http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/17/stories/2010011760020300.htm

Special Correspondent
Possession deeds to be issued: Minister

Thiruvananthapuram: Minister for Welfare of Scheduled and Backward Communities A.K. Balan said here on Saturday that the government would not evict Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe families living on surplus or puramboke land. He was addressing a function at the Ninankonam colony in Kilimanoor Assembly constituency during a tour of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe colonies in the district.

Mr. Balan said the government did not intend to evict the 51 families who had encroached upon private land and the 91 families settled on surplus land in Ninankonam colony. “Even though encroachment cannot be justified, they will not be displaced. The government will initiate moves to issue possession certificates to the 142 families,” he said.

Navayikulam panchayat president Shajahan presented a memorandum to the Minister, urging the government to remove the legal hurdles in issuing possession certificates. N. Rajan, MLA, presided over the function. District Panchayat President Anavoor Nagappan and Vice President B.P. Murali were among those present.

Later, addressing a meeting at the Idinjaar Scheduled/Scheduled Tribe colony, Peringamala, the Minister said he would take steps to write off the arrears on electricity bills of residents who had their connections cut off due to non-payment of bills. He said all eligible families would be provided electricity for their houses. Mr.Balan said 416 acres of land had been identified for distribution.

Deccan Herald

‘Landlords exploited Dalits in Aldur’

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/47070/landlords-exploited-dalits-aldur.html

Aldur, Jan 15, DHNS:

”People with vested interests among the upper class are responsible for the pathetic life condition of Dalits in Machagondana Halli,” said JD(S) District Convener K T Radhakrishna.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, after listening to the grievances of Dalits in Machagondana Halli, Radhakrishna said that Dalits in the region were being exploited by landlords and people from upper class in the region. Moreover, they were also trying to take away Dalits land.

“Those people did not allow Dalits, who live in huts without any basic facilities, to come to the mainstreams of the society,” he charged. There is no legal hurdle before the government to issue title deeds to Dalits. The Dalit colony is situated outside the college campus, he said adding that lack of political will is the only reason why title

deeds were not distributed to Dalits.

At any cost, Dalits, who dwell in the colony, should not be shifted. Moreover, they should be given title deeds for their land and infrastructure should also be provided for their colony, Radhakrishna emphasised. Government should take initiative to reclaim land

encroached by upper class people in the region, he added.

Memorandum to DC

JD(S) and BSP workers submitted a memorandum seeking title deeds for Dalits of Machagondana Halli colony to the Deputy Commissioner R Narayanaswamy. They alleged in the memorandum that a local person had encroached about 10 acres of land near the Dalit colony in Machagondana Halli. They charged that those people’s representatives neither raise voice against the land encroachment, nor help Dalits in

the colony.

‘Report ready’

Chikmagalur Taluk Tahsildar Veena said that the Gram Panchayat had submitted memorandum seeking sites few months back. The Revenue Department officials had already conducted survey in 10 acres of land and a plan was also prepared. The complete report has been submitted to sub division officer Dayanand, she said adding that there is no legal obstacles in providing sites for deserved Dalit families.

Tahsildar clarified that the charges of negligence made by Gram Panchayat members against Revenue Department officials is far from truth. All initiatives were taken to help Dalits in time, she added.

Out Look India

Donnish Hauteur?

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263782

Top JNU professors oppose quotas in academic posts to “maintain quality”

Anuradha Raman

Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University is often at the vanguard of issues deemed liberal, progressive and politically correct. So when an institution like it takes the unprecedented step of opposing the constitutional provision providing for reservation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the physically handicapped on its academic faculty, it is bound to raise both questions and eyebrows.

“Reservation above the assistant professor level will ruin JNU’s quality of education, making it a third-rate varsity.”Bipan Chandra, Former history professor

In what might shock many liberals, 30 professors on the academic council wrote to vice-chancellor B.B. Bhattacharya on November 25 last year, expressing strong opposition to the said quota. In language that smacks of elitism, the professors raise concerns about how JNU would lose its academic sheen if reservation was allowed at the level of professors. Their concern was aroused by an advertisement put out by the varsity for 149 faculty positions, over half of which are reserved at the level of professor and associate professor for SC/ST candidates.

Incidentally, the said positions under quota comprise the 22.5 per cent reservation mandated in the Constitution. Furthermore, a resolution to implement this was passed in 2007 by the executive council (EC) of JNU—its supreme decision-making body—as per UGC guidelines. Yet, the academic council said: “This new step, which is not legally binding on JNU, has been taken without consultation with the faculty…. Considering that this has very serious implications for the long-term academic development of this premier university, we suggest the EC reconsider the decision.”

This letter was sought to be discussed in the executive council meeting held on January 11. The topic, though not on the meeting’s main agenda, figured “under any other item”. Most academic council members present were in favour of scrapping the provision for reservation. Sources say EC member and former JNU student P. Sainath cautioned the academic council against challenging a constitutional provision.

