DUTY OF GOVERNMENT TOWARDS DISTRESSED PEOPLE 441
effort. Their resources are too scanty to afford them the means to raise themselves. They cannot depend upon the charity of the Hindus. The charity of the Hindus is beyond question communal in its scope and its benefits are confined to those who belong to the community of the donor. The Hindu donors are either businessmen or high State officials. The tragedy is that they make their money out of the general public. But when it comes to a question of doing charity they forget the public and remember their own caste and their community. The Scheduled Castes have neither of these sources available to them and they are rigorously excluded from the charity founded by both. The only source therefore on which they can rely is financial aid from Government. I venture to say that it is the duty of the Central Government to come to the rescue of people who are in distress by no fault of theirs as is the case with the Scheduled Castes. The Central Government is bound to take steps to assist the Scheduled Castes to concede their just claims and to compete on more equal terms with their competitors. There is nothing extra-ordinary in asking the Central Government to pay special attention to improve the condition of the Scheduled Castes. Let those who may think so consider the measures the Government of India has adopted for securing the welfare of the Anglo-Indian community. I will mention only a few of them.
(1) Higher Salaries
There was a time when the Anglo-Indian received a higher salary than the Indian. The extent of difference in the salary of the Anglo-Indian and the Indian will be obvious from the following table which gives figures for salaries on three Railways for a few posts selected at random for the sake of illustration—
Designation Anglo-Indians Indians
North Western Railway Permanent Way-Inspector 625-25-675 475-25-500
550-25-600 400-25-450
Drivers 260-10-280 Re. 1 to Rs. 1 / 14/ a day Special rate Rs. 2 a day.
E. I. Railway Train Examiners 300-25-400 120-15-180
200-20-280
G.P.I. Railway
Head Train Examiners 275 125-275
315
365
Washing Chargemen 145 115