Don’t use word Dalit to identify any person: Punjab SC commission
Chandigarh: Taking note of the word ‘Dalit’ being used for newly appointed chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi in social media pages, print and electronic media, chairperson of the Punjab state scheduled castes commission Tejinder Kaur on Tuesday issued instructions to not use nomenclature ‘Dalit’ to mark identity of any person belonging to the scheduled castes .
The chairperson said that the nomenclature ‘Dalit’ does not find mention in the Constitution of the country or any statute and moreover, the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment has already directed all chief secretaries of the state governments and Union territory administrations on this issue. She said the Madhya Pradesh high court bench in Gwalior had passed an order on January 15, 2018, in a public interst litigation ‘Dr Mohan Lal Mahor Vs Union of India & Ors’ and had directed that “the central government/state government and its functionaries would refrain from using the nomenclature ‘Dalit’ for the members belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes as the same does not find mention in the Constitution of India or any statute”.
The chairperson said that the Union ministry had directed all the state governments and Union territory administrations to use the word “scheduled caste” instead of “Dalit” for the persons belonging to scheduled castes.
Earlier, the Punjab state commission for scheduled castes in a letter on September 13 addressed to chief secretary Vini Mahajan had also recommended to rename the villages, towns and other places which are presently named after castes and not use derogatory names such as Chamarheri etc.
Courtesy: The Times Of India
Note: This news piece was originally published in timesofindia.indiatimes.com and use purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights objectives.