“OBC reservation was debated at length. How come quotas in the academic faculty is not debated at all?”Mridula Mukherjee, Director, NMML

The signatories to the academic council letter comprise the venerable heads of departments of JNU. The list includes Aditya Mukherjee, director of the Institute of Advanced Study, Kamal Mitra Chenoy, incharge, Group of Comparative Politics and Political Thought, and Professor Pralay Kanungo, director, Centre for Study of Discrimination and Exclusion. Others on the council who signed include Mridula Mukherjee, director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, and former VC Yogendra Alagh. All expressed concern on the serious implications of the decision to reserve higher posts in the academic faculty.

Lending their support to the academic council, a formidable number of former vice-chancellors and professors wrote to the chairman of the EC. The letter written by the likes of P.N. Srivastava, Asis Datta, Y.K. Alagh and former professors Bipan Chandra, Yogendra Singh, C.P. Bhambri, T.K. Oommen and Tapas Majumdar read as follows: “If steps are taken which prevent it from remaining one of the premier centres of excellence (which is what we fear will happen by limiting, through reservation, the scope of selecting the best faculty at the senior professor and associate professor levels), the chief victim will be the disadvantaged sections of Indian society. If JNU declines, the well-to-do will move to foreign and private universities, and the disadvantaged will no longer be able to get world-class education…..”

“I support reservation. But the university act says changes in posts are to be discussed with the academic council.”Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Former president, JNUTA

The letter also says it backs the academic council. “We would like to put our weight behind the academic council decision and urge the JNU executive council to hold its earlier decision in abeyance till the various centres, schools and the academic council thoroughly discuss the matter and arrive at a consensus,” the note signed by former VCs state.

The manner in which the debate was initiated and conducted came as a surprise to some faculty members, who cautioned the council that the move would amount to challenging a constitutional provision that aims at the inclusion of the most discriminated sections of society.

Former VC Yogendra Alagh, currently vice-chairman of the Sardar Patel Institute, Ahmedabad, says, “JNU tries to meet the formula prescribed by the government but doesn’t follow it mechanically. We don’t believe that at every level of recruitment a required percentage of candidates need to be represented. At the same time, we were, and are, very conscious about the inclusion of underprivileged candidates. It is for this reason that we worked out a system of deprivation points to enable deserving people from far-flung areas to come to the campus.” Alagh says JNU was once rated among the top 100 universities in the world. “There is a minimal standard that needs to be followed if the university aspires to be a world-class one,” he says.

“There has to be a minimal standard to be observed if JNU is to continue as a world-class university.”Y.K. Alagh, Former vice-chancellor

JNU sources say the decision to implement reservation or not is not the preserve of the academic council. Says Y.S. Alone, assistant professor, School of Art and Aesthetics: “It is an executive order as mandated in the Constitution and no one, let alone the academic council, can challenge it. Reservation is done by executive order, and so it is with JNU, when the EC supported it in 2007. An academic body cannot question it merely on the grounds that the provision is not binding on the university.”

As per the constitutional provisions, 22.5 per cent posts should be reserved for each level of the academic faculty. But, since 2007, no vacancies at the level of professor and associate professors have been filled up in this category, though the university took the decision to reserve posts way back in 1983. According to officials in the administration, there are around 27 SC/ST assistant professors in the faculty and many of them have come without the aid of reservation, yet the university shows their names in the reserved category.

And while the university may have worked out a mechanism to address the reservation for students, the academic council’s hostile stand apropos reservation for faculty positions is being seen as open defiance of an important constitutional provision.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/16/stories/2010011654230500.htm

D. Karthikeyan

MADURAI: A 24-year-old Dalit youth was allegedly made to eat human excreta at Melakoilpatti village coming under Nilakottai circle and Batlagundu police station limits in Dindigul district.

P. Sadaiyandi, in his complaint to the police, has said that on January 7 a group of Thevar Christian youth stopped him near the village salon and abused him by his caste name for daring to defy the ban on Dalits wearing footwear in the streets where upper castes live. The group comprising Arockiasamy, David, Selvendran, Kennedy, Kannadasan, Peter and Anbu beat him up. Two of them then forced his mouth open and thrust excrement down his throat. The Dalits of Indira Nagar in his village came to his rescue and took him to the hospital where he underwent treatment.

The Batlagundu police on Friday, filed a case against Arockiasamy and 20 others under Sections 147, 148, 341, 323, 355, 324, 506 (2) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3(1) (10) and 3(1)(3) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act),1989.

The Times Of India

Accused of molestation bid held

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Accused-of-molestation-bid-held/articleshow/5446225.cms

TNN, 14 January 2010, 11:14pm IST

VARANASI: While the Mirzamurad police succeeded in arresting the accused of a molestation bid on Thursday, the Lohta police failed to trace another

accused who tried to molest his neighbour in Bharthara village on Wednesday night.

