Uttar Pradesh: Rise of the Underdog Bahujans

by Narendra Sharma

The National Programme adopted by the United Progressive Alliance in 2004, together with the Left parties, had provided that its government would persuade the private sector enterprises to provide reservation in employment to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC and ST) workers.

The UPA Government did come to power in 2004 and also enjoyed the support of the Left parties. The Manmohan Singh Government then seemed conscious of this provision about reservation for SC and ST workers in the private sector enterprises. The impression was created that talks were going on with the corporate sector in this regard. Meanwhile, the corporate sector organisations too gave the impression that they were collecting information as to how many SC and ST workers were already in employment in this sector, in order to see what more could be done in this connection.

However, soon after the Left parties withdrew their support to the government, and the Manmohan Singh leadership was able to manage alternate support for itself in Parliament, all talk about SC and ST reservation in private sector enterprises vanished into thin air, as it were, at the government level as well as at the corporate sector level.

Why was this reservation provision included in the UPA’s National Programme? The problem was the sharp decline in employment opportunities for SC and ST workers in the government sector. This was for two reasons: one, the earlier NDA Government had decided to recruit only one per cent against the three per cent retiring employees every year; two, disinvestment in the public sector enterprises. In this backdrop, after long deliberations, the UPA included in its National Programme the provision for persuading the private sector enterprises to provide reservation for SC and ST employees.

This provision was unpalatable to the corporate sector; nor was this to the liking of those policy-makers who were all set to speed up liberalisation, privatisation in the economy to suit the globalised market economy. Openly they did not resist it and kept fiddling with it as long as the Left parties were with the UPA Government, and seemed to have abandoned it like a hot potato thereafter.

The Constitution has provided some elbow-room for this poorest of the poor among the country’s unorganised downtrodden (Dalit) workforce, so that they could in due course of time emerge from the social abyss and strive to make an honourable space for themselves in the Indian social structure. The age-old upper class/caste-syndrome could be seen to keep pushing them down, simply by ignoring them, in a situation of prevailing unemployment and intolerable inflation etc. They constitute 14 per cent of the total population in the country. Agricultural workers, mostly the SC and ST segment, are about 100 million in India, and they are the worst sufferers.

This very Constitution has enabled the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)—a party of Dalits—to come to power in Uttar Pradesh, population-wise the largest State and known to be the heartland of India. This is not the place to go into how the BSP could manage such an incredible feat in a country of India’s “long socio-cultural history†in which Dalits remained at the lowest ladder over millennia.

Ms Mayawati, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, has recently recorded her performance during the four years she has been in power, especially in regard to improving the living and working conditions of the SC and ST people, backward classes, minorities etc. No party has contradicted her on that count. Instead, and Opposition parties—including “all†national and regional (UP) parties—have attacked the Mayawati regime on questions pertaining to the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh. Chief Minister Mayawati has accused them of playing politics over “unfortunate†incidents, the likes of which were happening elsewhere too everyday. However, her land acquisition policy in Greater Noida for building luxury flats has been questioned by the Supreme Court as well.

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IN this backdrop, as against the Manmohan Singh Government’s attitude of revoking its commitment to persuade the private enterprises to create additional jobs for SC and ST workers, UP Chief Minister Mayawati has said that her government’s “priority has been the total development of the poor and backward SC/STs, other backward classes, religious minorities and disabled persons —who had remained neglected for centuries and during earlier governments†. She says she has created separate UP Welfare Department and other Ministries which have made commendable achievements.

Ms Mayawati has enumerated various measures that her government has taken during these four years. Only some of these measures are being mentioned here which can be expected to make a positive impact on the life of the targeted segments.

Measures Taken for SC/STs: Establishment of training institutes at Agra and Rae Bareli to coach SC/ST youth for recruitment to high-level services like IAS, PCS; recruitment in government posts through drive to clear backlog; for the
first time, reservation in contracts upto Rs 25 lakhs for SC/STs, so far contracts worth Rs 1623 crores allotted; 16 Mahamaya Polytechnics
of Information set up for these categories; provision of reservation also in state-aided private enterprises; allotment of more than 4000 fair price shops to SC/STs; establishment of a Rs 100 crore ‘Leather Park and Shoe Mandi’ in Agra and exemption from VAT of the Agra footwear industry.

About four lakh SC/ST families allotted more than 3500 hectares of land; regularisation of landless SC/ST people in possession of gram sabha land upto May 13, 2007; formal right of possession letter (pattas) awarded to 9431 persons; about 3000 genuine lease holders benefited by removing illegal usurpers from their land; about eight lakh SC/ST families benefited by writing off debts amounting to Rs 120.28 crores of the Uttar Pradesh SC/ST Development Corporation.

Measures for OBCs: In four years, two lakh landless OBC people were allotted lease of about 50,000 hectares of agricultural land; effective implementation of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in allotment of fair price shops in urban and rural areas; about Rs 250 crores spent to reimburse the admission fee of students (boys and girls) studying in post-matric classes.

For Minorities/Muslims: Establishment of Urdu, Arabic-Persian University; inclusion of 100 new Arabic-Persian Madarsas in the grant-in-aid list; about Rs 486.73 crores spent on scholarships to 1,28,35,824 minority students (girls and boys); grant of Rs 3745 lakhs for marriage of 37,445 daughters from minority BPL families; construction of “Haj House†at Ghaziabad and Lucknow; arrangement of advance coaching for minorities to prepare for competitive recruitment exams.

Some Other Significant Measures: Recruitment of 1.9 lakh ‘safai karamcharis’ in the State in one go besides 88,000 primary school teachers, 5000 Urdu teachers etc. Allotment of 12,000 hectares of land for tree plantation to 42,000 farmers. As many as 35,000 daily wage employees, appointed till June 29, 1991, were regularised. Allotment of 30,000 hectares of land to 36,000 pisciculturists. 16,000 sites allotted to 19,000 people engaged in the pottery craft.

Amendment of the zamindari kanoon to ensure equitable share of women in patriarchal landed property; the amount of dole for destitute women increased to Rs 300 per month from Rs 150; construction of shelter homes for them in Mathura and Vrindavan.

[Note: All these figures have been taken from the Uttar Pradesh Government folder and may need to be rechecked at the ground level. Their importance here only is to point to the direction of policy and its implementation.]

The organised trade union movement, being in the process of unifying its ranks, overcoming political division, has already undertaken the cause of the multi-million unorganised workforce in the country. The Dalit workforce has remained outside their focus so far. Increasing awareness among Dalit workers should be an asset for the unified labour movement. The sooner they respond to this emerging workforce, the better for the entire working class.