On equal access to benefits for all Scheduled Caste communities | Explained

The story so far: The Union government has formed a high-level committee of secretaries, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, to evaluate and work out a method for the equitable distribution of benefits, schemes and initiatives to the most backward communities among the over 1,200 Scheduled Castes across the country, that have been crowded out by relatively forward and dominant ones. This committee’s formation is the result of a meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired in December, 2023, weeks after promising to look into the demand for sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes as raised by the Madiga community in Telangana in the run-up to the Assembly elections there last year. Like the Madiga community, SC communities in several States have said that they have been routinely crowded out of benefits meant for SCs by dominant and relatively forward communities in their category. While the committee’s formation comes on the heels of the PM’s promise to the Madiga community, sources have told The Hindu that its “scope is larger than just one community in one State as it will be looking at ways to address similar issues faced by similarly-placed SC communities across the country”.