According to reports, a 22-year-old girl of Mirzamurad Harijan Basti under the same police station was cornered by her neighbour Laxmi on Thursday morning who tried to molest her. The girl tried to offer resistance and raised an alarm. On hearing her screams, her family members and other neighbours arrived there and beat up Laxmi. Later, on the complaint of the girl’s mother, the police arrested him.

Meanwhile, finding Rekha alone at her residence, her neighbour Sunil Maurya entered her house and tried to molest her. The incident took place when Rekha’s husband had gone somewhere. Hearing the cries of Rekha, her family members and neighbours arrived at the incident site but Sunil managed to escape. Despite conducting raids, the Lohta police failed to arrest Sunil till Thursday evening.

The Hindu

Row over Dalit burial ground resented

http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/16/stories/2010011654300500.htm

Special Correspondent.

TIRUPATI: A section of Dalits belonging to the Thummalagunta village have taken exception to another section of them for trying to kick up a controversy over a Dalit burial ground issue.

In a signed statement, the MPP of the Tirupati (Rural) mandal, M. Thirumaliah, and other Dalit leaders alleged that the other section, by playing into the hands of some ‘vested interests’, were creating a controversy over the burial ground and the Ambedkar statue although issue was already ‘amicably settled’.

The section gave a ‘clean chit’ to TUDA Chairman Chevireddi Bhsakar Reddy and criticised the members of the other section for putting spokes in the development works he was initiating .

Telegraph

Bid to bury caste row

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100116/jsp/nation/story_11990205.jsp

NALIN VERMA

Patna, Jan. 15: Even as state Congress leaders are gearing up for Rahul Gandhi’s visit later this month, the controversy over its executive committee list refuses to die.

The AICC general secretary and in-charge of Bihar affairs, Jagdish Tytler, landed here this afternoon apparently to step up the damage-control exercise caused by the state leaders in releasing the list of over 500 executive committee members which had Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and her caste, Chamar, mentioned against her name.

With a Dalit association lodging an FIR against Tytler and state Congress president, Anil Sharma, for “hurting” the sentiment of the Dalits by referring the caste of their community leaders, the Congress strategists are learnt to be finding out the ways to “disassociate” the leadership from the list.

Sources close to Tytler revealed that the party in the event of inquiry from the investigating agencies would simply disown the controversial list.

The sources also said that the party might dismiss the list as “not an authoritative one” and issue a fresh list of its executive committee members.

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, who has already disassociated herself from the list and who reportedly “admonished” Tytler and Sharma for the “foul play”, is learnt to have asked Tytler to prepare the list of BPCC office-bearers afresh “befitting to the ethics and constitution of the party”.

In fact, Tytler, working hard to balance all ends, is understood to have won over some dissident leaders who were so far gunning for his (Tytler’s) and Sharma’s head.

It became evident when a senior dissident leader, Premchand Mishra, sided with Tytler when the latter arrived here today and told The Telegraph: “The controversy should be given a rest and concentration should be to ensure the successful visit of Rahul.”

Mishra said that the Nehru-Gandhi scion was scheduled to visit the state in the last week of the month. “The date and time of his arrival here is being worked out,” he said.

Rahul is said to be visiting Bihar to strengthen the Youth Congress and revive the party’s strength in the run-up to the Assembly polls due in later this year.

Deccan Herald

SC to hear petition on Jan 22

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/47091/sc-hear-petition-jan-22.html

New Delhi, Jan 15, DHNS:

The Supreme Court on Friday fixed January 22 as the date for hearing applications from two Bangalore-based petitioners seeking direction for staying the BBMP elections.

A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said it would hear the application on January 22. Senior advocate Shanti Bhushan and advocate E C Vidyasagar appearing for M Ramesh, former president of Yelahanka CMC and K Devan submitted that the corporation election should be stayed as it “violates the constitutional provisions.”

On January 6, the apex court allowed the Karnataka government and State Election Commission to conduct the election in accordance with the government notification by staying a double-bench order of the Karnataka High Court.

Ramesh, who belongs to SC/ST category, will be deprived from contesting from his constituency if the order of the division bench of the Karnataka HC is implemented. “The applicant had filed petition praying for quashing of the notification of November 30, 2009. By this notification, the state government made reservations for various categories in 198 wards for the BBMP elections,’’ said Ramesh in the application.

As per provisions of the KMC Act, the reservation of seats should be based on the population of the SC/STs in the municipal area as per the last census. In the present case the state government has ignored this aspect and reserved the seats based on SC/ST population in the Assembly segments of the BBMP. “This is totally illegal and unconstitutional,’’ said the application.

The election to the BBMP is scheduled for February 2010 in accordance with the ruling of the division bench of the High Court on September 17, 2009.

