Discuss the pros and cons of giving SC status to Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians.

The Supreme Court has sought the government’s position on petitions challenging the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950, which allows only members of Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist religions to be recognised as SCs. Several petitions are pending before the Supreme Court seeking Scheduled Caste (SC) reservation benefits for Dalits who converted to Christianity or Islam.

Current status of reservation:

• The Constitution recognised only Hindus as SCs as per scheduled caste order of 1950.
• It was amended to include Dalits converted to Sikhism and Dalits converted to Buddhism in 1956 and 1990 respectively.
• The government rejected the possibility of including Dalit Christians as members of SCs in 2019 after several petitions.

Why Dalit Muslims and Christians not included:

• The original rationale behind giving reservation to Scheduled Castes was the centuries of sufferings these sections had gone through because of the social evil of untouchability, which was practiced among Hindus.
• Under Article 341 of the Constitution, the President may specify the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes which shall be deemed to be Scheduled Castes.
• However the reservation is not based on religion as the rights of a person belonging to a Scheduled Tribe are independent of his/her religious faith.
• Also, several Christian and Muslim communities have been included in the Central and state lists of OBCs after the implementation of the Mandal Commission report.

Arguments in favour of extending dalit reservation:

• The change in religion does not change social exclusion.
• The social hierarchy and specifically caste hierarchy continues to remain within Christianity and Muslims due to intermingling of cultures and traditions over centuries.
• The Sachar Committee Report observed that the social and economic situation of Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians did not improve after conversion.
• The Ranganath Misra Commission, recommended that SC status should be completely de-linked from religion and Scheduled Castes should be made fully religion-neutral like Scheduled Tribes.

Arguments against extending dalit reservation:

• SC status is for communities suffering from social disabilities arising out of the practice of untouchability, which was prevalent in Hindu religion and its branches.
• Any such move will significantly increase the population of SCs across the country.
• Dalit Buddhists, Dalits converted to Islam or Christianity cannot be categorised as a single ethnic group.
• Extending Dalit reservation can be misunderstood internationally as attempt to impose caste system upon Christians and Muslims.
• Christians and Muslims of Dalit origin had lost their caste identity by way of their conversion.

Topics: GS-I : Salient Features of Indian Society, Diversity of India