State-appointed panel favours inclusion of Dhangars in ST category

The panel, which was headed by IRS officer Sudhakar Shinde and comprised five official members and four experts from the Dhangar community, submitted the first part of its report to the state government on Monday

MUMBAI: A state-appointed nine-member panel has submitted a 40-page report that opens a window for Dhangar (shepherd) reservation in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category. The panel has mentioned that three states included Dhangars in the ST category in 2002 through a simple notification, and this could be done in Maharashtra as well. It has also stated that it could not arrive at a conclusion that Dhangars in Maharashtra could be termed Dhangads (a community that gets reservation in the ST category) to facilitate their automatic inclusion in the quota.

Days after the deputy speaker of the assembly and some other tribal MLAs jumped into a safety net in Mantralaya opposing the move to include Dhangars within the Scheduled Tribes quota, three Dhangar activists on Tuesday repeated the act seeking inclusion of the community within the ST quota.

The panel, which was headed by IRS officer Sudhakar Shinde and comprised five official members and four experts from the Dhangar community, submitted the first part of its report to the state government on Monday. The committee was mandated to study reservation to Dhangars, Dhangads and Oroans in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The second part of the report will be submitted once the committee visits two more states, Karnataka and Goa. The first part of the report is expected to be brought before the state cabinet this week.

According to an official privy to the report, the Shinde panel has mentioned that Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha made a recommendation to the president in 2002 that Dhangars be included in the ST quota. “The proposal was later approved by Parliament,” he said. “But before going to Parliament, a proposal has to get the approval of the President as well as the registrar-general of the Census Commission of India, which could be difficult.”

Another official said that although the three states had followed the laid-down procedure, there were a few others that simply issued a notification. “The notification said that there was merely a difference in pronunciation or script between Dhangars and Dhangads (a community that gets reservation in the ST category) and thus extended the benefit to Dhangars in their states,” he said. “The courts either quashed or sustained the reservation. Whether to issue such a notification, fearing legal ramifications or tribal backlash, is a decision the government will have to take.”

The Eknath Shinde-led government is under tremendous pressure from the Dhangar community to be included in the ST quota. Dhangars currently get a 3.5% quota as nomadic tribes under the OBC quota, which will double if included in the ST category. According to some leaders, the ruling parties will need to take a political call on whether to choose to pacify tribals or Dhangars.

The committee has stated that it found no reason to state that Dhangads were called Dhangars in Maharashtra. “The brief was to study reservation given to Dhangars in five states,” the officer quoted above said. “It is true that Dhangads and Dhangars are in some cases differentiated by script and pronunciation, but this needs to be backed by evidence. The committee at least has not found any such evidence during its tour.”

Meanwhile, the nine-member panel was divided on certain issues, which resulted in two experts on the committee submitting a separate report to the government in August. The two dissenting members have recommended that a notification be issued by the governor to include Dhangars in the ST quota. They have also advocated that the existing 7% reservation to STs and 3.5% to Dhangars be merged so that both the communities do not feel deprived.