The Union Budget: Marginalisation of Dalits and Adivasis?

The Indian population is vast and heterogeneous. Whereas such diversity is claimed to constitute India’s uniqueness, in reality it has given rise to majoritarianism, whereby the dominant groups continue to garner historical privileges and concessions, while the marginalized and the subaltern are subjected to oppression and excluded from what is considered ‘mainstream’. In fact, out of every six Indians, at least one is a Dalit, the outcaste individual, who belongs to the bottom of the Hindu caste system and is considered subhuman (Jadav, 2005, p. 24). Caste based discrimination is one of the most atrocious forms of systematic oppression that has been plaguing the 260 million Dalits, most of whom reside in India. The deep rooted, structural violence has not only forced the Dalits into social segregation and socio-economic backwardness, but they have also been denied proper housing, ‘upper class’ jobs in public and private sectors and granted only ‘certain’ types of menial labour or modern-day bonded slavery (Bhavana and Achchi, 2019, pp. 24-25).

In order to protect the Dalits from their plight, the Constitution of India offers certain provisions that ensures a better future for them in theory. Apart from the fundamental right to equality specified in Article 14 of the Constitution, Article 15(4) mentions compensatory discrimination for Scheduled Castes (SCs/ Dalits) and Scheduled Tribes (STs/ Adivasis) and Article 15 refers to no discrimination on religious, gender, class or caste grounds. Additionally, the 93^rd amendment of the Indian Constitution in 2006 allowed the government to introduce special provisions for the SCs and STs for admissions in aided or unaided private educational institutions, as specified in Article 15(5). Clause 4 of Article 16, that allows equality of opportunity in public employment, ensures that the State can take adequate measures to reserve vacancies for backward classes in areas of public services where they are not sufficiently represented. Article 16(4A) and 16(4B) are also very helpful in uplifting the SCs and STs by reserving certain promotions and considering the unfilled vacancies reserved for the OBCs as a separate category which is not just limited to the 50% reserved seats. Article 17 aims to abolish untouchability of any form and Article 29 and 30 also entails preserving the Cultural and educational rights of the marginalized. Apart from these, there are definitely the presence of the directive principles of the state policy, which act like a guideline for the State and government to work towards the betterment of the SCs, STs and OBCs. Besides, The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, has also been enacted which is to prevent violence and hate crimes against the Dalits and Adivasis.

The Union budget of India, is an annual financial statement put forward by the Central government, which consists of estimates of the receipts and expenditure of the State for that particular year, as specified by Article 112 of the Indian Constitution. Union budget essentially keeps track of the country’s total expenditure for the fiscal year, that is from 1^st April to 31^st March, and is a very important determinant of the country’s economic transactions and financial position.

Among the 1.35 billion population of India, 300 million comprise of Dalits. Punjab, one of the poorest states of India has the most population of Dalits; further consolidating the idea that India’s advancement would only be kickstarted with the advancement of Dalits (India Guide Population of India, 2019). The upper caste Brahmanical nexus tend to benefit economically given their historical privileges, while the marginalized Dalits remain at the bottom rung, not only economically, but also politically, socially and culturally. Therefore, it becomes imperative that the budget allocation of the Dalits should be a primary concern for the State because they need certain extra provisions to reach the promised level of social and economic liberation. Additionally, a level of transparency also requires to be necessitated wherein the State has to become answerable to the general public about the budget allocation, especially the Dalits. An example of the budget allocation on Scholarship Schemes for Dalits can be mentioned here. As claimed by the Finance Minister, around 3000 crores have been allotted for the pre and post metric scholarship schemes for backward students in the year 2018-2019, which is almost a 50% increment from that of 2017-2018. But, another pertinent question is raised in this regard- about the distribution and the actualization of funds and the presence of any committee which would monitor the entire process (Dange et al., 2019).

Despite the Union government wanting to work more towards development of the Dalit and Adivasi communities, the fiscal budget for the year 2022-23 proved otherwise (Bhattacharya, 2022). The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) suggests that while the budget allocation put forward by the Central government towards the upliftment of the Dalits and Adivasis is quite huge, the allocation for targeted schemes for the SCs is Rs 53,794.9 crore and for the STs is 39,113 crore, which make up 37.79% and 43.8% of the total budget respectively. According to a report analysis of the Dalit Adivasi Budget released on Wednesday, February 2, NCDHR stressed upon the fact that the Union government has repeatedly failed to cater to the guidelines of the Niti Ayog on the Allocation for the Welfare of Scheduled Caste (AWSC) and the Allocation for the Welfare of Scheduled Tribe (AWST), which specifies the mandate for the State to grant the budget according to the proportion in the population. The NCDHR also points out how the current fiscal budget fails to talk about the development gap between the marginalized and discriminated Dalit communities and the rest of the country.

