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Today's Topics:
1. Open letter to Piyush Pandey on Vedanta’s “Creating
Happiness” (asit das)
2. Re: Reg: Series of Articles on India & Its Development - 1
(Rakesh Iyer)
3. Re: Reg: Series of Articles on India & Its Development - 1
(Rakesh Iyer)
--- Begin Message ---*Open letter to Piyush Pandey on Vedanta’s “Creating Happiness”* To Executive Chairman <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairman> &National Creative Director India<http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=28.6133333333,77.2083333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=28.6133333333,77.2083333333%20(India)&t=h> and South Asia Ogilvy & Mather <http://www.ogilvy.com/> Pvt Ltd 21st Feb, 2012 Dear Mr Piyush Pandey <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piyush_Pandey> Greetings ! You are the Icon of Indian advertising Industry and I was delighted to know that you have been appointed as the brand ambassador forD&AD<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%26AD> White Pencil Award. The new award from D&AD has been announced for an idea that raises awareness or changes behaviour around a pressing social, environmental or health issue. This is a significant initiative in the world of communication. Your *mile sur humara tumhara’* for the National Literacy Mission<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Literacy_Mission_Programme> in 1988 got etched in our collective Indian advertising memory years ago. As also your anti smoking ads for the Cancer Patient association which won you two Cannes Gold Medals in 2002. In 1999 “Bhopal Express” – a film based on the Bhopal gas tragedy<http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=23.2808333333,77.4105555556&spn=0.01,0.01&q=23.2808333333,77.4105555556%20(Bhopal%20disaster)&t=h> of 1984 that was co- written by you, acted as a catalyst in bringing to the forefront the human rights violations committed by Union Carbide , a corporate genocide. You supported the cause of Bhopal gas victims, and I respect you for that. After so many socially responsible ad campaigns by you I was aghast to see Vedanta <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta>’s “Creating Happiness” ad . Recently unveiling the campaign you said *“**The Vedanta ‘Creating Happiness’ campaign is extremely close to my heart for it’s all about enabling India. I have worked on this campaign along with my team as an excited young copywriter and I look forward to the people of India not just appreciating Vedanta’s efforts, but getting inspired to do something on their own to make India happier place*.*”* http://www.mxmindia.com/2012/01/vedanta-group-unveils-first-ever-national-corporate-campaign/ May I ask you, if you really know whether Vedanta has enabled or disabled India ? Whether Vedanta has protected the environment of the tribals in India, or has been on land grabbing spree and attacking peaceful protestors? I urge you to visit Niyamgiri hills, I am sure you will love the paradise on earth, which Vedanta is hell bent on destroying . Niyamgiri Hills, named after the Niyamraja, the main deity of the Donagria Kondhs, are one of last untouched wildernesses of Orissa. Rising to a height of more than four thousand feet, it is the source of Vamshadhara river as well as major tributaries of Nagavali rivers. Niyamgiris form a distinct phytogeographical zone because of its height and its highly precipitous topography . It has some of the most pristine forests in Orissa. Niyamgiri flora is of ‘great phyto-geographical importance’ as the hilltops harbor high altitude plants with Himalayan/North Indian and Nilgiri/South Indian elements. Preliminary *studies*<http://theviewspaper.net/illiteracy-in-india/> show that it has approximately 50 species of important medicinal plants, about 20 species of wild ornamental plants, and more than 10 species of wild relatives of crop plants . The forested slopes of the Niyamgiri hills and the many streams that flow through them provide the means of living for Dongaria Kondh and Kutia Kondh, Scheduled Tribes<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheduled_castes_and_scheduled_tribes> that are notified by the government as ‘Primitive Tribal Groups’ and thus eligible for special protection. In addition, the Dongaria Kondh, whose total population is 7952 according to the 2001 census, are regarded as an endangered tribe. Schedule V of the Indian Constitution<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_India> which enjoins the government to respect and uphold the land rights of Scheduled Tribes applies to the entire Niyamgiri hills region. While the Kutia Kondh inhabit the foothills, the Dongaria Kondh live in the upper reaches of the Niyamgiri hills which is their only habitat. In the polytheistic animist worldview of the Kondh, the hilltops and their associated forests are regarded as supreme deities. The highest hill peak, which is under the proposed mining lease area, is the home of their most revered god, Niyam Raja, ‘the giver of law’. They worship the mountains (*dongar* from which the Dongaria Kondh derive their name) along with the earth (*dharini*). These male and female principles come together to grant the Kondh prosperity, fertility and health. According , *‘Report of the four member committee for investigation into the proposal submitted by the Orissa Mining Company for bauxite mining in Niyamgiri’*, dated August 16, 2010, by Dr N C Saxena, Dr S Parasuraman, Dr