The Dalit Christian Liberation Movement (DCLM) has condemned the Union government’s decision to form a new committee to study the issue of granting Scheduled Castes status to Dalits who converted to other religions, like Christianity.
In its response in the Supreme Court in a case regarding the issue, the Union government recently said it had formed a committee headed by the former Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan to examine the issue.
The State president of DCLM M. Mary John alleged that the government, instead of filing a suitable reply at the court, had formed the committee as a delaying tactic. Terming the ineligibility of Dalits of all religions except Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism to get SC status as discrimination based on religion, he said the government was diverting the issue by forming a new committee.
He highlighted that the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by Ranganath Misra, in its report in 2007, had already made a recommendation that SC status should not be denied based on religion. He added that the Ranganath Misra committee and a number of other commissions have stated that the Dalits, who converted to other religions, also suffered caste discrimination and their socioeconomic status had not improved.
Moreover, he pointed out that when SC status was granted to those converted to Sikhism and Buddhism respectively in 1956 and 1990, no committees were formed or studies were conducted.
