CHENNAI, February 11, 2011
Reservation for SC/STs in State jobs: call for watertight legislation
Special Correspondent
The Hindu MAKING A POINT: P.S. Krishnan, former bureaucrat, delivering
the Gijubhai Bedekha Memorial Lecture, organised by Asian College of
Journalism and the NCERT, in Chennai on Thursday. To his right is
Vasanthi Devi, former vice-chancellor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar
University. Photo: M. Vedhan
Watertight legislation for reservation in State jobs for SCs, STs and
BCs, a comprehensive land distribution and minor irrigation programme
and educational parity initiatives at all levels are key instruments
for implementing social justice goals envisaged in the Constitution,
former bureaucrat P.S. Krishnan said here on Thursday.
Delivering the Gijubhai Badekha Memorial Lecture under the joint
auspices of the Asian College of Journalism and the NCERT, Mr.
Krishnan said while irrigation-linked land distribution schemes were
crucial for economic liberation of SCs, STs, BCs and other landless
peasants, evolving "leakage-proof" legislation for job reservation was
necessary to remove loopholes in the present system and for providing
due share to SCs, STs and BCs in governance and administration.
Mr. Krishnan, a former Government of India Secretary and a champion of
the rights of the marginalised social strata, advocated the
establishment of high quality residential schools for SC,ST and BC
children as a starting point for achieving educational parity. On the
higher education front, he sought the implementation of the
recommendations (in 2008) of the high-level Ministerial committee on
Dalit Affairs and the introduction in Parliament of The Private
Educational Institutions (Reservations in Admissions) Bill to fulfil
the purpose foreseen in the 93{+r}{+d} Constitution Amendment Act.
While advocating zero-tolerance of untouchability and forms of
discrimination (such as social boycott), Mr. Krishnan wanted more
teeth to the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 through
establishment of special courts and enhancement of punishment.
Pointing out that the pre-Independence slogan of "land to the tiller"
remained substantively unrealised in rural India, Mr. Krishnan argued
that in the case of SCs, landless state contributed to and aggravated
agricultural servitude and "untouchability."
According to the former bureaucrat, the rampant diversion of the
Special Component Plan for SCs constituted a "serious social
corruption." The cavalier approach to the SCPs (and Tribal Sub-Plans),
as borne out in the controversy over the Commonwealth Games, had
reduced what was intended to bridge the gap between the marginalised
and the advanced classes to a "meaningless, pointless
arithmetical-statistical exercise."
Making the case that the issues of the SCs, STs and BCs were not
marginal issues but entwined with the core of India's aspirations to
become a regional and global power, Mr. Krishnan said the operational
cost of land distribution, educational parity and uplift programmes
were well within the financial capability of the government.
Citing the Global Financial Integrity research group that pointed out
that India had lost in illicit financial outflows at least Rs.72,000
crore every year between 2002 and 2006 alone, Mr. Krishnan said "…
even without taking this into account, the present and likely future
annual plan size is enough to accommodate the needs of SCs and STs …
."
Terming the mainstreaming of the oppressed classes a national task,
Mr. Krishnan said teachers had an important role to play in changing
attitudes and mindsets through human rights education that promoted
the egalitarian ideal in society — especially among children — and
eliminated "the total mismatch between a big nation and small
caste-shrivelled minds."
V. Vasanthi Devi, former Vice Chancellor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar
University, and Shakuntala Nagpal from the NCERT also spoke.
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