Dalit protest over SC/ST Act: The fight against an invisible enemy

The community is simmering over the biases the professional, employed Dalit faces behind closed doors

Ashok Bharti was born in Basti Rajaram, a slum for untouchables near Jama Masjid in old Delhi, one of seven children. His grandfather cut grass for fodder. His father, a tailor and a class four dropout, was apprenticed to a Muslim master tailor. However, being an untouchable, he could not enter the unit and had to sit outside the shop. It took him eight years to learn his trade. In later years, Bharti’s father was responsible for introducing many Dalits to the profession of tailoring.

Growing up as a poor Dalit, Bharti got firsthand experience of the vulnerabilities of underprivileged communities. Yet his parents struggled hard to give all their children a good education. Bharti, on his own merit, managed to study in Hindu College in Delhi University and then at the prestigious Delhi College of Engineering. He later studied manufacturing management in Australia for a post-graduate degree. He joined the Indian Engineering Services. But as he told Business Standard, he left the government job because despite holding senior positions with the Gas Authority of India, the Central Electricity Authority and the Power Grid Corporation of India where he served as manager (transmission lines), he understood that no matter how hard he worked, he would never break the glass ceiling — the social discrimination that came in the way of a rise in his career, promotions and ultimately a decision-making position.

It is that early struggle that has shaped Bharti’s thinking. The Dalit uprising last week that paralysed much of India and claimed eight lives had analysts wondering what they had missed — who were the people behind such a massive mobilisation that came out on the streets and melted away? It might have appeared to be leaderless, but it was the result of sustained, long years of Bharti’s work to create a network of Dalit organisations — the National Conference of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations or NACDAOR. 

“Unless Dalits are represented at the higher reaches of the bureaucracy, the police, the judiciary, these institutions will never become sensitive to the caste pushback Dalits face” Ashok Bharti Chairman, NACDOR

What has been happening to professional, employed Dalits in India over the past 60 years? It is traumatic and frustrating because all they encounter are closed eyes, crossed arms and signs saying ‘no’. One example was the case, not long ago, of denial of promotion to a Dalit government servant. The case was filed in the Allahabad High Court. The judge asked the government for data on whether there was adequate representation of Dalits at all levels in the government. 

This was not a unique case by any means. Dalits had complained in various courts all over the country that after the initial entry-level reservation they found their prospects for upward mobility barred because of social attitudes. 

The government provided no data about the percentage of Dalits at the higher levels of government employment. In the absence of the information, the Allahabad High Court said there was no case for reservation in promotions in government jobs. The petitioner went to the Supreme Court, which upheld the decision. Immediately, all the courts all over India where similar cases were being heard, decided on the basis of the Supreme Court’s ruling. At one stroke, a new law was written.

The way Dalit groups see it, this was the result of a caste conspiracy. They could knock on the door and it would open: because the constitution guaranteed it. But to actually get into the house, they had to fight the guards at the gates — who were fair-skinned and soft voiced but armed with a deadly weapon. They were all upper caste.

“Parliament should take note of the fact that the judiciary is often overstepping in matters of legislation and creating new laws that breach our constitutional rights”, Bharti says. His short point is: No Dalit has ever become a cabinet secretary; independent India has not had a single tribal judge. “Unless Dalits are represented at the higher reaches of the bureaucracy, the police, the judiciary, these institutions will never become sensitive to the caste pushback Dalits face,” he says. In short, Dalits have a voice in Parliament — but not in the highest bureaucratic and judicial institutions.

Inequities are continuing to pile up. Take the instant case of the Prevention of Atrocities (POA) Act. First, the Act itself was won after a long struggle at the fag end of the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1989.  Then, the VP Singh government came to power and rules were not put in place till 1995. It wasn’t till 2015 that after a significant struggle, the ambit of an ‘atrocity’ upon Dalit was expanded. And it is only on 26 January 2016 that the new, amended empowered law that fixed bureaucratic responsibility for atrocities against Dalits was enforced.

Without going into tedious detail, what does the new law say and mean? It means that a bureaucrat can be held responsible for a plethora of actions that constitute an ‘atrocity’. It could be delaying granting of scholarships to Dalit students; it could be returning the money allocated for SC/ST development under the subplan, unutilised; it could be that if there was attack on the Dalits in a village, the SHO (station house officer) would not register an FIR and instead try and settle the matter: that would constitute an atrocity on top of an atrocity.

The bottom line was: now the bureaucrat had the ultimate responsibility. And they were clear that they didn’t want it.

Last year, in Maharashtra, a Dalit officer filed a case that he was a victim of untouchability. The High Court ruled in favour of the complainant. The other side went to the Supreme Court, claiming the POA Act had been misused. It was a matter between two aggrieved parties. But the court asked the government if a study had been undertaken on the misuse of the law on prevention of atrocities on Dalits. No such study is available, the court was told. No sociologist was called by the court to understand what scheduled castes and tribes are put through. No NGO representing SC or ST was called to hear their voice. The court issued a slew of guidelines that would protect public servants and private individuals from arbitrary and immediate arrest under the POA Act.

“We have seen Laxmanpur Bathe. We have seen Karamchedu. We have seen Mirachpur. We have seen countless cases of how Dalits have been killed, massacred, their women violated. Justice has not been done. The Dalits are weak. In our society, the strong rule. How can the weak misuse the law?” Bharti asks.

He says the current anger is a result of all the injustices. “Dalits are protesting because the Constitution tells them that you cannot slap a Dalit and go scot free; but the way the law is interpreted, you actually can,” he says.

This is not going to end here. NACDAOR says it is grateful the government has filed a review petition against dilution of the Act; but it wants all cases allowing differing interpretations of this law to be settled before 15 August. And NACDAOR wants more. It wants reservation in promotions in government jobs; and its wants reservations in the judiciary.

Wait till 15 August for the real uprising.