The tall claims of the UPA leadership notwithstanding, the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP), incorporated in every Five-Year Plan since 1979, has failed to make much headway due to its faulty implementation with several Government departments totally ignoring it, a recent study has revealed.

Not only the proportions of these Plan allocations are far below the proportion of the SC population in total population of the country, many of the mainstream ministries have not been showing any allocations clearly earmarked for the SCs.

Even though there has been an increase with regard to the proportion of Total Plan Allocation from 5.2 per cent in 2006-07 to 8.1 per cent in 2007-08, it is far below the proportion of the SC population, i.e. about 16 per cent, which is in violation of the strategy of SCSP for SCs.

According to a recent study by Delhi-based Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, except for Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and a few others such as the Department of Women and Child Development and Department of Elementary Education and Literacy in HRD Ministry, the proportion of Plan allocations for SCs is less than 16 per cent.

Moreover, in case of some of these Ministries, the allocations are only notional, where incidental benefits to SCs from regular schemes of the Ministry have been assumed without any concrete data on actual beneficiaries, the study said.

Mainstream apathy

The mainstream Ministries, benefiting most from the current trajectory of economic growth, have not been showing any allocations clearly earmarked for SCs. “One of the main arguments put forward in this respect is that their schemes/services are indivisible. And therefore, it is not feasible for such mainstream Ministries to implement SCSP for SCs,” the study said.

The most disappointing fact, according to the study, is that in most crucial sectors, which are very important from the point of view of economic empowerment such as Department of Agricultural Research, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Department of Road Transport and Highways, there are absolutely no concrete schemes for inclusion of SCs.

“In totality, we find that only four Ministries/Departments in the Central Government have some small amounts of Plan allocations earmarked for SC. Thus, there should not be any doubts as to why the SCs have been excluded from the growth process,” it said.