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Modi all sizzle, no steak on SC, ST, OBC uplift, reveals report

Chandra Prabhu | NT

Bengaluru: Civil society organisations Bahutva Karnataka (BK) and Ambedkar Reading Circle (ARC) have released a damning report on the track record of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP for the past years on promises made to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

The report entitled ‘a record of BJP’s empty promises of social justice’ said that the Centre hadn’t lived up to the ruling party’s manifesto. BK has been releasing reports under its series ‘10 years of NDA - Guarantee check.’

News Trail had earlier showcased their report on education under the Centre.

Atrocities on Dalits continue

In its first term, the BJP had promised to ensure security to the SCs and STs against casteist atrocities but the report cites government data to expose this ‘empty promise’.

A sharp rise in cases registered under the SC / ST Prevention of Atrocities Act is seen from 2014.

“In 2022 alone, there were 67,646 cases, amounting to 188 cases per day,” the report said.

The report pointed out that the Centre had defended the exclusion of Muslims and Christians of Dalit descent, claiming that “historical data didn’t show any backwardness in them”.

However, it is to be noted that SC quota is meant to provide representation to those who historically suffered untouchability.

The claims in the report are taken from the BJP’s manifesto released in 2014 and 2019 for the general elections. In India, manual scavenging – the handling of human excreta, often with bare hands – has been a long-standing issue.

Although banned in 1993, it has continued.

The manifesto promised to eliminate the practice and promised equipment to sanitation workers.

However, the latest numbers from August 2023 reveal that a third of the 766 districts have yet to eradicate manual scavenging. Around 246 districts have not uploaded data on the same, the report said.

Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale acknowledged that deaths by manual scavenging continued to be menace as 443 workers had died while cleaning sewer and septic tanks between 2018 and November 2023.

The report said that the economic justice and political empowerment promised for OBCs, SCs, and STs by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had also not seen much progress.

The saffron party had promised funds to dedicated schemes and programs. However, the allocations were lacking, the report says.

As per the National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog guidelines, Rs 5.23 lakh crores should’ve been disbursed to SCs.

However, allocations were nearly halved to only Rs 2.55 lakh crores. Moreover, only Rs 1.11 lakh crores was allocated to schemes targeted to uplift of SCs.

The rest of the money, the report says was channeled to general schemes.

Allocations lacking

Around 15 per cent of the total budget is supposed to be set aside for SCs in proportion to their share in the population but it has not crossed 10.6 per cent in the last five years.

Untouchability, a practice abolished by the constitution, is still a reality, the report added.

The report said that the casteist treatment of President Droupadi Murmu, in addition to preference for ministers with a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, the parent body of BJP) background is now the reality.

Waiting for caste census

A caste census, both in Karnataka and in the country has been a promise which has nearly materialized, it added.

The Congress manifesto for the 2024 polls promises a caste census. The NDA alliance had also promised the same in 2019, in addition to ensuring constitutional rights to SCs STs and OBCs, representation and equal opportunities.

The report says that the government continuously refused to count OBC numbers. It held that they knew it would expose inequalities and pave the way for a better policy formulation.

BK and ARC held that the Centre in 2021 telling the Supreme Court that the exclusion of the OBCs was a “conscious policy decision”.

The NDA also vowed to establish a supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurs hailing from the SC and ST.

However, the report held that the government was negligent in this regard; adding that reservation for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) belittled existing reservations for the deserving “Bahujan” or the majority that constitutes marginalised castes.

The document said that post-matric scholarships had a minuscule number of graduates from marginalised section