Charanjit Singh Channi, who has replaced Amarinder Singh as the chief minister in Punjab, is the first Dalit to hold this office in the state
Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi addresses the media after the oath-taking ceremony at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh, Monday. (PTI Photo)
Charanjit Singh Channi, who has replaced Amarinder Singh as the chief minister in Punjab, is the first Dalit to hold this office in the state. Punjab is the state with the highest share of Dalits, or Scheduled Castes (SC), in its population. But it is also clear that by selecting a Dalit for the top political job in the state, the Congress is trying to send a larger political message beyond the state’s borders. Kanshi Ram, who was among the tallest Dalit leaders in post-independence India and founded the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), was also a Dalit from Punjab. How successful will this strategy be? Here are four charts which try and answer this question.
Not all of Punjab’s SC population is Sikh
SCs account for 38% of Punjab’s population, the largest among all states in the country. However, not all SCs in Punjab are Sikhs, although the latter are dominant among the state’s SC population. The share of Sikhs belonging to the SC category in Punjab is 27%, while the remaining 11% of the SC population is Hindu. But even 27% is quite high if one compares the share of SC population across states.
What is the socio-economic status of Dalits in Punjab?
Whichever indicator one takes to look at the socio-economic status of SCs, they are at the bottom of the economic hierarchy in India. Does this also hold true for the SC population in Punjab?
This question is worth asking because Punjab is among the richest states in India. In 2018-19, the latest year for which per capita GSDP numbers are available for all major states, Punjab was ranked 10th among 19 major states in the country, and its income was 1.2 times the national per capita income average.
India does not even have income statistics; leave alone income statistics across social groupings. So, there are no straight forward answers to the question of well-being levels of SCs in Punjab vis-à-vis the rest of the country. However, there is some statistical evidence on asset levels at the social group levels to answer this question.
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