Standard and poor? SCs, STs in Kerala, Tamil Nadu better off than others

May 6, 2012
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New Delhi, May 6: New census data on asset ownership among different social groups has shown that a far higher proportion of scheduled castes and higher still of scheduled tribes do not own basic consumer durables like a phone or bicycle as compared to "others".

Three states however buck this trend; across caste groupings in Punjab, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the rate of ownership of basic consumer durables is high. In fact, the asset ownership rate for scheduled castes in these three states is better than that of OBCs and upper castes in all other states.

Newly released census 2011 data shows that while 17.8% of households across India do not own a phone, computer, TV, radio, bicycle or any vehicle, this proportion is 22.6% for scheduled castes, 37.3% for scheduled tribes and 14% for "others".

While more than half of "others" own a television, less than a quarter of scheduled tribes own a TV. Less than 2% of SC families own a TV, phone, computer and some mode of transportation, the usual signifiers of a "middle class" Indian family.

This new data fits in with the argument that economist and Indian Council of Social Science Research chairman Sukhadeo Thorat has been making. Thorat is critical of the view that economic liberalization has narrowed the gap between scheduled castes and others.

Yes, poverty is declining, but the rate of decline of poverty is much lower for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes than for upper castes. There has undoubtedly been growth, but SCs and STs are not getting to participate equally in it," Thorat says.

There is considerable regional variation in the new census data.

Scheduled tribes are worst off in Madhya Pradesh, followed by in Rajasthan, Tripura and Maharashtra, where over 40% of STs do not own any basic consumer durable. Dalits are worst off in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Orissa, where a third do not own any such asset. Unlike with the SCs, asset ownership for STs is worse than other social groups in all states.

While poverty among STs is fairly widespread across all states with a significant ST population, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Punjab are the only states where the proportion of SCs who do not own basic assets is around 10% or lower, lowest of all in Tamil Nadu. Asset ownership among SCs in these three states is higher than that among "others" in all other states.

While part of the explanation for Tamil Nadu's status as the best state for dalit asset ownership might be that the previous state government ran a scheme giving free television sets to poor households, this is not the only explanation, as ownership of other consumer durables like phones and computers is also among the highest in TN. In comparison, in Bihar, where the state government ran a scheme to give all school-going girls a free cycle, less than half of all households own a bicycle.

Research by Institute of Applied Manpower Research director-general Santosh Mehrotra has shown that the human development indicators of SCs and OBCs in Kerala and Tamil Nadu are better than those of upper castes in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Moreover, all four states have a similar proportion of 'backward castes' in their population: so the key determinant of each of these states' human development situation is not its caste composition, but its politics and governance, Mehrotra says.

"A combination of social mobilization and good governance has lifted all boats in Kerala and Tamil Nadu," Mehrotra said. Social mobilization alone is not enough, Mehrotra adds, or the last twenty years in Uttar Pradesh would have led to tangible outcomes like improvement in health and nutrition, and not just intangibles like dignity and a sense of empowerment, as important as they are.

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Agencies
January 21,2020

Kochi, Jan 21: A special court here on Tuesday sent two students, who were arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case in Kozhikode last November, to the custody of National Investigation Agency (NIA) for a day.

The NIA court ordered that the duo, who were in judicial custody till now, to be produced before it tomorrow.

In its application, the NIA had said that the accused must be interrogated on the basis of digital records and sought custody of the duo for a week.

However, the defendant argued that no new evidence had been found against the accused and therefore no custody should be granted.

During an earlier hearing, the two had told the court, "We are not Maoists. We are CPI (M) activists. The Chief Minister, who says we are Maoists, should bring proof of whom we killed and where we bombed. In the last election, we have served as CPI (M), booth agents. We are the ones who went out to vote and pasted posters for the party."

The two were charged under Sections 20 (punishment for being a member of terrorist gang or organisation), 38 (offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation) and 39 (offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation) of the UAPA.

Allen and Thaha, students of law and journalism respectively of Kannur University, were taken into custody by the police from Pantheerankavu in Kozhikode on November 1 last year.

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News Network
April 20,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 20: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday alleged that efforts were being made to undermine the achievements of the state government in its fight against Covid-19 and said he was "ignoring" them as it was not the time for controversies.

The Opposition Congress has been raising allegations that a US-based company had been entrusted with the task of collecting data regarding the virus-infected patients in the state, in violation of fundamental rights.

"Many developed nations are in awe of the achievements of Kerala in its fight against Covid-19 pandemic. This is the speciality of Kerala model," Vijayan said. Referring to the data collection charge levelled by the opposition parties, Vijayan said some were engaged in slandering the state government.

"Those who think that the government should not have a reputation for effectively handling the coronavirus outbreak are engaged in slandering the state government. It has happened before, it's happening now also. This is not the time to go behind controversies. People are watching and they will evaluate," Vijayan said in his weekly interactive programme 'Naam munnott'.

He said he had decided to ignore such controversies. The ward-level committees, set up by the government for the anti-coronavirus fight, was collecting information of those under home isolation, elderly persons and those at the risk of the disease using a questionnaire in this regard and upload it on the server of the private agency. The Congress has alleged that the data, collected through the government machinery, was being uploaded not on the government server but on that of the foreign company.

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Agencies
May 19,2020

New Delhi, May 19: Former Union Minister P Chidambaram said that as the fourth phase of the nationwide lockdown amid the coronavirus scare began from Monday, his thoughts were with the people of Kashmir who were in a "terrible lockdown within a lockdown."

The senior Congress leader said that at least now, the people in the rest of India will understand that he dubbed the "enormity of the injustice" done to those who were detained in Kashmir and those still under detention" immediately before and after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution on August 5, 2019.

Chidambaram said that former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was the "worst sufferer" of preventive detention and even courts had shirked their constitutional duty with respect to detainees.

"The worst sufferers are Mehbooba Mufti and her senior party colleagues who are still in custody in a locked-down state in a locked-down country. They are deprived of every human right," he said in a statement.

"I cannot believe that for nearly 10 months, the courts will shirk their constitutional duty to protect the human rights of citizens," he added.

The detention on Mehbooba Mufti under the Public Safety Act (PSA) had been extended for three more months on May 5. Booked under the stringent PSA, she was initially kept at the Hari Niwas guesthouse in Srinagar but later shifted to a Tourism Department hut in the Chashma Shahi area.

She was shifted to her Gupkar Road official residence on April 7.

Besides Mehbooba Mufti, two other former Chief Ministers -- Omar Abdullah and his father Farooq Abdullah -- were also detained under the PSA but later released.

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