KANSHI RAM TAKES STOCK OF 50 YEARS OF “INDEPENDENCE” , PAINTS A PICTURE OF GORY INDIA
President, Bahujan Samaj Party
Lists India’s all-round failures: 5 lakh villages where 50% of our people live, have no primary schools. National average literacy rate is 52.21 %, but that of Scheduled Castes (SC) is 37.41%. Nef even half of SC males are literate and 3/,SC women are illiterate. In UP, less than 10% SC women are literate. On the 50th year of “independence”, a. majority of SC/ST/BCs are deprived of basic facility of education. Literacy among Tribals is still worse. That is why the upper caste rulers have a vested interest in keeping the SC/ST/BCs as illiterate by which they can be easily exploited. Health and medical services are totally neglected in villages. Crimes against SC/ST are increasing daily. And SC/STs are never enforced. the laws to prevent atrocities against of the rural population, 76% are SC/ST/BCs and over 50% of them own no lands. That means they are virtually slaves of upper caste landlords. Endless govt. schemes are there to ‘improve” the economic conditions of the agricultural labourers but only on paper.-Nothing-has been gone into the stomach of upper caste officials. All “poverty alleviation® programmes have proved bogus. Untouchability has been “abolished” in the Constitution of the country (Article 17). But nothing has been-done 1o implement it. So much so, untouchability (racism) reigns supreme in every village of India. SCs who number 13.82 crores constitute 1/6th our population and yet they are at the bottom of economic pyramid. Because of deprivation 45% of the SCs are living below the poverty line as against the “national” average of 37.40%. This has led to distress migration of SC/ST from villages to cities where 10 crores of displaced persons live in stinking urban slums. There are 10 lakh pavement-dwellers on the electoral roll of Calcutta city, 20 lakhs live In Delhi slums, 75% of the people of Bombay have no proper housing facility. Entire planning process of the country has failed. The plight of Other Backward Castes (OBCs). who constitute 52% of the population, is still worse because the govt. recognised their existence only in 1990 – 43 years after this “independence’. The Constitution of India had called for steps to recognise the OBCs and measures for their development. But no action was taken 1o look after OBCs for full 40 years. Only in 1990, the govt. decided introduce 27% reservation to OBCs on the basis of Mandal Com. Report. Political power in India has been a monopoly of a few (upper castes). And that is the cause of failure of democracy in India. Upper castes through their monopoly of Money power, Media power and Mafia power have rigged every election to their advantage – thereby sabotaging the Constitution itself.
