Govt committee set up for Madiga community to hold meet on Jan 22
The committee will look into other initiatives and reforms that can be taken up to address the grievances of the community, the official said
The Centre’s newly formed committee to look at reforms and initiatives for the Madiga community and others will meet on Monday, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The development came two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his commitment to addressing the concerns of the Madiga community while campaigning during the Telangana elections. This committee is “administrative” in nature and will not consider the community’s longstanding demand for sub-category reservation, a senior government official from the ministry of social justice said on condition of anonymity.
The committee, headed by the cabinet secretary, consists of secretaries of ministries of social justice, tribal affairs, home affairs, personnel and training, and law and justice, HT has learnt. The committee will look into other initiatives and reforms that can be taken up to address the grievances of the community, the official said. The committee will also examine the concerns of other scheduled caste communities.
The social justice ministry will provide secretarial support to the committee.The Centre has received representations from state governments, including those of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, for sub-categorisation of SCs, including the Madiga community, on grounds that the benefits of reservation and welfare/developmental schemes meant for the scheduled castes are not percolating down evenly.
The Dalit sub-group of Madigas constitutes approximately 50% of the total Dalit population in the state of Telangana. Since 1994, the MRPS (Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi) led by Manda Krishna Madiga has advocated for sub-categorisation among Dalits to ensure equitable distribution of reservation benefits among different Dalit sub-groups based on their respective populations. The MRPS contends that a disproportionate share of reservation benefits, about 80%, is currently enjoyed by the Malas, another dominant Dalit sub-group, at the expense of more marginalised Dalit sub-groups.
This committee, according to the official, will give its inputs to the Supreme Court in the case on the issue of sub-classification in reservations if the apex court asks for those, the official said. The case was referred to a seven-judge Constitution Bench in 2011 and has been pending since.
On November 11, days before the Telangana polls, during a meeting organised by the MRPS in Hyderabad, the PM said, “From today onwards, Manda Krishna, founder of the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi, is my leader in the movement to end the decades of injustice being done to the community. I will be on his side till you all get justice.”
Modi promised the formation of a committee to look into the injustices the community was facing. On November 24, the PM instructed cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba and other senior officials to accelerate the establishment of a committee for the Madigas.
Dokka Manikya Varaprasad, a Madiga leader from YSRCP said: “The committee will look at whether the benefits meant for SCs are evenly distributed or not. Since the benefits are not evenly distributed they will see what are the rectifying methods...” “In my opinion, the government is going to file an affidavit before the Supreme Court in favour of categorization.”
