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November 2, 2001

 

A  SPECIAL  DISCUSSION

 

Original date 27th October, Revised date 3rd Nov, further revised as two days Seminar on 17th and 18th Nov.

These Postponements are regretted, but was beyond our control, since no Paper or Synopsis was received from Speakers and our Friends.  What do we do?  And how do we hold a Discussion without even a brief Synopsis?  Hence the Postponements

 

SC&ST  DEVELOPMENT IN  INDEPENDENT  INDIA

Achievements  till  date,  and  Agenda  for  the  Future

 

 

Date :        Saturday and Sunday, the 17th and 18th November 2001

Time :        10 am to 06.00 pm 

Venue :     Indian Social Institute, Lodi Road, New Delhi – 110003

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

It is proposed to organise a Discussion on SC&ST Development as part of our thanks giving and farewell to our senior Shri Devi Dayal IAS(UP-1966) who retired as Secretary/Banking after many eventful years of Service in Uttar Pradesh and at the Center. 

 

Development of every SC&ST in the Country is central to all our efforts, struggles and fight against the Caste Discriminations.  We have to struggle a lot and overcome all the hurdles and discriminations.  We have to move forward ourselves, and also help our fellow brothers and sisters to develop in spite of the most Oppressive Caste System that is peculiar to India.   However, Development of every SC&ST and how to go about it is one issue which we had consistently failed to discuss, debate, brainstorm, or make our needs views and demands clear. 

 

As we all know that both SCs and STs are Avarnas.  We are the Caste-less People.  And We are outside the Caste System.  We SCs&STs still live outside the main dominant society, in special Secluded Colonies even in big Cities, and outside the Villages.  We are outside everything, outside the religion, outside the temples, outside even the cemeteries.  We are outside the schools, outside the jobs, outside the administration, outside the Govts, and in fact outside the entire vision of the dominant sections of the Indian Society.  The Planning Commission at the Centre even today does not have a full-fledged SC&ST Development Division.  This even though the SCs&STs today are more than 260 million, and as a People are more than the population of every Nation other than China and India taken as a whole. 

 

For the SC&ST Dalits, Survival is the Religion, Struggles for Life and Survival are the Theology, finding next Meal is the Ritual, and keeping the life in their bodies are their pre-occupation.  Sadly that remains so even today, fifty-four years after Independence of the Country.  That is more than half a Century after the Freedom of the Country.  And the only SC, Shri Devi Dayal who was a regular Secretary to the Govt of India had retired.  This compared to, nearly a half a dozen SCs appointed as Secretaries to the Govt of India, and a couple of more STs as Secretaries to the Govt of India, almost a decade ago.  Now, there is only one ST Secretary, that too in the Law Ministry.  That is what is happening to We SCs&STs today.  That is a measure of the practical realities in life, and is indicative of the prevailing discriminations and continuing prejudices against We SCs&STs in the Indian Society.

 

It is strange that the Caste System which excluded us as Ati-Shudras, and was created to keep us aside and caste us out of the Society, had by itself enveloped and submerged us fully, that we are now forced to bear the burden of all the Castes and the entire Chatur Varnavyavstha.  Like the mud that sticks, the Castes had stuck to us also, even though we are the Caste-less People, and the Caste System was specifically evolved to keep us out, and had explicitly excluded us.  The Castes had infected us as we had perhaps come too close to the brahmanic castes.  Not only that, the Castes and the Caste System had moulded us to reflect the hierarchy of castes even amongst us Avarnas, the Caste-less People.  The Castes have infected us almost like a mirror image of the dominant brahmanical society, with the same symptoms of exclusiveness, exclusions and hierarchy. 

