Ground reality of welfare measures: voices from below

Abstract

In spite of age-old Brahmin or upper-caste domination on the ecosocio- political life of Uttar Pradesh, we saw huge success of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2007 Vidhan Sabha election. It becomes the only National Party of India, which captures power for Bahujan, with Bahujan and by Bahujan. Ideologically, BSP wants ‘Social Transformation and Economic Emancipation’ of the Bahujan Samaj, which is comprised of the Scheduled Castes (SCs), the Scheduled Tribes (STs), the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Religious Minorities such as Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Buddhists. In a Press Release in 2009, the Party announced that the State Government of Uttar Pradesh is giving priority to the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and declared many schemes to achieve its objectives. This raised hopes among the so-called ‘backward’ and downtrodden classes of this province. But, how far these welfare programmes were effective was still to be proved. To unravel the ground reality, we had done an empirical survey on the awareness and impact of the welfare schemes of Uttar Pradesh on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In this paper is an outcome of the survey.