ABOUT SCHEDULED CASTES AND SCHEDULED TRIBES
It is the official name given to the lowest caste, which is sometimes considered ‘untouchable’ as well in orthodox thoughts and practices. Hindu scriptures and practice also tell that they were majorly outlined in some villages. They were not allowed to sit stand with higher classes! Not even allowed to cook food and touch higher castes! People belonging to the PANDIT community did not use to eat rice in their kitchens. They were officially regarded as socially disadvantaged. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC’s and ST’s) are among the most degraded and disadvantaged socio-economical groups of India. The government of India has worked for the development of these castes by enacting legislative Programs, providing various schemes. All the works have been done for the empowerment of SCs and ST’s. The scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers (recognition of forest rights), the provision of Panchayats (Extension to the scheduled areas), minor forest produce act 2005, and the tribal sub-plan strategy is focused on the socio-economic empowerment of these tribes.
The government of India has special schemes for enabling access to opportunities including scholarships for providing help in education, other financial support for carrying out a livelihood, various workshops carried out for special skill build up. After that, they can set up an enterprise or benefit from a reservation in jobs or if violence is carried out they can address special courts. About 16.6 percent consists of scheduled castes and about 8.6 comprises scheduled tribes in the country. After independence, the scheduled castes and tribes were provided reservation status, after that they were politically represented in the country. Since the year 1850, these communities were partially referred to as depressed classes.
The scheduled castes are one of the legal terms and constitutional names were given to the tribes or people who are occupying the lowest status in Indian society and in the Hindu religion. These are considered untouchable groups in religious and political views. They were outside the caste system and inferior to all other classes. Today, untouchability is not that much-hyped. It is outlawed now. Various advantages are also provided to them. Just because of their future inferior treatment and are given various rights and preferential treatments. They are not homogenous groups and are divided into many parts as castes. They are often considered as “HARIJANS”. Also, politically aware people call them DALITS. With a total number of over 100 million, they are known as are the largest minority groups in the world.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS FOR CASTE CERTIFICATE IN KERALA
1. Correctly filled up the application form
2. Your age proof which may be a birth certificate, school certificate, etc
3. Your current income certificate provided by any gazette officer
4. Jamabandi land revenue
5. Your recent electricity/water/telephone bill.
6. 7/12 extract of land belonging to the applicant or family
7. The affidavit supporting all the above documents stating that they are correct
8. In case an applicant has annexed the caste certificate of his/her father or any other family member issued by other State then a local inquiry has to be conducted in that case to authenticate applicant’s caste, residence and income and also investigate that whether the applicant falls into ‘creamy layer’ or ‘Non-Creamy Layer’ category.
9. After the submission of the form, an investigator will verify the form and will provide you a receipt about the caste certificate that will be issued to you within the next coming fifteen days from the date you have applied.
PROCEDURE-
1. Download the form from here:-
http://kerala.gov.in/index.php
Download Kerala Caste Certificate form PDF
2. Fill up the form correctly in order to avoid any future inconvenience
3. You can now also find the form on the official website of Kerala Government that is-
http://akshaya.kerala.gov.in/index.php/home
4. Attach all the caste-related documents provided above
5. Pay the prescribed fees for getting the certificate online or at your nearby
6. Akshaya center and redeem a fee slip
7. The Village Officer will issue the caste certificate to the applicant within 10 working days.
VALIDITY OF KERALA CASTE CERTIFICATE
The purpose of community certificate or the caste certificate is to get the reservation for various purposes and also to avail the various services provided by the state or central government and also sometimes by the social welfare departments. As far as the question is concerned about the validity period of the certificate for the person who has applied for it and till how much time it can be used to obtain the services it has been increased to a lifetime period. The community certificate is made in two parts and it contains both the information.
The first part of the certificate contains information about the person holding the certificate, that the applicant belongs to that particular community or caste for which the person is possessing the certificate and the other part describes that the person holding the certificate do or do not come under the creamy layer as per the rules and regulation of state administration. Once the candidate gets the community or caste certificate he/she comes under the caste that he has assigned for as per the state government’s rules also the creamy layer status may change as per the candidate’s financial status.
It is not possible to determine any specific or fixed expiry period or validity duration for any type of community or caste certificate such as for the scheduled caste, scheduled tribe or other backward classes. It has been recently increased to a lifetime.