Promode Kant, Dr Amita Baviskar. Submitted to the *Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India*. <http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kutia_kondh_woman.JPG> ”As Narendra Majhi, a Kutia Kondh from Similibhata village, said, “We worship Niyam Raja and Dharini Penu. That is why we don’t fall ill”. Sikoka Lodo, a Dongaria Kondh from Lakpadar village said, “As long as the mountain is alive, we will not die”. Dongaria Kondh art and craft reflect the importance of the mountains to their community— their triangular shapes recur in the designs painted on the walls of the village shrine as well as in the colourful shawls that they wear. All the Dongria and Kutia Kondh villagers that the Committee conversed with emphasized the connection between their culture and the forest ecology of the Niyamgiri hills. Their belief in the sacredness of the hills is rooted in a strong dependence on the natural resources that the mountains provide. Their customary practices in the area include agriculture, grazing and the collection of minor forest produce (MFP).All Dongaria Kondh that the Committee spoke to expressed their strong attachment to the Niyamgiri hills, their stewardship of the land, and the legitimacy of their rights arising from their long-standing presence in these hills. They strongly voiced their contentment with life and their opposition to any destructive change of the ecology threatening their culture. As Sikoka Budhga said, “We can never leave Niyamgiri. If the mountains are mined, the water will dry up. The crops won’t ripen. The medicinal plants will disappear. The air will turn bad. Our gods will be angry. How will we live? We cannot leave Niyamgiri.” Research by Amnesty International and other local and international groups documents the serious and continuing pollution caused by the refinery’s operations. Despite the string of decisions against Vedanta, the company has failed to remedy the pollution.The latest high court verdict states that Vedanta cannot circumvent conditions issued by India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), stipulating that plans for expansion of the refinery should go through a fresh environmental and social impact assessment and a public hearing process. Residents of 12 villages who live in the shadow of the massive refinery – mostly Majhi Kondh Adivasi (Indigenous) and Dalit communities who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods – have long campaigned against the expansion.India’s great land grab continues, with police forcibly evicting tribal villagers in Orissa from land sold to UK-based Vedanta Resources to use as a toxic waste dump . In your various interviews you have time again said you get creative insights from the people you interact with and also while you make ad campaigns you relate to the common man.I urge you to go and find for yourself what Vedanta is doing to Niyamgiri Hills and talk to the tribals yourself to know the truth. Meanwhile I would like you to see activist Satyabadi Naik’s shocking video of police crackdown on a peaceful protest by women of Rengopalli and other villages against Vedanta’s toxic Red Mud Pond in Lanjigarh. This video was recorded on 23 Jan 2012. Watch the Video urgent-villagers-protest-against-vedanta-red-mud-pond<http://kractivist.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/urgent-villagers-protest-against-vedanta-red-mud-pond/> Soem more films on the REAL FACE OF VEDANTA The Real Face of Vedanta Niyamgiri – The Mountain of Law Now after reading my letter and watching the videos you tell me , is Vedanta “ Creating Happiness “ or ‘ Faking Happiness” ? Regards Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal Mumbai Related articles § Open letter to Shyam Benegal on Vedanta’s Creating Happiness<http://kractivist.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/open-letter-to-shyam-benegal-on-vedantas-creating-happiness/> (kractivist.wordpress.com)
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--- Begin Message ---Link: http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2821/stories/20111021282102100.htm Article: *Land for landed* N.C. SAXENA *The 12th Plan Approach Paper looks upon land more as raw material for mining and industrialisation than as a source of livelihood for the poor.* DESPITE a fast economic growth, more than 60 per cent of the population of India is still dependent on land. The 12th Plan Approach Paper, however, looks upon land not as a source of livelihood for the poor but as raw material for mining and industrialisation. Para 5.24 of the Approach Paper reads as follows: “Rapid growth is only possible if some land which is currently used for agricultural purposes, or if preferably degraded forest land, can be made available for building much-needed infrastructure, establishing new industrial units, undertaking mining and accommodating the inevitable expansion of urban settlements. The questions that arise are how is the land that is needed for these activities to be obtained.” Further, the Approach Paper would like to deprive marginal farmers of their land, facilitate its transfer to farmers owning large holdings, and reduce marginal landowners to the status of agricultural labour. It advocates legislation to “permit leasing of land where small farmers, who would otherwise be unviable, are able to lease out their lands to others able to bring in the other inputs needed. The small or marginal landowner may even be employed on the land by the new tenant