Meira demands quota hike for increased SC population

New Delhi, Feb 11: Hitting out at critics of her demand for increasing Scheduled Castes quota in proportion to the rise in their population, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar today said it would be unjust and erroneous to take it as giving an incentive for increasing population.

Talking to UNI on a range of issues, Ms Kumar said she still stood by her demand for reservation for these castes in the industry, and called for sensitisation of the judiciary and civil servants towards their problems.

''The rise in the number of Scheduled Castes has taken place not because of any biological reasons, but because 70 new castes and one religion (Buddhism) have been added to the Schedule ... so, there is no harm if quota for them is increased proportionate to the rise in their numbers,'' Ms Kumar added.

The Minister pointed out that the rise in population was not her claim but was borne out by the 2001 Census.

On how her demand for the raise in quota has been received in the UPA government, she said dialogues and consultations with other ministries on various issues were taking place.

On the issue of providing quota to Scheduled Castes in the private sector, she said such a demand was perfectly justified as very few jobs were left with the government because of liberalisation.

Hailing the initiative of some corporates like Infosys for starting skill enhancement programmes for SCs, she said she hoped that they would absorb them after the training, but so long as the caste-discriminative mind-set worked, there was no hundred per cent surety that even qualified people of these classes would be able to find job in proportion to their population.

''My demand for providing reservation to these classes still stands, and I would be very happy if the industry themselves come forward to do this,'' the Minister said.

Ms Kumar also attacked the ''mind-set of the establishment'' that hampered implementation of quota for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes in government services.

''There is a large backlog of reserved posts not filled, and that has resulted due to the insincerity of intentions. If you advertise posts in as small a number as two, how can you reserve 22 per cent out of that,'' she said.

''There are a hundred ways of circumventing a law, if you don't want to implement it,'' she added.

The issues were, however, being personally monitored by the Prime Minister.

While admitting that the situation for SC and other backward classes had improved a lot after Independence mainly because of the policies followed by successive Congress governments, Ms Kumar said still there was a lot to be done.

Sensitisation of the Judiciary and the civil services towards the rights of the weaker sections was a must as without it all measures taken to ensure justice to these sections would fall through and remain unimplemented.

The Minister proposed that the IAS academy should include a special course for IAS probationers for sensitising them towards the problems and plights of dalits and the existing laws for the remedy.

Replying to a query, she said it was true that most of the culprits of atrocities on Scheduled Castes were able to avoid conviction despite stringent laws being in place. ''That indicates the lack of will or disinclination to implement these laws,'' she said. She pointed out that the Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes Act provides for setting up of exclusive courts for trying such cases, but several states were yet to create these courts. Ms Kumar said she was writing to these states to set up these courts as soon as possible.

The States did not adequatley report to the Centre the cases of atrocities on SCs because of which her Ministry could not help and compensate the victims despite having resources to do so, she added.

She said she had formed a committee, headed by herself for monitoring of anti-atrocities laws.

Review of the working of the POA was provided in the Act itself but most of the time committee at the state-level did not meet to do this exercise, Ms kumar said.

Underlining education as the most powerful tool for empowerment of dalit classes, Ms Kumar said she would like the government to pay first and foremost importance to increasing educational opportunities for these classes.

''Scheduled Castes have sufferred from centuries of low self-esteem, and it is by enhancing their skills and qualifications that they can feel themselves equal to others,'' she said.

On the Bill for protection of older persons, Ms Kumar said she was going to bring in the bill in the budget session of Parliament.

''It will be first of its legislation which will take care of the emotional security of parents besides financial and physical security,'' the Minister said.

''The West takes care of its elderly people by putting them in old age home, where care is taken of their health and other needs, but what about the emotional void that they feel away from their near and dear ones. It is the Indian system where such care is taken of, but it was unfortunate that in a blind copying of the West we were giving up what was good in our system,'' she said.

The legislation, which was drafted after two years of consulations, was a unique attempt to ensure care of parents by their children, she added.

The Bill has almost been finalised and will go to the Cabinet soon, said Ms Kumar.

UNI