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.
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