National Commission for Scheduled Castes

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes is an Indian constitutional body under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment , Government of India established with a view to provide safeguards against the exploitation of Scheduled Castes and Anglo Indian communities to promote and protect their social, educational, economic and cultural interests, special provisions were made in the Constitution. Article 338 of the Indian constitution deals with National Commission for Scheduled Castes. Article 338 A deals with National Commission for Scheduled tribes.
History.
Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The first Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was set up in August 1978 with Bhola Paswan Shastri as Chairman and other four members. Members of the commission includes a chairman, a vice chairman and four other members. It was set up as a national level advisory body to advise the government on broad policy issues and levels of development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The president of India appoints the chairman of commission. The fifth schedule of Indian constitution deals with the administration and control of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Service condition and tenure is determined by president of India. Article 341 deals with notification of Scheduled Castes and Article 342 deals with notification of Scheduled Tribes.
The first Commission was constituted in 1992 with S. H. Ramdhan as Chairman.
The second Commission was constituted in October 1995 with H. Hanumanthappa as chairman.
The third Commission was constituted in December 1998 with Dileep Singh Bhuria as the Chairman.
The fourth Commission was constituted in March 2002 with Dr. Bizay Sonkar Shastri as the Chairperson.
Consequent upon the Constitution (Eighty-Ninth Amendment) Act, 2003 the erstwhile National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has been replaced by
(1) National Commission for Scheduled Castes and
(2) National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.
National Commission for Scheduled Castes.
The first National Commission for Scheduled Castes was constituted in 2004 with Suraj Bhan as the chairman. The second was constituted on May 2007 (chairperson: Buta Singh); the third from October 2010 (P. L. Punia); and the fourth from 2013, also with Punia as chairperson. The fifth National Commission for Scheduled Castes began work in 2017 under chairmanship of Ram Shankar Katheria. L Murugan was made vice chairman with K.Ramulu, Dr Yogendra Paswan and Dr. Swaraj Vidwan as members. The President has appointed Shri Vijaya Sampla as the Chairman of the sixth National Commission for Scheduled Castes. Shri Arun Halder is the Vice-Chairman. Shri Subhash Ramnath Pardhi and Smt. Anju Bala are the other members of the sixth NCSC.
Functions.
The following are the functions of the commission: