New Delhi, April 09: The National Commission for
Minorities (NCM) has said there is a strong case for according
Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Muslims and Christians leading
to their being included in the ambit of reservations.
A study conducted by the NCM said that Dalit Muslims and
Dalit Christians are not so distinct from other Dalit groups
and an argument for treating them differently could not be
sustained.
Asserting that not according Scheduled Caste status to
the two communities would amount to being discriminatory, the
report said, "there are compelling arguments in favour of such
an inclusion based on principles of natural justice and
fairness".
"If no community had already been given SC status, and
if the decision to accord SC status to some communities were
to be taken today through some evidence-based approach, then
it is hard to imagine how district magistrates and deputy
commissioners could be excluded," it said.
The balance of pragmatic considerations is also in
favour of their inclusion, it said.
Like in the Sachar Committee report, the study concluded
that Dalit Muslims were the worst off as compared to Dalit
Christians and their counterparts in other communities like
Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs.
"With respect to proportions of population in poverty
or affluence, Dalit Muslims are unquestionably the worst off
among all dalits, in both the rural and urban sectors," the
study said.
Dalit Muslims are completely absent in the affluent
group for urban India. There is a significant gap between
Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians and Dalit Sikhs...,the
study said.
Dalit Christians may be said to be moderately better off
than other dalits except Dalit Sikhs, who are even better off.
Though Dalit Christians have a much higher proportion
in poverty than Dalit Sikhs, specially in rural India, they
are roughly comparable populations in affluence.
When it comes to intra-community comparisons, Dalit
Muslims and Dalit Christians are a study in contrast. Dalit
Muslims are only slightly worse off than non-Dalit Muslims,
specially the OBCs, but this is because non-Dalit Muslims are
much worse off than their non-Muslim counterparts.
In other words, the Muslim community as a whole tends
to be very badly off compared to other communities, specially
in the urban areas, and consequently the intra-community gap
between dalits and non-dalits is by far the smallest for
Muslims.
Another point that is strongly emphasised in this
analysis is the serious levels of poverty among urban Muslims
of all castes including dalits.
With respect to comparisons of occupational structure,
there seem to be no dramatic contrasts in rural India.
With respect to comparisons of educational levels,
Dalit Muslims are the worst off in rural India in terms of
illiteracy, but are closely matched by Hindu dalits in both
rural and urban India.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, April 09, 2008, 00:00