The detailed analysis made by the NCDHR also points out two pertinent factors relating to budget allocation for the marginalized. The first one is, the allotting of budget for Post-Matric Scholarship schemes, wherein the government, once again, failed to fulfil its commitment towards accommodating 7000 crores towards the said schemes; instead allocating only Rs 5660 crore and 3416 crores for the SCs and STs respectively. There has been cutting off of funds for the SHREYAS project as well, which is an umbrella programme including four important higher education programmes for the SCs, STs and OBCs. A data published by All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) showed that the Gross Enrolment Ration (GER) has expanded over the span of 5 years, with 2015-16 having 24.5 to 2019-20 getting 27.1. Apart from this, there has been a massive withdrawal of overseas budget which used to fund SC/ST students willing to research on “topics/courses concerning Indian culture/heritage/history/social studies on India,”; thereby successfully obstructing the uncovering of alternative histories and questioning India’s Brahmanical legacy (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, 2022, p. 6). Secondly, the condition of Dalit women is at an all-time low considering the dual discriminations faced by them because of their Dalit and gender identity, claims NCDHR. According to the 2020 National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report, about 10 Dalit women get raped and assaulted daily, making the total number of atrocities against Dalit women very high. In such a situation, it becomes imperative that the budget allocation for the upliftment of Dalit women need to be realized as well as actualized. However, out of the total 600 crore assigned to effectively implement The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, only 180 crore is given to prevent and check violence and discrimination against Dalit women, while the trans Dalit community does not even find their issues mentioned in the fiscal budget. Additionally, the NCDHR also claims some very critical schemes have been starved of essential funds in this year’s budget, which would have been otherwise beneficial for the Dalits and Adivasis such as rehabilitation of bonded labour, pre Matric Scholarships, etc.

However, in order to inspire entrepreneurship among the Scheduled Castes (SC), the Centre has launched the Dr Ambedkar Young Entrepreneur League 2022, a competition, primarily under Ambedkar Social Innovation and Incubation Mission (ASIIM) of the social justice department, which will fund 1000 business ideas within the country. Milind Kamble, the founder of Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) had expressed its concerns about the lack of employment opportunities within the country, especially among the Dalits, in the face of the Covid pandemic. He thinks that the Central government took a very encouraging stance to promote employment through the Union budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 by outlining various steps for the MSME sector including extending the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) with additional credit to over 1.3 crore MSMEs till March 2023 along with increasing its guarantee cover to Rs 5 lakh crore from Rs 50000 crore and revamping the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme with necessary influx of funds.

On the face of it, the Union government has increased the budget allocation for the SCs (under the Special Component Plan, or SCP) and STs (under the Tribal Sub Plan, or TSP). For the SCs, the budget allocation has increased to Rs 1,42,342 crore in the year 2022-23 and for the STs, it has been increased to Rs 89, 265 crores, but that is just 3.61% and 2.26% of the total budget of the Central government. Thought, this can be referred to as an increased budget, several anomalies remain- whether the budget allocation is proportionate to the 16.2% SC and 8.2% ST population in India, and whether, the funds which are being assigned for the upliftment of the marginalized reaching them at all. For example, it was revealed during the audit of the budget for the fiscal year 2016-17, that many departments, which do not have any plans for development for SCs and STs, have been using funds allocated to them for other purposes. The neglect towards this issue had been so humongous that the CAG had instructed to rectify these mistakes at least four times, but the Union had shown no consciousness about the same. One of the most blaring instances of ignorance was seen within the Ministry of Tribal Welfare, which is considered to be the nodal ministry for the welfare and upliftment of the Tribals, wherein it completely disregarded the accounting procedures while producing the budget.

“Audit noticed that out of the total provision of Rs. 1,250 crores, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs released Rs 1,195.03 crore as ‘Special Central Assistance for Tribal Sub Plan’ in the year 2016-17 and booked this under the minor head ‘796-Tribal Area Sub Plan’ in Grant No 89 pertaining to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. The same was required to be provisioned and booked under the minor head ‘794-Special Central Assistance for Tribal Sub Plan’ as prescribed in the extant instructions.”

“The matter had also been pointed out in the CAG’s Report No 1 on Union Government Accounts for the financial year 2012-13, 2013-14, Report No. 50 for 2014-15 and Report No.34 for 2015-16.”

“In response to Report No.34 for 2015-16, the Ministry had assured (July 2016) that the minor head ‘794’ would be opened in the DDG for the year 2017-18 for Special Central Assistance for Tribal-Sub-Plan.

“Scrutiny of DDG for the year 2017-18, however, revealed that an amount of Rs. 1,350.00 crore had been obtained as provision for ‘Special Central Assistance for Tribal Sub-Schemes’ under Major Heads- 2225, 2552 and 3601 in minor head ‘796’ instead of ‘794’.

