SNDP Yogam Conference

Clad in yellow dress, tens of thousands of activists of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam showed up for a massive rally and conference that raised a strong demand for social equity and a substantial stake in the political and administrative power structure in the State.

In a charter of demands announced at the ‘rights declaration meeting,’ the fourth such event organised by the SNDP Yogam in the past 65 years, general secretary Vellappally Natesan called for a Backward Class (BC) quota in the 50 per cent reservation for women in the coming panchayat and municipal elections. The State Assembly had recently made a law to reserve a half of all elected positions in Panchayati Raj institutions to women. Kerala will go for the five-yearly panchayat elections this year.

The charter also wanted the government to set up a high-power committee to monitor the implementation of reservation for the Backward Classes. This was necessary because reservation norms were widely flouted and the reserved communities were being cheated of their share in government jobs and educational institutions.

Mr. Natesan asked the government to go for Public Service Commission recruitments in all educational institutions where staff salaries were paid by the government and all institutions which got government aid.

The charter called for putting an end to the current practice of conducting entrance examinations for engineering and medical courses and wanted the marks in the qualifying examinations the basis of admission. It also sought community reservation, on the basis of the share of population, in all private companies.

The charter, divided into political, social, educational, industrial and economic, raised several demands under each head. The demands, on the whole, sought a share in all walks of life in proportion to the Ezhava community’s percentage in the State’s population. Mr. Natesan claimed that the Ezhavas constituted 29 per cent of the population. He resented that the Nairs and the Christians, who were far fewer than the Ezhavas, grabbed a much higher share of government jobs and educational opportunities.

He called for a caste-based headcount in the next round of national census to determine the relative strengths of different castes. He also wanted an end to ‘discrimination based on caste’ that existed in temples. Hundreds of buses, cars and vans brought in SNDP activists from all corners of the five central Kerala districts right from the morning.

The True Source - The Hindu