 

The Caste India, which had specially kept us out of their Society and their Castes, is now trying to absorb and or co-opt us as their appendage, without any Option Liberty and Freedom for us to escape their oppression and to develop as Free Independent Individual Human Beings.  Thus, Caste India which started oppressing us as the Caste-less Avarna or as the Outcaste People, is now trying to oppress us with our local Agricultural Expertise, or through the professional or job-oriented labels as our Castes and Sub-Castes, or the Tribal and Sub-Tribal names and identities.  These are unfairly used as the cleavage lines of divisions, and to promote mutual suspicions fears and conflicts.  The end result of the continuing neglect and oppression is that, We SCs&STs are still illiterate with a number of Districts reporting less than 3% literacy amongst the SCs/STs, particularly amongst our Women and Girl Children.  And we are still leaderless.  It is therefore no wonder that today we have only one ST as the Secretary to the Govt of India, that too in the Law Ministry. The 260 million SC&ST Dalits have been effectively submerged without a cream or effective leaders, both in the Political Parties either at the State and UT Levels or at the Centre, and in the Civil Services or Employment in the private sector.  Hence even Reservations given to us by Baba Saheb in Civil Services and Politics have been failed, and nothing comparable to the Affirmative Action evolved in capitalist USA for the discriminated Blacks there had taken roots here in favour of We SCs and STs in the private sector.

 

The Caste India, which kept us as Avarnas, Chandals, Junglis and Mlechas, outside the brahminical society system and settlements, are now stealthily using the geographical identity of Hindustan and hindu, to submerge us into a crude nebulous and nameless brahmanic religion without a proper identity.  That fictitious religion is presided over not by their own brahmanic god Brahma or the kshatriya god Vishnu, but by the Avarnas proto-historic goddess Maha-Kali and god the Maha Paraya, the Shiva.  Since the brahmin Brahma had failed them and could not give a profitable business and a decent good livelihood, they had to accept the kshatriya rulers’ Vishnu firs.  Later they turned to the most profitable Maha Maheshwar Shiva, under the lame pretext of their growing belief in the Trinity of Life, governing the Universe and all living beings.  Thus, they had successfully stealthily and subversively superimposed their subversive brahmanic values over the kshatriyas by adopting Vishnu in the beginning, and then We Avarnas by cunningly and craftily co-opting Shiva later.  That Shiva, is the much-denigrated dirty Paraya God, or the Paraya amongst the Gods.  He is the one who is still condescendingly condemned as lording over the Dead and the Cemeteries, and as the connoisseur of Liquor lover of poisonous or intoxicating unwanted flowers, consumer of Poison and Drugs, keeping the company of dangerous snakes, collector of human skulls, killer of his own wife by thoughtless burning, irresponsibly dancing endlessly like a mad man or possessed individual in the stupor of all that he takes.  That much denigrated Maha Paraya, had now been accepted by the cunning brahmans, as the God of Gods.  So he is Maha Shiva, or Maha Maheshwar.  He is considered to be more decisive, wiser and decider of disputes amongst his other two fellow super-Gods in the Trinity.  He is at times also said to be the father-in-law of Brahma and Vishnu, only to fool us.  He is said to have fathered Saraswathi and Lakshmi, the consorts of his fellow Trinitarians, Brahma and Vishnu.  The all consuming and ever cheating brahmins, are thus out to oppress us Avarnas, the Casteless People, through the Castes, their gods and goddesses, and also our Gods and Goddesses.  They are out to bind us under brahmanic values and systems, masquerading as the origon-less undefinable religion hinduism, which till today is only a myth without any theology, aim, objective, goal, and in fact is really non-existent.  They are trying to invent and create a religion to hide all their evil deeds and brahmanic conspiracy, and to keep us pinned down at the bottom of Caste Hierarchy.  That is to oppress us and impose on us casteless Avarnas, their evil Caste System.  This they, do only to deny us individual dignity, any personal freedom, and all Human Rights.

 

What does the Future hold for us?  Will it in anyway be better?  We don't find any reason why it should be different.  On the otherhand, there are sufficient indicators on the wall, which all go to whisper rather loudly that our lot, and that of children and other descendants will be bad if not worse.  What then should we do now?

 

Friends, We want to discuss these specific issues as we bid our farewell to our respected Shri Devi Dayal, on Saturday the 27th October 2001, between 2.30 PM to 7.30 PM, at the Indian Social Institute, Institutional Area, Lodi Road, New Delhi - 110003.  

