Taking cognizance of the complaint filed by Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF) – an NGO working in the area of national security, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has directed the Andhra Pradesh government’s Department of Social Justice to initiate action against misuse of reservation provisions and rampant religious conversion by force and enticement.
The LRPF had in January 2020 exposed the way reservation provisions were being sabotaged by influential evangelists who were forcing the government authorities to issue caste/community certificate to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Communities who have converted to Christianity.
Based on our earlier report, the SC Development Cell of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment ordered Principal Secretary, Social Welfare Department, Govt of Andhra Pradesh to take appropriate action against Christian conversions happening in the state & to submit ATR. pic.twitter.com/4FqEBZ1jy2
— Legal Rights Protection Forum (@lawinforce) September 14, 2020
The LRPF had had given a representation with demographic details of Christians in Andhra Pradesh along with the appeasement policy of the state government and the disproportionate number of Churches in various Districts and Mandals. It asked for the need to safeguard the identity of SC/STs so that they continue to enjoy the constitutional benefits.
The LRPF had quoted from a report titled “What happened to the Christians of Andhra Pradesh?” brought out by the Centre for Policy Studies that sheds light on the demographic data of Christians in Andhra Pradesh.
The data from the report shows a sharp decline in those who declared their religion as Christianity between 1971 and 2011.
For example, while the population of Guntur district went up from 28.44 lakhs to 48.87 lakhs between 1971 and 2011, the number of Christians came down from 4.15 lakh to just 0.89 lakh in a span of 40 years.
Another investigation conducted by LRPF revealed that 70% of the 29,841 Christian pastors, who received one-time government honorarium of ₹5,000 through the Disaster Relief Fund, hold Scheduled Caste / Other Backward Caste certificates illegally.
This notice from the Union Ministry of Social Justice is seen as an important intervention as the Andhra Pradesh government will have to report on the matter to the Ministry.
LRPF has said that they will be pursuing the matter with the Andhra government as well. They said that such misuse of caste certificates by converted Christians should stop as it robs the Hindu SC/ST’s of the government benefits who are truly downtrodden.