The modified proposal of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to grant Scheduled Caste (SC) status to a child if either of the parents is an SC is set to be opposed by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) headed by Buta Singh. A sub-committee formed by the commission to examine the proposal has opposed the move, underlining that it was “not practical”.Meira Kumar’s ministry had recently revived its two-year-old “controversial” proposal to grant SC status to a child if either the father or the mother is an SC, with a modification to exclude Muslims and Christians, as the law does not recognise SCs in the two communities. The earlier proposal simply said that a child born out of inter-caste marriage would be recognised as SC if either the father or the mother is an SC. “It is almost decided that we will oppose the proposal. The report of the sub-committee has not favoured it. It is impractical and will lead to lot of complications apart from inviting legal hassles,” a commission member told The Indian Express.The proposal was discussed at a meeting of the full commission chaired by Singh on Tuesday and sources said the majority opposed the idea. A final decision over the proposal was, however, deferred citing that the report of the sub-committee headed by commission vice-chairman N M Kamble was yet to be considered. “The commission has deferred a decision over the proposal to consider the report of the sub-committee examining it,” said an NCSC official.Now, the SC status of a child is determined by the father only. “The idea behind the proposal is to grant gender equality,” Meira Kumar had told The Indian Express recently.The commission, however, has made up its mind to favour another proposal of the ministry to amend the Prevention of Atrocities (PoA)Act against SCs and STs, with certain suggestions. The ministry has proposed two amendments—provisions for special courts for speedy trials to try PoA cases and in case of serious offences, a detailed report be sent to the Centre and the NCSC.
