In its present form, the Prime Minister’s Vishwakarma Scheme is not inclusive but strengthens caste-based occupation and hence Tamil Nadu will not implement it, Chief Minister MK Stalin has said.

Tamil Nadu has taken this stand since its request for making suitable changes in the scheme to make it more inclusive and caste-neutral has not been considered by the Union Government. The Chief Minister had also informed the Union government about the inability of the state government to implement it.

The DMK government will come out with a non-discriminatory comprehensive programme based on social justice and implement it to benefit and empower all artisans, irrespective of caste, Stalin said in a letter to Union Minister for MSME Jitan Ram Manjhi, the content of which was shared on Thursday in an ‘X’ post.

Earlier, in January this year, the Chief Minister had pressed for necessary changes in the Vishwakarma scheme. Following concerns that the Vishwakarma scheme would only strengthen vocations based on caste, the Tamil Nadu Government constituted a panel to study and submit recommendations. One of the suggestions was to dispense with the criterion that an applicant’s family should be engaged in a family-based traditional trade. Another was to have verification of beneficiaries by the Village Administrative Officers (VAO) instead of the Village Panchayat Chiefs. Though these were brought to the attention of the Prime Minister, the letter from Manjhi in March had no mention of these suggestions, Stalin said

Likening the Vishwakarma Scheme to the ‘Kula Kalvi Scheme’ (Caste- based education, which was dropped by the then Congress Government of Rajaji in 1953 following stiff opposition from the DMK, Stalin took pride in being the ideological inheritors of the Dravidian movement. Rajaji had introduced the shift system in schools so that students could learn a trade while pursuing their studies. However, the DMK debunked it as perpetuation of caste based vocation and successfully campaigned against it with the support of teachers.

In its current form the Vishwakarma scheme fails to align with the principles of social justice, Stalin made it clear and said “As ideological inheritors of leaders who opposed ‘Kula Kalvi Thittam’, we cannot support schemes that perpetuate hereditary caste-based occupation under any guise.”