Internal reservation in SC quota a must, says IRS officer

NT Bengaluru: Additional commissioner of Income Tax and Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer Nethrapal has been advocating for the sub-categorization of the Scheduled Caste (SC) quota, arguing it essential for adequate representation for all Dalit castes. The Karnataka cabinet on Monday gave its consent for providing internal reservation among Scheduled Castes (SC) and decided to constitute a commission that will be tasked with collecting empirical data. He told News Trail that the SC quota was being cornered by ritually right-hand Dalits, leaving left-hand “untouchable” castes deprived.

Nethrapal himself comes from the left hand Dalit caste namely Adi Karnataka. There are 101 castes listed as SC in Karnataka and can avail of a 15 per cent quota. Nethrapal pointed out that the precedent of adequate representation for all communities was established by Miller’s Commission report of 1919. The commission was constituted to ensure non-Brahmins were represented in civil services. “It (report) says that if you don't give your brothers representation they will always hate you and it will not achieve fraternity,” he said. The IRS officer added that the left Dalits had been deprived and shunned due to the perceived ritually impure nature of their work, mainly sanitation jobs and leather work.

“The empirical data shows domination by few castes. If you take the SCs, over 100 castes are there. You cannot allow the entire reservation to be taken by one or two castes. That will be injustice. Why did they give the SC reservation based on the population? The idea is proportionate representation,” Nethrapal said, adding that Madigas would benefit from an English language higher education, which they mostly lack today. “If you take the Madigas (left Dalits), on every metric, be it educational backwardness or others, they are backward. The number of graduates from these (left) groups, the number of IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officers, IPS (Indian Police Services) officers is very less. I’m talking about Group A representation. If you take total number of employees in Karnataka government, probably you may find Madigas because what will happen is they will be in the ‘safai karmachari’ cleaning jobs but they may not be in the higher Group A or Group B jobs,” he said, adding that there was a Supreme Court (SC) order that favoured sub-categorization.

Sadashiva Commission languishing; Karnataka’s Sadashiva Commission recommended internal reservation among SCs but it remains unimplemented. The commission was set up in 2005 under the Congress-JD(S) coalition government led by Dharam Singh and was submitted to the BJP government in 2012. The report concluded that ritually right-hand Dalits namely Holeyas and their 24 sub-castes accounting for 32.01 per cent of the SC population alongside “touchable” nomadic SCs like Bhovis and Lambanis who are 23.64 per cent among the 101 listed castes were cornering the 15 per cent quota. Meanwhile, the ritually left hand Dalits like Madigas and their 29 sub-castes, who are 33.47 per cent of the SC population are left with little, the report found.