• Central government spending on SC/ST welfare has increased substantially since 2014. Know number of cases filed under SC/ST Act and convictions (2020 onwards). Can government tell how many non-SC/ST communities are attacking them or are STs killing STs like in Manipur? The colonial allegation of years of discrimination against SC/ST needs to be questioned.

The Economic Times was the only big paper to carry this headline, Government proposes 40% hike in SC/ST atrocity compensation to up to Rs 12 lakh , last increased in 2016. Mahi Saha wrote in Neopolitico.com, “The proposal also raises legitimate questions about the growing burden on taxpayers and whether compensation-based measures alone can address the deeper problems surrounding the implementation of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.” The new rates will adjust with inflation.

It is time to know outlay on SC/ST, which community commits crimes and question British bogey of discrimination. This article seeks to provokes thought.

Table 1 Financial Outlay in Budget SC/ST 2014-2015 to 2018-19 Rs Lakh crs

Source

Table 2 Financial Outlay DAPSC SC/ST 2017-2018 to 2020-21 Rs Lakh crs

DAPSC is Development Action Plan for Scheduled Castes. Source

Table 3 2023 onwards Spending n Budget SC/ST Rs Lakh crs

* Sansad.in and @ Source For FY25-26 also refers PRS analysis of Budget25

# This excludes Ministry of Tribal Affairs Rs 14,926 crs. Source

Average outlay per year from 2014 to 2018-19 was 65,000 crs. That has gone up in FY27 budget to Rs 3.37 lakh crores. The Modi government has increased budget by substantial amounts. This excludes what state governments spend. To this add cost of reservations etc. Yet there is demand for more. Simultaneously, number of SC/ST communities keeps increasing because of additions made due to competitive politics.

Is SC/ST spending a bottomless pit like Subsidy to Farmers by the Centre?

The Central government has since 2019 given app Rs 65,000 crs per year to farmers across India. This amount is pocketed and forgotten, farmers still protest about farm stress and want agricultural loans written off. To this add fertiliser subsidy, MSP bonus, free or subsidised power and loan write offs as done recently by Maharashtra.

Are increased revenue collections and borrowings going to fund such expenditure, fertiliser subsidy, free food etc?  

One of the reasons for SC/ST spending is alleged discrimination of 5,000 years. The British introduced this theory that has become ingrained in the system, political and courts such that we ceased to ask questions for e.g.  

1. Has anyone calculated the money (Centre and States) have collectively spent on SC, ST welfare in the last 75 five years and made a case for reduction in spending and percentage of reservations.

2. On Untouchability, former CJI Chandrachud wrote in 2024 SC order, “In 1919, the Southborough Franchise Committee adopted the test of untouchability to define depressed class. The Committee interpreted the phrase “depressed classes” as the 'untouchability class, i.e. the class whose touch or approach is deemed to cause pollution as it exists in United Provinces. (Uttar Pradesh).” Pg. 90 

“The 1919 Note states that untouchability as it existed in Madras, where an untouchable’s touch necessitated immediate purification, did not exist in Assam.” Pg. 92/94 Source  So how can one treat all untouchables as SC across the country?

Further, understanding that untouchables correspond to depressed classes is based on a 1919 report.

It was Ambedkar who said he belonged to the Depressed Classes so the British probably assumed that the treatment met to DC in Maharashtra (not allowed to enter temples) was practiced uniformly across India.

If colonial theory was a reality WOULD-

A. “Ambedkar’s Brahmin school teacher drop daily a part of his meal-boiled rice, bread and vegetables into the hands of Bhim during the recess.” 1 Pg. 14  

B. “Bhim drew his surname Ambawadekar from his native village Ambavade (father was Sakpal). The teacher took so much fancy to the boy that he even changed his surname from Ambavadekar to his own surname Ambedkar in the school records.” Yet, “the teachers would not touch their notebooks.” 1 Pg. 14

C. A Brahmin Doctor become Dr Ambedkar’s second wife? 

D. Scheduled Tribe (ST) converts to Christianity and Islam are still ST and enjoy State benefits. This is rampant in the Northeast where virtually all ST (excluding Tripura) are Christian & enjoy income-tax exemptions as ST.

