the Government of India (Scheduled castes) Order, 1936, specifying certain castes and tribes as a Scheduled caste. Prior to the them were known as ‘depressed classes’. The depressed classes systematically categorized in 1931 census. After this the list is notified by the President in accordance with the provision of the Article 341 of the constitution. Under Article 341 of the constitution certain backward castes/communities suffering from untouchability and other social disabilities were included in Scheduled castes.

http://images58.fotki.com/v696/photos/4/473940/1850046/rijanUntouchablefamilyCalcutta-vi.jpg

 

Who are the Scheduled Castes?

 

Scheduled castes include those people who belongs sections of last Varna namely the Sudra and Avarnas include many castes groups which have suffered social and economic inequality since the ages. Particularly those people who were outside the Varna system were known as Avarnas or Panchnas. They are treated as untouchable castes. These untouchables’ castes in India were officially defined as depressed castes in 1932. Gandhiji named them “Harijans” where ‘Hari’ means God, ‘Jan’ means people and thus ”Harijan” means people of God. In Hindi and other languages it means a child whose father’s identity is unknown and hence a bastard progeny. Therefore, the name Harijan was not only disliked but was hated and opposed by untouchables. This was replaced by the term scheduled castes in 1938. Scheduled castes are backward socially and economically. Therefore Constitution gives special protection to them Under Article 46 of the constitution, it is the responsibility of the state to promote with special care of the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections.

 

1931 census used 10 questions to define the scheduled castes and use questionnaire to find out whether the caste is scheduled or not. This questionnaire is based upon the practice of untouchability, practice of Discrimination.

 

It has following questions:

 

  1. Whether the caste or class is being served by the Brahmins of the area.
  2. Whether the member of the caste is served by washerman, Barbara, blacksmiths, etc.
  3. Whether the presence of or touch of any member from this caste group causes pollution in other caste.
  4. Whether the members of class or caste group are dibard from using any public places, public convinces.
  5. Whether the member of this caste denied entry into the Hindu temples.
  6.   Whether the member of this caste could carry out normal and regular social relationship with the member of higher caste.
  7. Are these issues arise due to Ignorance, Poverty, and Illiteracy.
  8. If the factor of Ignorance, Poverty, Illiteracy were to be removed for the members to overcome their social disability.
  9. Whether the depression, social discrimination arises on account of occupation of the group.
  10. Is members of the group continued to be socially discriminated even after not being in that occupation.

 

This group is listed as a scheduled group. Scheduled castes are the groups which have suffered from this in the past or suffering from this kind of discrimination and prejudice today also. We use a term Dalit as a social category to identity these groups.

 

Dalits

 

 

 

Dalits make up 16.6% of India’s population or 201 million according to the 2011 census. The government of India designates Dalits as Scheduled Castes (SC). The term “Dalit” is used interchangeably with the Scheduled caste. They encompass casteless people, Untouchables and all other historically disadvantaged communities. To prevent harassment, assault, discrimination and other criminal acts on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the Indian government enacted the Prevention of Atrocity (POA) act on March 31, 1995.

 

In 1932, the British Raj recommended separate electorates to select leaders for Dalits in the Communal Award. When Gandhi ji opposed this, negotiations produced the Poona Pact with B. R. Ambedkar. Ambedkar fought bitterly with Gandhi and the Indian National Congress on issues of dalit rights and representation throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Ambedkar was India’s first Minister of Law. More important for the position of dalits in independent India, the new nation’s temporary assembly elected Ambedkar chairman of the committee that drafted its constitution. Under his leadership, the constitution legally abolished untouchability and included safeguards for depressed minorities.

 

Since independence, India has implemented affirmative action programs for the benefit of what are officially called the “Scheduled Castes and Tribes”. In 1997, fifty years after independence, India elected its first dalit president–an event what would have been unthinkable during Ambedkar’s lifetime. Nonetheless, dalits still suffer from discrimination on many fronts. Ultimately, both Ambedkar and Gandhi were right: in order to abolish untouchability or other types of political and economic discrimination, it is necessary to change not only laws but also people’s hearts.

 

From its independence in 1947 and expanded in 1974, India provided jobs and educational opportunities for Dalits. By 1995, 17.2% of jobs were held by Dalits, more than their proportion in the Indian population. In 1997, India elected Dalit K. R. Narayanan as the nation’s President. Many social organizations have promoted better conditions for Dalits through education, health and employment. While caste-based discrimination was prohibited and untouchability abolished by the Constitution of India, such practices continued.

