State to set up Maha Dalit panel

17 Aug 2007, 0327 hrs IST , TNN
PATNA: The Bihar government has decided to constitute a Maha Dalit Commission for the welfare of certain Dalit castes who are socially and educationally backward and treated as untouchables even by Dalits. CM Nitish Kumar announced the constitution of the commission during his Independence Day speech at Gandhi Maidan here on Wednesday. The suggestion for such a commission had been made by the Akhil Bhartiya Musahar-Bhuiyan Sangh at a conference here a few months back. Nitish had agreed, in principle, to constitute such a commission. He said, still there were many sub-castes among Dalits like Musahar, Mehtar, Dom, Rajwar and others who do not benefit from the reservation system and other schemes. He said among Dalits, there was no such classification as a backward class, adding that the commission will study the status of the neglected castes and suggest ways for their uplift. It has been noticed that some of Dalit castes could not get any benefit from reservation due to lack of education. In educational institutions, too, the children of these castes are discriminated against and majority of them drop out. As a result, the literacy level among those castes is abysmally low. In the bonded labour system, the men and women mostly belonging to these castes are found to be trapped. The CM said the government would implement the recommendations of the panel for a better social order which would also arouse social and educational consciousness among them.