Live Mint

Plan panel highlights problems in NREGA

http://www.livemint.com/2010/01/15233544/Plan-panel-highlights-problems.html

Most of the jobs created under the Act are in the area of water conservation, land development and drought proofing
Sangeeta Singh

New Delhi: A Planning Commission evaluation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has questioned the effectiveness of projects implemented under the Act in boosting productivity and creating assets.

NREGA, the Union government’s flagship anti-poverty programme that promises 100 days of employment every year to the rural poor, is partly credited with driving the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to victory in the April-May general election.

In a presentation made at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office (PMO) on Wednesday, the Planning Commission highlights the dearth of technical and professional support for implementing projects under NREGA, delays in payments to workers, and issues of corruption and leakages. Mint has reviewed part of this report.

Most of the jobs created under the Act are in the area of water conservation, land development and drought proofing. While NREGA is implemented by the ministry of rural development, its progress is also monitored by the Planning Commission.

“The report has also found out poor implementation in states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The idea of the meeting was to appraise officials at PMO on the problems arising in the implementation of the programme,” said a government official. He did want to be identified or divulge more details of the report.

NREGA, now re-christened Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act, came into being in 2005.

The commission says in the report that payments to workers are being delayed as there is a late measurement of work. It also says only 19% of the 850,000 differently abled people registered for the scheme have got work under NREGA.

Another issue is that of fake muster rolls and bills being generated, the commission says.

It adds that so-called elite groups within the workers capture most of the job cards.

Jobs cards are given to workers to enrol them for projects under NREGA.

The report is based on feedback from the Planning Commission’s advisers who toured the villages to study the implementation of UPA’s flagship programmes.

One such official said workers were moving away from their main activity, agriculture, and “are digging pits in the name of ponds under NREGA… Water from these pits evaporate very fast”.

The official, who didn’t want to be named, said there was corruption in implementing the programmes and no real asset was being created.

The Planning Commission, however, lauds NREGA’s achievements in some respects. It says the scheme created three billion person-days of work in 2009-10 against 86 million person-days in 2003-04 through other programmes such as food for work.

The report also says 50 million families are likely to get work in 2009-10 with an expenditure of Rs40,000 crore.

S.L. Rao, former director general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, who recently visited Bihar to have a feel of NREGA, says the figures have to be impressive as it is a vast and innovative programme.

“But then, it is also one of the most abused programmes, where everybody who is getting the chance to make money is making (it)…there are long- and short-term solutions to make NREGA more effective,” he said.

In the short run, the government can start some policing by creating a roving team of, say, retired police officers to ensure that the needy get the job cards, the workers are paid fully, substantial asset is created and no particular group is favoured, said Rao.

In the long run, he suggests the panchayats (local self-government bodies) should be empowered to create capacity and train officials to implement the programme.

http://www.zeenews.com/news595856.html

Updated on Thursday, January 14, 2010, 21:17 IST

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: Congress leader Jagdish Tytler is courting trouble again. An FIR was lodged against him on Thursday for making caste-based remarks against Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.

The FIR was filed against Tytler and Sharma here this afternoon by Dalit Kranti Morcha leader Vidhanchandra Rana. The duo faces charges under various sections of the SC/ST Prevention Act 1989, police said, adding an inquiry was ordered into the matter.

Besides Tytler, who is the Congress in-charge of Bihar, the head of party’s state unit Anil Sharma has also been made an accused in the case.

The use of caste names in the list of Bihar PCC office-bearers and dragging Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar into a controversy has deeply embarrassed the Congress leaders who have washed their hands off the issue pleading ignorance.

Sharma has been blamed for the row that has shown Congress in a poor light. The Speaker, a permanent invitee to the PCC, has her caste mentioned in the Bihar PCC office bearers’ list signed by Tytler.

Meanwhile, reacting to it Meira Kumar said, “I belong to a political party. As a Speaker, I believe in strict neutrality of the chair.”

Congress leader and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar is the daughter of the late Deputy Prime Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram- one of the tallest Dalit leader of his time.

Rana alleged that both Tytler and Sharma violated the act by naming castes of the leaders in the list and termed the act as “a constitutional crime.”

Sharma had denied having released the list with caste details and described it as “handiwork of forces inimical to him.”

The Pioneer

Desecration of Ambedkar statue sparks tension in Itayal village

http://www.dailypioneer.com/229493/Desecration-of-Ambedkar-statue-sparks-tension-in-Itayal-village.html

PNS | Gwalior

Damage caused to a statue of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar here on Thursday morning led to tension at Itayal village under Dabra police station, sources said.

On receiving the information, SDOP Dabra SK Dixit reached the spot with the police force and started searching for the culprits.

According to police, a resident of Itayal village Narain Bhagwat makes the statue and had recently made the statue of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar. He kept the recently made statue out of his house for drying up but in the night, some anti-social elements damaged the statue.

However, on Thursday morning, when the members Dalit community came to know about the incident, tension was created in the area. The SDOP Dabra reached there and controlled the situation. Dixit said that the anti-social elements that damaged the statue are being searched.

