Prathap Karna Suhaas, Christ (Deemed To Be University)
ABSTRACT
The 89th amendment of the Indian constitution saw the exclusion of the term “scheduled tribes” from article 338 and subsequent clauses of the same. In furtherance of this aim, the members of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes' communities are positively discriminated against. The addition of article 338A in the constitution made a separate provision for the national commission for the scheduled tribes. After the amendment, article 338 included only the National commission for the scheduled castes. This amendment saw the separation of the national commission of schedule castes and the national commission for the schedule tribes which were both earlier clubbed together under originally under article 338. The article analyses the interconnectedness of the 89th amendment with the 65th amendment of the Indian constitution in the sense that the 65th amendment established the national commission for schedule castes and schedule tribes which were separated under article 338 of the constitution. The commission set up was to work directly under the president of India and was to look into all matters with regards to the safeguards provided to members of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes communities. Now there has to be a comparison drawn between positive discrimination and positive action. Although the conditions of schedule caste and schedule tribe communities are better than that of the past, one could still not call this the “ideal” condition for them to be in. The role of these commissions is very crucial to the upliftment of society in large.
