Revive Chamar Regiment,SC panel urges Centre

Vishal Joshi

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Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, April 13

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) wants the Centre to revive the Chamar Regiment in the Army.

Early this year, three 95-year-old ex-servicemen from Haryana had filed a petition before the NSCC for reconstitution of the Chamar Regiment.

Jogi Ram of Bhiwani, Chunni Lal of Mahendragarh and Dharma Singh of Sonepat had furnished documentary evidence of having served in the Chamar Regiment from 1943 to 1946.

Ishwar Singh, member of the NCSC, said they had written to the Defence Minister last month to look into the issue and facilitate recruitment of Scheduled Caste youths in the Army.

During World War II, the then British government in India had constituted the Chamar Regiment with Jabalpur as its headquarters.

“The regiment ceased to exist three years after its formation. As untouchability was widely prevalent in the country at that time, the regiment was apparently disbanded for caste biases,” he said.

He said as there was no provision for job reservation in the Army, the socially weaker sections continued to be deprived of their rights.

The Scheduled Caste community constituted an insignificant portion of the Army, including the officer ranks, he said.