New Delhi: A new order issued from the Broadcasting ministry has directed media agencies to avoid using the word ‘dalit’ for Scheduled Castes as they cannot be referred with that term.  The ministry wrote a letter to all private television channels on August 7 saying “may refrain from using the nomenclature Dalit in compliance with the Bombay High Court order”.

The orders issued are actually based on two verdicts, but the ban is going through a controversy due as political leaders and activists across all platforms saying that mere banning a word does not improve the status of the community.

And the issue is being taken by the members of the community seriously as they anticipate that they would face reporting issue for cases of oppression on the Scheduled Castes.

“Just because the word is not used, does not mean the community is not oppressed… the media should definitely continue using the word,” said lawmaker Udit Raj.

According to Arvind Kumar from the Centre for Dalit and Minority studies, the term is “not just a word”. “It a whole semantics to it… any word – black, Dalit, OBC, shudra, they all carry some meaning, it also connotes some identity”.

Critics are seeing the Bombay High court’s order with a certain ambiguity. One of the lines in the order says that government can issue “suitable directions” to the media to refrain from using the term. But at the same time another line says that the ministry should “consider the question of issuing such direction to the media”.

The issue is going on since January after Madhya Pradesh High Court order in this regard. The court then reasoned that there was no mention of the word in the Constitution and thus should not be used by the government with out any doubt.

With reference to the order, the Ministry of Social Justice issued a circular back in March by saying that all official communication by the Central as well as state governments should use the constitutional term “Scheduled Caste” or the translation of it.

The Bombay High Court had on June 6 referred to this order by the ministry by suggesting that “suitable directions” should be issued to the press council and the media to this effect within 6 weeks and this spurred the August 7 order by the government.

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