 

We request you to come in numbers with deep reflections on the above, to discuss and debate as we take up the following Issues for Discussions –

 

 

ISSUES  TO  BE  DISCUSSED

 

 

1.  SC&ST  DEVELOPMENT  IN  FREE  INDIA,  Achievements  till date in the Fields of  - 

 

a)    Controlling Atrocities against SC&ST Dalits

b)    Academics – the numbers of Vice Chancellors, Registrars, Heads of Deptts, Professors down to Lecturers in the Central Universities and equivalent in the Institutions of Higher Learning like IIMs, IITs, IISc, PGI, AIIMS, JIPMER etc and in the State Universities

c)    Education – the number of Students enrolling at various levels, right from Class I to Under Graduate, Graduate, Post-Graduate, Research, Advanced Research, Doctoral, Post Doctoral Studies, and the number and percentage of Scholars getting their Degrees, the Drop-out Rates, and the reasons including non-availability of hostel accomodations, scholarships, fellowships and other financial assistance.

d)    Employment in Govt Services  - in various Groups from A, B, C, D and Sweepers, particularly in higher Grades of Group C, and with in Group A in Selection Grade, SAG, HAG and Secretary Level Postings.  What happens, and where do all the SCs and STs recruited through the All India Competitions after their Post Graduations etc vanish?

e)     Employment in Banks and Financial Institutions, Other PSUs and private sector, particularly after the VRS, and in the private sector and Multi-National Banks. 

f)     Planning and Development of SC&ST Communities – different areas of Development, specific allocations of Funds in various Plans so far, actual utilisations and achievements.

g)     Bureaucracy – position of SC&STs in select Offices like that of the President of India, Vice-President of India, PMO

h)  Management

i)   Public Sector

j)   Private Sector

k)  NGOs and Voluntary Organisations

l)   Unions

m) Political Leadership in Central, State and UT Govts and in the Executive Positions of various Parties

 

 

2.  SC&ST  DEVELOPMENT  IN  FREE  INDIA,  an  Agenda  for  Future  -

 

a)     Agriculture – SC&ST Contributions in Agricultural Activities and their percentage of share in the Agricultural Produce for their personal use

b)     Land ownership - Land ownership, size of holdings, total holdings, percentage of area in the total holdings, number and percentage , and the extent of the land areas irrigated

c)  Education – impact of privatisation, increase in the fee structure, share in administration management and control, starting SC&ST Institutions of Higher Learning particularly in Engineering, Medicine, Management and Doctoral Studies 

d)  Employment

     i)          Govt Services – Compulsory allocation of every top level posts on a rotation

     ii)         Banks and Financial Institutions

     iii)         Other PSUs

     iv)        private sector – evolving an Affirmative Action like that in USA for the Blacks

     v)         Entrepreneurship – in different areas like cottage, micro, mini, small, medium, major, large and heavy Industries, Construction, Trading, Import  and Export, and Business

     vi)        Self-employment – individual, partnership, group and Co-operative Ventures

e)  Planning and Development of SC&ST Communities

i)        Fixing clear Aims and Objectives

ii)        Prefixing specific Ideas Goals and Targets

iii)       Adoption of successful Programmes

iv)       Specifying Time Limits

v)        Conceiving Experimental Pilot Projects

vi)        Identifying Nucleus Centres for Experimental Development

vii)       Holistic development of small SC&ST Groups carefully identified

f)   Bureaucracy

g)  Management

h)  Professional Spheres – Nursing Homes, Hospitals, Hotels, Travel and Tourism, Consultancy

i)   Business

j)   Industries

k)  Construction

l)   General Trading

m) Export-Import

n)  Banking

o)  Insurance

p)  NGOs and Voluntary Organisations - particularly for education, agriculture and handicrafts

q)  Institution Building – like Schools, Colleges, Hospitals

r)  Grassroots level Activists

s)  Union Leadership

t)   Politics

 

Since you have many new ideas, please prepare a Paper quickly on some specific issues above issues, so that others can benefit from your presentation.  All of us will be grateful for your contributions.  Please also send us a Synopsis, or your Points on any or many of the above points identified.  We value your participation ideas suggestions and any other contributions in this regard.

  

 

New Delhi - 110003

1st October 2001

 

 

NOTE :

 

1.      Many of our Senior Leaders are expected to attend these Discussions

2.      Please send in your Papers and Points for Discussions in advance, for circulation amongst the VVIPs. 

3.      Please attend the Programme with many friends and activists.

 

 

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