farmer” (para 7.35). Lastly, the Approach Paper is silent on the gross violation of the Forest Rights Act by State governments, which have ignored recognising the community rights of forest-dwellers over forests, as mandated by the FRA. As regards the Land Acquisition & Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill (which was already in the public domain when the Approach Paper was being finalised), one would have expected the Planning Commission to support strongly its main clauses – informed consent of 80 per cent of the farmers, a minimum compensation of four times the registered price, and 20 per cent share in future escalation in land prices – but unfortunately all it says is “the method of fixing the price at which land will be acquired needs to be carefully studied to ensure that it is fair to those whose land is acquired while also not being unrealistically high” (para 5.30). The Approach Paper would also like the requirement of land for industry and private companies to be specifically included in the definition of public purpose (para 5.31). Whose interests are being advocated here is thus clear. * Small is big * The Planning Commission's aversion to small and marginal farmers and its efforts to reduce them to the status of landless labourers by increasing inequality in the area of operational holdings should be examined seriously, as this recommendation is not only anti-poor but also anti-productivity. Research done on size-productivity relationship since the 1960s has made it clear that in agriculture, given the same resource facilities, soil content and climate, a small farmer produces more per acre than a large farmer. In a recent article ( Economic & Political Weekly, June 25, 2011), agricultural economists, on the basis of recent National Sample Survey data, have held that small holdings in Indian agriculture still exhibit a higher productivity than large holdings. Industry operates under conditions of increasing returns to scale whereas agriculture has so far operated under diminishing returns to scale. Thus, both output and employment per unit of capital invested increase in agriculture with the decline in the size of its operation. Various theories about disappearing advantages of marginal and small farmers and efficiency gains of large farmers with economic development are not found to be operating in India. Small farmers have better access to labour as they exploit their own family labour, whereas large farmers have better access to capital and have to hire labour from the market. These differences result in small farmers committing more labour to production than large farmers and large farmers substituting machines and capital for labour. Thus, a small farmer may get an extra unit of output by using home-produced mulch and organic manure and the large farmer may depend on chemical fertilizer bought from the market. In fact, capital intensity is increasing for all categories of farmers, but at a faster pace in Green Revolution areas and for large farmers. Both market and technological forces act in favour of concentration of land in fewer hands, and unless the government comes out with a programme to halt this trend, growth with the existing levels of asset inequalities will lead to further impoverishment of the rural poor. This phenomenon of reverse tenancy has gathered strength in recent years and has contributed to the steady increase in the concentration of operational holdings. Rather than express concern at this trend and provide credit, inputs and markets to small farmers and supplement their incomes with off-farm employment opportunities within the countryside, the Planning Commission wishes to act in favour of big operational holdings and make them even bigger. * Neglect of women farmers * Another glaring omission in the Approach Paper is the total neglect of problems faced by women farmers. Despite their increasing contribution to agriculture due to male migration, they lack control over productive assets (land, livestock, fisheries, technologies, credit, finance, markets and so on), face biases as a result of socio-cultural practices and experience gender differentials in agricultural wages. Some of these problems will get sorted out if women's rights over land are recognised in revenue records as per the Hindu Succession Act, 2005, (unfortunately the implementation of this Act has been ignored by State governments). The Act brings all agricultural land on a par with other property and makes land inheritance rights legally equal for Hindu women and men across States, overriding any inconsistent State laws. Endowing women with land empowers them economically and strengthens their ability to challenge social and political gender inequities. The Planning Commission should prevail upon the administrative Ministry to launch a campaign to correct revenue records and ensure that women's land ownership rights are properly recorded by the States. Concurrent evaluation by the Commission will help this process. * MANY LAPSES * Para 11.16 of the Approach Paper calls for speedy implementation of the FRA, but does not analyse why in the four years since its enactment the Act has failed to satisfy forest-dwellers' aspirations and provide them community rights as well as security of tenure over individual plots. A recent government committee chaired by this writer found many lapses that explained tribal frustration with the implementation of the Act. For instance, the area in which tribal people have been settled