Abstract
The Scheduled Castes, according to the 2011 census, are 20.13 crores and constitute 16.6 per cent of the total population of the country and have long suffered from extreme social and economic backwardness. The Scheduled Castes category comprises many castes which share certain common handicaps in relation to the rest of the castes in society. They are quite distinct in caste hierarchy. They are economically dependent, educationally backward, politically suppressed, and socially the worst sufferers. Further they were classed as untouchables. The term scheduled castes refers to a list of castes prepared in 1935 by the British Government in India. But during the ancient period and medieval period they were known as Panchamas (fifth group), Chandalas (heathens or outeastes) and Antyajas (lowest class), and during the British period they came to be called first as Depressed Classes (dalitjatis) or Exterior Castes (avarnas), later as Harijans (children of God), and finally as Scheduled Castes (castes listed in the Government Schedule Article 341).
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