December 13, 2022
Santanu Sen’s speech on The Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022
Thank you, respected Chair, for giving me this opportunity. Sir, we are here to discuss about “Gond” Community. The Gond Community is to be recognised as ST in four Districts of U.P. The Bill amends the SC Order to exclude Gond Community as ST in four Districts of U.P. and it amends SC Order to recognise Gond Community as ST. Sir, I appreciate this approach. At the same time, I encourage some important issues which I am going to highlight upon. Instead of bringing separate Bills, the Government should have taken some comprehensive measures to include some other communities in different other States. We have seen the Government has clubbed non-money Bills with money Bills several times in order to get it passed properly or smoothly. Sir, combining multiple SC/ST Order Amendment Bills into one Bill would have been less dangerous than this. We have seen the parliamentary mockery in last few years. So far as the scrutiny of Bills is concerned, in 15th Lok Sabha, the percentage of scrutiny was 71 per cent and now, it has come down in 17th
Lok Sabha to 13 per cent only. What can be a more mockery of Parliament than this? Sir, we are talking about Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Let me draw your attention to the Budgetary allocation for employment generation of SC. It was Rs. 170.96 crores last time and it has come down to Rs.22.97 crores. It has been slashed down by 86.5 per cent. So far as the Scheduled Tribes is concerned, the Budget allocation for employment generation was Rs.89.5 crore earlier and it has come down to Rs.11.3 crores. So, it has been slashed down by 87 per cent. According to Dalit Arthik Adhikar Andolan, there are gaps of Rs.40,634 crores for Scheduled Castes and Rs.9,399 crores for Scheduled Tribes in the Budget. The problem is, nowadays NDA does not stand for National Democratic Alliance. Nowadays, it stands for No Data Available. Where is the will to conduct 2021 Census? We have enough fortitude to conduct elections despite Covid, despite everything. But, at the same time, we don’t have any proper intention to go for the Census. No socio-economic caste census
data is available. The Government doesn’t want to release the decade old data from 2011 socio-economic caste census. What are you afraid of discovering of? Let me talk about the SC/STs literacy rate in our country. In India, the Scheduled Castes male literacy rate is 75 per cent whereas in our State of West Bengal, it is 84 per cent. In India, the female Scheduled Castes literacy rate is 68 per cent whereas in our State of West Bengal, it is 74 per cent. As far as Scheduled Tribes is concerned, male literacy rate in India is 56 per cent whereas that in our State of West Bengal is 65 per cent. Why don’t you take the good part of West Bengal? What is the harm in taking the data part of West Bengal? Let me talk about some West Bengal’s schemes which benefit the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in reality. Let me talk about Aikyashree. It was scholarship scheme. Let me talk about Post Matric Scholarship. Let me talk about Oasis Scholarship.
Sir, there is a SC/ST Pension Scheme for vulnerable elderly. Various lending programmes to grow entrepreneurship are there. The actual problem is, what the love and affection of this B.J.P. Government, for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is! * That is the love and concern for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes community. Sir, the problem is West Bengal is the only State where we are having a specific Scheduled Caste Advisory Council. But this Government is so egoistic that they would not talk to the West Bengal Government, because, there, Mamata Didi is ruling the State. I am talking about the Centre’s vision. There was one National Overseas Scholarship for Scheduled Castes. The students who wanted to study Indian culture and history abroad used to be benefited by that. What did this Government do? This Government totally discontinued this scheme! The Central Government has a project called SHREYAS. It is
an umbrella programme comprising four highly important higher education programmes–National Fellowship for Scheduled Castes, National Overseas Scholarship for Scheduled Castes, Top Class Education for Scheduled Castes and Free Coaching for Scheduled Castes & OBCs. Can you ever imagine the budgetary allocation for this important project, Sir? You will be surprised to know that the entire budgetary allocation is a paltry amount of only Rs.364 crore! You can just imagine, by going through this data, how much concerned this Government is so far as the Scheduled Castes &Scheduled Tribes are concerned. Sir, the Government of India announced in 2021 Budget that 750 Ekalavya residential schools will be formed. But, only 367 are functional till date. There is now a new population criterion for sub-district Ekalavya schools. So, again some restrictions have been imposed upon so that the number will be even less in the coming days. Sir, only 36,000 land titles were distributed under the Forest Rights Act between 2019 and 2020. The poorest performers are the BJP-ruled States– earlier it was Bihar, Uttarakhand and Goa. It does not serve any one to offer mere lip service to the cause of Scheduled Tribes while selling their lands and resources to corporates. What does the NCRB report say? The National Crime Records Bureau says that atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been increased by 6.4 per cent in 2021, and Uttar Pradesh is leading the least with 13,146 cases, the highest against the Scheduled Castes total percentage of 26 per cent. Violence incidents against Dalit and Adivasi women are increasing day by day. Rape numbers so far as the Scheduled Caste women and minors are concerned, it is 7.64
per cent and against the Scheduled Tribe women, it is 15 per cent. Sir, I would conclude with one last shocking statistics. We saw in the
last Session how the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 was bulldozed through the Lok Sabha. I don’t need to tell this House what a draconian Bill that was. Three in four, that is, 75 per cent of prisoners in India are under-trials, one of the highest proportions in the world. Worse than this, two in three prison inmates or 66 per cent belong to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs. These communities have historically been discriminated against and profiled through legislations like the Habitual Offenders Act, and your new law opens them up to further violation of human rights. Sir, I support this Bill but I oppose the tokenism. The problem is, the
love for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is shown when the BJP leaders from the Centre are going to visit some SC/ST houses. Before going to their places, they are taking the food from a Seven Star hotel; they will enter the SC/ST house; they use only their utensils while eating the Seven Star food which is kept on the utensils of the ST community. They eat like that and come out forgetting them. This is the love and affection towards SCs/STs. I support this Bill, but I oppose this tokenism. This is what this Government does in the name of welfare for the SCs and STs. Let me paraphrase our hon. Prime Minister’s slogan to reflect this Government’s attitude towards disadvantaged communities–sab ka saath, par sirf kuch ka vikaas.So, my humble suggestion would be that instead of shedding crocodile tears for the SCs/STs, really try to think positive for the betterment of these backward communities of the country. Thank you very much, Sir.