 

The word “Dalit” may be derived from Sanskrit, and means “ground”, “suppressed”, “crushed”, or “broken to pieces”. It was perhaps first used by Jyotirao Phule in the nineteenth century, in the context of the oppression faced by the “untouchable” castes of the twice-born Hindus. According to Victor Premasagar, the term expresses the Dalits’ “weakness, poverty and humiliation at the hands of the upper castes in the Indian society.”The scheduled caste slaves like the Adi-Dravidas in the south and Chamars in the north were tied labourers.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/2011_Census_Dalit_caste_distribution_map_India_by_state_a nd_union_territory.svg/640px2011_Census_Dalit_caste_distribution_map_India_by_state_and_union_territory.svg.png

 

Discrimination Education:

 

According to a 2014 report by the Indian Government Research Institute, Dalits constitute nearly half of primary school dropouts. In Karnataka State, 48% of school dropouts are Dalits. Among state schools, 88% discriminated against Dalit children, while 79% required Dalit students to sit in the back of the classroom. In 79% of schools, Dalit children are forbidden from touching mid-day meals. They are required to sit separately at lunch in 35% of schools, and are required to eat with specially marked plates in 28%. In high schools, higher caste students are often advised not to mingle with Dalits.]

 

There have been incidents of Dalit teachers and professors being discriminated against and harassed by authorities, upper castes colleagues as well as upper caste students in different education institutes of India

 

Healthcare and nutrition:

 

Discrimination also exists in access to healthcare and nutrition. Medical field workers do not visit 65% of Dalit settlements. 47% of Dalits are not allowed entry into ration depots; 64% are given less grain than non-Dalits; and 52% are given grains from a distance.

Prevention of Atrocities Act:

 

The 1989 Prevention of Atrocities Act (POA) is an acknowledgement by the Indian government that caste relations are defined by violence. The Act denoted specific crimes against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as “atrocities” and created corresponding punishments. Its purpose was to curb and punish violence against Dalits. The list of atrocities included humiliations such as the forced consumption of noxious substances. Other atrocities included forced labour, denial of access to water and other public amenities and sexual abuse. The Act called on states with high levels of caste violence (said to be “atrocity-prone”) to appoint qualified officers to monitor and maintain law and order.

 

According to a 2014 survey, 27% of the Indian population still practices Untouchability. Across India, Untouchability was practiced among 52% of Brahmins, 33% of communities traditionally called Other Backward Classes and 24% of non-Brahmin forward castes. Untouchability was also practiced by people of minority religions – 23% of Sikhs, 18% of Muslims and 5% of Christians. According to state wise data, Untouchability is most commonly practiced in Madhya Pradesh (53%), followed by Himachal Pradesh (50%), Chhattisgarh (48%), Rajasthan and Bihar (47%), Uttar Pradesh (43%), and Uttarakhand (40%). In Madhya Pradesh, Dalits are not allowed to touch food and water at common gatherings. Dalits are prohibited from entering temples in 80% of villages.

 

Socio-Economic Problems and Disabilities:

 

Scheduled castes faces discrimination and some face inhuman nature. The idea of ritual purity/pollution manifested through untouchability is the key point of the highly discriminating nature of the caste system. Entire population assigned as a ‘unclean’ occupations like scavenging, flaying, tanning, etc. and converted into untouchables. The main socio-economic problems affecting the bulk of the scheduled caste population are:

 

1.  Chronic indebtedness

 

2.  Land alienation/ landlessness

 

3.  Lack of education

 

4.  Lack of productive assets

 

5.  Forced labour and prostitution

 

6.  Lack of ‘minimum wages’

 

7.  Child labour, etc.

 

 

Steps taken by the government to improve the situation of SC and ST

 

The Constitution provides a three-pronged strategy to improve the situation of SCs and STs:

 

  • Protective arrangements: Such measures as are required to enforce equality, to provide punitive measures for transgressions, to eliminate established practices that perpetuate inequities, etc. A number of laws were enacted to implement the provisions in the Constitution. Examples of such laws include The Untouchability Practices Act, 1955, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, etc.
  • Affirmative action: Provide positive (preferential) treatment in allotment of jobs and access to higher education as a means to accelerate the integration of the SCs and STs with mainstream society. Affirmative action is popularly known as reservation.
  • Development: Provide resources and benefits to bridge the socioeconomic gap between the SCs and STs and other communities. Major part played by the Hidayatullah National Law University.

