BPL houses are now marked 'yellow' in Bhilwara district

JAIPUR: In what could potentially polarize the Rajasthani society, the textile town of Bhilwara has marked the houses of people belonging to the below poverty line (BPL) category.
All BPL houses in the district will have a yellow patch with the name of the beneficiary and identification number. The local administration has already 'profiled' over one lakh houses in rural Bhilwara with this BPL mark, clearly defining their status and differentiating them from their more prosperous brethren in the caste-sensitive district.
According to the local administration, BPL families are beneficiaries of several schemes and this marking would ensure that these reached them promptly.
But sociologists and psychologists fear that such institutionalized 'profiling' could lead to caste and class polarization. The BPL category primarily includes communities which are social and economically backward - SC, ST and minorities.
Anita Bhadel, state minister for women and child development and the person behind the concept, has no doubts over the potentially regressive and damaging move. "It has been done for easy identification of such families so that they can be granted benefits in a transparent manner. In the first phase, BPL families in rural Bhilwara has been identified and marked with a yellow banner. In the next phase, we will carry this out in urban centres," Bhadel said.
Stressing on the importance of the concept, Gajendra Singh Rathore, the CEO of Bhilwara Municipal Corporation, said that such identification would prevent the misuse of BPL status.
"Such markings will expose those families who don't qualify but have BPL cards and make use of its schemes and policies," said Rathore.
Since the Right to Education Act in Rajasthan allows only BPL families to apply for the admission under the 25% reservation quota in private schools, the rush to retain BPL status has increased manifold. The administration claimed that since they started marking BPL houses they have received complaints about families who have forged documents for being included in the category.
Explaining the danger of such 'profiling', Rajiv Gupta former head of sociology department, Rajasthan University termed the whole exercise as an 'insult' of a large section of people.