Supreme Court’s seven-judge constitution bench ruling on subclassification of Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) categories required an exhaustive study and a report by a commission. In fact, many from the SC and ST communities felt the ruling itself should have been preceded by a database for the ready reference of the SC.
The message of the SC judgment is two-fold. First, the country should go beyond the parametres of the Constitution to ensure justice to the genuinely deprived. However, the creation of the concept of creamy layer or sub-categorisation of SCs and STs is not allowed by the Constitution. And second, the SC needs to know which sections are truly deprived. “Such a ruling of the constitution bench of the SC should have been accompanied by a proper database on the economic and social situation of the SC-ST communities. And for this, the government should have constituted a commission to study their situation and come up with an exhaustive report first,” opined Prabhakar Tirkey, the director of Jharkhand-based Centre for Tribal Studies. Jharkhand is known for its independent tribal opinions on socio-political and economic issues and has a long history of tribals fighting for their rights to political self-determination.
During the tenure of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs had prepared a draft for National Tribal Policy, which never progressed beyond. Tribal groups from across the country have been urging the present government to prepare and promulgate such a policy but no thought has been given to this serious demand yet at the government level.
Denne historien er fra September 21, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra September 21, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Trump, Up And Charging
'Many countries are nervous about Donald Trump returning to power, but India is not one of them'
Post and Past the Oil in Azerbaijan
As the UN climate conference takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan traces the history of the hydrocarbon industry through the lens of postage stamps
Bhutto's Nehru Story
Nehru's principle of \"compromise and argument\" remains the only workable formula for South Asian leaders
Breathless on Bachchan
Cédric Dupire's documentary The Real Superstar is an irreverent, experimental archive of Amitabh Bachchan's life and his stardom
The Anaphora to Zeugma of the Queen's English
Shashi Tharoor's book is a logophile's candy shop, full of fun, surprises and insights
The Wind Knocked
THE wind knocked on the door. Hesitantly. Wanting to be let in. It had heard the murmuring of the flames. And knew that there was a fire. The wind sought shelter.
The Way Home
“We comfort ourselves by reliving memories of protection. Something closed must retain our memories, while leaving them their original value as images. Memories of the outside world will never have the same tonality as those of home and, by recalling these memories, we add to our store of dreams; we are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.”—Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space
The War Artist
Cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco is in search of the truths distorted by conventional narratives
Mining Adivasi Votes
If the BJP manages to win Jharkhand, it will be the third mineral-rich state after Odisha and Chhattisgarh that will fall into the party's kitty
Unequal Republic
Political parties make promises of equal represention to women, but patriarchy continues to dominate electoral democracy