Bahutva Karnataka and Ambedkar Reading Circle (ARC) have jointly released a ‘Guarantee Check report’ that analyses the track record of the BJP-led Union government on its promises of social justice to marginalised communities in the last 10 years.
According to the report, there has been a 48% rise in cases registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act during the BJP’s rule despite its 2014 election manifesto promising highest priority to ensuring the security of marginalised people.
In 2022 alone, there were 67,646 cases, amounting to 188 cases per day, the report pointed out. While there has been a 49.87% increase in the incidents of rape against Dalit women from 2015 to 2019, the report, citing an NCDHR report, noted that only a marginal allocation of ₹168 crore was made for their access to justice.
Manual scavenging continues
Highlighting the plight of manual scavengers, the report showed that nearly a third of the 766 districts in the country is yet to eradicate manual scavenging practices.
The BJP manifesto of 2014 had emphasised its commitment to eliminate manual scavenging and the government had set a deadline of August 2023 to declare India manual scavenging-free.
“We have developed Chandrayaan, but we still have no technology to address this issue and remove the human element from this inhuman practice,” Prashant Bhaware from the ARC said during the launch of the report.
Between 2018 and November 2023, 443 individuals died while doing manual scavenging as per government records. However, organisations such as the Safari Karamchari Andolan pin the figure much higher at 1,760 deaths.
He noted that the government was addressing the issue only through building toilets and no attention was being given to improving awareness or addressing the caste aspect of the the problem. Pointing out that rehabilitation of manual scavengers was a major part of the problem, he highlighted how only 2% of the manual scavengers identified by the government have received the promised monetary compensation.
“The government is ignorant and dodging the responsibility of rehabilitating vulnerable castes who are forced into this,” he said.
On caste census
Speakers during the launch also pointed out the government’s reluctance to support the caste census despite ensuring proper representation and opportunities for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and backward classes in the 2019 manifesto. The failure to recruit to positions reserved for marginalised communities was also highlighted.
“According to the information given in Parliament on March 24, 2022, nine Ministries and departments of the Central government (Railways, Finance, Atomic Energy, Defence, Housing, and Home Affairs etc.) had 82,022 vacancies reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and OBCs of which 58% remains unfilled,” the report stated.
It also highlighted other important things such as the government’s failure to appoint key officials to the national commission for Scheduled Tribes, rejection of claims by adivasis for forest rights, hate speech, and casteist remarks by several BJP politicians.
Activist Vinay Sreenivasa, speaking at the launch, noted that lakhs of acres of forest land had been diverted, resulting in the eviction of adivasi communities under the BJP regime. He also termed the Ekalavya model and NEP an “assault on the adivasi culture and tradition”.
Gowri from Karnataka Janashakti; Beena Pallical, general secretary of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights; Rahul Sonpimple, president of the All-India Independent Scheduled Castes Association; A. Narasimhamurthy, State convener of Slum Janandolana Karnataka; Nagaraj Pujar, State convener of All-India Agricultural and Rural Labourers Association, and Prajwal Gaikwad, research scholar at the University of Hyderabad, spoke at the event.
