The Dalit Christians of south Odisha districts are demanding Scheduled Caste status from the government.
According to the Odisha unit of the National Council of Dalit Christians (NCDC), around 42% of the total Dalit Christians in the State live in eight districts — Gajapati, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Boudh, Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur and Malkangiri.
Dalit Christian representatives from these districts have jointly sent a memorandum to the Central government and the Supreme Court through the Revenue Divisional Commissioner, Southern Division.
On July 20, a conference on the issue was held at Mohana in Gajapati district, which was attended by delegates from all over Odisha.
NCDC Odisha president Prafulla Kumar Lima said the SC status to Dalit Christians would be a great step towards social equality. Organisation’s State secretary Acharya Bikash Vardhan said the downtrodden in the Christian community should also get the benefits being provided to the families of lower strata of other religions like Sikhism and Buddhism.
‘Protect from atrocities’
NCDC leader Dhirendranath Sabhapati said apart from Dalit Christians, the Dalit Muslim community was also facing similar problems. According to him, conferring the SC status on Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims will provide them a shield against atrocities under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. In Kandhamal district, the minority families facing atrocities are mostly Dalit Christians.
Dalit Sikhs in 1956 and Dalit Buddhists in 1990 were included in the SC quota list. But no others who profess religions different from Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism can be deemed to be SC. NCDC leaders argue that it violates Article 15 of the Constitution that mandates that the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on religious grounds.
“When a Dalit person changes his religion his socio-economic condition does not change. He continues to suffer the same caste-based vagaries in his own locality. But after becoming a Christian this person loses his SC status as well as several benefits attached to it,” said Mr. Sabhapati.
In April 2014, Dalit Christians had approached the Supreme Court seeking parity in quota. The next hearing of this case is in September this year.
