Alienation of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes from their land in the name of development is happening in every State, which is one of the reasons for the increasing incidents of Dalit uprisings in the country, former Union Minister of State for Railways Bhakta Charan Das has said.
He was inaugurating an Open Forum held here on Tuesday as part of the Festival on Democracy being organised on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee celebration of the Kerala Legislative Assembly.
Even though the Constitution offered so much protection and gave promises to the citizens, governments had not been fulfilling these promises. Atrocities against the SC/STs had been going on in the country in recent times and ensuring social justice to the marginalised and backward castes had become a huge challenge. SC/ST representatives were entering Parliament only because constituencies were reserved for them. On the other hand, once elected, none took care to do enough for the welfare of the SC/STs, he said.
Those who participated in the Open Forum included O. Rajagopal, MLA, Gita Mukherji, MLA from Haryana, Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Senior Associate Editor of Frontline , Abid Hussain Thangal, C.K. Asha, both MLAs, among others.
Later, addressing the valedictory session of the two-day national legislators’ conference on the Challenges in the Empowerment of SC/STs in Independent India, Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan said that the Festival on Democracy had opened a new debate on the process of fulfilling democratic norms in the country.
Laws and welfare
Even though legislatives had formed innumerable laws meant for the welfare and protection of the SC/STs, it should be examined if these laws had in reality effected any change in their social situation and life, he said.
The consensus statements evolved over the discussions would be printed in a book form and distributed to all State legislatures, he added.
Later, tshe 22-point suggestions and consensus statements were released as Trivandrum Declarations.
