Evaluate the role of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for the PCR and PoA Acts in strengthening cooperative federalism in social justice delivery.

Police, prosecution and courts are State subjects, yet enforcing Article 17 and protecting SCs/STs is a national commitment. The Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) bridges this gap: States/UTs implement the PCR Act, 1955 and the PoA Act, 1989, while the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment funds and monitors them [1]. The scheme has strengthened cooperation on inputs, but less so on outcomes.

How the CSS strengthens cooperative federalism

• Shared financing: ₹1,423.30 crore was released over FY 2022–23 to 2024–25 for SC/ST Protection Cells, Special Police Stations, judicial machinery and awareness [1].
• Centre–State–judiciary partnership: 217 Exclusive Special Courts run in 15 States/UTs, set up with the High Court Chief Justice's concurrence [1].
• Relief at scale: victims given relief rose from 88,172 to 99,216 [1].
• Social integration: couples receiving inter-caste marriage incentives nearly doubled, from 14,225 to 26,050 [1].
• Shared grievance platform: SAMBAL (14566) works in the State's regional language and gives each complaint a docket number that can be tracked [4].

Where it falls short

• Monitoring counts inputs: the Centre tracks funds, courts and beneficiaries, but not action against negligent officials under Section 4 [1].
• Uneven adoption: outside those 15 States/UTs, cases go to designated Sessions Courts that also hear other matters [1].
• Justice gap: 3,92,006 cases were pending trial at the end of 2024 [1]. Conviction rates were only 34.1% (SC) and 28.1% (ST) [3].
• Police remain the weak link: the Standing Committee (2014) found that police often did not register cases and delayed investigations, and that central advisories could not be enforced [2]. SAMBAL records complaints, but FIRs still depend on local police.

Verdict The CSS has made fiscal and institutional federalism work. However, accountability flows one way: the Centre pays, and States report what they spent. Its success is therefore partial.

Overall, the scheme has built the machinery of shared responsibility but not yet shared results. Three steps can turn fiscal transfer into joint accountability: link releases to results at each stage (FIRs, timely chargesheets, Section 4 action, convictions); publish how many SAMBAL dockets led to FIRs; and put Chapter IVA's victim and witness protection into practice [2]. That would fulfil Article 17's promise and SDG 10's goal of reduced inequalities through genuinely cooperative federalism.