 

Summary

  • The term backward classes have been used in terms of the weaker section of society.
  • The framers of the Constitution, instead of using the term ‘Castes’, applied the term ‘Classes’.
  • The First Backward Class Commission was appointed on 29th January, 1953 by Presidential Order (under Article 340 of the constitution of India) with Kaka Kalelkar as the Chairperson.
  • The Commission formulated the following criteria for socially and educationally backward classes:

 

a.    Low social position in the traditional caste hierarchy of Hindu society.

 

b.    Lack of general educational advancement among the major sections of a caste.

 

c.    Inadequate representation in the field of trade, commerce, and industry.

 

  • The second backward classes’ commission is popularly called Mandal Commission. Its chairman was B.P Mandal.
  • 11 indicator or the criteria for Social and educational backwardness were derived under three heads-Social, Educational and Economic.
  • Identification of Socially and Educationally Backward Castes (SEBCs)- comparable to SCs and STs.Backwardness must be both social and educational.
  • Development and empowerment-The objective and elements of development and empowerment as indicated by WG are:

 

1.  Removal of social backwardness.

 

2.  Creation of educational parity.

 

3.  Removal of economic underdevelopment, dependency, inadequacy and exploitation.

 

  • Process and approach of empowerment- Empowerment, according to WG has two aspects: the outcome and the process.

 

Scheduled Tribe

  •  From 1971 through the census 1931, the term referring Tribes undergo successive changes, involving primarily changes in descriptive adjective such as “aboriginal” or “depressed classes”.

 

After Independence the word Scheduled Tribe arrives or they simply called as Adivasi.

 

  • According to D.N.Majumdar , tribe define as Territorial affiliation, Endogamous, No specialization of function, Ruled by Tribal officers, United in language, Distance with other tribes or castes, Beliefs and customs, Illiberal of naturalization of ideas from alien sources, Conscious of homogeneity of ethnic and territorial integration
  • The Scheduled Tribes comprise 8.6 percent of India ’s population. The Constitution of Scheduled Tribes Order, 1950 lists 744 tribes across 22 states in its First Schedule. Since independence Scheduled Tribes were given Reservation status, guaranteeing political representation.
  • An often used criterion is based on attributes such as: Geographical isolation, Backwardness , Distinctive culture, language and religion ,Shyness of contact.
  • Particularly vulnerable tribal groups-The Scheduled Tribe groups who were identified as more isolated from the wider community and who maintain a distinctive cultural identity have been Known as ‘Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups’ (PTGs) which are previously known as Primitive Tribal Groups.

 

Social Institution among Indian Tribes

 

  • Marriage – Monogamy. Example of Kumar (MP) and Polygamy. Example-Naga Tribe, The Gond, The Toda, The Baiga etc. Preferential marriages-Cousin marriage, Levirate and Sororate
  • Family- Simple or Nuclear Family and Extended or Joint Family
  • Economic Activities-Food gather and hunter. Shifting cultivation, Cultivator etc.
  • Scheduled Caste– The term appeared first time in the Government of India Act 1935. Include those people who belongs sections of last Varna namely the Sudra and Avarnas.
  • Particularly those people who were outside the Varna system were known as Avarnas or Panchnas.

 

Gandhiji named them “Harijans” where ‘Hari’ means God, ‘Jan’ means people and thus ”Harijan” means people of God.

 

  • The word “Dalit” may be derived from Sanskrit, and means “ground”, “suppressed”, “crushed”, or “broken to pieces
  • Dalits make up 16.6% of India’s population or 201 million according to the 2011 census. The government of India designates Dalits as Scheduled Castes (SC).
  • Socio-Economic Problems and Disabilities– The idea of ritual purity/pollution manifested through untouchability is highly discriminating nature. The main soci-economic problems are: Chronic indebtedness, Land alienation/ landlessness, Lack of education, Lack of productive asset, Forced labour and prostitution, Lack of ‘minimum wages’, Child labour, etc.
  • The Constitution provides a three strategy to improve the situation of SCs and STs: Protective arrangements, Affirmative action Development.
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Reference Books

  • Kamble, N D. The Scheduled Castes. Rajouri Garden: Ashish Publishing House, 1982.
  • Hasnain, Nadeem.Indian Society and Culture: Continuity and Change. Delhi: Jawahar Publisher And Distributers,2004
  • Pant V.K and Bisht, B.S, Ed. Backward Communities: Identity Development and Transformation. Ansari Road, Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 1999.