THE All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), in a statement issued on July 13 has welcomed the order passed by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes asking the Haryana and Rajasthan governments to reconsider their recently imposed criteria of minimum educational qualifications for those wanting to contest panchayat elections. AIDWA had not only condemned this retrograde action taken by these state governments but had challenged the Haryana government’s decision in the Supreme Court. Several women who had performed in an exemplary manner as panchayat heads and members and had won awards and recognition for their work were denied their fundamental and constitutional right to contest these elections because they lacked the requisite educational qualifications. Needless to say while all those excluded belong to the poorest sections of society, they also belong to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes and the vast majority were women. They are the victims of government failure to ensure their access to education. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court upheld the Haryana government’s decision and it was seen during the elections that many villages could not field a candidate of their own and had to ‘import’ candidates from outside. Many others could not elect any candidate at all and were thus denied their right to public representation. The SC Commission had issued notice to both state governments and yesterday the order that it has issued cites important points: 1) the Commission itself was not consulted by these governments before they initiated policy decisions that would impact adversely on the rights of members of the SC community as they are legally bound to do; 2) the amendments that these state government’s have made to the Panchayat Raj Acts have excluded many members of the community from exercising their right to be elected, public representatives. AIDWA notes with some satisfaction that many of the points made in its submission to the Supreme Court have been used by the SC Commission. While welcoming the steps taken by the National Commission for SCs, AIDWA reiterates its demand that the retrograde steps taken by the governments of Rajasthan and Haryana be withdrawn.