Express Buzz

Her take on caste and more

http://www.expressbuzz.com/entertainment/Entertainstory.aspx?Title=Her%20take%20on%20caste%20and%20more&artid=wxa5lflCVSU=&SectionID=TPEu9LXF3Wk=&MainSectionID=TPEu9LXF3Wk=&SEO=Panthibhojanam,+Sreebala+K+Menon,+Santhosh+Echikan&SectionName=H6Lz7EG5SyQeO7G0FyybQg==

T S Preetha

Last Updated : 15 Jan 2010 11:42:47 AM IST

What is the caste of your food? This question points its fingers at Kerala’s seemingly secular society which puts on the fake show that the caste system is an issue the state has already solved. And the query is raised by Sreebala K Menon through her debut short film ‘Panthibhojanam’ which was previewed at Thiruvananthapuram recently.

Sreebala chose Santhosh Echikanam’s well-acclaimed short story for her 20-minute short film mainly to highlight this socially relevant issue. The story is a poignant reminder that despite all its cultural and social advancements, Kerala society still retains part of the age old caste system and that Dalits still face social stigma even in urban circles. The manners and food habits of those from the lower section of the social ladder are still laughed at by the so-called upper class who are unwilling to let them enter their world unless it is for their benefit.

Sreebala spins the film around five lawyers, four from the creamy upper caste who are forced to dine with Rugmini the Dalit at Susan’s home. The story ends with Sangeetha Namboodiri vomiting the food brought by Rugmini, but Sreebala has added an epilogue where Rugmini wonders when they will all come to her home for the real ‘panthibhojanam’.

“The ‘panthibhojanam’ recorded in history has the lower class having the food normally eaten by the upper class. Never once have we heard about Namboodiris and others going to Dalit homes and eating their food. That is what the story aims to focus Sreebala K Menon’s short film ‘Panthibhojanam’ is a dig at Kerala’s puffed up image of a casteless society on. That caste is something that creates borders even among the highly educated men and women of today,” says Sreebala.

She made the film to ‘convince myself that I can do a film on my own’. “It is like a test dose. I am happy with the final product even though it has a few faults,” she says.

Sreebala is planning to market the film through book stalls as a DVD.

Now that short films have attained popularity for their content and style, Sreebala is hopeful that her film will reach out to many as short film festivals and video film festivals have become common in Kerala.

“Short film making is like blogging.

And it is a woman-friendly world too. There is no need to search for a producer, no paraphernalia is necessary. With Rs 2 lakh you can bring out a good film. Not all stories need to be stretched to full-length feature films,” says Sreebala who is the associate director with one of Malayalam’s most popular directors- Sathyan Anthikkad.

Sreebala created history of sorts when she started assisting Sathyan Anthikkad for the film ‘Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka’ as part of her internship for a visual communication course.

She then joined C-DIT but her mind was hooked on the film field. So she returned to assist him in ‘Achuvinte Amma’ and stayed on to complete his next films, ‘Rasathanthram’, ‘Vinodayatra’ and ‘Innathe Chinthavishayam’. She turned associate director with ‘Bhagyadevatha’ and is now busy with his new film starring Jayaram and Mamta Mohandas.

“When I came on the scene there were very few girls working in the technical field. But it has changed now. Most of the prominent directors have women assistant directors. The concept of film making as a man’s job is passe,” she says.

Though being part of the direction crew is tough, Sreebala says she enjoys every bit. “You have to be mentally and physically fit to survive the strain of filming.

And you learn to keep your cool whatever happens. The shooting may go on and on, sometimes at the cemetery, sometimes on the road.” So has she ever had to deal with the much publicised star acts? “Never,” she shakes her head. ‘This field is very professional.

For everyone, time is money. So they don’t throw tantrums or try to show off. And being a woman I get a lot of support too. Once here you learn human management and mould actors into our job.” The winner of Kerala Sahitya Akademi award in the humour category in 2006 for her story collection ‘19, Canal Road’, Sreebala says her hands are too full with the new project to write.

As if to prove the point, her phone starts ringing. It is Sathyan Anthikkad calling from Alappuzha to know about the pre-shooting arrangements.

And Sreebala switches to her associate director mode happily.

ts_preetha@expressbuzz.com

http://www.ptinews.com/news/467718_Dalit-youth-alleges-he-was-forced-to-eat-human-excreta

Dindigul (TN), Jan 14 (PTI) In a shocking case of caste discrimination, a dalit has alleged that he was forced to eat human faeces by a group of ‘high caste Christians’ for walking with chappals in their street in the district.

The dalit youth, in his complaint to Batalagundu police inspector, said “a group of high caste Christians forced human faeces into my mouth after beating me for walking with chappals in their street”.

Sadayandi, who is from Indhira Nagar in Meikovilpatti in Dindigul district, claimed the incident occurred on January 7 when a group of more than 10 ‘caste christians’ stopped him and asked if he was not aware of the “order” that dalits should not walk with chappals in their street. Then they asked him to remove his chappals and slapped him with it, he said.

