904 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
standard viz., of 33 per cent. which has been recognized by all the universities and which is being recognised by you also for the purposes of employment in the Government of India. If a boy who merely passes is fit to be employed by the Government of India, why is he not fit for the grant of scholarship for further education unless you want deliberely to put some kind of an impediment in the growth of their education ? The difficulty is this. The admissions take place some time in the last week of June. Various colleges admitted scheduled caste students without asking for fees because they knew that the Government of India would give them the scholarship. After three months of the joining of the College, the Ministry comes out with a circular saying that only those who have secured
50 per cent. will get scholarships. What are the colleges to do with the boys whom they have admitted on the assurance that the previous system will continue in operation ? What are the boys going to do who have got themselves admitted into the college ? I hope my hon. friend the Home Minister will look into this matter and take it up with the Education Minister and ask them to square up this difficulty, at any rate so far as this year is concerned. You may do what you like next year provided you give enough notice both to the students and to the colleges as to what you propose to do.
Then I come to the question of services. The Commissioner has divided his figures with regard to the services under three groups—the Army, the All india services and the Central Services of the Government of India. With regard to Army, I find that in certain categories the position has deteriorated. In 1952 there were two Second Lieutenants belonging to the scheduled castes. In 1953, the position is “nil”. Of Junior Commissioned Officers, in 1952 there were 601. In 1953 the number is 435. Non-Commissioned Officers, in 1952 there were 3,273. In 1953, the figure has gone down to 2,533. Other ranks, in 1952, the number was 22,288. In 1953 it has gone down to 18,666. I am quite unable to understand this deterioration in the position of the scheduled castes in the Army. The Army, I thought, is the one place where not much intellectual calibre is necessary, I mean in the other ranks.