is much less than what is required for them to carry on their occupation, and the boundaries of the settled area have not been demarcated. In almost no instance have district officials proactively provided maps, documents and evidence to village committees, though this is required under the FRA. Only a few States have been able to use spatial and remote-sensing technology to demarcate boundaries and measure the areas of plots for individual forest rights because of the lack of capacity building in the application of this technology. The biggest problem is the many cases of faulty rejection. In an overwhelming number of cases, the rejections have not been communicated to the claimants and their right to appeal has not been explained to them and its exercise facilitated. There have been process failures too. Meetings of the gram sabha have been called at the panchayat level and not at the village level as prescribed in the Act. All State governments should recognise the gram sabha at the individual settlement (hamlet or revenue village) level, or PESA (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas) gram sabha where applicable, to enable much more effective processing of the FRA. Then, the rights of other traditional forest-dwellers have been ignored in most States. In 11 States the implementation process has not yet started. This includes the north-eastern States except Assam and Tripura, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Goa. In Tamil Nadu, because of restrictive orders by the High Court on a petition, progress has been slow. Some States (such as Jharkhand) have lagged behind in getting a plausible number of claims and in processing the claims received. * CFR PROCESS SLOW * The progress in the implementation of community forest rights (CFR) under the FRA is abysmally slow. In all States, the CFR process has not even got off the ground owing to lack of awareness among communities, civil society organisations or the relevant officials. The main reason is the hostility of forest officials, who see a dilution of their empire if community rights are granted to forest-dwellers. Moreover, State governments have not publicised the CFR provisions adequately or even internalised their importance themselves. Given the serious inadequacies in the implementation of CFR at all levels, there is need for a second-phase implementation of the FRA in all States with a primary focus on CFR. What is most intriguing is the suggestion in para 5.51 of the Approach Paper that forest gatherers should not be given the benefit of the minimum support price (MSP), which is now available only in agriculture to certain surplus States, and not even to paddy farmers in States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. While acknowledging that what “the primary tribal collectors of NTFPs [Non-Timber Forest Products] get today is a very small fraction of the potential value embedded in NTFPs”, the Commission thinks that providing a high price for forest produce will not be in the interest of legal traders, who would be forced to pay a higher price to the gatherers. The Approach Paper advocates more training of government personnel so as to improve their accountability. It appears that members and senior staff of the Commission also need to attend sensitisation courses on what kind of policies the poor need and how to ensure their delivery. ** *Dr N.C. Saxena is a member of the National Advisory Council. He has worked as Secretary, Planning Commission (1999-2002) and Secretary, Rural Development (1997-99), and as head of the National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie (1993-97).*
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--- Begin Message ---Link: http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2821/stories/20111021282102500.htm Article: *For social justice* P.S. KRISHNAN *Any new system for the socio-economic progress of Dalits and other vulnerable sections must not lose sight of Special Component Plan goals. * THE Planning Commission's “Approach to the 12th Five Year Plan” deals with the Scheduled Castes (S.C.s) briefly in a portion of Chapter 11 titled “Social and Regional Equity”. It, however, significantly mentions the need to devise a new system that can overcome the difficulties experienced with regard to the implementation of the Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes (SCP) and the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP). But it does not specify the proposed new system. An effective and purposeful new system can be devised only by understanding clearly the objective of the SCP and the TSP and why it has not been achieved substantively until now. The SCP and the TSP have a constitutional mandate that commands the state to create a regime of equality, including social equality, through comprehensive measures of social justice. Social equality means ensuring equality between the S.C.s and the Scheduled Tribes (S.T.s) – and also the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Backward Classes (B.C.s), which include the bulk of the religious minorities who are in fact converts from “untouchable” and other “low” castes – on the one hand and the Socially Advanced Castes (SACs, that is, non-S.C., non-S.T., non-B.C.) on the other, in all parameters of life – economy, occupation, education (at all levels), housing, health and nutrition, and so on. In line with this constitutional mandate, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also the Chairman