“One of them suggested that I should be fed human excreta.

The Hindu

A new cooking experience for Dalit women

http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/14/stories/2010011451330300.htm

Karthik Madhavan
The women’s complex, constructed in 2000, was renovated five months ago

SATHYAMANGALAM: If ‘Bogi’ is all about discarding the old to embrace the new, then the dalit women in Komarapalayam Adi Dravida Colony have got it perfectly right.

They gave up cooking on firewood stove to graduate to gas stove, thanks to the support the Bannari Amman Rural Foundation and the District Rural Development Agency have provided.

The Foundation has put in place a system in the colony, near here, wherein the women get to cook in specially designed stove, which burn methane.

The gas is obtained from the men’s and women’s public convenience facilities, which have been repaired and renovated with funds from the Foundation and also Komarapalayam panchayat.

The Foundation renovated the women’s toilet complex at Rs. 50,000 and supported the panchayat in building the men’s complex by providing around Rs. 1.5 lakh, says A.N. Kolandaiswamy, executive treasurer, Bannari Rural Foundation.

“The women’s complex, constructed in 2000, was in disuse for a long time and renovated about five months ago,” he says and adds that the flooring has been changed and the outlet pipelines have been diverted to the newly-constructed septic tank.

Panchayat

As for the men’s complex, the Foundation complimented the panchayat by tile flooring the entire toilet complex and again taking the pipeline to the septic tank, which is attached to a 25 cubic metre tank, from which the gas is tapped.

In all, around Rs. 6.5 lakh has been spent, says Mr. Kolandaiswamy and adds that the Foundation has applied for subsidy to the District Rural Development Agency.

Project Officer, DRDA, N. Sreenivasan says the Agency has forwarded the Foundation’s proposal to the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency, which will soon disburse Rs. 1.5 lakh.

The Foundation has taken the gas through a pipeline to a house in the Colony, where six stoves are in use. The women, most of who are employed, say they take turns to cook as they will have to leave early for wok. “The cooking starts 6 a.m. onwards and happens in two shifts,” says S. Latha, councillor.

“One group of women finish work by 7 a.m., after which the next takes over,” she says and adds that the cooking time has halved. “Earlier it used to take two hours to cook as the firewood takes a long time to burn; but now it is just an hour,” says P. Vijaya, a resident.

Not only that the women are spared of the problems of smoke. “The smoke from firewood was a trouble, as we need to keep blowing air and it used to spread all over the house. Now that is not there,” she says.

But then it was not a smooth start for the women. They had apprehensions about using gas tapped from septic tank. “Initially we had hesitations about the smell but after checking it for a couple of days, we have been able to overcome those,” says Ms. Latha.

However, many women continue to hold on to those apprehensions and refuse to use the facility. Mr. Kolandaiswamy says the Foundation is in the process of constructing a community kitchen with about a dozen stoves.

The Hindu

Need for feminists to reclaim Ambedkar seen

http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/11/stories/2010011154450500.htm

Rahi Gaikwad

Mumbai: A thriving corpus of literature and music pertaining to Babasaheb Ambedkar’s thought has been integral to the Ambedkarite or Dalit movement in Maharashtra.

“Dalit feminism” has drawn copiously from this pool. However, feminist discourse at large has remained ignorant of the rich and complex interpretations of caste and gender as conceptualised by the architect of the Constitution, Sharmila Rege, director, Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women’s Studies Centre at Pune University and a leading feminist sociologist, said during the 6th Ambedkar Memorial Lecture she delivered at the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) here on Saturday.

“There is an urgency for feminist discourse to turn to Ambedkar. A category of women undifferentiated by caste does not exist for feminists to mobilise. Now the pressure is not to talk about gender in isolation, but to include class, caste and other factors. Therefore, there is a need to reclaim Dr. Ambedkar’s writings as feminist classics,” she said.

She said though feminist academics had been late in turning to Ambedkar, a culture of booklets and music of the Dalit movement has had a much longer history.

http://www.zeenews.com/news595475.html

Updated on Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 15:36 IST

Porayar (Kerala): After succeeding in their agitation to enter a local temple where they were banned for several years, Dalits of a village in Nagapattinam district participated in a public auction of village ponds for fishing, ending another decades old discrimination.

The Dalits of the Chettipulam village near Vedaranyam had entered the Ekambareshwarar temple in October last accompanied by district officials and police following a series of agitations spearheaded by the CPI-M.

Following this, it came to fore the Dalits were also not allowed to participate in the public auction of village ponds for fishing rights.

Ahead of the annual auction for 15 ponds this week, Revenue and police officials visited the village and announced that all had equal rights to participate in the exercise.

