Scheduled Castes are specified under the provisions of Article 341 of the Constitution of India. Government has laid down Modalities for deciding claims for inclusion in, exclusion from and other modifications in the list of Scheduled Castes. As per the extant modalities only such proposals of the State Governments/ Union territory Administrations, which have been agreed to both by the Registrar General of India and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, are processed further for amending legislation as stipulated in clause (2) of Article 341 of the Constitution of India. The criteria for inclusion of a caste in the list of Scheduled Castes is extreme social, educational and economic backwardness arising out of traditional practice of untouchability. During the last three years and current year proposal of Are Katika, Katika caste has been received from the State of Telengana. No proposal has been received from the State of Andhra Pradesh in the aforesaid period.
This information was given by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Vijay Sampla in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
