BETTING ON WELFARE BOARDS

With the assembly election just months away, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Madhya Pradesh has stepped up its efforts to woo smaller groups within reserved categories, much like the Congress regime in neighbouring Chhattisgarh, which too is scheduled to go to the polls in November this year.

- Rahul Noronha

On April 16, addressing a rally in Gwalior, Chouhan announced plans to set up welfare boards for sub-castes within the Scheduled Castes (SCs)—Koris and Jatavs. This comes after the state government on April 5 issued orders to set up four welfare boards, each dedicated to an Other Backward Class (OBC) group—Rajak (washermen), Telghani (Sahu-Rathore or Teli community), Vishwakarma (carpenters) and Swarnkaar (Soni or jewellers’ community). The stated objective is the “promotion of employment and self-employment opportunities for the youth” of these communities. But, more importantly, the move will provide representation to these small socially and economically backward groups in the state’s governance, as each board is to have a chairman from the same community who will be given cabinet minister rank.