SACHAR COMMITTEE

1. Context

2. Key points

• Even if the motivations behind it may be murky, the move itself is welcome because the issue is crystal clear.
• This was established through a 2008 review study commissioned by the National Commission of Minorities (NCM) and housed in the Sociology Department of Delhi University.
• The study reviewed two main kinds of the available evidence, ethnographic-descriptive and macro-statistical, in addition to semi-academic NGO reports and publications.
• The freshly conducted part of the study was an extensive analysis of the unit-level data from the latest large-sample survey of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).

3. The existence of caste divisions

• The Survey of ethnographic materials began with the finding that the existence of caste divisions including the presence of ex-"untouchable" castes recognised as such among both Muslims and Christians was beyond dispute.
• Dalit Muslims (DMs) and Dalit Christians (DCs) were identified and segregated much like their counterparts in the Hindu or Sikh communities.
• The case of Buddhism is different because the overwhelming majority around 95 per cent of India's Buddhists are Dalits.
• As expected, there was significant variation in specific practices of discrimination and segregation across regions and communities, but this is common to Hinduism and Sikhism as well.

3.1. Caste-based social discrimination

1. The practice of untouchability
2. Enforced ban on inter-marriage
3. Occupational segregation
4. Social and cultural segregation and
5. Economic discrimination.

1. The most common instances were separate mosques or churches (or hierarchically segregated seating)
2. Separate burial grounds
3. Strict prohibition on inter-marriage with very severe punishments (sometimes extending to murder) for breaking this taboo and
4. General avoidance of social interaction and cooperation.

3.2. Economic status

1. Proportions of the population in poverty or affluence
2. Intra-community differences between Dalits and non-Dalits
3. Average levels of consumption
4. Occupational structure and 
5. Educational levels

4. Survey findings

• The main findings were that DMs are the worst off among all Dalits, while DCs are somewhat better off than other Dalits except for Sikh Dalits (Who are by far the best off, especially in the rural sector).
• As expected, DMs and DCs were significantly under-represented among the affluent and over-represented among the poor.
• The quantitative section was only indicative since it was handicapped by the small number of households in the NSSO sample that met the double criteria of religion and caste and by the variations in self-reported official categories.

5. Lack of reliable data

• There is a circularity about the lack of data that needs to be emphasised.
• Official national-level data usually more reliable than other kinds does not exist on DMs and DCs because they are not recognised as Scheduled Castes.
• Responding to petitions seeking recognition, the courts accept that "Caste survives conversion" but complain about the lack of reliable data. No recognition, no data; no data, no recognition.
• But the larger reality here is that the refusal to recognise DMs and DCs is not because of data or administrative-financial issues.

6. 2004-05 NSSO survey

• Informal guesstimates (based on the 2001 Census and 2004-05 NSSO survey) place the proportion of DMs at 1 per cent or less of the Muslim population and DCs as anything between 40-50 per cent of the Christian population of India.
• As per the 2011 census, Muslims are 14.2 per cent and Christians are 2.3 per cent of our population.
• Taken together, DMs and DCs are likely to form less than 2 per cent of the total Dalit population of India, more than 90 per cent of which is Hindu.
• Adding DMs and DCs will not rock the boat of reservation, since the increment will be roughly one-fifth of the 10 per cent reservation readily granted to the upper castes as the Economically Weaker Sections.

7. Social discrimination

• The existing evidence already shows that DMs and DCs suffer from the same kind of social discrimination as Hindus or Sikh Dalits.
• Like Muslim and Christian scripture, Sikh and especially Buddhist scripture do not recognise caste.
• Therefore, granting Dalit Sikhs and Buddhists reservations while denying them to DMs and DCs is plain hypocrisy.
• In India, every Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Sikh also has a caste identity, whether chosen or imposed.
• And in every single community without exception, the Dalit vs non-Dalit divide is the most intensely and brutally patrolled border between social groups.
• Despite a rate consensus that there is no administrative, rational or moral reason to treat Dalits of different religions differently, no government has addressed this issue.
• It is wise to remember that "study commissions" are the classic device of evasion and suffer widely varying fates.