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Despite favouring several options including reservation for the welfare of Dalits, the government itself lags behind in implementing the various schemes meant for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
Out of the 51 ministries or government departments, only seven have reported the formulation of a Scheduled Castes sub-plan in their annual plan, a parliamentary standing committee on social justice and empowerment has said.
The ministries which reported formulation of such a plan are the ministry of small scale industries, department of science and technology, ministry of health and family welfare and department of agriculture and cooperation among others.
The committee also observed that during the last year, some states with sizeable SC population have not allocated funds for their SCSP as per the percentage of their population.
Andhra Pradesh, which has an SC population of 16.20 per cent, has an allocation of only 7.63 per cent, Himachal Pradesh with an SC population of 24.70 per cent has an allocation of 11 per cent, and Punjab with an SC population of 28.90 per cent has an outlay of 26.02 per cent.
Keeping in view the fact that the allocations under the Scheduled Castes sub-plan by the Centre are in proportion to the percentage of SC population in the state, the committee expressed its displeasure at the non-adherence to norms by some states.
The committee also termed as a matter of concern the fact that the ministry does not have any data highlighting the number of beneficiaries who successfully crossed the poverty line after having availed of the scheme's benefits.
'The committee regrets to observe that this is nothing but a casual approach on the part of the government vis-a-vis its mandate for working towards bringing the target group into the mainstream of development by making them self reliant,' it said.
The committee noted that despite their repeated recommendations impressing upon all states and Union territories to open a separate budget head for special central assistance funds, two states are yet to follow the instructions.
In spite of clear-cut instructions from the Planning Commission directing all central ministries and departments to formulate SCSP for SCs in their annual plan, only seven ministries out of a total of 51 have complied till now, it said.
The committee has asked the ministry of social justice and empowerment to ensure expeditious compliance by the remaining central ministries of the guidelines issued by the Planning Commission in this regard.