Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution (Cultural Subordination and the Dalit Challenge) by Sudha Pai

Author:Sudha Pai [Pai, Sudha]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780761996279
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2002-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

Retributive Justice in Practice: The AVP

During the brief periods when the BSP was in office, in 1995 and 1997, it attempted to put its ideology of social justice into practice by providing state-funded welfare/developmental measures for the Dalits and, to a lesser extent, the backwards and the minorities. Following the failure of the SP-BSP coalition in 1995, the Party concentrated its efforts on providing help to all sections of the Dalits and consolidating their support behind the Party. While many programmes for the social and economic welfare of Dalits were introduced by Mayawati,4 in both 1995 and 1997 when she assumed office, the Ambedkar Village Programme (AVP) provided the best example of a major scheme that was based on the BSP’s ideology of social justice. It was the largest development/welfare programme adopted by the Party on attaining political power, and it generated enthusiasm among the BSP cadres and the Dalits in the countryside (Mishra 1997: 1446). The AVP was implemented through the new Panchayats created by the 73rd Constitutional Amendment.5 The Amendment gave Panchayats a Constitutional position, i.e., they now formed a third tier, and their powers and finances increased. More important, by providing reservation to Dalits it changed the social composition of Panchayats, giving the lower castes a predominant position in these institutions. This enabled a programme meant for Dalits, to be implemented through the Panchayats.

The AVP was initiated by the Mulayam Singh government during the Centenary celebration of B.R. Ambedkar in 1991, with the hope of gaining Dalit votes, following the decline of the Congress in UP. In December 1990, a government Order directed that by January 1991, five villages from each district were to be selected for this programme on an experimental basis, which would later be expanded.6 The selected villages remained under the AVP for a period of one year and were provided an extra fund of Rs I lakh for village development, supplementing the already existing special programmes for the Dalits and backward castes. Between 1991 and 1997–98, a total of 25,434 Ambedkar villages all over UP were selected. The numbers selected each year are provided in Table 3.17 These villages were selected in three rounds: between 1990–91 and 1995–96 villages with over 50 per cent SC in the population; between 1996–97 with 22–30 per cent SC in the population; and between 1997–98, 10 villages with not less than 30 per cent SCs in the population from each Vidhan Sabha Constituency, were selected. The numbers ranged from six villages in some districts to 260 in district Azamgarh, where there was a high concentration of Dalit population.

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