SC quota fissures to widen

With the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment referring the Usha Mehra Commission report to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes for its response, the question as to whether there should be sub-quotas within the SC quota may soon snowball into a major quota issue. The Mehra Commission report, submitted on May 1 to Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar, has recommended sub-quotas within the SC quota on the ground that very few castes have cornered all the benefits of the SC quota.

The Centre had set up this Committee on the request of the Andhra Pradesh government, after the apex court had struck down sub-quotas in the state as unconstitutional. This issue has become important, as some castes included in the Scheduled Caste category – like the Valmikis, the caste of scavengers and Safai Karmacharis – have been demanding sub-quotas.

They argue that some ¶advanced¶ Dalit communities, like the Jatavs in UP, Mahars in Maharashtra and Malas in Andhra Pradesh, have walked away with most of the jobs. Opponents of the sub-quota demand from among the Scheduled Castes assert that such a move will split the Dalit movement.

Significantly, there have been protests against the Mehra Commission report by the Mala community in Andhra Pradesh and by the cobbler caste in Haryana, both seen as ¶advanced¶ Dalit communities by those who favour sub-quotas. A small elite among the Valmikis has been holding regular meetings in favour of sub-quotas and sending memorandums to the Centre.

Their last meeting was held in Delhi on May 25 and the next one will be held in Patna in June. Talking to Hindustan Times, Valmiki leader and National Coordination Committee For Revision Of Reservation Policy president O.P. Shukla said, ¶We will move the Supreme Court with the plea that the present SC reservation regime violates Articles 15(4) and 16(4), for the most obvious victims of Untouchability – the scavengers – have been left out of quota benefits, which have been cornered by advanced groups.

¶ Committee general secretary Vijay Prakash said, ¶Sub-quotas were put in place by Giani Zail Singh in Punjab in 1972, by Bhajan Lal in Haryana in 1994 and by Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh in 2000. But one E.V. Chinnaiah, a Mala, moved the apex court against the Andhra sub-quotas, and the court scrapped them on the ground that the constitution saw the SCs as one category.

Then a petition was filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against sub-quotas in these two states, and these sub-quotas too were scrapped. Available Haryana data show that in the 1995-2003 period the Valimiks benefited immensely because of sub-quotas and many could become Class I officers.

¶ Sociologist Yagati Chinna Rao says any sub-quotas will divide the Dalit movement. ¶The Mehra Commission study was conducted only in 11 out of the 23 Andhra districts, but they want their recommendations to hold for the whole of India,¶ he told HT.

Sociologist Vivek Kumar says, ¶The supposed dominance of a few castes can be explained by the fact that these castes are also numerically larger.¶.