Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/rightful-share-in-jobs-eludes-chhattisgarh-tribals-by-supriya-sharma-11110.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Rightful share in jobs eludes Chhattisgarh tribals by Supriya Sharma | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Rightful share in jobs eludes Chhattisgarh tribals by Supriya Sharma

A river of bows and arrows slid through the urbane lanes of Raipur civil lines, coming to a startling stop outside the chief minister's gated and guarded residence in the autumn air of November 1st, the founding day of Chhattisgarh. As the police whisked them away, the tribal protestors told journalists they were asking for the most basic constitutional right: proportional reservation in government jobs.

Eleven years ago, the sprawling state of Madhya Pradesh was trimmed to create a new state, which barring India's North East, had the highest chunk of tribals in its population. With 32 % of its people tribal, Chhattisgarh outstripped Jharkhand (26%), and Orissa (22%). Politicians proclaimed the new state would give voice to central India's tribals, but eleven years later, it is a measure of their voicelessness that Chhattisgarh's indigenous communities have not managed to wrest their share in government jobs, unthinkable for a social group as large anywhere else in India.

Affirmative action policy under India's constitution gives dalits and tribals, or scheduled castesand scheduled tribes (SCs and STs), a share in government jobs proportionate to their population. Madhya Pradesh had 20% ST and 16% SC population. This ratio changed to 32% ST and 12% SC in newly created Chhattisgarh, neccessitating a change in the job pie. But the change is yet to happen.

"We are still stuck with only 20% of jobs," said BPS Netam, a retired civil servant, who has now turned to full time activism, under the aegis of the tribal government employees association. "We have been deprived an additional 12% jobs, which if you take 4 lakhs as an estimate of government jobs generated 2000 onwards, works out to half lakh jobs lost".

Chhattisgarh government's spokesperson, principal secretary Baijendra Kumar, however, claimed this is not the case, since in tribal majority districts, recruitment for lower grade jobs was proportionate to their population, as high as 70%.

An authoritative figure of government jobs across grades was not available.

In post liberalisation India, government employment may be passe for the metropolitan middle class. But in Chhattisgarh's backwaters, where life proceeds unhurriedly, barring pockets where mining and power firms have arrived to a less than rousing welcome, the government is still the only employer of hope.

"It is a family's ticket out of drudgery," said a school teacher, the first literate member of his family of tribal farmers. "A government job means the hope of building a concrete house, owning a motorcycle, sending children to an English medium school".

For the community, having one of their own in government offices often offers entry into into informal networks of power, or sometimes just a better chance at getting empathy and not intimidation.

"I was briefly the collector of Kanker in Bastar. When tribals would come to see me, I would slip into their langauge. They would be instantly at ease and would speak more confidently about their troubles," recalled Netam.

Data published by the association shows there are not too many in senior positions who could do that.

Across 18 districts, just two district collectors, one police superintendent, one district judge are tribal. Of 31 government boards and bodies, none is headed by a tribal. In the capital's highest echelons of bureacracy, there is just one tribal, and in the governor and chief minister's office, none at all. "Jharkhand always has a tribal chief minister. But in Chhattisgarh, count it as good luck, if one of us makes it to chief minister's staff," quipped a civil servant who did not want to be named.

Ramesh Thakur, the tribal leader who led the crowds outside the chief minister's house last week, outlined a chronology of betrayal. Last year, on 10 December, chief minister Raman Singh announced to much fanfare that 32% reservation would be implemented soon. Then, on 9 August this year, tribal welfare minister Kedar Kashyap said it would be done within 2-3 months. However, when asked through a written question in Vidhan Sabha, the government refused to specify a time period.

"The government is committed to speedily implementing the order," said Baijendra Kumar, prinicipal secretary.

But his tribal colleagues are unconvinced. A delegation of the tribal employees association called on the chief minister on Diwali eve. "We gave him a letter reminding him of 32% reservation promise. But he was more interested in discussing how his rival Ajit Jogi's claims to be a tribal could be disproved," said a member of the delegation.

In a country where reservation agitations act as a lightning rod for communities, what explains the inability of Chhattisgarh tribals to press their demands politically? Perhaps, the answer lies in feeble political strength, both in leadership and in numbers. Jharkhand has 28 seats reserved for tribals in an assembly of 81. Chhattisgarh began with 34 reserved seats in 2000, but post delimitation in 2008, has just 29 in a house of 90.

"The only place where our representation is growing," concluded Netam, with a streak of black humour, "is the police force, and the lists of those killed in the Maoist conflict"