By: SHEKHAR KAMBLE <shekharkambleca@gmail.com>

Most of the people must be knowing that every year in the finance budget planning of India, a lot of provision of crores of rupees is made by the finance minister of each and every government (irrespective of whichever party it may be) in the name of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). The interesting and sad thing is that, beneficiary of this funds are not at all aware about, where this fund goes and how its get allotted and spend for the betterment of SCs/STs.

A Simple question could be – HAVE YOU EVER TAKEN ANY SORT OF EFFORT TO ENQUIRE ABOUT WHERE DOES ALL THESE FUNDS ARE EXPENDED ???. The answer is a certain NO, otherwise it wouldn’t at all triggered me to frame this article in fact to put up in front of you all. No Social, political or religious organization has ever done this kind of questioning who are working in the name of social upliftment of backward classes of India.

Government is openly challenging SC/STs publishing some of the documents on their respective websites, that how they are financially exploiting and doing in-justice with beneficiary of this funds.

1) A 400 pages annual report of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, a department which comes under the jurisdiction of the CENTRAL GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. Though this article highlights the financial as well as our social exploitation, however in addition to this, it covers other sections of the society as well like OBC, safai karamcharis etc.
For the sake of ease to read the whole article, after going through the entire article, i have highlighted in yellow the relevant sections only i.e. Scheduled castes and the Scheduled Tribes of India.
Hence, to be specific, if you want, you can refer only the highlighted portions of this Annual report.ANNUAL REPORT FY 13-14

2) An Annual report of the National Schedule Castes Finance and Development Corporation. In this report, i want you to focus only on the AUDIT REPORT section.
The Statutory Auditor of this Government company who was appointed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (C & AG), has issued a QUALIFIED REPORT of this government company because of the financial irregularities noticed by him. I request all of you to please go through the Audit report part of this Annual report ​at any cost to understand the views published in this article and brings clarity to our own thoughts. ANNUAL REPORT NSFDC FY 13-14

Firstly, there is no mechanism framed by any of the government so as to let the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) come to know about the ultimate usage of their funds, as allotted to them in the finance budget, other than RTI. ISN’T IT THE MORAL DUTY OF ANY OF THE GOVERNMENT BEING RULING OVER INDIA SO FAR, TO VOLUNTARILY DISCLOSE IN FRONT OF THE SCHEDULED CASTES (SCs) AND SCHEDULED TRIBES (STs), THAT WHERE IT HAS EXPENDED THEIR FUNDS??? OR DO THE SCHEDULED CASTES (SCs) AND SCHEDULED TRIBES (STs) HAVE TO KNOCK THE DOORS OF RTI EVERYTIME??? In fact why shouldn’t there be a voluntary disclosure of expenses with valid and actual evidences of the expenditure being incurred in the name of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs)???.

Secondly, THE UNUTILIZED MONEY FROM VARIOUS FUNDS OF SCHEDULED CASTES (SCs) AND SCHEDULED TRIBES (STs) IS TRANSFERRED TO SUCH OTHER FUNDS WHICH ARE NOT AT ALL RELATED WITH THEM. Now just think that instead of transferring that fund to other funds, had the government accumulated the same over the decades, and utilized explicitly only for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) then today all the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) would be in a different situation. However, it hasn’t been done in this manner.

The demand of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) should be that the balance of unutilized each and every penny allotted to them by the finance minister in the finance budget should be accumulated and not transferred to any other funds having no relationship with Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), and the same shall be carried forward in the next year’s opening balance of funds meant for them.

Lets put a simple thought provoking question to ourselves and see what it signifies to us. If one opens a FD worth Rs. 10,000/- in a bank for a period of one year, then does the principal outstanding of Rs. 10,000/- remains same or decreases, over the maturity of the FD i.e. 1 year? (just keep this answer which will help us to clarify the next para)

If we apply the rationale of aforesaid principle in the funds allotted to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the finance budget, then both of these would be definitely in a better position than they are in right now. However, the government transfers the funds meant explicitly for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) to other funds, with which the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) don’t have any sort of relationship at all. So what kind of JUSTICE is this??? This proves that government is just allocating funds to show off their sympathy towards their vote bank and then stab in the back internally.

Already the fund allocation was short by Rs. 49941 crores and 20435.04 crores to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) respectively for the F.Y. 2014-15, still a diversion of funds to the extent of Rs. 7340.08 crores and Rs. 5671.88 crores for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) respectively, towards MNAREGA (http://www.nrega.nic.in/netnrega/home.aspx) was made.

Even a small school going kid can tell that MNAREGA is not all related explicitly only for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). Then the question arises that with whose permission was this diversion of funds of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) was approved. As India is a democratic country, any decision which is not in favour of its people shall be null and void.

Thus, if we have a look at the aforesaid table, then we can interpret that for F.Y. 2014-15, the total shortage of funds for both Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) was Rs. 70376.04 crores, and total deviation of funds from both of them was Rs. 13011.96 crores.

Also it can be interpreted that the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) were deprived of their funds to the tune of Rs. 57281.08 crores and Rs. 26106.92 crores.

The common thread running through all the budgets tabled since independence is the exclusion of the Dalits and Aadivasis, and the Union Government failing to make population proportion allocation to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), who togetherly constitute more than 25 percent of India’s population.

Besides diversion of funds, the other reasons for the failure of plans of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are inadequate allocation of funds proportion to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) population, poor identification of schemes and faulty delivery systems.

HENCE, IT’S THE TIME TO THINK IMMEDIATELY AND ACT WISELY TOGETHER !!!

Reference: – My own thoughts and Website of National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR)

EVERY PERSON IS FREE TO RISE AS HIGH HE/SHE CAN,

BUT THE DEGREE TO WHICH HE/SHE THINKS,

WILL DETERMINE, THE DEGREE TO WHICH HE/SHE WILL RISE.