Madhya Pradesh police recruitment row: Cops' caste label marked on chest

In Madhya Pradesh police recruitment, newly recruited candidates appearing for the post of police constable were allegedly labelled for SC, ST and OBC casts on their chest during medical examination

An incident of caste profiling in the Madhya Pradesh police recruitment exercise has kicked up a storm, prompting a widespread outcry. As part of a police recruitment drive in the poll-bound state, newly recruited candidates appearing for the post of police constable were allegedly labelled for their respective castes on their chests during medical examination in a Dhar district government hospital. In what comes across as a bizarre way to identify recruits on the basis of their castes, markings of ‘SC (Scheduled Caste)’, ‘ST (Scheduled Tribe)’ and ‘OBC (Other Backward Classes)’ were spotted on their chests during the examination. However, the candidates belonging to the general category were not marked.

The hospital staff also took the measurement of their height, weight and other physical parameters. 

The Home Minister tweeted that a probe had been ordered into the controversy. Dhar’s Superintendent of Police Veerendra Singh condemned the incident and has reportedly ordered an inquiry into the matter and clarified that no competent authority gave any instruction to mention the caste of a candidate on his chest. He ensured that those found guilty would be punished, according to an ANI report.

"The incident where candidates' chests were labelled with their castes is indeed deplorable. We have taken the matter seriously as this is wrong and should not happen. I have directed an investigation into the matter so that we can prosecute the ones responsible at the earliest," Veerendra Singh said.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist said the incident was a criminal act and demanded action against those responsible under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the district officials said the initials of the caste categories were stamped on the candidates’ chests as part of different selection norms under the reservation policy. And it was done to identify one section of candidates from the other and avoid any confusion.

This appalling episode has come after several Madhya Pradesh districts were facing massive protests of caste violence by Dalit groups against alleged moves to dissolve the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act during the Bharat Bandh on April 2.

This is not the first despicable event of caste apartheid that has taken place in Madhya Pradesh. In December 2017, to differentiate which woman had a Caesarian operation in the past; stickers were pasted on the foreheads of women awaiting sterilisation at Burhanpur district hospital. Similarly, on Raksha Bandhan in August 207, the children who came to meet their relative at Bhopal’s Central Jail were stamped with the jail’s official seal on their cheeks by the jail staff, reported the New Indian Express.

To take mere advantage of the caste reservation, in May 2017, a BJP MP from Betul, reserved parliamentary constituency for Scheduled Tribes, in Madhya Pradesh, got issued a fake Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificate for Lok Sabha membership which eventually got canceled after the inquiry, said an IANS report. 

In 2016, a government college in the district of Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh distributed bags to over 250 SC/ST students which read “SC/ ST scheme”.

The Home Minister tweeted that a probe had been ordered into the controversy.