Dalit Christians stage demonstration in Puducherry

Demanding reservation in education and jobs, Christians of Dalit origin on Friday staged a demonstration in Puducherry, Tamil Nadu.

Led by the Dalit Christians Munnetra Kazhagam, the protestors gathered near the Collectorate and demanded for quota on lines of the two per cent reservation for Dalit Muslims announced by the Puducherry government.

The demand, according to Bismarck, president of the Dalit Christians Munnetra Kazhagam, has come in the backdrop of the recommendations of the Ranganath Mishra Commission.

He told a local daily that the Puducherry government had announced reservations for Dalit Muslims and fisher fold, but none for Dalit Christians.

The National Commission on Religious & Linguistic Minorities, headed by Justice Ranganath Mishra, former Chief Justice of India, in its report had called for extending the benefit of reservation to Dalits belonging to Christian and Muslim communities.

The report states that non-inclusion of Christian and Muslim Dalits in the category of Scheduled Castes that are entitled to job reservations, tantamounts to religious discrimination which is against he spirit of constitution.

Dalit organisations had organised a nationwide protest in August, wearing black badges and carrying banners, condeming the the negligence of government in deleting a clause in the Constitution Order 1950 that excludes them from the SC net.