Scheduled Castes panel for revival of ‘Chamar Regiment’

Vishal Joshi

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Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, April 13

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) wants the Centre to revive “Chamar Regiment” in the Indian army to boost morale of Scheduled Castes.

Early this year, three ex-servicemen from Haryana, all 95 years of age, had filed a petition before the Commission to reconstitute Chamar Regiment for recruitment of Scheduled Castes youths in the army.

Three persons — Jogi Ram from Bhiwani Chunni Lal from Mahendragarh and Dharma Singh from Sonepat — had furnished documentary evidences to the NCSC of them serving in the Chamar Regiment between 1943 and 1946.

Ishwar Singh, member of the NCSC, told The Tribune today it was caste discriminatory and NCSC had written to the Union Defence Minister last month to look into the issue.

During the World War II in 1943, the then British government in India had constituted Chamar Regiment with Jabalpur as its headquarters.

“Chamar Regiment ceased to exist after three years of its formation. As at that time untouchability was widely practised in the country, the regiment was apparently disbanded due to prevalent caste biases,” said Singh.

He said as there was no provision of job reservation policy in the army, the socially weaker sections continue to be deprived of their rights.

The SC community constitutes insignificant part of the Indian army, including the officer ranks, he said.

The regiment dedicated to socially marginalised sections should be formed as there is no job reservation in the armed forces. The step will help improving financial status of SCs and lead to their confidence building.

“After independence, trend of Jat Regiment, Sikh Regiment, Maratha Regiment, etc., continued on the basis of caste and religion. But only Chamar Regiment was disbanded. The Centre should consider the demand for building confidence among the socially marginalised class,” said Singh.

He said there were numerous evidences to buttress the historical fact about an army regiment exclusive of SCs.

“Research scholar of JNU, Satnam Singh has written a book on the role Chamar Regiment. Also in 2011, senior Janata Dal (U) leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had raised the issue in the Lok Sabha of formation of the regiment,” said the NCSC member.