The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : “Reservation benefits are enjoyed only by a very few”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 18, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

“Reservation benefits are enjoyed only by a very few”

Staff Reporter

Vested interests preventing Dalit assertion: Thol. Thirumavalavan

“Reservation’ using 2011 census data must be worked out”

MADURAI: There was a concerted effort on the part of vested interests to prevent Dalit assertion and now it had manifested in the public sphere through the question of compartmental reservation, said Thol. Thirumavalavan, general secretary of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK).

Addressing a seminar on ‘Dalit consolidation and the politics of reservation’ here recently, he said that the political assimilation of the Dalits through strenuous struggles for more than a century had started making rapid strides in the political sphere. Unable to digest the political consciousness among the Dalits and its resultant effects in Uttar Pradesh, evil forces in various hues were working out pernicious techniques to divide them. He asked all the oppressed castes to remain united and fight against the oppressors.

Claiming that the reservation benefits were enjoyed only by a very few upwardly mobile Dalits, he said that the others were structurally denied using various modes of bureaucratic checks which mainly included “the vacancies are not filled because of the dearth of eligible candidates.” The reservation benefits had mostly materialised in the form of employment at the Class IV level and Dalits never entered the upper echelons of bureaucracy, he said.

Questioning the rationale behind compartmental reservation, he wondered how the figure of 6 per cent was achieved. There were organisations which sought 10 per cent, he added.

In proportion

Later, speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Thirumavalavan stated that ‘separate reservation’ using the 2011 census data should be worked out and as per the data, based on head count, reservation should be provided to the respective castes in proportion to their numbers.

He also charged that all governments, irrespective of their ideology, had never really worked for the incorporation of the subaltern communities into its system of patronage, which henceforth could not be equated to an extension of democratic participation for which the communities vied.

Mr. Thirumavalavan said that he was ready to fight and had always spoken in the past for special reservation for Arunthathiyars. In this regard, he would meet Communist Party of India (Marxist) secretary N. Varadarajan in person to discuss the recent spats between the VCK, Marxists and various Dalit organisations belonging to Arunthathiyar sections.

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