People's Democracy

Deceit From the Ramparts of Red Fort

G Mamatha

ADDRESSING the country from the ramparts of Red Fort on the 65th anniversary of independence, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “We are committed to the economic, social, political and educational empowerment of SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities. Apart from effective implementation of all existing reservations for them, we have announced major scholarship and development programmes for their benefit.  I am happy to say that we have been able to persuade the private sector to some extent to take affirmative action to ensure that these sections of society get a fair share of employment in industry and trade.”

According to a newspaper report (The Hindu, July 2, 2012), nearly half of the teaching positions for SCs and STs in Central Universities still remain unfilled. The data provided by the government of India in December 2011 to an RTI query, reveals that 48.5 per cent of posts in these two categories in 24 Central Universities were vacant during 2010-2011.  It also says that, “For the year 2010-211, the total backlog in SC category at the entry-level position of lecturer was 341 out of 740 required posts. Thus, 46 per cent of these posts were unfilled. In the ST category, 197 or 53 per cent of posts were vacant out of the required posts of 369. Over 84 per cent of posts for Readers in the SC-ST category were vacant in 2010-2011. And, over 92 per cent Professor’s positions in these categories are vacant.” Reaching up the ladder to the ranks of Reader and Professor, the proportion of dalits gets all the more dismal. Our prime minister, it appears is a man who can be easily satisfied. Or should we infer that he is ignorant of facts? Hitch is, he is neither, but wants to benefit by keeping us ignorant. How else can one have the audacity to talk about the 'effective implementation of all existing reservations' despite all these statistics contradicting such statements?

The prime minister has said that he is happy to have persuaded the private sector 'to some extent to take affirmative action to ensure that these sections of society get a fair share of employment in industry and trade'. One doesn’t know the results of such persuasion. In its election manifesto, UPA-2 has not talked about persuasion and gentle nudges, but promised to enact legislation for providing reservations in private sector. Three years of failure to enact such a legislation does not earn remorse from the prime minister but earns self-praise by indulging in word jugglery! It wants to sugar-coat its betrayal towards dalits with sweet terms as 'persuasion' of the private sector. Never in the history of this government was it able to persuade the private sector to act for social good. Not in the times of rising prices to release the food grains they had stocked. Not in framing tax rules as the Vodafone anecdote reveals. Nor in the way the bankrupt Kingfisher airlines is being dealt with.

Many studies have exposed the nonchalant attitude of the private sector towards employing dalits and the role that caste plays in private sector employment. The book, Blocked by Caste: Economic Discrimination in Modern India, edited by Sukhadeo Thorat and Katherine S. Newman, throws light on some of these aspects. It says, “the people who hold privileged position within large organisations develop a sense that a certain kind of person is especially effective in their roles, leading many managers to favour potential recruits who are socially similar to themselves, a process that Kanter (1977) has termed ‘homosocial reproduction’. Conversely, employers hold stereotypes about certain out-groups as being unsuitable for employment.” It further says, “This field experiment study of job applications observed a statistically significant pattern by which, on average, college-educated lower-caste and Muslim job applicants fare less well than equivalently qualified applicants with high caste (HC) names, when applying by mail for employment in the modern private-enterprise sector. The only aspect of family background that was communicated in these applications was the applicant’s name, yet this was enough to generate a different pattern of responses to applications from Muslims and Dalits compared to those from HC Hindus. These were all highly-educated and appropriately qualified applicants attempting to enter the modern private sector, yet even in this sector, caste and religion proved influential in determining ones job chances.”

The prime minister in his speech said, “We are committed to the economic, social, political and educational empowerment of SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities.” The following table showing the differences in development indicators between SCs and other social groups, even after 65 years of independence, will indicate the hollow intentions of this government and the party heading it, which incidentally ruled the country for most of the post-independent years.

Source: India – Human Development Report 2011: Towards Social Inclusion, Institute of Applied Manpower Research, Planning Commission

The extent to which dalits are 'empowered' in our country can be understood from the simple fact that they are denied access even to police stations and face immense difficulties to lodge FIRs. And even those 'empowered' dalits who 'dare' to lodge a complaint/file a case, can least expect justice to be delivered. According to the government itself, the conviction rate for the cases of atrocities on SCs and STs is between 3 to 8 per cent, while pendency of such cases in courts is 80 to 90 per cent. And trust, these are taken straight from the horse's mouth. Mukul Wasnik, the minister for social justice and empowerment, himself made this statement in the background of the recent judgement on the Bathani Tola massacre, where 21 dalits were killed and the convicts were freed.

What to speak of the 'low-level' police or the magistrate, when the government itself shamelessly violates its own laws. It is not making the stipulated allocations for the sub-plans for SCs and STs (to be allocated in proportion of their population). Even in this budget it had allocated just 7 per cent (against the mandated 16.5 per cent for SC sub plan). In spite of this, the prime minister, an eminent economist, has got the courage to talk about 'economic empowerment' of dalits! With his excellency, the master making his intentions clear, can we expect the humble courtiers to act differently? Unsurprisingly, credit disbursements to dalit entrepreneurs had dropped by 33.8 per cent in the last financial year, according to data released by the RBI.

If someone thinks that the prime minister is a sober character, think again. Despite all his inactions (or rather actions towards exclusion), he courageously promises the country that the 'best is yet to come'. For this, he places his belief on the youth. Let us hear directly from him. “We are a young nation. More importantly, we are a nation of young people. Once unleashed, the energy of our youth will drive India onto a new growth path”. Sarcasm?

Yes, in the youth in whose energy the government does not want to invest. For whom the government does not want to take the responsibility of providing quality education, for whom as the tales of our recent Olympic heroines/heroes show, the government is not interested in providing them with facilities to practice their sports. And for the children, whom the government does not want to feed by universalising the public distribution system and allows them to die malnourished. In those children who are made to stand separately in humiliation during the assembly and their lunch boxes checked before they entered their classes, their hair cut, just because they are from the unprivileged sections in the society. It is these malnourished, uneducated, unemployed youth that the government is producing in our country but wants their energy to drive the country on a growth path. Surprisingly, the president of the country had a warning for his government: 'if the concerns of the youth are not catered properly they might take to...paths'.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his government and party would do well to remember that apart from the present Gandhis who are in their fold, there was another who was called Mahatma and whose name they are exploiting. He once said, “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching”. Forget about walking the talk, the UPA government is not even limping or crawling. If it doesn’t, of course the people are waiting for an opportunity to force it to walk – out of office.