Editor,
I would like to raise a concern regarding the growing imbalance within the scheduled tribes (ST) category in Arunachal Pradesh, especially in the context of state civil services recruitment.
Over the years, we have seen that a few elite families continue to dominate state civil services, especially in recruitment through the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC). These individuals often come from well-established families with high incomes and parents who have already benefited from government jobs or social privileges. It has become increasingly evident that a few elite families within the APST category consistently dominate top positions in the APPSC and other government departments.
In the APPSCEE-2024 results, more than 90 percent of successful candidates were from elite APST families whose population is less than 15 percent of the APST population – the elites who are already socially, economically, and educationally ahead among the APSTs.
This has led to systemic exclusion of marginalised, lower class APST groups, who are unable to compete on an equal footing due to disadvantages of location and lack of access to quality education and resources. If this trend continues, it will widen the gap within our tribal society and lead to chaos in the future.
Therefore, I strongly urge the state government and the relevant authorities to consider sub-classification within the APST category, while reservation policies should set a ceiling limit on the annual income of the parents, like the creamy layer system in the central level, so that the benefits of reservation can be distributed more fairly and inclusively among all APSTs, especially equal opportunities for those who remain underrepresented in civil services.
This is not a call for division but a call for justice, equity, and true empowerment for every section of our tribal society.
Marine Panggeng,
Pasighat, East Siang