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Paradigm Shift
In a deregulated economy, the Dalits have made it amply clear that
they want a share in the market, not just government jobs. India Today
Special Correspondent Lakshmi Iyer traces the paradigm shift.
Before
the time of Mandal Commission and Mayawati, Dalit was a word the urban
Indian middle class, usually the upper castes, associated with reservation—the
22.5 per cent jobs (15 per cent for Schedule Castes and 7.5 per cent for
Schedule Tribes) in the central and state governments, and public sector
that were out of bounds for them. Horrific tales of brutalisation of Dalits
occasionally stared them in the eye. But they reckoned with the 210-million
strong community's existence only when they lost promotions or missed
admissions to medical and engineering colleges because of reservation.
Such association with Dalits may soon be a thing of the past. Not that
the job quotas are ending. Neither are quotas in admissions and promotions.
What has, however, happened, is that the community leaders have come up
with a new paradigm for partnership in the civil society. In an era of
deregulated economy, they want a share in the market, not just government
jobs. They want democratisation of capital; they want to be entrepreneurs
and traders. To begin with, the Government could intervene in the market
on their behalf and make some obligatory purchases from them. Exactly
as it happens in the US under the public policy of supplier diversity.
Five per cent of the Federal Government contracts go to minority business
enterprises (MBEs). Corporate America also undertakes MBE programmes to
enhance its public image.
The Dalit leaders—an eclectic group of 300 intellectuals, writers
and activists—recently drew up the new agenda, called the Bhopal
Declaration, at a conference organised by the Madhya Pradesh Government.
Even before the ink dried on the declaration, Chief Minister Digvijay
Singh ushered supplier diversity for the first time in the country. He
announced at the end of the conclave that 30 per cent of purchases for
ashram schools and hostels would be made from Dalit entrepreneurs and
dealers.
"We will build a new class of entrepreneurs, create Dalit millionaires.
We have to think beyond government jobs. Even if we fill up our backlog,
we won't be able to provide enough," Singh told INDIA TODAY. SC/STs
constitute 35 per cent of the state's population. Singh has circulated
the Bhopal Document to the Centre and other state govrnments.
Dalit writer Chandra Bhan Prasad, the prime mover behind the declaration,
echoes Singh: "We want to come out of the bondage of reservation.
There are just 198 lakh jobs in the government /public sector. Even if
all the jobs were given to us, 17 crore Dalits would be left out."
That the Dalits suddenly want to move into private sector is clear. And
the reason is obvious: globalisation. According to a Dalit government
officer, supplier diversity is a means to cope with downsizing, a concomitant
of the LPG—liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation-era. The
Government has begun withdrawing from a number of areas. Recruitment to
the IAS has been steadily declining. From 160 in 1985 to 105 in 1990.
Prasad feels the community must change its mindset to compete in the private
sector. He calls for a de-emphasis on atrocity-related issues and instead
focus on skill and competence. "We want equal opportunities in the
private sector. Recruitment in this sector happens on a caste basis. Dalits
have to hide their caste when they approach private firms." Prasad
is a votary of FDI. Multinational companies alone, he vouches, would be
equal- opportunity employers.
Sociolgists and political scientists who have been studying the Dalit
community hail the Bhopal development as historic. For the first time,
they point out, that the Dalit imagination had been unshackled from government
jobs. "The Dalits have sought a new role for the state—state
support to create middle class. They want support just in the manner in
which Indian industrialists have been receiving concessions from the Government.
Besides, the demand has been put forth in the language of liberalisation,"
points out Aditya Nigam of the Centre for Study of Developing Societies.
Significantly, the Bhopal Declaration grew out of the Durban race conference.
"At Durban, the entire world came to know about our caste problem
for the first time. We returned empty-handed, nevertheless it forced us
to evolve a national agenda," says Prof K. S. Chellam of Visakhapatnam.
The vision to create a Dalit middle class outside the state system is
indeed fraught with interesting possibilities.
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