We have taken a slew of steps for all-round development of Dalits: Thawar Chand Gehlot

Last month, you spoke passionately about the years of discrimination that the Dalit community has faced. You are the Centre’s most prominent face from the community. How does the government plan to reach out to Dalits? 

For the all-round development of the Dalit community, we have taken a slew of steps. We brought in an amendment to The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015 to make it stronger, making offences like blackening faces, beating people up and parading people naked punishable under law. The maximum punishment for these offences under the IPC was 10 years in jail, which will act as a deterrent. We set up financial institutions for the SC/ST and OBC communities, sanitation workers, and the differently-abled by imparting skills training and giving out loans at 4-5 per cent interest, and 3-3.5 per cent for women. Over 2,50,000 people have availed loans, and 1,50,000 people have taken part in skill development.

The PMO, last year, made the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry the monitoring agency of the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP), which earlier was under the NITI Aayog. One of the biggest hurdles is that states do not release enough funds. Has the Centre taken any action on that? 

The UPA government could not execute the recommendations of the Yadav Committee since 2010-11. It was decided that the SCSP was to get 16.2 per cent of the total budget from 26 departments. The UPA never released more than 11 per cent, while we increased it to 13.5 per cent. Last year, we gave up over Rs 52,000 crore, which is over 20.2 per cent now.

The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) has been discontinued to be replaced with the National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (NSEBC). How will the ministry ensure that backward classes belonging to the SC/ST communities do not lose out on opportunities? 

The NSEBC will act on the lines of the SC/ST Commission; and it will evolve to have a judicial role. It will deal with cases and will decide on which community needs to be added or removed from the OBC list. In cases when problems earlier arose between SC/STs and OBCs and both complained, the possibility of justice being done to the OBCs was lesser under the SC/ST Commission.

The transgender Bill had a lot of detractors, because many said that the Centre’s Bill was a watered-down version of Tiruchi Siva’s bill. How does the government plan to remedy that? 

Once the Bill is back from the Standing Committee, we’ll see if there are any changes that need to be incorporated and take a call.

A drug survey has been on the cards for quite a while, and a Parliamentary Standing Committee, too, has pointed to that. What are the ministry’s plans regarding this? 

The survey is being carried out by the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) currently, and we are expecting a report by December this year.