SCs, STs do not have much access to public infrastructure: report

The Scheduled Castes (SC), the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and minorities do not have access to functional infrastructure facilities as they are 'merely situated in the general or backward classes habitations,' according to the National Infrastructure Equity Audit done by the Social Equity Watch.

The audit is a first-of-its-kind study determining the access of different social groups to public infrastructure in about 1,000 caste/religious habitations across five States. While village-level infrastructure investment has been crucial in developmental programmes, they are seldom equitably distributed. This equity audit has been done in 125 Gram Panchayats in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Orissa and Rajasthan.

Releasing the report here on Friday, Tom Thomas, CEO of Praxis (Institute for Participatory Practices) — the secretariat of Social Equity Watch — said there were still many SC/ST habitations which were left uncovered and people in these habitations had to travel longer distance than prescribed in official norms. The equity gap is severe in certain Gram Panchayats.

"At places where the infrastructure facilities are located in SC/ST habitations, a sizable percentage of the service providers are from the general or backward classes category. Further, most of these infrastructure facilities are in private lands or buildings," Mr. Thomas said.

The public infrastructure include, primary school, anganwadi centre, health sub-centre, drinking water, primary health centres, community centre, Panchayat Bhavan, road, Public Distribution System, post office, secondary school, telephone and information kiosk.

The rating of services by SC/ST and minorities in accessing these facilities was much lower than their backward class and general counterparts in the same habitations. The satisfaction gap was largely due to location of services in other habitation.

"From the findings, it emerges that the task ahead is to monitor the location of new infrastructure in such a way that the existing equity gap can be filled over the years. This would be crucial for scarce resources such as drinking water and certain newer infrastructure such as internet kiosks in the coming years," Mr. Thomas said.

The findings of audit will be presented before the Planning Commission as a run-up to the 12th Plan. The Praxis team has also sought an appointment with the Rural Development Minister.