Scheduled Castes in Punjab, India

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. ^[1]

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. ^[2]

In June 1926, Ad-Dharm movement was launched by Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia for the upliftment of the Dalits of Punjab. ^[3] 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. ^[4]

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. ^{[5] [6]} Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes form 63.2% of the total population of Punjab. ^[7]

Castes of Punjab (2011)

   Scheduled Castes (Dalits) (31.9%)

   Upper castes (UC) (33%)

   Other Backward Classes (OBC or BC) (31.3%)

  religious minorities (3.8%)

Caste Population data of Punjab
Constitutional categories	Population (%)	Castes
Other Backward Classes (OBC)	31.3% [8] [9]	includes Sainis, [10] Kamboj, Labana, Tarkhan/Ramgarhia, Kumhar/Prajapati, Arain, Gujjar, Teli, Banjara, Lohar, Bhat, [11] Others
Scheduled Castes (Dalits not including Rai Sikh statistics [12] )	31.9% [13]	includes Mazhabi Sikh – 10%, Ramdasia Sikh/Ravidassia (Chamar)/Ad-Dharmi – 13.1%, Balmiki/Bhanghi – 3.5%, Bazigar – 1.05%, Others - 4% [14]
General castes/Forward castes	33%	includes Jat Sikh and Hindu Jat – 21%, [15] Bishnoi, Rajput (includes Sikh Rajputs),Brahmin,Khatri,Sood, Arora, Bania(Agarwal), Bhatia (remaining 12%)
religious minorities	3.8% [16]	includes Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains

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. ^[17]

Below is the list of districts according to the percentage of their SC population, according to 2011 census. ^{[18] [19] [20]}

Scheduled Caste population by district (2011) ^[18]

Sr. No.	District	Percentage
1	Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar	42.51%
2	Muktsar	42.31%
3	Fazilka	42.27%
4	Firozpur	42.07%
5	Jalandhar	38.95%
6	Faridkot	38.92%
7	Moga	36.50%
8	Hoshiarpur	35.14%
9	Kapurthala	33.94%
10	Tarn Taran	33.71%
11	Mansa	33.63%
12	Bathinda	32.44%
13	Barnala	32.24%
14	Fatehgarh Sahib	32.07%
15	Amritsar	30.95%
16	Pathankot	30.60%
17	Sangrur	27.89%
18	Ludhiana	26.39%
19	Rupnagar	25.42%
20	Patiala	24.55%
21	Gurdaspur	23.03%
22	SAS Nagar	21.74%

Scheduled caste (SC) population among different religions in Punjab - Census 2011 ^[21]

Religion	Total Population	Scheduled Caste Population	Scheduled Caste Population %
Sikh	16,004,754	5,390,484	33.68%
Hindu	10,678,138	3,442,305	32.23%
Buddhist	33,237	27,390	82.40%

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%. ^[22]

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. ^[23]

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. ^[23]

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

Health status of Scheduled Caste (SC) population of Punjab (NFHS-3) ^[24]

Indicators	SC	Total
Infant Mortality Rate	46	44
Child Mortality Rate	16	7
Anaemic (child)	73.80%	66.40%
Anaemic (women)	42.60%	38.00%

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

Early childhood mortality rate in Punjab by caste, according to NFHS-4 (2015–16) ^[25]

Background Characteristics	SC	OBC	Others	Total
Neonatal Mortality	27.0	16.9	17.1	21.2
Post-neonatal Mortality	12.7	3.6	5.2	8.0
Infant Mortality	39.6	20.5	22.4	29.2
Child Mortality	6.5	3.3	1.9	4.1
Under five Mortality	45.9	23.7	24.2	33.2

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. ^[26]

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

Scheduled castes literacy rate in Punjab through the years ^[27]

Year	Percent
2011	64.81%
1991	41.10%
1981	23.86%
1971	16.12%
1961	9.64%

The table below gives the literacy rate of Scheduled castes by district, according to the 2011 census. ^{[18] [28] [29] [30]}

Scheduled caste (SC) literacy rate by districts - Census 2011 ^[31]

Sr. No.	District	SC Percentage	District total	Gap
1	Hoshiarpur	82.49%	84.59%	2.10%
2	Rupnagar	78.4%	82.19%	3.79%
3	Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar	77.72 %	79.78%	2.06%
4	SAS Nagar	76.1%	83.80%	7.70%
5	Jalandhar	76.68%	82.48%	5.80%
6	Gurdaspur	72.89%	79.95%	7.06%
7	Ludhiana	72.65%	82.20%	9.55%
8	Fatehgarh Sahib	72.19%	79.35%	7.16%
9	Kapurthala	71.29%	79.07%	7.78%
10	Patiala	62.28%	75.28%	13%
11	Amritsar	59.16%	76.27%	17.11%
12	Sangrur	57.60%	67.99%	10.39%
13	Moga	55.23%	70.68%	15.45%
14	Firozpur	55.38%	68.92%	13.54%
15	Faridkot	54.91%	69.55%	14.64%
16	Barnala	54.91%	67.82%	12.91%
17	Bathinda	53.09%	68.28%	15.19%
18	Tarn Taran	51.37%	67.81%	16.14%
19	Muktsar	50.46%	65.81%	15.35%
20	Mansa	48.72%	61.83%	13.11%
	Punjab	64.81%	75.84%	11.03%

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

Scheduled castes literacy rate in districts of Punjab by gender, as of 2011 census ^{[32] [33]}

District	Female	Male	Gap
Hoshiarpur	76.84%	87.96%	11.12%
Rupnagar	71.37%	84.86%	13.49%
Jalandhar	70.97%	82.03%	11.06%
SBS Nagar	70.96%	84.25%	13.29%
SAS Nagar	69.52%	81.96%	12.44%
Gurdaspur (including Pathankot)	66.34%	78.86%	12.52%
Ludhiana	65.99%	78.61%	12.62%
Fatehgarh Sahib	65.66%	71.99%	6.33%
Kapurthala	65.3%	76.84%	11.54%
Patiala	54.8%	68.99%	14.19%
Amritsar	52.83%	64.88%	12.05%
Sangrur	50.81%	63.65%	12.84%
Moga	50.14%	59.75%	9.01%
Barnala	50.14%	59.17%	9.03%
Faridkot	48.54%	60.62%	12.08%
Firozpur (including Fazilka)	47.05%	63.1%	16.05%
Bathinda	47.01%	58.57%	11.56%
Tarn Taran	44.57%	57.51%	12.94%
Sri Muktsar Sahib	43.58%	56.69%	13.11%
Mansa	43.42%	53.49%	10.97%
Punjab (whole)	58.39%	70.66%	12.27%

Politics

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

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. ^[35]

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. ^[36] 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. ^[37]

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. ^[38]

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. ^{[39] [40]}

The table below shows the number of recorded crimes against scheduled caste and scheduled tribe people from 2010 to 2018. ^[41]

Crimes against scheduled caste and scheduled tribe people in Punjab ^[41]

Year	Murder	Rape	POA Act	Hurt	Kidnapping	Miscellaneous
2018	13	30	32	6	4	82
2017	7	17	31	3	2	58
2016	7	16	41	1	3	64
2015	8	14	23	5	3	94
2014	4	19	16	2	3	79
2013	7	22	13	37	8	39
2012	4	12	8	21	2	24
2011	5	9	24	27	2	22
2010	4	18	50	13	0	30

See also

• Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
• Dalit
• Mazhabi Sikh
• Caste system in India
• Demographics of Punjab, India

References

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