Commissions of Investigation on administration of the Scheduled Areas

Under Article 340 of the Constitution, there is provision for the appointment of two Commissions by the President, one to investigate and report on the administration of the Scheduled Areas and the welfare of the Scheduled Tribes and the other to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes and to make recommendations as to the steps that should be taken by the Union or any State to remove such difficulties.

The reports of the Commissions are to be laid before both the Houses of Parliament together with statements explaining the Government’s action on them. The appointment of the first Commission within ten years after the commencement of the Constitution was obligatory.

Moreover, the Union Executive is empowered to issue directions to the States for the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission. The second Commission relating to Backward Classes is optional, and the Union Executive can only advise the States to implement its recommendations.

However, it must be emphasised that these are intended to provide the machinery for enquiring into the operation of those Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles meant particularly for the advancement of the Backward Classes and the Scheduled Tribes.

Under Article 340 of the Constitution, the President appointed the Backward Classes Commission in January 1953. The Commission was charged with the main task of determining the criteria under which any sections of the people of India (in addition to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes) should be treated as socially and educationally backward classes; and in accordance with such criteria, prepare a list of such classes setting out also their approximate numbers and their territorial distribution.

The Commission submitted its report after working for two years. But the Government after giving careful thought to the Report of the Commission found it impossible to accept its recommendations.

The main drawback of the Report was that the Commission could not find objective tests and criteria for classifying socially and educationally backward classes. The result was a list containing as many as 2,399 communities out of which 913 alone accounted for an estimated population of 115 million.

In its bid to prepare a list of the Backward Classes, the Government of India sought the assistance of the State Governments to make ad hoc surveys for determining the precise criteria for the purpose. But the replies received form the State Governments were not satisfactory to the Centre which thereafter entrusted the task to the office of the Registrar-General of India.

The Report prepared by that off forms the basis for determining the list of socially and educationally Backward Classes now for the purpose of extending to them governmental help for their progress.

The Constitution vests in the President the power to notify the castes, races and tribes to be included in the Scheduled Castes list of a State. But once the notification is issued, his power comes to an end and he cannot revise or modify the list.

Any such revision or modification can be made only by Parliament. The same procedure is prescribed for the determination of the tribes and tribal communities.

In the course of the last five decades the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes have made remarkable progress. A few years back, they were some of the most backward people anywhere in the world.

In subject India, most of them were the so-called “Untouchables” with the lowest social status and living in abject poverty, ignorance and illiteracy. But today, many of them have climbed considerable heights on the social ladder and many more are fast following them.

Every successive Report of the Commissioner registers the all-round increase in the tempo of the work relating to the welfare of these classes. Perhaps, the most original provision in the Constitution where it deals with these classes is the provision for the appointment of a Special Officer and later the Commission for Scheduled Castes and Tribes charged with the responsibility of watching the progress of these communities as envisaged under the Constitution.

The drive towards the rapid all-round progress of these communities is directed mainly through four channels, the political, the social, the economic and the educational. We have seen earlier the special constitutional provisions to safeguard their political interests.

In the social field, the campaign for the removal of untouchability is gathering momentum and has already produced excellent results. The general awareness that the members of the Scheduled Castes are fellow citizens with equal rights and privileges and are entitled to the same courtesy and consideration is fast growing among the so- called upper castes.

In the economic field, with the enactment of many labour welfare laws, minimum wage laws, co-operative and land distribution laws, they are making substantial progress. Many cottage industries such as weaving and leather industries are providing members of these communities an additional income.

The greatest stress has been laid on the provision for educational facilities and the progress in this field has been indeed remarkable. Thousands of fellowships, scholarships, studentships and free ships are given every year to the members of these communities by the Union and the State Governments.

A sum of over Rs. 300 million was spent for the welfare of these communities under the First Five-Year Plan with extremely encouraging results. Under the Second Plan the amount so spent was over double the above amount. The Third Plan provided for programmes estimated to cost about Rs. 1,140 million. The Fourth Plan placed the figure for the same purpose at Rs. 2,400 million. The Fifth Plan provided a much larger amount.

An outlay of Rs. 6,000 million had been provided for the Sixth Plan Period of 1980-85. The amounts provided in the subsequent Plans record the same proportional of increase.

Thus with the active interest of the State in the rapid advancement of these communities there is every reason to hope that they will soon catch up with the rest of Indian society and play an equally vital role in the all-round progress of the nation.

The ten-year period of safeguards, particularly the reservation of seats in the legislatures was later extended successively by constitutional amendments, each time by ten years, thus extending the period until 2010 A.D. It may now be hoped that the progress that these communities will make by 2010 A.D. will take the country to another milestone in its all-round progress enabling the abolition of reservations altogether in whatever form they exist today.