Scheduled Castes in Punjab

Scheduled castes in Punjab, or Dalits in Punjab are the officially designated groups in Punjab state in India which are most disadvantaged due to the caste system. They were placed in the lowest ranks of the caste system, because of which they suffered and are still suffering from social, political, economic and personal discrimination.

History
Before 1857, even though Dalits served as leather workers, sweepers and scavengers, butchers and performed menial duties in the British cantonments and under the British army, they were not recruited as soldiers. But after the 1857 war of independence, this began to change. Due to the shortage of soldiers from the so-called 'upper castes', British began to recruit Dalits as soldiers. They raised a regiment of Mazhabis and Ramdasias in Punjab. After some training, they sent them to fight against rebel soldiers in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. They had also raised Dalit regiments (Mehtar Regiment) in Hindi speaking areas, which were disbanded after the war, but the Mazhabi-Ramdasia regiment was allowed to continue.

In 1900, Punjab Land Alienation Act was passed, which had the unintended consequence of depriving Dalits the right to own land, because they were officially not considered an 'agricultural caste' by the British government.

In June 1926, Ad-Dharm movement was launched by Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia for the upliftment of the Dalits of Punjab. Ad-Dharam movement's aim was to create a separate religion and identity for the Dalits. The first meeting of the movement was held on 11–12 June 1926 in Hoshiarpur.

The movement also created its political organization, called Ad-Dharam Mandal, to fullfill its political ideas. It contested the 1937 elections and won one seat. It was successful in spreading awareness and assertion among Dalits. They also contested 1945-46 elections in alliance with Unionist Party, in which Mangoo Ram got elected. To bring consciousness in the Dalit community, they also started newspapers like Adi Danka and Ujjala.

On 21 September 2021, Charanjit Singh Channi became the first person from Dalit community to become the Chief Minister of Punjab. He was appointed as a chief minister by Congress Party after the resignation of Captain Amarinder Singh. He ruled for about 6 months before expiry of his term.

Demographics
As of September 2020, the caste population data foreach Forward caste citizen in Punjab collected in Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 has not been released to public by Government of India. Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes form 63.2% of the total population of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, 73.3% SC population predominantly lives in rural areas and 26.6% in urban areas of Punjab. In the state, 60.8% SCs follow Sikhism, 38.8% Hinduism and 0.3% Buddhism.

Below is the list of districts according to the percentage of their SC population, according to 2011 census.

Scheduled caste (SC) population among different religions in Punjab - Census 2011

There are more than 35 designated scheduled castes in Punjab. Of these, the five largest form 87% of the total SC population. Mazhabis constitute 31.5% of the SC population, Ravidasias/Ramdasias 26.2%, Ad-Dharmis 15% and Valmikis 11%.

Health
As per National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4, 2015–16), the infant mortality rate was 40 per 1000 live births before the age of one year for scheduled castes, compared to 29 per 1000 births for the state as a whole. The infant mortality rate for other backward castes (OBC) was 21 per 1000 live births and 22 per 1000 for those who are not from SC and OBC classes.

Although the prevalence of anaemia (low levels of haemoglobin in the blood) has been found quite high among all population groups in Punjab, it was still higher among the SC population than other groups. For the women between the ages of 15 and 49 years, the prevalence of anaemia among SC women was 56.9%, compared to 53.5% for the state as a whole. Among the children between the ages of 6 and 59 months, the rate of anaemia for SC children was 60%, compared to 56.9% for the state as a whole.

The table below compares the health status of Scheduled Caste population of Punjab, according to NFHS-3.

The table below shows the early childhood mortality rates in Punjab by caste, according to NFHS-4 (2015–16).

Education
According to the 2011 census, the literacy rate among Scheduled Castes in Punjab was 64.81%, compared to 75.84% for the whole state. The SC literacy rate of females was 58.39% and 70.66% for male SCs.

The table below shows the Scheduled castes literacy rate in Punjab through the years.

The table below gives the literacy rate of Scheduled castes by district, according to the 2011 census.

The table below shows the Scheduled Castes literacy rate of districts of Punjab by gender, as of 2011 census.

Politics
As of 2023, out of the 117 legislative assembly constituencies in Punjab, 34 are reserved for Scheduled Castes.

Economy
The poverty rate of SCs in Punjab was 15.6% in 2011–12, compared to the 8.2% for the whole state. The SC rate of 2011-12 declined from 38.2% in 1993–94, at the rate of 3.1%. Dalits comprise 62.3% of the total number of people living Below Poverty Line (BPL) in Punjab.

Despite comprising 31.94% of the Punjab's population, Dalits own only 3.5% of its total land. About 73.33% of the Dalit population lives in villages and is largely landless and faces housing shortages. According to the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1964, 33% of the village commons land (shamlaat) is reserved for the Dalits. But in many cases, they have been denied these rights by big landlords with fraudlent means.

Atrocities and Discrimination
In 2019, 166 crimes against Dalits were reported in Punjab. This amounted to the rate of 1.9 crimes per 1 Lakh of the Dalit population in the state. This rate was lower than the 22.8 per 1 Lakh Dalit population for the country as a whole.

In March 2023, a 26 year old Dalit female doctor doing her internship at an SGPC-run Medical college in Amritsar died by suicide after allegedly being subjected to caste discrimination and abuse. About 10 people, including 2 and 4 students of Sri Guru Ram Dass Institute of Medical Science and Research at Vallah, were later booked by police under charges of abetment to suicide and under provisions of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. According to the victim's mother, the accused allegedly used to make casteist slurs on her and would also used to threaten her that they will not let her complete her MBBS degree. The mother also alleged that they had complained about it to the principal but nothing was done.

The table below shows the number of recorded crimes against scheduled caste and scheduled tribe people from 2010 to 2018.