Question : INCLUSION OF CASTES IN SCS LIST

(a) whether some State Governments/Union Territory Administrations including Government of Uttar Pradesh have requested to the Union Government to include some of the castes in the list of Scheduled Castes;

(b)if so, the details of requests/ proposals received alongiwth names of castes in this regard during each of the last three years, till date, State/Union-Territory-wise;

(c)the present status of each request/proposal including name of castes so fare included, pending for inclusion alaongwith the time by which the same will be included in the list, State/union Territory-wise;

(d)whether any initiative has been taken or is being taken by the Government to include in the list of Scheduled Castes those castes which have been mentioned in Clause `A` of Uttar Pradesh; and

(e)if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT (SMT. SUBBULAKSHMI JAGADEESAN)

(a) Yes Sir.

(b) to (e) Out of 451 requests for modifications in the list of Scheduled Castes, 323 requests were referred to the concerned State Governments/ Union Territory Administrations including Government of Uttar Pradesh since the requests lacked ethnographic details.The caste wise names are maintainable only in such cases where the complete proposals with ethnographic information have been received from the concerned States/ Union Territory Administrations and sent to the Registrar General of India. Further, the proposals, which have been agreed to by the Registrar General of India are referred to National Commission for Scheduled Castes for their comments as per approved modalities. Accordingly 46 proposals have been referred to the Registrar General of India and 80 proposals to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes; the caste- wise details of which are given in the statement at Annexure-I. The caste-wise details of those proposals, which have been agreed to by the Registrar General of India and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes are also given in the Statement at Annexure- II.

No time frame for final disposal of proposals can however be given as it requires consultation with various agencies. The names of castes, which are already included in the lists of Scheduled Castes are available in the Manual of Election Law published by the Ministry of Law and Justice.