Deep Dive | Sub-Categorisation of Caste - video Dailymotion

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#DeepDive | With the Supreme Court permitting sub-categorisation of SCs and STs, what lies ahead for India's reservation system?   Does this decision reflect an attempt to address long-standing disparities within the Scheduled Castes, or does it risk further fragmentation within an already marginalized group?   For this and more, you can read Outlook’s latest issue Caste Vs. Caste.  Reporter: Rani Jana Camera: Vikram Sharma Editor: Ehraz Samad  Follow us: Website: https://www.outlookindia.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Outlookindia Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outlookindia/ X: https://twitter.com/Outlookindia Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaNrF3v0AgWLA6OnJH0R Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutlookMagazine Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/outlookindia  #Subcategorisation #SupremeCourt #SupremeCourtJudgement #Verdict #ChandrashekharAzad #ChiragPaswan #JohnFKennedyFoundation #Gujrat #UP #UttarPradesh #RohitVemula #SushmaSwaraj #AmbedkarStudentsAssociation #ABVP #LokSabha #Paliament #IndianPolitics #India

Transcript

00:00The suicide of Dalit PhD scholar Rohit Vemula in 2016 brought to light the issue of systemic

00:06discrimination based on caste.

00:08Vemula was suspended, along with five other members of the Ambedkar Students' Association

00:14after complaints from the ABVP.

00:16In his final note, he wrote,

00:18My birth was a fatal accident.

00:30Despite having a schedule caste certificate, Rohit's caste status was questioned after

00:35his death, with then Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj reportedly suggesting

00:41that Vemula was not Dalit.

00:43So while the Supreme Court asked for sub-categorisation among Dalits leading to formation of a cremiliar,

00:50it is a fact that Dalits across the class spectrum are discriminated on the basis of

00:55caste.

00:56We have examples, recent examples, where an IPS officer has to ask for security, IPS officer

01:01has to ask for security to remove his wedding procession.

01:04Welcome to Deep Dive with Outlook.

01:06Today we will be discussing the Supreme Court permitting the sub-categorisation of scheduled

01:11castes and scheduled tribes in states.

01:15Last month, the Supreme Court overturned the EB Chennai versus State of Andhra Pradesh

01:202005 judgment, which had considered all scheduled caste groups under Article 341 as homogeneous.

01:28The concept of the cremiliar introduced by the Satyanathan Commission in 1971 aimed to

01:34exclude socially, economically and educationally advanced members of the OBC community from

01:41reservation benefits.

01:43Justice Nariman observed, the whole object of reservation is to see that backward classes

01:48of citizens move forward so that they march hand-in-hand with other citizens of India

01:54on an equal basis.

01:56This will not be possible if only the cremiliar within that class bag all the coveted jobs

02:03in the public sector and perpetuate themselves, leaving the rest of the class as backward

02:08as they always were.

02:11States have argued that the sub-categorisation ruling works similarly to the cremiliar concept.

02:17Instead of excluding socially and economically advanced castes from the scheduled caste list,

02:22the state offers preferential treatment to the more disadvantaged groups within the scheduled

02:28castes.

02:29Almost a century ago, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar addressed the issue of divisions within Dalit

02:35communities.

02:36A letter from a member of the Mang community in Maharashtra highlighted the discrimination

02:42faced at the hands of Ambedkar's own community, the Mahars.

02:46Ambedkar later wrote, while formulating the contours of right to representation, weightage

02:51carved out from the share of the majority shall not be assigned to one community only.

02:58It shall be divided among all minority communities equally or in inverse proportion to their

03:04economic position, social status and educational advance.

03:08Ambedkar's concerns remain relevant today.

03:11Dalit scholar Ravi Kanth noted in Uttar Pradesh there are 66 Dalit sub-castes with 60 sub-castes

03:18often having limited political representation.

03:21The Bahujan Samaj Party, which was influential to Dalit politics, did not adequately include

03:26the Valmiki community despite its size.

03:30A survey titled Understanding Untouchability conducted by Navasarjan and the John F. Kennedy

03:36Foundation across 1,589 villages in Gujarat found that while 98 types of untouchability

03:44are practiced by caste Hindus against Dalits, there are 99 types of untouchability among

03:49Dalits themselves.

03:51The survey also revealed that 98.4% of caste Hindus oppose inter-caste marriage.

03:57This figure rises to 99.1% among Dalits.

04:02In a recent Parliament session, MP Chandrashekhar Azad highlighted that the majority of jobs

04:0798% is in the private sector, which lacks affirmative action for marginalised communities.

04:14With the Supreme Court's ruling, what lies ahead for India's reservation system?

04:29Does this decision reflect an attempt to address long-standing disparities within the scheduled

04:34castes or does it risk further fragmentation within an already marginalised group?

04:40For this and more, you can read Outlook's latest issue, Caste vs. Caste.

Deep Dive | Sub-Categorisation of Caste

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