“The Ministry stated (August 2017) that the matter has been taken with the Ministry of Finance for opening of a new Minor head 794 so that expenditure under the Scheme Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub Scheme could be booked under the distinct minor head of 794, as contained in general directions to the List of Major and Minor Head of Account.” (Report of the CAG on Union Government Accounts 2016-17, p.32)

The image above shows the total allocation of budget for SCs and STs. While the due funds which are to be assigned for the SCs and STs seem proportionate enough, the total allocation for the fiscal year 2022-23 is lower than the actual funds and the actual allocation for targeted scheme seems disparaging.

Tables via: NewsClick

These tables show the utilization of funds for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) over the years from 2016-17 till 2020-21. The gap between the budget allocation and actual expenditure shows the levels of neglect and dismissal that is rampant, when it comes to realize the actual potential of the budget, especially for the development of the marginalized. In the years 2019-20, the utilization of funds for SCs was 80%, while for STs it was 89%.

The term Budget Credibility stands for the anomaly between the budget that is approved and the fund utilization at the end of the year, and if the deviation is more than 10%, it is considered to be a serious question to be considered. According to the NCDHR, there have been significant budget credibility issues concerning the SC and ST budget, both at the Union and state levels. The NCDHR has put forward certain recommendations to the Central government which would strive to make the budget allocation for the marginalized better. These include proposing a population proportionate allotment of funds for Dalits and Adivasis and direct allocation in benefit schemes in various arenas, such as education, healthcare, maternity benefit and income security for the Dalits and Adivasis. The NCDHR issued in a statement: “Allocation should be increased to prevent crime against Dalit women, men, children, people with disabilities and queer and trans persons. There is need for establishing clear mechanisms to provide protection and security to any victims of caste-based discrimination and violence. The current allocation is grossly inadequate.”

Therefore, it is very important for the Centre to delve deeper into the correct implementation and expenditure of the budget allocation for the Dalits and Adivasis, which would further necessitate their upliftment and eventual liberation from poverty and hopefully, certain levels of discrimination.

Samadrita Sarkar,

Intern, Asia in Global Affairs

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, in her personal capacity. It does not reflect the policies and perspectives of Asia in Global Affairs.

References

Babu, U., Zafar, E., Sarkar, R., & Tak, B. (2022, February 3). Union budget’s numbers game in the ‘increased’ allocation for Dalits, Adivasis. Counterview. https://www.counterview.net/2022/02/union-budgets-numbers-game-in-increased.html?m=1

Bhattacharya, D. (2022, February 3). Union budget 2022: Govt fails to ensure welfare of Dalits and Adivasis. NewsClick. https://www.newsclick.in/union-budget-2022-govt-fails-ensure-welfare-dalits-adivasis

Bhavana, V., & Achchi, K. (2019). Interventions in Dalit empowerment: A social work perspective. In M. U. Lokesha, K. G. Parashurama, N.B. Shetty & N.S. Gundur (Eds.), New Horizons of Dalit Culture and Literature in Shodhmanthan (pp. 24-26 ). Journal Anu Books.

Budget cuts for Dalit women, drop in allocation for SC & ST education: National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights. (2022, February 3). Gaon Connection: Your Connection with Rural India. https://en.gaonconnection.com/union-budget-2022-dalit-adivasi-scheduled-caste-scheduled-tribe-education-women-rights-migrant-labour-ncdhr-employment-generation-poshan-mid-day-meals-anganwadi/

Dange, J. K., Mathew, R., & Somashekar, M. (2019). Budget allocation and upliftment of the SCs and STs (Dalits). In M.U. Lokesha, K.G. Parashurama, N.B. Shetty & N.S. Gundur (Eds.), New Horizons of Dalit Culture and Literature in Shodhmanthan (pp. 34-37 ). Journal Anu Books.

Definition of ‘union budget.’ The Economic Times. https://m.economictimes.com/definition/union-budget/amp

Kumar, R. (2020, October 3). On an average, India reported 10 cases of rape of Dalit women daily in 2019, NCRB data shows. News18. https://www.news18.com/news/india/on-an-average-india-reported-10-cases-of-rape-of-dalit-women-daily-in-2019-ncrb-data-shows-2930179.html

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India. (2022). National overseas scholarship for SC etc. candidates. https://www.nosmsje.gov.in/docs/nosGuidelines2022-23.pdf

Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. (2011). Scheduled castes & scheduled tribes population. https://censusindia.gov.in/census_data_2001/india_at_glance/scst.aspx

Press Trust of India. (2022, February 7). Union budget has outlined steps to boost MSMEs: Dalit trade body. Business Standard. https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/union-budget-has-outlined-steps-to-boost-msmes-dalit-trade-body-122020701637_1.html