Tamarind water for the SC/ST

A new law in Andhra Pradesh will ensure that funds meant for the SC/STs are spent on them

In the matter of undoing the wrongs done to dalits and adivasis in the country, one state has set a precedent. Andhra Pradesh has passed the country's first law to make the Special Component Plan (SCP) for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) a legal entitlement.

The Centre and states at present set aside a portion of the Plan funds, reflecting the population of SC/STs, for their welfare. However, departments and ministries have been seen spending these funds either on general schemes or letting funds lapse. In Odisha, the funds were spent on upkeep of jails, in Gujarat, on the Sadbhavana fast and in Delhi, the funds were spent on the rubberised roads, says a dalit rights activist, Paul Divakar, who is now part of a national coalition of activists for the SCP legislation.
 

The Andhra law, which was a result of much lobbying by these activists, is expected to be a trend-setter for many reasons, the first being political expedience, given the fact that the Lok Sabha and several state polls are approaching. The governments of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where elections are close by, have announced committees to draft a Bill on the lines of the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Castes Sub Plan and Tribal Sub Plan (Planning, Allocation and Utilisation of Financial Resources) Act, 2013.

The Centre is also awaiting a committee report for the purpose of legislation. In Bihar and Maharashtra, the governments have made announcements on these lines, though elections are far away. The main significance of the Andhra law is that it provides for spending SCP funds for SC/STs for "schemes exclusively benefiting SC/ST households".

So far, government departments were free to spend the fund meant for SC/STs on general schemes such as building roads. Now, the departments would have to innovate and design schemes that would benefit the SC/STs specifically. The law also ensures speedy disbursement of funds meant for SC/STs.

The prevailing practice, according to members of the national coalition, is that the finance secretary would give his approval for the release of funds, and this often leads to priority being given to other schemes. Srinivasa Reddy, a member of the coalition on legislation, cites the example of a scheme for residential schools for dalits and adivasis in Andhra Pradesh, where the schools were made to wait infinitely for the paltry funds at the rate of Rs 12 per child per meal. The meal comprised rice, dal and tamarind water. This small amount for a meal of tamarind water and rice would take months to get the approval of the finance secretary, says Reddy.

The new law would at least free SC/ST welfare schemes from being at the mercy of bureaucrats and their political bosses, and would lead to creation of new imaginative schemes for their welfare, Reddy adds.

According to the law, funds, after being approved by the legislature, will be released by a secretary in the finance department to various departments. The allocations themselves would depend on the schemes that various departments make and send to a nodal agency set up for implementation of the SCP scheme. The state is currently drafting rules and forming a nodal agency under the Act.

The first law of this kind comes after decades of blatant diversion of funds meant for SC/STs by the Centre and states. Last year, the Planning Commission was accused of trying to legitimise diversion of SC/ST funds. It sought to reduce the gap in spending by reducing the number of ministries bound to set aside 22 per cent of funds for SC/STs by half. It also sought to calculate the requirement of funds for SC/STs by using the national consumption data for SC/STs, thus reducing the gap in spending. Later, it deleted this chapter from the 12th Plan.

The Central legislation, expected in one of the sessions of Parliament preceding elections, may finally see funds meant for the marginalised being spent on their welfare, 30 years after the making of SCP.