Status issue

So how did the Meenas in Rajasthan get ST status?
In 1953-54, the Kaka Kalekar Commission that examined the backward castes in India recommended ST status to Bheel-Meenas, a tribe mainly found in southern Rajasthan districts like Bhilawara, Udaipur, Chittor and Banswara.But in the final report, somehow the hyphen from Bheel-Meenas changed to a comma. And Bheel and Meenas became categorised as two tribes.There's another version of how Meenas became a tribe. While classifying various tribes, the British rulers classified Meenas as a ''Criminal Tribe''.
And from then on the label of a Tribe stuck. Today Meenas in Rajasthan are seen to have cornered the civil services. Here's the reason. Take a look at this hostel in Dausa. Spread over 10 acres, it has 60 rooms - all meant to shelter and support poor students of the community.
It is run by Dr Rameshwaranand, a 40-something trained neuro-surgeon from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, who has now become a sanyasi.He runs another hostel for higher studies in Ajmer and two in Kota, the Mecca of IIT aspirants.''If you don't impart education, there will be no progress. The illiterate can't even be good farmers. They won't know what pesticide, seed or fertilizer to use. They won't know anything,'' said Dr Rameshwaranand, Meena leader.
So, of the 12 per cent jobs reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Rajasthan Meenas corner the most. They say Gujjars are not eligible for ST status because they don't lead a tribal lifestyle. Ironically, that's a charge the Meenas themselves face.