Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Women and Child Development has asked all the stakeholders to take all preventive, precautionary, punitive and rehabilitative measures in all cases of crimes against women and children from the SCs, who are often made victims of violence and atrocities. In her valedictory address at the Conference on Issues and Challenges for Development of Scheduled Caste Women and Children here today, she added that the Government is committed to ensure that full benefits of government schemes and programmes flow to the women and children of SCs, who generally are among the most vulnerable sections of the society. Despite various initiatives of the Government for holistic development of the SCs they continue to face challenges due to lack of educational and employment opportunities, ownership of resources and social ostracism. The Government is serious in taking effective steps that are required to address these challenges. Smt. Krishna Tirath lamented that SC women continue to be the most marginalized in terms of educational and employment opportunities, ownership of resources and face social ostracism. The existence of manual scavenging as a legitimate occupation for many is evidence that the task remains unfinished and effective steps are required to address these challenges.

During the two day conference, the Working Groups deliberated on Social, Economic and Political Empowerment of SC Women and Children and their protection from atrocities. The Conference focused upon social empowerment of SC women and children by improving their access to health & nutrition, education, housing & living conditions; and economic empowerment by enhancing opportunities for development & livelihoods in agriculture and non-agricultural sectors. Issues relating to manual scavenging and security & protection from atrocities were the other areas of focus.

To ensure economic empowerment of SC women, the Conference emphasized upon the need for enabling ownership of land and landed assets by SC women, organizing them into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and upgrading their skills. Increasing the number of days of assured employment under MGNREGA was also suggested. In the non-agricultural sector, the need for capacity-building of SC women to enable them to move from low and medium skilled jobs to high-skilled employment was highlighted.

On the issue of manual scavenging, the recommendations focused on the need for complete abolition of this practice, proper assessment of the numbers of those who are engaged in this occupation and intensive efforts towards their rehabilitation.

To ensure protection of SC women and children from atrocities, the Conference strongly recommended the establishment of an effective accountability mechanism, setting up of a focal officer in the Government to deal with SC women’s issues and creating awareness about grievance redressal mechanisms available. Ensuring effective implementation of Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP) was also emphasized upon.

There was wide participation from various stakeholders including Central Government Ministries, State Governments, experts and representatives of civil society organizations. Member Planning Commission, Dr. Narendra Jadhav, CMD National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation, Shri Ananta Charan Padhi, Dr. Vimal Thorat from All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch, and Secretary/ Additional Secretary of Ministries of Rural Development, Agriculture, Social Justice & Empowerment, Panchayati Raj, and Department of School Education (Ministry of HRD) were among those who presented their views during the Conference.

The Conference on ‘Issues & Challenges for Development of Scheduled Caste Women & Children’ was organized by the Ministry of Women & Child Development on 18th – 19th January, 2011 at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. The Conference reemphasised that the goal of holistic empowerment of Scheduled Caste Women and children would entail a radical transformation in the mindsets and societal perceptions within the family, the community and the nation as a whole. An integrated approach which focuses on the holistic empowerment and development of SC women and children is necessary to ensure that the constitutional vision of equality is fully realized. From the available data, it emerged that while in some sectors such as health and education, there had been an improvement and the gap between SC population and others had narrowed, disparities remained. A major limitation highlighted, in this context, was the absence of data, disaggregated by gender and social categories.