Civil society groups of Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians protested in New Delhi on Thursday demanding that the “discriminatory” 1950 Presidential Order be amended. The Order held that only Dalit who professed Hindu religion could be treated as Scheduled Caste (SC).
Addressing the protesters, Samuel Jayakumatr executive secretary, Commission for Policy, Governance and Public Witnesses, argued that “given the fact that the SC status and the benefits that go with it are aimed to address historical caste-based socio-economic deprivation, the Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims have more compelling case for SC status than many others”.
“Because of being deprived of SC status for more than half a century, the two minority communities are worse off in terms of major socio-economic indicators, than many of the so-called ‘Hindu’ Dalits. Not only that they are denied reservations in jobs and elected bodies but they are also not protected from anti-SC atrocity legislation,” he added.
Highlighting what he termed “double standards of the democratic India”, Hafeez Ahmad Hawwari, a leader of the Hawwaris, who have historically been engaged in the vocation of washing clothes argued: “Soon after the country got freedom Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians were deprived of the affirmative action in 1950. The Indian State extended the SC status to Sikh and Buddhist Dalits in 1956 and 1990 respectively. Yet, it continues to deny the same to Christian and Muslim and Dalits which is a clear violation of the Constitutional rights of millions of backward people.”
Saleem Mansoori, a backward leader from Bihar, questioned the logic of the denial of the SC status to the two minority groups. “We are unable to understand that if religion cannot be the basis of providing reservation, how can it be made the basis to deny people their SC status?”
Fr. Z. Devasagayaraj, a representative of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, said the continued denial of SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims makes “complete mockery” of the Indian State’s credentials of being democratic and secular. He highlighted that a petition for the amendment in the 1950 Presidential Order is currently pending in the Supreme Court. “The Apex Court has been repeatedly asking the Government to file an affidavit about its stand on the issue but the Government’s false credentials about minority welfare has been betrayed by the fact that it still has not filed its reply.”
Sir
Report of the Committee on Untouchability, Economic, Educational development of the Scheduled Castes and Connected Documents Year 1969, Government of India, Department of Social Welfare - Present Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment . ( L. Elayaperumal Commission Report ), headed by Mr. L. Elayaperumal.
Page No: 32, “The Committee found during tours that all Scheduled Castes who got themselves converted to religions other than Hinduism should be given all concessions which are available to Scheduled Castes. This is because the committee found during tours that they suffer from same disabilities, which the Scheduled Castes suffer.
Joint Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment via letter No. 14/6/2005-MC dated 28th September 2005 had resolved to expand the terms of reference of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, constituted vide Resolution No: 1-11/2004/MC (D) dated the 29th October 2004 to add the following clause to its terms of reference as follows:
(d) “ To give its recommendations on the issue raised in Writ petition 180 / 2004 ( for granting Scheduled Castes status to convert Christian members of the enumerated castes people by deleting constitution scheduled castes order 1950, paragraph ‘3’ ) and 94/2005 filed in the Supreme Court of India and in certain High Courts relating to Para 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) order, 1950, in the context of ceiling 50% on reservation as also the modalities of inclusion in the list of the Scheduled Castes. After doing eighteen months study by getting twelve state Governments’ recommendations (Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, West Bengal, Punjab, Utter Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala, Mizoram, Sikkim, Uttranchal), the above said NCRLM had submitted the following recommendation to Union of India on 21-05-2007. It had very clearly recommended to Union of India for deleting the Constitution Scheduled castes order 1950, Paragraph 3.
NCRLM Report volume I, page 154, part 16.3.5 declares as follows:
“In view of what has been said above, we recommend that Para 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) order 1950, which originally restricted the scheduled caste net to the Hindus and later opened it to Sikhs and Buddhists, thus still excluding from its purview the Muslims, Christians, Jains and Parsis etc – should be wholly deleted by appropriate action so as to completely de-link the scheduled caste status from religion and make the scheduled castes net fully religion – neutral like that of the Scheduled Tribes.
NCRLM Report volume I, page 141, Sub division ‘a’
“So the Presidential Order of 1950 is unconstitutional and it is a black letter written outside the constitution introduced through the back door by an executive order Para 3 of the presidential order is anathema which disfigures the beauty of the written Constitution of India”.
Educational Status of the
Muslim Community of India
Prime Minister’s High Level Committee
Cabinet Secretariat
Government of India
November, 2006
A Report
SC status for Muslim groups, Pages: 201, 202
While the Ashrafs and the Ajlafs occupy the highest and the middle positions in
the Muslim social structure, the Arzals are the lowest comprising of those having similar traditional occupation as their Hindu counterparts in the list of Schedule Castes. It is widely believed that these communities are converts from the ‘untouchables’ among Hindus. Change in religion did not bring any change in their social or economic status. Because of the stigma attached to their
traditional occupation, they suffer social exclusion. Despite this, they have been
deprived of SC status available to their Hindu counterparts.
Their exclusion from the SC list dates back to 1936 when the Imperial
(Scheduled Caste) Order rejected SC status to Christians and Buddhists of
similar origins. Depressed classes among the Muslims such as Halalkhors were
included in the list but were barred from availing the benefits. This colonial
decree remained the basis on which the government of Independent India,
through the Constitutional (Scheduled Caste) Order, 1950, has denied them the
status in accordance with the deprivations that they face. The Order, however,
has been amended twice; once in 1956 to include the SCs among the Sikhs and
later in 1990 to include the neo-Buddhists. Thus, practically only the Muslims
and Christians of such origins continue to be denied the status. As a result,such Muslim groups namely, gadheris, gorkuns, mehtars or halalkhors, Muslim dhobis, bakhos, nats, pamarias, lalbegis and others remain impoverished and marginalized. Their inclusion in the OBC list has failed to make any impact as they are clubbed with the more advanced middle castes.
Many have argued that the Order of 1950 is inconsistent with Article 14, 15, 16
and 25 of the Constitution that guarantee equality of opportunity, freedom of
conscience and protect the citizens from discrimination by the State on grounds
of religion, caste or creed.
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