KOCHI: The Kudumbi Sewa Sangh renewed its long-pending demand for scheduled tribe status at a state-level workshop held in Vypeen. “The members of the community residing in other parts of the country like Goa, were given scheduled tribe status since 2002. But, here we are denied the same. This is in spite of the fact that the Kochi Maharaja had listed the community in the category of ‘Depressed Classes’ in 1937,” Kudumbi Sewa Sangh secretary P S Ramachandran said.Several recommendations have been made from the state and the central government for the Scheduled Caste/Tribe. “In 1967, the state government recommended for scheduled caste status. But thoug h the bill was presented in Parliament, the Lok Sabha was dissolved due to some emergency. So, the reservation came to a standstill. Later, even though we continued our demand, it was met with strict opposition from other scheduled caste groups. Their claim is that since we did not have to bear with issues like untouchability we cannot be included,” Ramachandran said.Over the years, new problems came up. “In 1958, there was a reservation of 10 per cent for the ‘Others’ category, under which comes the Kudumbi community. But, several communities were given more quota. As such, now the ‘Others’ category has only 7 per cent reservation. We are now demanding a reservation of 1 per cent for the Kudumbi community,” state general secretary of the Kudumbi Yuvajana Sangam P V Mahesh said.The two-day leadership camp organised by the Kudumbi Yuvajana Sangam had representatives from across the state.
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