The Tamil Nadu government has constituted a four-member committee to study the Union government’s Vishwakarma scheme to see if it would be detrimental to educational and social mobility of artisans and confine them to their traditional caste-based occupations.
The committee has been asked to submit its report in two weeks.
J. Jeyaranjan, Vice Chairman, State Planning Commission (SPC), will be the Chairman of the committee. N. Ezhilan, Thousand Lights MLA and member of SPC; D. Karthikeyan, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department; Reeta Harish Thakkar, Secretary, Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Department; and V. Arun Roy, Secretary, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Department; will be the members.
The terms of reference given to the committee included studying whether the scheme will confine artisan communities to their traditional caste-based occupations, will it be detrimental to the educational progress and social mobility of these communities, whether the scheme will contribute to economic progress of these communities, and whether the State government can propose any modifications on the scheme’s guidelines to the Union government.
The order, constituting the committee, mentioned that the government had received “representations from a few prominent members of the civil society indicating that the Centre’s scheme may reinforce caste system and would be detrimental for their [artisans’] socio-economic development”. The order said that there was a need to study the scheme and its guidelines in detail to assess its socio-economic impact.
