Ahead of the elections in Chhattisgarh, the Centre is set to bring two sub-communities of the state in the SC list, a step that will set right a longstanding anomaly whereby half of the Mahar community was not recognised as Dalits because of “phonetic variation”. The “Mahra” and “Mahara” sub-groups of Chhattisgarh will be included in the SC list via a legislation that the Union social justice and empowerment ministry will bring in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament. It is learnt that the Union Cabinet cleared the proposal in its meeting on May 31, after the Registrar General of India and the National Commission for SCs gave their assent to the recommendation of the Bhupesh Baghel government. Sources said, “The ‘Mahra, Mahara’ castes will be included as synonyms of ‘Mahar, Mehra, Mehar’. They are mere phonetic variations of the names already in the list of SCs of Chhattisgarh.” The move will settle a longstanding grievance whereby almost half of the Mahar population in Chhattisgarh was deprived of the Dalit tag, robbing them of reservations in jobs and education as also other affirmative action benefits available for SCs. According to sources, the Centre in 2002 assented to a proposal forwarded by undivided Madhya Pradesh in 1989, and issued a gazette notification including “Mahara” caste of MP in the list of SCs. Since Chhattisgarh was carved out of MP in 2000, the Centre ended up leaving out the community also present in Raipur and Bastar regions of the new state. Though seemingly a tiny group, the “Mahra, Mahara” have electoral significance as they are said to be present in almost every assembly constituency of Bastar region in small numbers, which are good enough to tilt the scales. As the bill is expected to sail through in Parliament, the population of Mahar community will almost double among the SCs. The total SC population in Chhattisgarh stands at 32.74 lakh, which is 12.82% of the state’s population. While the “Mahar, Mehra, Mehar” population is 2.45 lakh, the “Mahra, Mahara”, which are to be included in the SC list now, number around 2 lakh.