Table Of ContentSOCIAL EXCLUSION AND JUSTICE
IN INDIA
This book draws upon nearly seven decades of first-hand experiences from
the ground to understand social exclusion and movements and efforts for
social justice in India. The author, a renowned champion of social justice for
deprived social classes, delves into the roots of discrimination in Indian society
as well as explains why caste discrimination still persists and how it can be
effectively countered. The volume:
• examines the caste system and its socio-economic ramifications from the
perspective of Dalits, and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes;
• explores the nuances of the Gandhi–Ambedkar debate on the status and
liberation of Dalits and synthesis of the approaches of Gandhi, Ambed-
kar, Narayana Guru and Marx in resolving certain key issues;
• analyses legal, economic, social and cultural frameworks to understand
caste system and related concepts such as “untouchability”, atrocities,
reservation, etc. in contemporary India; and
• provides practical insights into the Constitution-based comprehensive
measures required to remedy the consequences of caste system and estab-
lish social equality in a holistic manner.
The book will interest scholars and researchers of social exclusion and social
justice, Dalit, Adivasi and Backward Classes studies, sociology and social
anthropology, politics, law and human rights, as well as policymakers, think
tanks and NGOs in the field.
P. S. Krishnan is a former member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
and has been actively working for the cause of the advancement and empower-
ment of the deprived social categories of Indian society, the Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes, for over nearly seven decades includ-
ing his 35-year career in the IAS. He has been Secretary, Ministry of Welfare,
Government of India; Member, National Commission for Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes; Member-Secretary, National Commission for Backward
Classes; and Chairman/Member of different Steering Committees and Work-
ing Groups of India’s Planning Commission. He has been Honorary Advisor
to the central government and certain State governments in matters relating to
the disadvantaged social categories and guides many social organizations and
activists. He has published books, papers and articles extensively.
SOCIAL EXCLUSION
AND JUSTICE IN INDIA
P. S. Krishnan
First published 2018
by Routledge
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© 2018 P. S. Krishnan
The right of P. S. Krishnan to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
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CONTENTS
Tables vii
Preface viii
1 Theme paper on Dalits 1
2 Synthesis of visions for Dalit liberation and
empowerment: Gandhi, Ambedkar, Narayana
Guru, Marx – Contemplations during Hind
Swaraj centenary 75
3 Human rights of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled
Tribes and Socially and Educationally
Backward Classes 152
4 Indian social justice versus American affirmative
action and the case of higher education 204
5 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, amending
Ordinance and Bill 2014: history and development 230
6 Laws and schemes for the rights of Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes: gap between
constitutional mandates and legislative
enactments and executive actions 251
v
CONTENTS
7 Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Socially
and Educationally Backward Classes and
Budget 2014–15 345
Index 384
vi
TABLES
1.1 Agricultural and other rural labour by social classes 42
1.2 Rural self-employed in Agriculture by social classes 43
1.3 Monthly per capita expenditure by social classes 44
1.4 Average monthly per capita expenditure classes for
each social group 44
1.5 Literacy rate by social classes 45
1.6 Female literacy rate by social classes 46
1.7 Families with no literate adults 46
1.8 Years of general education – 15 years and above –
percent of social groups by social classes 47
1.9 IMR (per thousand live births) and U5MR
(per thousand live births) by social classes and
religious communities 47
1.10 Age group-wise analysis for different social classes 48
1.11 Percentage of households having basic amenities by
social classes 49
7.1 Budget outlay for Special Central Assistance 353
7.2 Budget outlay for pre-matric scholarships, hostels, etc. 353
7.3 Budget outlay for post-matric scholarships, etc. 354
7.4 Budget outlay for liberation of manual scavengers 354
7.5 Budget outlay for eradication of untouchability and
atrocities 355
7.6 Budget outlay for voluntary organizations, etc. 356
7.7 Grand total of all the outlays under SJ&E 356
7.8 Central Assistance to State Plans for STs 370
7.9 Budget outlay for Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana 371
7.10 Budget outlay for education of ST children 373
7.11 Budget outlay for marketing of MFP 374
7.12 Budget outlay for ST development corporations 375
7.13 Budget outlay for SEdBCs 378
vii
PREFACE
I have been in the field of social justice with a focus on the Sched-
uled Castes (SCs)/Dalits; Scheduled Tribes (STs)/Adivasis; Socially and
Educationally Backward Classes (SEdBCs) – also known as Other
Backward Classes (OBCs) and Backward Classes (BCs) – including
Backward Classes of Religious Minorities (BCRM); and their women
and children for about six-and-half decades, since my teenage and
through the entire period of my service as an IAS officer from 1956 up
to my retirement in 1990, and continuing after my retirement. During
this period, I have been, spanning society and governance, an active
participant in and witness to important historical events and devel-
opments pertaining to these deprived classes and I have studied and
gathered material on all aspects of the people of these classes.