of the Planning Commission, in his address on June 27, 2005, to the 51st meeting of the National Development Council, which approves Plans and Approaches to Plans, directed that the gap in the socio-economic development of the S.C.s and the S.T.s should be bridged within 10 years. What this means is that the S.C.s and the S.T.s should reach the levels of the SACs in each and every parameter. For this, the SCP ought to be formulated and implemented by the Centre and the States in such a manner that the socio-economic gaps between the S.C.s and the SACs are eliminated in every parameter by comprehensive, integrated, objective-oriented radical planning on the basis of the needs and rights of the S.C.s and keeping in view the overarching goals of their economic liberation from agricultural and other servitude, educational parity at all levels, equality with the SACs in every parameter and the protection of their social dignity and security. Similarly in respect of the S.T.s, mutatis mutandis. In the existing procedure, Central and State Plan outlays are first allocated among different sectors and Ministries/departments. Their programmes and schemes do not take into account the priorities and needs of the S.C.s and the S.T.s. Thereafter, the Ministries in charge of the S.C.s and the S.T.s, along with the Planning Commission and their State counterparts, seek from each Ministry/department its contribution to the SCP and the TSP. The contributions consist of notional amounts or amounts that are of no or marginal relevance to the S.C.s and the S.T.s. No wonder that after 11 Plans and about three and a half decades of the SCP most of the S.C.s continue to be rural-resident agricultural labourers; have limited access to education, especially higher and professional education; and continue to be subjected to rampant “untouchability”, atrocities and bonded labour. In urban areas, they are mostly engaged in precarious unorganised casual labour and sections of them are still subjected to scavenging and other safai labour. Their habitations continue to be most uninhabitable. I had the privilege of conceptualising and initiating the SCP in 1978 and pursuing it until 1982 in the Sixth Plan as Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry in charge of the S.C.s. Since 1983-84, when preparations for the Seventh Plan began, and thereafter at every stage and before the formulation of every Plan, in my various capacities, including as Secretary, Ministry of Welfare, in 1990 and as Chairman or member of successive Planning Commission working groups and steering committees, I have pressed that the starting point of the SCP should be to set apart for the S.C.s the population-equivalent share of the total Five-Year and Annual Plan outlay of the Centre and each State before the Plan outlay is distributed among sectors/Ministries/departments. Within this SCP corpus, plans should be formulated for the S.C.s in order to achieve the aforementioned goals. National and State-level expert bodies duly constituted should, on the basis of these plans, sanction projects in different sectors/Ministries/Departments, which will be accountable to these bodies; monitor implementation and secure fulfilment of the project objectives and overarching goals. I also put this in the public domain since 1996. The Plans for the S.C.s thus prepared and approved should provide, inter alia, for the following programmes and schemes: 1. Endowing every rural S.C. family with a viable extent of land for transforming them from a class of agricultural labourers to a class of independent peasants, fulfilling the pre-Independence slogan of “Land to the Tiller” and commitments in the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) common minimum programme (CMP) of 2004 and in the President's address to Parliament in 2004. The Central and State Ministries/departments in charge of land reforms should be required to present a project to complete this process of land distribution on a village-to-village basis like a blitzkrieg through special task forces (STFs) set up in every taluk/tehsil/mandal (TSTFs) and every district (DSTFs) to identify government-owned land, bhoodan land, undistributed ceiling-surplus land, reclaimable usar/ choudu/ uppu/alkaline/saline and other wasteland. The distribution should be done to all rural S.C. families and to other landless poor agricultural labour families (who are mostly B.C.s or S.T.s), evicting ineligible encroachers. A State-level special task force (SSTF) should be part of this set-up to take stock of unimplemented Supreme Court judgments and pending litigation and take all steps to maximise surplus land and ensure that the TSTFs and DSTFs complete the task in a year or at the most two. Where the above categories of land are not enough to provide for all rural S.C.s, the project should include acquisition or purchase of private land and a massive programme of reclamation of the lakhs of acres of wasteland and their distribution. 