On September 20, 2021, Charanjit Singh Channi took oath as Chief Minister of Punjab, becoming the first person from the Scheduled Castes community to hold the top post which sent a wave of elation among the community. But barely four months down the line there is a sense among a section of the SCs that beyond lip service, nothing concrete has been done to resolve their long-pending problems.
Electioneering is at its peak as the State goes to the Assembly poll on February 20. Its’ early morning and a group of close to a dozen people from the SC community have gathered in Patiala’s Baradari garden to carve out a strategy to force political parties to ensure early resolution of their issues, which they assert have been pending for years due to the indifference of successive governments.
“Nothing has changed in years for us. Recently, the Congress appointed Charanjit Channi but the appointment of a ‘Dalit’ Chief Minister is of no use for the community if our problems remain unaddressed. For us, the resolution of issues is more important than the ‘personality’. Appointing a Dalit CM in itself is not going to resolve our problems,” says Paramjit Singh Kainth, chief of the National Scheduled Castes Alliance, an organisation working for Dalit rights.
“We have started an online initiative to collect information from the people of community about the problems. The purpose is to gather, analyse then present all the issues to the political parties and seek assurance on their resolution by putting them on the party’s top agenda. The parties are focusing their discourse on ‘Dalits’ but no one is seriously talking about solving our problems,” he says.
“There is no debate or talk on the multi-crore irregularities of post-matric scholarships, atrocities like sexual violence and social boycott faced by the Scheduled Castes, hardship of the employees belonging to the community and other similar issues. These issues don’t find any place in the manifestos or promises of political parties. It’s time that the 32% population of Punjab stood up for the rights of its community,” asserts Mr. Kainth, as he addresses the group at the garden, situated outside the city’s prominent “Sheranwala Gate”.
Satnam Singh, who works as a gardener on contract with the PWD horticulture wing, says the constant fear of losing his ‘contractual’ job is his biggest problem. “I have been working for over 13 years but yet my job is not regularised. I don’t even have ESI card [Employees’ State Insurance] for health,” says the 34-year-old Singh, who asserts “no one pays any heed to the members of the SC community”.
Raksh, a 27-year-old student says, “We will meet leaders of all key political parties and express our anguish over not presenting any concrete plan for the welfare of the Dalits. The stand-up and start-up India schemes of the Central government have also failed in Punjab and it is also one of the reasons why the private and government-run banks won’t grant loans to unemployed youth to start a business venture. These schemes deserve a second version based on the demographics of Punjab. Strict action should be taken against the educational institutions that have been found guilty in the scholarship scam,” he says.
Perturbed over the indifferent attitude of the governments over the years, Kamaljeet (32), a resident of Rakhra village, says the announcements during Mr. Channi’s tenure seem to be limited to papers. “The Channi government launched ‘Mera Ghar Mere Naam’ scheme to give ownership rights to people living in houses within the ‘lal lakir’ of villages and cities. I have submitted my application at the block development office for getting my house registered, but so far nothing has happened,” alleges Mr. Kamaljeet, who works as a contractor for woodwork and demands that the scheme should be implemented for the SCs on priority basis. ‘Lal lakir’ is referred to land that is part of the village habitation and is used only for non-agriculture purposes.
The Forum For The Weaker Sections — a think tank body on SC issues in Punjab — also firmly believes that issues surrounding the community have been long pending and need immediate attention.
Dr. T.R. Sarangal, chairperson of the Forum, says the Forum has raised several demands of the SCs with Mr. Channi but none have been fulfilled.
“For effective implementation of the post-metric scholarships scheme in the ratio of 60:40 by the Central and the State governments for the Scheduled Castes students, the budget provision of 40% funds to meet the share of the State government may regularly be made as per the yearly requirement and provided to the department of welfare for disbursement in the first quarter of each year. The income limit should also be raised up to ₹8 lakhs annually for the eligibility for the students,” he says.
“There’s an immediate need for the implementation of the 81st Constitutional Amendment to fill up the backlog of reserved vacancies. Also, implementation of the 85th Constitutional Amendment to effect promotion of the employees with effect from 17-06-1995 needs to be done,” he says.
Stressing that the government should repeal its decision, taken on December 2, 2019, regarding the creation of land banks to promote industrial projects in the rural areas, Mr. Sarangal says the decision was taken ignoring the vital economic interests of the rural Scheduled Castes people as well as bypassing the statutory provisions of the Punjab Village Common Land (Regulations) Act, 1961, according to which one-third area of the ‘gram panchayat’ land has to be reserved for the members of the Scheduled Castes.