Official said the auction took place on Monday under the direct supervision of District Superintendent of Police Maheswar Dayal and DSP Chandrasekaran. Bloc development officer Mallika conducted the auction, in which 31 persons, including five Dalits participated. Fifteen persons, including four Dalits got the rights for the 15 ponds.

The four Dalits would have exclusive rights on fishing and collecting algae from the ponds leased to them, officials said. PTI

Express Buzz

CPM MP Madhu booked under SC/ST Act

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=CPM+MP+Madhu+booked+under+SC/ST+Act&artid=ZzHbznoqvhk=&SectionID=e7uPP4%7CpSiw=&MainSectionID=e7uPP4%7CpSiw=&SectionName=EH8HilNJ2uYAot5nzqumeA==&SEO=CPM%20Rajya%20Sabha%20MP%20Madhu

Express News Service

Last Updated :

HYDERABAD: A case was registered against CPM Rajya Sabha MP Madhu under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Act (SC & ST Act) by LB Nagar police based on a complaint given by an electrician on Tuesday.

Sudhakar, a resident of Sai Nagar in LB Nagar, alleged that the MP abused him by referring to his caste. LB Nagar police said the case was registered based on the complaint given by Sudhakar.

The Hindu

‘Official has done little to curb anti-Dalit acts’

http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/13/stories/2010011353070300.htm

Staff Correspondent
‘There has been a sharp rise in atrocities against Dalits’

Seer alleges discrepancies in payment of flood compensation

‘Minister has failed to ensure the welfare of oppressed classes’

Chitradurga: Several hundred Dalits in the district staged a dharna here on Tuesday in protest against the alleged anti-Dalit actions of Deputy Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas.

The head of the Madarachannaiah Gurupeetha, Basava Madarachannaiah, who led the protest, alleged that despite the sharp increase in the number of atrocities against Dalits in the district. The Deputy Commissioner had failed to curb them, the seer said .

He also claimed that there had been discrepancies in the payment of compensation to flood victims.

‘Change approach’

“Officials who have failed to protect the Dalits and the oppressed classes have no right to be in office,” he said.

The swamji said that they would intensify their agitation if the Deputy Commissioner did not change his approach toward Dalits.

Responsibility

Dalit leader and Neeravari Horata Samiti president M. Jayanna said that officials and elected representatives were responsible for ensuring justice to Dalits, and accused Minister for Social Welfare D. Sudhakar of having failed to ensure the welfare of the oppressed classes. Mr. Jayanna said that the Minister had not visited a single village in the district where atrocities against Dalits had been reported. The protesters also burnt an effigy of the Deputy Commissioner.

The Tribune

Probe ordered against lecturer for ‘harassing’ student

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100113/cth1.htm#10

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 12
Responding to a complaint by a Panchkula resident, accusing a senior faculty member of the State Institute of Education (SIE), Sector 32 of indulging in “caste discrimination”, the UT administration today marked an inquiry against the teacher.

In a written complaint submitted to the home secretary Phool Singh stated his daughter, a first-year student at SIE, secured admission under the ‘SC’ category and the Hindi lecturer at the institute, RB Yadav, was “using this fact as a tool to humiliate her”.

According to him, Yadav wanted his daughter to “do his official work” in his room. He said when she refused the lecturer began “looking for opportunities to trouble her by making derogatory comments pertaining to their caste”.
The complaint has cited several incidents when the teacher told the girl “the treatment given to members of her ‘caste’ in medieval times was suitable.’’ The complaint alleged he even threatened to “ruin her career for acting smart and refusing to do his work”.

“My daughter would be very depressed and come home weeping. We did speak to the institute director about all this and he promised to resolve things, but nothing happened. Things took an ugly turn on December 17. My daughter was in the middle of her exam when Yadav walked up to her and asked her to write some words on her question paper on the pretext of matching her handwriting with the answer sheet. However, later he began scolding her for making marks on the question paper. He humiliated her in front of the entire class, saying she was cheating. She was so disturbed that she couldn’t concentrate on the exams after that,” Phool Singh alleged in his complaint.
Both parties have been asked to dispose in front of the inquiry officer tomorrow.

While Yadav could not be contacted, for his comments, SIE director SS Dahiya said, “Yes, we have been informed about an inquiry against the lecturer being marked and I have set up an internal one also. The teacher concerned has gone out of town for some official duty. Prior to this the student’s parents never approached me and I received the copy of their complaint only today. Once the teacher comes back we will speak to both parties and then only will we be able to establish anything.”

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100111/himachal.htm#11

Our Correspondent

Kangra, January 10. A 15-year-old Harijan girl was abducted by two youth and a woman and was repeatedly raped by the two young men at hotels in Chandigarh, Zirakpur and Una and was let go after 10 day confinement, the police said here today.

According to police, Joyti, a resident of Sheeri village falling under the Jawalamukhi police station, was allegedly abducted on December 31 by two youth identified as Anoop Kumar, alias Lucky, a JCB driver of Sadwan village, and Rimpo. The duo was accompanied by a woman. The trio took her to a hotel in Chandigarh and raped her.