E. The former rulers of Tripura are ST including music director R.D. Burman.

F. Jaipur Maharani Gayatri Devi’s sister I Devi married into Tripura Royal Family. 

G. ST of Tripura worship Shivji. The tribal name of Lord Shiva is SUBRAI RAJA in Kok Borok dialect of Tripura’s tribal groups. A search states that not all tribals worship Siva.

H. Senior Journalist and author Sandhya Jain wrote in Adi Devta Arya Devta. “Jagannatha’s tribal origins are undeniable, though the god is today inseparable from the ‘high’ Hindu panorama and is a key constituent of Orissa’s regional identity.” 

I. Meenas of Rajasthan (now ST) were rulers before the Kachhwaha Rajputs, the last rulers of Jaipur. Read  How Meenas got ST status

J. Gavri Festival celebrated by Bhil tribals of Mewar is about worship of Gauri and Shivji. 

Gond Palace, Gonds considered ST, near Jabalpur. 

Hornbill Festival is celebrated by Nagas in Kohima. “Nagaland is known as “the only predominantly Baptist state in the world” and more than 96 per cent of the Naga people identify themselves as Christian.” Indian Express 2018

North- east Nagas (except fair person in the Centre), Hornbill Festival 2014.

3. What is the proof that education was not denied to Depressed Classes?

Firstly, denial of education & Untouchability are different issues. Read When caste was not a bad word to also know reasons for economic deprivation of DC.

Gandhian Dharampal ji studied the state of education around 1820. He visited British and Indian archives and wrote The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the 18th century. The book reproduces reports of numerous surveys undertaken by the British (1800-1830) in Bengal, Punjab and Madras presidencies. It also gives caste composition and subjects taught in schools. Education was imparted in pathshalas, gurukulas and madrasas. Book also tells that the British destroyed this indigenous education system, noted by Gandhi too.

As per survey results reproduced in the book maximum number of scholars were Sudras. To read tables The British started this denial of education to divide India, the Congress carried it forward post 1947 and the BJP has joined them.

In many States SC converts are declared OBC. Read Here

Meghwals SC, are amongst the most talented community in embroidery. Barmer 2013. 

4. Are there benefits of the much aligned caste system?

Yes. Author and former head of Proctor and Gamble India Gurcharan Das said in Mint, “My own politically incorrect answer is that we had in India the good fortune of having merchant castes, trading communities. If you institute economic reforms in a society where people know how to conserve capital… If you have communities in whose DNA is that… it is a genetic advantage.” MINT Benefits of the Caste System

5. Number of cases registered under SC/ST Act of 1989? PIB link 30/7/26

Reply by The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in Rajya Sabha did not tell how many of the convicted were SC/ST themselves? In Manipur ST converts Kukkis and Nagas are killing each other? How are others responsible?

After going up in 2022 and 2023, there is a drop in cases registered. Then why proposal to increases compensation in August 2026 – a way to buy support!

Unless the government gives the caste of those responsible for killings, how can the non-tribal communities be held responsible? If a Muslim ST kills a Muslim ST or if a Muslim rapes and kills a SC girl how are others responsible? Yet such killing might be included in atrocity against SC/ST!

6. Lastly, who are Scheduled Castes (SC)?

Dr Ambedkar used the word Depressed Classes. In the early 1930's Gandhi coined the word Harijan or Children of God for untouchables. The Government of India Act 1935 introduced the term 'Scheduled Caste' for the depressed classes. It is subsequent to such classification that Ambedkar formed a Scheduled Caste Federation. It is only since the 1990's that the word Dalit entered mainstream public discourse. Read  History of word Dalit

Also read and References

1. Life and Mission Dr Ambedkar by Dhananjay Keer. 

2. Bahenbox Budgets rise marginally   

3. Dr Alka Maurya paper – ST in India

4. Discovering the Gond Palace in Madhya Pradesh – Gond considered ST.

5. Former Rulers of Tripura are Scheduled Tribe under Colonial Constitution

6. Scheduled Caste Converts are OBC in States

7. Equality before Law is a myth in India

8. Quota Norms deserve Scrutiny by Sandhya Jain

9. Gond Paintings – A Mystic world created by dots and lines

10. Reservations in Indian explained

11. Christian Constitution in a Hindu Nation