Home » Weaker Section and Minorities » Weaker Section and Minorities

Weaker Section and Minorities

The discriminations suffered by the oppressed sections of the society including SC and STs over great period of time has led to the concept of protective discrimination to safe-guard their interests. The main reason behind protective discrimination is to provide the necessary facilities to the deprived sections and to bring them to the mainstream society. These two classes were placed beyond the bounds of the larger society, the scheduled tribes on account of their isolation in particular ecological riches and the scheduled castes on account of the segregation imposed on them by the rules of pollution.

There are certain clauses in the constitution which aims at providing equality of opportunity to all by prohibiting discrimination and to remove disparities between privileged and underprivileged classes. However the state faced with the dilemma that this would mean that in the society characterized by the distinctions on the basis of caste, religion only who are better positioned than the rest would get all the benefits and the backward and repressed classes will remain sidelined. In order to overcome this, state has the special responsibility of giving equal rights to the communities through protective discrimination. There are many provisions in the constitution:

Art 15 (clause 3) which empowers the state to make any special provision for women and children.

Art 16 (clause 4) serves the same purpose for backward class citizens. There are several other articles which aim to remove disparity between different sections of the society. The constitution attempts to create balance between right to equality and protective discrimination.