Anglo-Indian leaders demand restoration of quota in Lok Sabha, Assemblies

A meeting of the leaders of Anglo Indian community, held here on Wednesday, urged the Centre to reinstate the quota for Anglo-Indians in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. They asked the Centre to conduct a caste census to ascertain the number of Anglo-Indians in the country.

The leaders said the voice of Anglo-Indians is not heard in Parliament or Assemblies due to the denial of representation. They said the government did a big injustice to the Anglo-Indian community by quoting the 2011 Census figures, which was not a caste census. “By depending on a declaration by 296 Anglo-Indians, how can the government come to the conclusion that in India only 296 Anglo-Indians are there,” they asked. The leaders reasoned that there is a population of nearly four lakh Anglo-Indians in the country and it was a cruelty that the government denied representations to the community without ascertaining the true figures.

“A study conducted by the Ministry of Minority Affairs in 2013 showed that the Anglo-Indian community faces educational and economical backwardness, housing problems and also identity crisis. While this is the reality, what data is there with the government to show that the community is ‘well-off’,” the leaders asked.

Charles Dias, former Member of Parliament and convenor of the gathering, said the Anglo-Indian community that has contributed much for India is being neglected now. “They have almost lost control of the very institutions they built for the education of their children and often denied admissions to their children and appointments for them in these institutions,” he said.

The meeting requested the Centre to conduct the forthcoming Census by separately enumerating all castes in the country and by including a separate column to enumerate the Anglo-Indian community in view of losing their constitutional protections by an erroneous data.

They asked the Union government to also appoint a Commission to ascertain the social, economical and educational situation of the Anglo-Indian community.