Lakhs of Dalits demonstrates their strength at Ramlila Ground

lakhs of SC/ST employees and social activists under the banner of All India Confederation of SC/ST Organizations assembled at Ramlila Ground, New Delhi from 10 AM onwards where the crowd started pouring in right from the day break. Confederation’s Chairman, Dr. Udit Raj welcomed them and thanked for coming to the Rally from all corners of the country with high hopes that outstanding demands of the Dalits will be heard and considered by the government. Senior BJP leaders Shri Nitin Gadkari, Shri Satish Upadhyay, Smt Anupriya Patel, Shri Prabhat Jha, Shri Vijay Goel and others, attended the rally. While addressing the rally, Nitin Gadkari assured that BJP will always take care of the rights of the Dalits, and is taking their demands seriously. Satish Upadhyay congratulated Dr. Udit Raj for his 17th Maha-rally. He said “Daliton ke saath baeemani nahi honi chahiye” (Dalits should not be cheated). He also said whatever is promised to the people should be delivered. He said contract system should be abolished. He assured that BJP is with Dalits and is working for the goodwill of the community. Dr. Udit Raj exhorted employees and social activists that they are to fight for their rights. They should not consider themselves other than political representatives in so far as serving Dalits and Adivasis is concerned. In other words, SC/ST employees represent these people as politicians do. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had hoped more from educated people to struggle for justice. This is the 17th Rally of All India Confederation of SC/ST Organizations and is the largest socio-economic organization in the country. It is the organization with a difference which always engages constructive work rather than accusing the upper castes. Because of this approach, the Confederation has positioned itself to add many rights for the Dalits. It was only due to the struggle of Confederation only that Vajpayee-led Government made 81st, 82nd, and 85th Constitutional amendments. Not only service related grievances of SC/ST employees are taken up by us on day- to-day basis but atrocities cases also. Confederation made private sector reservation a popular agenda. This time there is much more enthusiasm in the rank and file, as the new government has portrayed high hopes for us. This is a well-known fact that in six months of functioning of the government not much can be expected. When UPA came in to power in 2004, it moved fast to introduce a bill to enact Reservation Act in 2004. The bill was passed in 2009 but when deficiency was noticed, the government withdrew it with the promise to reintroduce it but it remained mirage even in second tenure of the government. We hope that this government will pass it. Another bill to remove the bottlenecks in promotion was introduced in Rajya Sabha in 2012 but got stuck in Lok Sabha and there should not be any difficulty to meet this demand also. There are a lot of anomalies and confusion in implementing reservation. Recently, Punjab and Haryana High Courts has delivered a decision which has tremendous negative impact on reservation in promotions for SC/ST employees and now they are being reverted. To strengthen the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, a bill is pending in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment which can be easily passed. Recently a mega survey was conducted by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the University of Maryland, US which revealed that still one/fourth of Indian population is subjected to the age-old concept of untouchability. In addition to these grievances, contract system is playing havoc and therefore it should be banned. There are a very few recruitments in the government departments and to meet the requirements of teachers, doctors, nurses, assistants, peons etc., they are recruited either on ad-hoc or temporary basis where no reservation system is followed, thus denying opportunities to SC/ST candidates. For a bulk of these employees comprising thirty to forty percent of the total workforce, there is complete denial of reservation. When after a certain interval they are going to be regularized, SC/ST candidates are not considered, because they don’t have working experience. And hence they are suffering from double jeopardy. We urge upon the government that they should apply reservation for temporary and contractual recruitment. The caste certificate of one State should be valid in other States. The UPA government set up three committees to explore all possibilities to provide reservation in private sector and that finally did not come through and a compromise formula was worked out with all major industrial associations that they will work for SC/ST in various fields like education, entrepreneurship and jobs. However, the corporate houses came forward to do welfare for SC/STs through other instruments like imparting tuitions, physical training and preparing entrepreneurs but there is hardly any visible result. These communities are totally excluded from mainstreams like capital markets, industries, IT, service sector, private education, film, journalism, export-import, land etc. and it has a bearing not only on the lives of these communities but unity and integrity of the country. How can a nation progress when such a large population is kept out of the mainstream? If such a large section of well-educated population is kept out of the main stream development process, it is fraught with the danger of these educated youths swaying away from the mainstream society. Even advance countries like USA have policy of affirmative action, which is not only equal to reservation but more than that. Deprived people do not get opportunity in government sectors only but in private sector as well.