SCs were never counted in Andaman and Nicobar, now a parliamentary committee sits up and takes notice

Parliamentary Committee calls for special panel to evaluate issues faced by Scheduled Castes in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and ensure their representation.

Nearly 20 years after the never-accounted-for Dalit population of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was clubbed with the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category by the Union Territory administration, and a decade after the Centre did the same, a parliamentary committee has now called for a special panel to evaluate the issues faced by the Scheduled Castes in particular, and ensure their representation in services in the islands. 

The Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, headed by BJP MP Kirit Premjibhai Solanki, has noted that there was a “significant presence of Scheduled Castes in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands”, also suggesting that they should be considered for welfare schemes and service matters. 

But no census has ever recorded any Scheduled Caste population in the Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands and neither has the Constitution (SC) Order ever listed any community as SC in the islands – something that was flagged by the erstwhile National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (NCSCST) as far back as in 1999 as a “vital problem”. 

The commission had noted at the time that the people it was referring to as Scheduled Castes were refugees from Bangladesh, who had been resettled on the islands by the Government of India’s Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Department till as late as 1980, further saying that they had migrated to the islands as refugees “in large numbers”.

In a report tabled in Parliament last week, the House committee on the Welfare of SCs and STs said it had asked the Union Territory administration to form a special panel to study issues of representation and welfare schemes of the Scheduled Castes of the islands in particular, and report the action taken at the earliest. 

The Committee Chair, Mr. Solanki, told The Hindu, “It is correct that there has been no official count of the Scheduled Castes. But it is not as if there are no Scheduled Castes. There are some in small numbers in Port Blair and the committee’s recommendation was to ensure that their issues are heard, they are able to access government schemes accordingly, and that they are represented adequately.”

The committee’s recommendation came after a study visit it had undertaken to the islands in August this year, during which the Chairperson was accompanied by 20 other MPs from both Houses and from across party lines. Sources said the issue of Scheduled Castes was flagged by some of the MPs at a meeting with senior administration officials at Port Blair.