Approaching equity - Indiagovernance.gov.in

2. SpecificRecommendationsi. Dalits1. Recognise and address discrimination in the market:the social frame of caste based discrimination isreflected in both organized and unorganized marketsof land, agriculture, housing and services. Theseneed to be addressed through awareness-buildingamong workers, promoting human and labour rightseducation and setting up bodies within industries toaddress caste-based discrimination.2. Affirmative action in the private sector should be mademandatory. The private sector depends on natural andpublic resources contributed by the citizens at large.Given the barriers for Dalits to engage and benefit fromthe emerging private market, reservation and otheraffirmative measures should be implemented in theprivate sector market. Marketing outlets at the village,panchayat, block and district should be reserved forSCs/STs in proportion to their population. Thereshould be reservation in marketing boards to promoteparticipation of Dalit businessmen/entrepreneurs ateach level.3. Outsourcing and contractual work has increasedmanifold, replacing regular employment in both theprivate and public sector. Dalits should be supportedand trained to undertake such contractual andoutsourced work both from the public and the privatesector. The strategy of establishing marketing andprocurement cooperative societies of Dalits/Adivasisat the block level should be adopted as to makemarkets more inclusive and efficient.4. Given the great diversity in market employment interms of remuneration, social security and labourwelfare, common national and state-level standardsfor the above should be evolved and instituted acrossthe market for all workers.5. Special support systems to access capital must be set upfor Dalits. The definition of entrepreneurs should bewidened to include many other businesses where SCsare involved. The National Scheduled Castes Financeand Development Corporation and the National SafaiKarmchari Finance Development Corporation shouldbe revamped with targeted interventions and properaccountability measures. Employment exchangesshould provide market information and supportin curbing discrimination etc. Creating spaces andplaces such as Ambedkar Town Hall etc. in each cityas a facilitation and resource centre for Dalit/Adivasientrepreneurs.6. Establish an Equal Opportunity Commission asalready recommended by the expert committee.ii. Children7. Steps need to be taken to prevent migration. Theseshould include steps to ensure that local markets donot get undermined by government and commercialenterprises. Instead, the locals need to be encouragedto take up local skills and products and turn theirtrade into viable business opportunities.8. Children being the cheapest and least demandingworkers are more susceptible to exploitation than allothers. Labour laws need to be strengthened to ensurechild protection and equitable wages for their parents.Labour laws also need to be made more effective ingeneral because for every labourer exploited, thechildren in his/her family are bound to suffer theconsequences.9. The recent trend of high-end products replacing themarket of products and services that are more affordableand intrinsic to the needs of the larger segment ofthe population has restricted the accessibility of thepoor consumer to his/her most basic needs. The stateneeds to take steps to control this radical makeoverof the Indian consumer market and instead promotebusinesses that rely on economies of scale at the locallevel to generate profits.10. It is strongly recommended that all services aimed atfulfilling children’s rights should be dispensed solelyby the government and the PPP model should not bemade use of here because it is the state that can ensurethat fulfilment of children’s rights remains the firstpriority of the service as against a usually indifferentthird-party service provider.iii. North East11. Cold storages have to be set up in large numbersfor perishable agricultural and horticultural itemsproduced in abundance in the region and propermarketing and air transport support provided for theirexport to the rest of India and abroad.46