From the 1970s, I have written extensively and comprehensively
on various issues pertaining to these deprived classes including Three
Historical Addresses of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in the Constituent
Assembly – In Search of Remedies for Current Instability of Policy,
with Preface by P. S. Krishnan (Dr Ambedkar Foundation Research
Cell, New Delhi, 1999), Empowering Dalits for Empowering India:
A Road-Map (Manak Publications, Delhi, 2009), and numerous arti-
cles and papers, many of which have been published in different dai-
lies and periodicals and some in edited books containing papers of
different authors. Now that I am in my eighties, I would like to leave
behind, in the shape of comprehensive and authoritative books, a leg-
acy of my experience, knowledge, understanding and perceptions in
the hope that they may be of help to future generations of social work-
ers as well as administrators, and to those heading political as well as
administrative governance, so that they do not need to reinvent the
wheel but may improve the wheel.
I chose to work in the field of social justice because it has always
been my conviction that unless the disadvantages and deprivations
viii
PREFACE
maximally inflicted on the Dalits and Adivasis and in varying degrees
on the SEdBCs over the centuries and largely continuing to this day are
eliminated and they are enabled to rise to the level of equality with the
Socially Advanced Castes/Classes (SACs) in all parameters of develop-
ment, welfare and life, not only their human and constitutional rights
will remain abridged and unfulfilled, but India will be deprived of the
benefit of the fully developed capabilities of the vast majority of its
people and, therefore, fail to achieve its full potential.
During the period of my service in the IAS, I have, like any IAS officer,
worked in posts in different sectors and fields. These include many
years in industry and other economic sector ministries/departments.
They also include punishment posts awarded specifically to me as a
mark of displeasure for “fraternizing” with Dalits and other depressed
classes. But, the major part of my career, by my choice, has been in
the field of social justice for these three major deprived social classes.
This has given me the opportunity to see at first hand the evolution
of policy and its implementation and to play a major role in shaping
some of these policies, and making them, to the extent possible, mean-
ingful and useful for them and their advancement.
I have extensively visited Dalit and Adivasi habitations and isolated
BC habitations throughout the country, the largest number perhaps
by any living person, making it a point to camp in Dalit habitations
during my tours to villages, earning strictures like “undue partiality
for the deprived classes” in my confidential reports. This ensured that
my perspective of policy requirement and policy implementation was
not limited by official perspectives but could be broadened to include
and mainly draw upon the people’s perspective of Dalits, Adivasis and
SEdBCs. For example, in 1978, I formulated the Special Component
Plan for Scheduled Castes (SCP) as a comprehensive instrument for
the holistic development and advancement of Dalits and launched it
at the Centre and in all the States. For this, I utilized my vantage posi-
tion in the Ministry of Home Affairs as Joint Secretary in charge of
the development and welfare of SCs and BCs. Certain circumstances
in that period, about which I am writing separately, facilitated me
in undertaking and pushing through this massive task. In my forth-
coming volume on the Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes
(SCP) – Developmental Rights of and Developmental Autonomy for
Dalits, I shall be covering its objective, its implementation, its triviali-
zation over time into an arithmetical-statistical jugglery and the way
forward to redeem it along with its twin the Tribal sub-Plan (TsP).
Another major policy initiative which I could shape, utilizing my
vantage position and the special circumstances of that time, is securing
ix
Description:This book draws upon nearly seven decades of first-hand experiences from the ground to understand social exclusion, and movements and efforts for social justice in India. The author, a renowned champion of social justice for deprived social classes, delves into the roots of discrimination in Indian