2. Undertaking a comprehensive national programme of minor irrigation for all lands of the S.C.s, which they already have and which will be made available to them, and the S.T.s, through community borewells, tubewells, check dams, lifts, and so on, facilitating income-augmenting multi-cropping and fulfilling an unfulfilled and unbudgeted commitment in the CMP and the President's address of 2004. These twin measures will improve the dismal figures, worse than sub-Saharan Africa's, of S.C. and S.T. infant and child mortality, women's and children's malnutrition and anaemia; enable the S.C.s to resist “untouchability”; and free their children from the compulsion of labour to supplement their meagre family income and enable them to go to school. They will add significantly to foodgrain and other agricultural production; secure food security; check inflation and push up the all-India human resource indicators, which are among the lowest in the world, to respectable levels; and enable optimal growth of the economy. This should be the most important component of the Prime Minister's call, on the 83rd Foundation Day of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on July 16, 2011, for a second Green Revolution that is more broad-based, inclusive and sustainable. 3. Establishing a network of high-quality residential schools throughout the country to accommodate all S.C. children up to Class XII, and thereby fulfilling a recommendation in the 2008 report of the Group of Ministers on Dalit Affairs set up in 2005. 4. Securing the full quota of reservation in higher education, supported by overdue legislation for reservation for the S.C.s, along with the S.T.s and the B.C.s, in private educational institutions, to fulfil the purpose of the 93rd Constitution Amendment, 2005, inserting new clause (5) in Article 15. 5. Fulfilling the aspirations of the educated section among the S.C.s, which, though small, is of highly catalytic value. This should be done through (a) special coaching and training, aided by an overdue commitment in the CMP and the President's address of 2004 to enact legislation, free from exclusions, exceptions and exemptions, for reservation in services; and (b) proactive promotion of entrepreneurship among them through centrally funded incubation and mentoring centres in universities and other prestigious institutions and provision of all facilities and support through a single window. 6. Firmly checking and severely punishing “untouchability” and atrocities, aided by the enactment of comprehensive amendments to the S.C.s and S.T.s (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to strengthen the Act and its implementation, formulated by a national coalition of 70 Dalit and human rights organisations with me as its Chief Adviser and communicated to the government in January 2010. 7. Instituting special schemes and programmes to meet extra disadvantages of the most vulnerable groups among the S.C.s, aided by a comprehensive piece of legislation that I drafted and a working group of the Labour Ministry approved in July 2011. The groups include manual scavengers and other sanitation workers; bonded labourers; nomadic, semi-nomadic and Vimukta Jathi tribes of the S.C.s; Devadasis, Jogins, etc., mostly S.C.s subjected to “sacral harlotry”; Bacchras, etc., subjected to “secular harlotry”; and S.C. women and children. The 12th Plan Approach document takes note of the commitment to eradicate manual scavenging by the 11th Plan end and promises to fulfil it on priority in the 12th Plan. Similar commitments have been made many times in the past. This is also true of bonded labour. The new system is necessary to make this a reality at long last. 8. Making S.C. rural bastis and urban slums habitable by humanly acceptable standards with all facilities and connectivities. 9. Providing marketable skill-development for S.C. agricultural labourers who cannot be provided land despite all efforts and for S.C. urban unorganised casual labourers, and also providing them means of acquiring ownership of their means of labour, such as making the pullers of hired rickshaws owners of solar-powered rickshaws. The new system can and must achieve all this and not merely stop with sanctioning projects to be executed by the relevant Ministries and other agencies. It must also follow them up continuously with the help of district bodies, monitor and secure feedbacks and take timely corrective action instead of resorting to post-mortem. This new system has been detailed in the report of the sub group-I (on perspective planning and strategies) under my chairmanship, of the working group on empowerment of S.C.s in the 12th Plan, and has received unanimous support in the working group. This is how a meaningful SCP for the S.C.s should be formulated. The S.C.s deserved a whole chapter of the “Approach” detailing the above. The sectoral chapters also ought to have dealt with their meaningful contributions to the S.C.s and the S.T.s. What has been outlined for the S.C.s, also applies to the S.T.s and the TSP, in accordance with well-known specificities of the S.T.s. Regarding the B.C.s, the Approach document has the misapprehension that the B.C.s have no constitutional status. In fact, the B.C.s are also covered by specific Articles of the Constitution. The working group for empowerment of B.C.s in the Tenth Plan, of which I was the chairman, worked out appropriate methodology for B.C. development, and this was reiterated by the working group in the Eleventh Plan. The Approach document says nothing about the development of the B.C.s, including those of religious minorities. This grave lacuna can be made good by implementing the methodological recommendations of these two working groups. * P.S. Krishnan retired as Secretary, Government of India, in 1990 and has been active in the field of Social Justice & Empowerment of the S.C.s, the S.T.s and the B.C.s, including B.C.s of religious minorities, for more than six decades *
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