NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR SCHEDULED TRIBES THIRD REPORT FOR THE YEAR 2007-08 D.O. No. 4/12/09-Coord. Dated: 29th March, 2010 Respected Rashtrapati Ji, The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes was set up w.e.f. 19 February, 2004 under the (amended) Article 338A of the Constitution. Article 338A, inter-alia, provides that it shall be the duty of the Commission to present to the President, annually and at such other times as the Commission may deem fit, reports upon the working of the safeguards available to the members of Scheduled Tribes and to make in such reports recommendations as to the measures that should be taken by the Union or any State for effective implementation of those safeguards and other measures for protection, welfare and socio-economic development of the Scheduled Tribes. 2. The first Commission headed by Shri Kunwar Singh submitted its first Report for the period 2004-05 and 2005-06 to the President of India on 8 August, 2006. The Second Report for the period 2006-07 was submitted on 03.09.2008 by Smt. Urmila Singh, then Chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. I have now the honour to present to you the Third Report of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes for the year 2007-08. 3. During the period under review, the Commission struggled with inordinate vacancies of Members and staff. Nevertheless, the Members of the Commission held intensive discussions with the senior officers and people’s representatives at State, district and local levels. The Commission also held a series of meetings with the senior officers of the State Govts., Central Ministries/ Departments, Central Public Sector Enterprises and financial institutions including Banks and was instrumental in redressing the grievances of large number of petitioners relating to violation of the policy of reservation in matter of appointments and other service and development related matters including cases of atrocities on Scheduled Tribes. 4. This report has 5 main Chapters covering (i) Organizational Set-up and Functioning of the Commission, (ii) Service Safeguards, (iii) Educational Development of Scheduled Tribes, (iv) Health and Nutrition, (v) Case Studies. A summary of recommendations made in each Chapter of the Report has been given in the Sixth Chapter. 5. The first Chapter on 'Organizational Set-up and Functioning of the Commission' inter-alia, broadly dwells upon (i) functioning of the Commission, (ii) the need for strengthening the Commission with adequate staff and Regional i Offices in the States having sizable tribal population and (iii) the importance of timely laying of the Commission's reports in Parliament. The Commission has noted that it submitted its first report to the Hon'ble President on 8 August 2006 and 2nd Report on 03.09.2008, but neither of the reports has been laid before the Parliament so far. This is mainly due to the existing provisions of Clause(6) of Article 338A of the Constitution which require that all such reports have to be laid before each House of Parliament alongwith a Memorandum explaining the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations relating to the Union. As preparing this memorandum on the recommendations contained in the report takes time, its laying in Parliament is delayed. The Commission accordingly recommended, in its first as well as second report, that Clause (6) and Clause (7) of Article 338A should be amended to provide that the President/ Governor shall cause all reports submitted by the Commission to be laid before each House of Parliament/ State Legislature within three months of submission, to be followed by a memorandum of action taken within six months of such submission. The Commission is reiterating this recommendation as part of this report with the hope that the Government will initiate expeditious action to amend the above-mentioned Clauses of Article 338A. 6. The Constitution of India has made specific provisions for upliftment of the weaker sections of the society. These include provisions for reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in civil posts and services of the Government. There are several instructions and guidelines relating to implementation of policy of reservation by Govt. Departments and Public Sector Enterprises under them, including Banks, Insurance Companies and Central Universities, etc. Chapter 2 on 'Service Safeguards' discusses some of the important judgments of the Hon'ble Supreme Court having vital bearing on the service safeguards available to the members of the Scheduled Tribes. The dereservation of posts to be filled by Direct Recruitment is already banned since 1989 but the dereservation in promotion is permissible. This issue has been discussed in detail and the Commission has reiterated its earlier recommendation that the dereservation should be banned totally. 7. Education is the means for social and economic development of the human being. The Constitution of India has made special provisions for educational development of Scheduled Tribes. The Commission noted that despite several programmes under implementation by the State Governments, the level of education among STs continues to be much lower than other communities though there has been a gradual increase in the ST literacy rates. It also explains the reasons for poor representation of tribals in services, particularly in higher echelons, despite the system of reservation. The Commission, therefore, decided to review whether the benefits of the schemes which are being implemented for boosting the educational development of Scheduled Tribes were reaching them in various States. The Commission held meeting with the officials of the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Tribal Affairs to discuss the feedback received from the States and have made recommendations in Chapter 3 on Educational Development of Scheduled Tribes. ii 8. Health & Nutrition is another vital need for growth and development of Scheduled Tribes who are generally isolated from the health care system. The Commission, accordingly, requested the State Governments to apprise the Commission of the schemes/ programmes being implemented by them either on their own or with the assistance provided to them under various Centrally Sponsored Schemes/ Central Sector Schemes. On the basis of feedback received from the State Governments, a meeting was held with the officials of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare to discuss the observations of the Commission before formulating its recommendations in the matter. The relevant issues are discussed in Chapter 4 on Health and Nutrition 9. The Commission receives representations pertaining to grievances and violation of safeguards of Scheduled Tribes. These representations are referred to the concerned organizations of the Central Govt. or the State Govts. by the Commission requesting them to furnish full facts within a given time-frame. The facts furnished by the concerned organization are examined by the Commission, and if, on enquiry, the Commission feels that there has been violation of the safeguards provided to the members of Scheduled Tribes either in the Constitution or under any other law or order of the Government, it advises the concerned organization to take corrective measures within a given time-frame and apprise the Commission of the action taken. The Commission's intervention brought relief in a number of cases. A few representative cases have been discussed in Chapter 5 titled Case Studies. 11. Notwithstanding the various handicaps arising from acute shortage of staff, the Commission tried its best to perceive the basic problems of Scheduled Tribes and has made recommendations/suggestions to improve the implementation of existing schemes to extend the benefits to the Scheduled Tribes living in the remote areas. The Commission sincerely hopes that the Government will give serious consideration to the Commission's recommendations in the overall interest of Scheduled Tribes. With kind regards, Yours sincerely, (Maurice Kujur) Smt. Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, Hon'ble President of India, Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. iii CONTENTS No. CHAPTER Page. No. 1 ORGANISATIONAL SET-UP & FUNCTIONING OF THE 1-10 COMMISSION 1.1 Creation of the National Commission for Scheduled 1 Tribes 1.2 Powers of the Commission 2 1.3 Organizational Set-up of the Secretariat of the 3 Commission 1.4 Staffing position at the Hqrs. of the Commission 4 1.5 Regional Offices of the Commission and their 5 jurisdiction 1.6 Meetings of the Commission 6 1.7 Review meetings 6 1.8 Laying of the Commission's Reports in Parliament 7 1.9 Functional Activities 9 1.10 Progress of disposal of petitions/ cases 10 1.11 Mandate and functioning of National Commission 10 for Scheduled Tribes-Review by the Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. 2 SERVICE SAFEGUARDS 11-29 2.1 Constitutional Provisions 11 2.2 Constitutional validity of amendments upheld by 11 Hon'ble Supreme Court. 2.3 Reservation in promotion 12 2.4 Filling up vacancies reserved for SCs and STs 13 2.5 Calculation of vacancies reserved for SCs/STs & 14 OBCs in each mode of recruitment 2.6 Percentage of reservation for STs in case of direct 14 recruitment in Group 'C' & 'D' posts on local/ regional basis in respect of State of Goa 2.7 Representation of STs 14 2.7.1 Representation of STs in Central Ministries/ 14 Departments 2.7.2 Representation of STs in Central Public Sector 15 Enterprises (CPSEs) 2.7.3 Representation of STs in different Cadres of Public