The Narendra Modi government at the Centre is set to constitute a national commission to assess the social, economic and educational status of Scheduled Castes, or Dalits, who converted to religions other than Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, The Indian Express reported today, adding that a proposal to set up a panel is being actively discussed and the government is likely to decide in this regard soon.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs and Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) have already given their go-ahead to the move and consultations are currently underway among the Home, Law, Social Justice and Empowerment, and Finance ministries, the IE report added, citing sources.
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The development comes in the backdrop of a slew of petitions pending before the Supreme Court seeking SC reservation benefits for Dalits who converted to Christianity or Islam. The Centre is likely to lay down its stand on the matter on October 11.
The commission is likely to constitute three or four members with its chairman holding the rank of a Union Cabinet Minister. The panel is likely to be handed a deadline of over a year to submit its report, the report adds. The proposed panel will map the changes in status and situation of Dalits who have converted to Christianity or Islam, besides studying the possible impact of adding more members to the current SC list.
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The Scheduled Castes enjoy a 15 per cent reservation in direct recruitment to central government jobs against 7.5 per cent quota for STs and 27 per cent for OBCs.
As per sources in the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the proposal to set up a panel is guided by an understanding that there is no definitive data available with the government to arrive at a clear position on the matter.
The matter of providing the SC quota benefits to Dalits who converted to Christianity or Islam has come up before earlier governments as well. The Ranganath Misra Commission’s report submitted in May 2007 recommended that SC status be completely delinked from religion and be made religion-neutral like STs. However, the then UPA government under PM Manmohan Singh rejected the proposal on grounds that it was not substantiated by field studies. The committee was set up by the government in May 2007.
Similarly, a separate study commissioned by the National Minorities Commission in 2007 found that Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims need to be given SC status. That study, too, was rejected on grounds that the sample sizes taken to arrive at such a finding were too minuscule and may have led to unreliable estimates.