ICC Note: The government of Jharkhand state in northeast India is taking steps to cut off government benefits to Christian converts. Currently, individuals from tribal backgrounds in Jharkhand are able to access government benefits such as free education and a reservation in jobs irrespective of religious identity. The local BJP-led government would like to see these benefits denied to any Christian converts.

06/27/2018 India (Matters India) – The Jharkhand government seems determined to end reservation benefits for those tribal people who have converted to Christianity or other religions, a newspaper says.

For this, the government would change the format of the official caste certificate issued to indicate the Scheduled Caste category, the Ranchi edition of the Prabhat Khabar, a Hindi language newspaper, reported on June 22.

Currently, all tribal people who possess this certificate, irrespective of their religious affiliations, are eligible to avail the statutory benefits such as free education and reservation in government jobs.

The Jharkhand is now ruled by a coalition government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian people’s party), the political arm of rightwing Hindu groups that oppose reservation extended to tribal Christians.

They want the reservation limited only to tribal people who remain in their tradition religions.

The Jharkhand government consulted its advocate general on this matter and was told that only to those who remain in their traditional religion are eligible for the Scheduled Caste (ST) benefits,

“There is a possibility of the government denying the ST benefits to converted Christians,” the newspaper says.

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