Virtually endorsing BSP leader Mayawati’s call for reservation for poor among the upper castes Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that economically weaker sections among the forward communities should also be supported.
“If there are ideas about the problems faced by poor children from ‘other’ sections of the community, they should also be taken on board,” Dr Singh said inaugurating a conference on empowerment of dalits and minorities through education.
Echoing his views Leader of Opposition L K Advani, who was also present on the occasion, said, “I welcome the comments of UP Chief Minister Mayawati that the poor among the forward castes and communities deserved the benefit of affirmative action.”
Reiterating the UPA government’s commitment to empowerment of dalits, tribals, minorities and women the Prime Minister admitted that the government schemes had not yielded the expected results.  “What has been achieved is not enough. Of course, there has been a five-fold increase in the literacy rate of Scheduled Castes from 10% in 1961 to 55% in 2001. But, we must improve and improve upon very significantly over the past performance,” he said.
Supporting the policy of reservation he said that such policies in public educational institutions had helped in improving enrolment in higher education and that it had further facilitated entry into jobs for Dalits.
“This has been an important source of social mobility, and such mobility has had a wider impact on the development process and we must persist with this effort,” he said.