On 23 May 2013, the Union Cabinet presided by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh approved a Special Recruitment Drive to fill the backlog in reserved vacancies including that for the Scheduled Tribes (STs) by 2013. Earlier on 4 January 2013, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions issued instructions to appoint Liaison Officers in each Ministry/Department for enforcement of policy/orders on reservation in posts and services of the Central Government. This is an acknowledgement of consistent failure of the Government to properly implement the reservation policy.
The Central Government and various State governments do not fill up the vacancies regularly and instead launch special recruitment drives prior to holding of elections. This only provides fodder to those opposing reservations to dismiss such measures as “populist”. This further undermines the extraordinary form of discrimination and violence that the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes have to endure daily under the caste system. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) reported that a total of 4,40,691 crimes were committed against the SCs and the STs from 2001 to 2012. This implies at least 101 caste based crimes are committed every day against the SCs and the STs. The figures of the NCRB are only tip of the iceberg as most crimes against the SCs and the STs are not reported to and/or registered by the police.
The caste system is all about economic, social and political exclusion based on pure and impure, while reservation is all about inclusion of those who from time immemorial have been excluded and subjected to violence. The SCs were accorded the most degrading and inhuman tasks such as manual scavenging. That the Rajya Sabha passed the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2013 only on 7th September 2013 reflects how far away India is from addressing caste specific tasks and caste based discrimination. Even those who converted into other religions have not been able to escape caste segregation as separate cemeteries are still maintained for the converts from the lower castes.
There is no doubt that reservation in educational institutions, government jobs and political bodies like State Assemblies and Parliament has been the engine to ensure economic, social and political inclusion of the SCs and the STs. Without reservation, the SCs and the STs, who are not allowed to enter houses and villages of the dominant castes, not to mention about the temples and other public places even today, would not have had access to educational institutions, government employment, State Assemblies and parliament. Without reservation, those contesting elections of the State Assemblies and Parliament would have faced violence as being faced by candidates from the SCs and the STs at Panchayat level.5 Without reservation, India surely would have remained more divided and fragmented; and the existence of the country would have been more at risks in the face of violence and conflict as a direct consequence of caste based discrimination and exclusion.
At the same time, there have been consistent and serious attempts to undermine India’s unfinished agenda for economic, social and political inclusion of the SCs, the STs and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
First, a string of Supreme Court rulings against reservation including in the case of Indra Sawhney Vs Union of India assume that untouchability has indeed been done away with following its abolition as per Article 17 of the Constitution of India, and there is no caste bias among the people in India. More fundamentally, these judgments overlook and undermine extraordinary level of caste violence as reflected in the data of the NCRB.
Second, there are conscious efforts not to fill up the vacancies in the government jobs reserved for the SCs and the STs with the aim to dereserve the seats for the general category. This comes from the educated class holding positions of power in the government on appointments in posts and services.
According to information provided by the University Grants Commission (UGC) under the Right to Information Act (RTI), 2005 during 2006-2007 to 2010-2011 the representation of the STs have come down from 3.88% to 0.24% in 2010-11 in the post of Professors; from 1.03% to 0.32% in the post of Readers and from 4.43% to 3.63% in the post of Lecturers.
In fact, there is more representation of the STs in the top echelons of the Indian bureaucracy than in the Central universities. During 2010-11, at the level of the Secretary to the Central Government, the representation of the STs was 2.68% while representation of the STs at the level of Professor in the Central Universities was mere 0.24%. At the level of the Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary to the Government of India, the combined representation of the STs was 2.5% while the representation of the STs at the level of Readers in the Central Universities was mere 0.32%.
The data provided by the UGC shows that India’s higher educational institutions remain the most casteist, possibly a reflection of the opposition to the reservation policy.
The STs are also the most deprived among those who have been given reservations. As of 8 May 2013, the maximum number of backlog vacancies with the Central Government was for the STs with 12,195 posts, followed by the OBCs with 8,332 posts and the SCs with 6,961 posts.
The officials holding positions of power on appointments in the posts and services of the government have adopted certain modus operandi to deprive the STs and others access to the reserved seats. The posts in the reserved seats are kept vacant for certain years, and later dereserved on the ground of public interest as “no suitable candidates found” even if many ST and other reserved category candidates meet all the eligibility criteria for the specific posts. As the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in its Twenty Fourth Report titled “Reservation for and employment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT)” presented before the Parliament on 26 November 2012 noted “every year a good number of SC/ST candidates qualify the examination for promotion but only handful are promoted” by the CBDT and “despite having SC/ ST candidates who are eligible for promotion posts, the CBDT has been depriving these candidates of rightful promotion.” While rejecting the contention of the Finance Ministry about “non-availability of eligible candidates is the major reason for backlog”, the Parliamentary Standing Committee recommended that “an enquiry should be initiated for such cases in various Directorates to determine the reasons for keeping promotion posts vacant despite availability of SC/ST candidates, who have already qualified in the examination for promotion”.
If the seats reserved for the SCs and the STs in the State Assemblies and the Parliamentary Constituencies cannot be dereserved without following rigorous procedures, there is no reason as to why reservation of posts in services under the State in favour of the SCs, the STs and others cannot be given similar protection as “non-availability of candidates”, “no suitable candidates found” have become the modus operandi to dereserve the reserved seats and fill up the same with general category candidates, thereby perpetuating denial and deprivation through sophisticated means.
Asian Centre for Human Rights recommends the following to the Members of Parliament, members of the State Assemblies, National Human Rights Institutions, political parties, civil society organisations etc to urge:
- the Government of India to:
- Centrally maintain details of vacancy position in respect of reserved posts and details of backlog vacancies and direct the Liaison Officers appointed in each Ministry/Department as per the Office Memorandum No.43011/153/2010-Estt. (Res.), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel and Training), dated 4th January, 2013 and update the same every three months in the centralized website;
- Issue Office Memorandum by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel and Training) instructing each Ministry/Department to provide that reserved seats for the SCs, the STs and others cannot be dereserved under any circumstances;
- Issue Office Memorandum by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel and Training) instructing each Ministry/Department to provide that no reserved seat can be kept vacant on the “ground of no suitable candidates found” if any SC/ST candidate fulfill the basic eligibility criteria for the specific post; and further for keeping a particular post vacant, prior permission be sought from the concerned authorities, among others, by providing details of qualification of each candidate vis-a-vis the eligibility criteria in the previous recruitment process.
- Direct the Human Resources Development Ministry to launch special drives for recruitment of the STs and other reserved categories in the Central Universities and other higher educational institutions run and/or aided by the Government of India; and
- Amend the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 to include non-filling up of reserved seats despite availability of candidates from the SCs and the STs meeting the eligibility criteria as an offence under the Act.
- the State Governments to:
- launch special recruitment drive to fill up the backlog of vacancies for the SCs, the STs and other reserved categories in a time bound manner;
- Centrally maintain details of vacancy position in respect of reserved posts and details of backlog vacancies and update the information quarterly; and
- Appoint Liaison Officers in each Ministry/Department of the State Government in line with the Office Memorandum No.43011/153/2010-Estt.(Res.), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel and Training), dated 4th January, 2013 for full implementation of the reservation policy.
