It took will power and conviction to carry out reforms for the betterment of those whose voice is often lost in the din of politics; the Government must be lauded for granting Constitutional status to NCBC
The Monsoon Session of Parliament in 2018 will go down in post Independent India’s history as a landmark, thanks to the 123rd Constitutional amendment granting Constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). OBC implies Other Backward Classes. However, Hukumdev Narayan Yadav, an OBC leader from the BJP summed it up well when he said, OBC stands for originator, builder, and creator. Majority of OBCs live in villages. That the Narendra Modi-led Government has now constitutionally empowered the NCBC, which will have the authority among other things to redress the grievances of OBC employees in the Government and private sector, subject of course to a few caveats, speaks volumes about the Modi dispensation’s commitment to the downtrodden and the marginalised.
The fact that the BJP-led coalition’s statement of “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” has found resonance with the average Indian, is a case in point and is best exemplified by the surge in the sex ratio at birth (SRB) in Haryana, from 871 in 2015 to 914 in 2017, with districts like Panipat and Yamunanagar reporting SRB of 945 and 943 for every 1,000 males. Conviction rate for women-related crimes has improved dramatically in many States, particularly say, Maharashtra, from a dismal eight per cent in 2008 under the Congress-NCP combine to a solid 54 per cent today, under a BJP-led alliance.
The WHO data shows that the nationwide maternal mortality rate has fallen from 215 in 2010 to 174 now, with the Government’s intention to further bring it down to 100 by 2020. The infant mortality rate has also fallen by 15 per cent from 40/1000 in 2014 to 37/1000 in 2016 and 34 in 2017. Coming back to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, the most path-breaking initiative on this front has indeed been bringing in the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015 that lowers the trial age for heinous crimes like rape and murder from 18 years to 16 years. A 16-year-old will now be treated and punished like any other adult as per due process of law under Sections 376 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code.
Cabinet approval on April 21, 2018 for an Ordinance to bring amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to ensure death penalty/life imprisonment to rapists, where the victim is less than 12 years of age, raising the minimum imprisonment tenure from 10 to 20 years, where victim is less than 16 years, and from 7 to 10 years, where the victim is an adult, are indeed sweeping measures by the Modi Government to ensure swift justice.
To decriminalise politics and to ensure that criminals who happen to be legislators or parliamentarians are brought to book, the Modi Government is setting up 12 fast-track courts to specifically try and conclude 1,581 cases of serious crimes involving politicians. The Modi dispensation is also bringing changes to the Representation of Peoples Act 1951,whereby a person who has been convicted or has a charge sheet pending against him/her in a criminal offence, cannot run for elections even six years after serving his sentence. Once effective, this would imply that a politician who is awarded, say, a seven-year sentence, cannot run for any public office for 13 years.
Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana to facilitate education of the girl child has reached out to more than 1.3 crore aspirational women. Again, of the Rs 5.3 lakh crore odd that has been disbursed to empower more than 12 crore people under the Mudra Yojana, 74 per cent are women, largely from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe, categories.
Unarguably, however, the landmark achievement of the BJP Government to further the cause of Beti Bachao has been the seven crore plus toilets built in rural India under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. As an outcome, more than three lakh villages in more than 300 districts in India became open defecation free. This has, among other things, also led to a dramatic fall in heinous crimes like rapes in the rural hinterland. Speaking of Dalits, 100 per cent digitisation of ration cards, linking Aadhaar with ration cards, transferring subsidies/cash via direct benefit transfer to provide food security, efforts to give loans to more than two lakh Dalit entrepreneurs under the ‘Stand up India’ scheme by asking bank branches to give at least one loan under this scheme to a SC/ST aspirant, benefits under the ‘Green Business’ scheme to help Dalits fight the adverse impact of climate change, a venture capital fund with a Rs 200 crore corpus specifically for SC/STs, are measures that showcase how the last four years of Narendra Modi’s governance have done more in terms of empowering Dalits.
The same Congress which is trying to usurp the legacy of BR Ambedkar, has blissfully forgotten about the humiliation it heaped upon fellow Congressman and ex Defence Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram, one of the tallest Dalit leaders, who was abandoned by his own party men, when alive. While a total of 8,946 crimes were reportedly committed against Dalits in 2015 under then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, too, did little for her Dalit brethren.
The BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis Government in Maharashtra took a noteworthy step by passing the Prohibition of Social Boycott Bill in the State Assembly, 2016. This Bill seeks to make discrimination and social boycott a punishable offence with a maximum punishment of seven years in prison or a fine up to five lakh rupees or both.
One thing amidst all the clutter that deserves applause and is unarguably one of the most defining moments for its sheer progressiveness, is the laudable step taken by the BJP president Amit Shah. On May 11, 2016 took a holy snan (sacred bath) with Dalit sadhus on the occasion of Simhastha Kumbh Mahaparv at Valmiki Ghat in Ujjain. Dalits know that religious, social or caste-based discrimination can alienate one forever. The holy snan was, therefore, symbolic of the BJP’s larger ethos and desire to bring Dalits onto the socio-cultural centre stage — from the fringes to the mainstream.
To add to its Dalit empowerment initiatives, the BJP-led coalition ensured passage of The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018, in the just concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament by getting the Bill passed in the lok Sabha on August 6, 2018 and, in the Rajya Sabha on August 9, 2018. The Bill rules out any provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of atrocities against SC/STs, notwithstanding any court order.
It also provides that no preliminary enquiry will be required for registering a criminal case and an arrest under this law would not require any approval from any probe officer, whatsoever. This is a significant step and basically revokes an earlier order by the Supreme Court on March 20, 2018 that sought to dilute the provisions of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989 by asking for a ban on automatic arrests and called for a preliminary probe by an officer, no less than that of a deputy SP, before registering criminal cases.
The amended SC/ST Bill has not only restored the earlier status quo that existed prior to the Supreme Court order of March 20, 2018 but most importantly, has also added that a provision of special courts be included. Fourteen States have already established 195 special exclusive courts for this purpose. Under the amended SC/ST Act, an investigation has to be completed and charge sheet filed within 60 days.
It would be apt to conclude by saying that it took will power and conviction to carry out reforms for the betterment of those whose voice is often lost in the din of politics; the Government must be lauded for granting Constitutional status to NCBC.
(The writer is an economist and chief spokesperson for BJP, Mumbai)
