The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment's autonomous organisation, Babu Jagjivan Ram National Foundation, has proposed to establish a Babu Jagjivan Ram Chair at Jamia Millia Islamia university.
Babu Jagjivan Ram was a Dalit leader and was instrumental in founding of the All-India Depressed Classes League, an organisation dedicated to attaining equality for untouchables.
He was also the youngest minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's interim government, in the first cabinet of India as a Labour Minister and also a member of Constituent Assembly of India, where he ensured that social justice was enshrined in the Constitution.
"The Chair seeks to propagate the ideology and philosophy of Babu Jagjivan Ram, his vision to create a casteless and classless society and to work towards achieving social justice for Dalits, the downtrodden and the weaker sections of the society," Jamia spokesperson Mukesh Ranjan said.
The Chair will be fully financed by the foundation and the varsity has initiated necessary efforts for its establishment, he added.
In 2007, Banaras Hindu University had also set up a Babu Jagjivan Ram Chair in its faculty of social sciences to study caste discrimination and economic backwardness.
