Chandigarh bans 'Dalit' in official use

Chandigarh: The Chandigarh administration Saturday instructed all its departments, boards and corporations not to use the word 'Dalit' as interchangeable with the term 'Scheduled Castes'.

Chandigarh's Home Secretary Krishna Mohan, in a communication to all concerned departments, said that the word 'Dalit' was neither defined under the Constitution nor under any law in force.

A spokesman of the administration said that the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) had examined the issue at length and decided that the word 'Scheduled Castes' stood defined under Article 341 and 366 of the Constitution. The NCSC recently obtained the advice of the law ministry on this issue.