Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram denies 71 percent of the amount meant for Scheduled Castes through his 2008-09 Budget. This amounts to depriving Dalits of a whopping Rs 28,376 crores as per government's own policy.  Vincent Manoharan, Paul Diwaker  and  Ashutosh Vishal charge the UPA government with aiming growth at the cost of poor and deserving Dalits.

With false promises the Indian state has again betrayed Dalits this year. The tall claims of achieving growth with inclusion have faltered again. The total budget allocation under Plan Outlay for the year 2008-2009 is Rs 2,43,385.5 crores and under the Scheduled Castes Sub Plani (SCSP) the government is liable to allocate Rs 40090.90 crores exclusively for Dalits (16.7 percent of the total plan budget) but it has allocated just Rs 11715.07 crores (29 percent of the total due under the SCSP) for the welfare of SCs, which means again SCs have been deprived by Rs 28375.9 crores. This year again it has diverted 71 percent of the amount SCs are due to receive under the SCSP! This exposes the stark ‘untouchability’ that is being practiced by the finance ministry and in the whole union budget. With this denied money of Rs. 29,801 crores, one crore SC children would have had access to education and about one lakh health centres could have been set up in rural areas. Not just this about two lakh small scale industries could have also been set up. Moreover, five lakh SC families could have been provided with five acres of land each – in one year alone! Had this Special Component Plan been implemented in the last 27 years, India would have been totally free of poverty!

Amount Denied to SCs in the 'Inclusive Budget' - 2008-09
Total Budget	Total Plan Outlay	Amount Due to SCs	Amount Allocated in 2008-09	Amounts denied	% of Amount Denied
750883.53	243385.5	40090.90	11715.07	28375.9	71

The figures of allocation are a mute witness to the history of denial of exclusion. It is not only for the last three years, this trend is observed for past 27 years since the inception of Scheduled Caste Sub Plan, (earlier Special Component Plan) in 1979-80, the Union as well as State governments are making a mockery of the guidelines and have blatantly violated the directions. This amounts to ‘willful negligence’ and those responsible are liable to be punished for this crime.

The government’s own reports tell the wide disparity and uneven growth among Dalits as against general population. This budget is not meant to cater to or take initiatives to bring Dalits into the fold of development. Census Report 2001, NFHS Survey and other surveys show the denial of access to material and other resources to Dalits, resulting in an infant mortality rate among Dalit children to a staggering 83 percent and child mortality rate of 39 percent which is higher than non-Dalits who has IMR and CMR 61 percent and 22 percent respectively.

In the rural areas about 45% of Dalits were poor compared to 21% among the non-Dalits. Compared with the non-Dalits, the incidence of aggregate poverty was 70% higher among Dalits. In spite of all these, government has not been allocating the required amounts for the development of Dalits. Only 19 Departments/Ministries have allocated under SCSP. Thirteen of them have only negligible allocations. This seems to have been done more as a formality. Only six ministries/departments, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Department of School Education and Literacy, Department of Higher education, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium enterprises and Department of Women and Child Development have actually given considerable amounts.

The rest of the Ministries/Departments – prominently Road Transport and Highways, Science and technology, Land Resources, Rural Development, Youth and sports, Agriculture Research, Commerce, Urban Development and Water Resources have negligible or ‘Zero’ allocations. This clearly shows only that the development of SCs will not be in the driving sectors of the economy. It is really derogative step for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to have cut down allocations for pre and post Metric scholarship is reduced to Rs 731 crores from the previous year’s Rs 811 crores. This gross denial and violation of rights and entitlements of SCs and exclusion from right to development cannot continue. The UPA government should take the responsibility for this continuing exclusion of SCs and STs and women. In order to right the wrongs, we the concerned citizens, Dalit civil society bodies and other democratic forces demand the UPA government the following:

Amount Denied to SCs in the 'Inclusive Budget' - 2008-09
Total Budget	Total Plan Outlay	Amount Due to SCs	Amount Allocated in 2008-09	Amounts denied	% of Amount Denied
750883.53	243385.5	40090.90	11715.07	28375.9	71

The Union Government releases a white paper on the implementation of the SCSP (SCP) and TSP since its initiation.

The Union Budget 2008-09 must have 16.7 percent proportion of the total budget, plan and non-plan towards SCSP and 8.2 per cent for TSP. This must be reflected in all the ministries with clear conceived schemes for individual and family benefits of SCs and STs.

There should be a separate Ministry for development of SCs – ‘Ministry of Progression of Scheduled Castes’ both at the Centre as well as States/UTs for the welfare and development of SCs. The Ministries should have the necessary expertise primarily drawn from SCs and STs who will advise the 75 ministries/departments for innovating inclusive programmes. The unspent provisions, if any, in any sector should not lapse, but automatically be credited to a Revolving Fund.

Women contribute equally in all economic spheres. Budgetary allocations, therefore, in proportion to the population of women in all areas should be made in a special way. Special focus to be made on Entrepreneurship, Health, Education, Skill Development, Land and Resource management and Social Security of Women.

– The writers are general secretary and national convenor of NCDHR Endnotes
i During the 6th plan, the government of India introduced a strategy called Special component Plan (SCP) which is renamed as Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP) for the socio-economic welfare of Dalits. It was made mandatory for all state governments departments as well as the central government departments. This plan provides direct benefit to the SCs individuals, families and hamlets. The annual plan of States/ Union Territories (UTs) should earmark plan allocations according to the proportion of the SC population i.e. 16.7 % in the total population of the country/the particular state.

No.	Ministries/Departments	Total plan Budget	Due as per scsp 16.7%	Due Under SCSP	Amount Denied/ Excess	Percentage  Allocated of Total Plan