The trio kept on changing the place and shifted the girl to another hotel at Zirakpur in Punjab, police added. Anoop left the girl at Zirakpur and the victim was taken by Rimpo and the unidentified woman to Una from where she was allowed to board a bus.

The police was informed and a case under section 363, 366 A, 376 and 120 B was registered against the accused at the Jawalamukhi police station this evening.

The girl was sent for a medical examination and investigation was under progress, the police added.

Times Of India

Caste bias against dalits not down: CJI

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Caste-bias-against-dalits-not-down-CJI/articleshow/5431611.cms

Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN, 11 January 2010, 02:23am IST

NEW DELHI: In what could raise serious concerns over the working of the 60-year-old reservation system to uplift the dalits, Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan on Sunday said caste prejudices had not come down against the dalits.

Reflecting on his journey from a dalit boy to the post of CJI, Justice Balakrishnan said it had not been an easy road for him. Asked whether in the present day, a similarly placed dalit boy would have a smoother journey, the CJI said, “It will still be difficult.”

Speaking to TOI, Justice Balakrishnan said, “The prejudices are on the increase. It may not be visible on the surface, for the prejudices are more sophisticate now.” This remark from the CJI puts in question the efficacy of the current system of reservation for Scheduled Caste population through the Presidential Order of 1950 to compensate them for the centuries of oppression at the hands of upper castes.

But the CJI was not bitter as he looked back on the eve of completing three years in the top post, just five months away from his retirement. “I have suffered caste prejudices. But at the same time, so many people have helped me irrespective of their caste,” he added.

In fact, the Supreme Court in April 2006 had issued notices to the Centre and all states on a PIL filed by an NGO — ‘National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights’ (NCDHR) — citing 20 common instances of indifference of police and authorities that had rendered the SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, a dead piece of legislation. The PIL had sought as many as 28 different directions for the proper implementation of the 17-year-old Act.

Indian Express

Mohali up in arms: Dalits protest inflation, plot allottees rue delay

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mohali-up-in-arms-dalits-protest-inflation-plot-allottees-rue-delay/565763/0

: Monday , Jan 11, 2010 at 0100 hrs

Saturday was a day of protests in Mohali. While the Dalits staged a massive protest against the price rise, atrocities and injustice, the allottees of Sector 76-80 held demonstration against long delay in allotment of their plots.

Braving the dense fog, hundreds of Dalits from across the district gathered at the Dussehra Ground in Phase VIII here this morning and walked up to the District Administrative Complex in Phase-I under the banner of the Punjab Dalit Chetna Manch, an NGO fighting for the cause of Dalits.

Holding black flags, banners and placards with slogans against the Centre and state government, the Dalits expressed their anguish against the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities of daily use, atrocities and injustice meted out to them in different spheres and indifferent attitude of the governments and administration towards their plight.

Addressing the protest rally, which culminated in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office, the Manch president Shamsher Singh said the insult of Dalits in government offices, 40 per cent cut on supply of pulses and wheat to Dalits, complete ban on supply of kerosene oil, discrimination in shagun and houses for houseless people schemes, increasing trend of encroachments on village common lands to render the Dalits houseless and skyrocketing prices of essential commodities of daily use, which had rendered the poor without even the daily bread were the main issues that forced to launch the mass public agitation.

The protest concluded after submitting a memorandum to the SDM, who assured to forward it to the government for favourable consideration.

The second protest in the biting chill was by the members of the Sector 76-80 Plot Allotment Sangharsh Committee, which was spearheading the cause of those allotted plots in 2001 but were not yet given their physical possession.

Hundreds of allottees staged a massive demonstration in front of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) headquarters in Sector 62 here this morning.

The allottees, led by the panel president Sucha Singh Kalor, squatted in front of the GMADA office and raised slogans against GMADA officials for what they alleged as delay in allotment of 351 remaining plots.

Despite repeated and clear cut instructions of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who is also GMADA Chairman, to immediately clear all the pending cases of allotment in Sector 76-80 without any further delay and favourable decision of the legal litigation from the Apex Court, the GMADA officials concerned were making “lame excuses” to further delay the remaining allotments, alleged the panel media spokesperson Paramdeep Singh.

The protesters demanded action against the GMADA officials concerned for “harassing” the allottees for the past 9 years.

Dalit girl set on fire after rape attempt

http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/06/stories/2010010659730700.htm

Staff Reporter

BHOPAL: A minor dalit girl has been burnt alive by two boys in Kodari village of Burhanpur district of Madhya Pradesh. The boys allegedly entered the girl’s house on Monday afternoon when she was alone and attempted to rape her. The victim was a student of Class VIII.

When she resisted, the boys allegedly poured kerosene over her and burnt her. The girl’s mother rushed the badly-burnt girl to hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. The police have arrested both the accused for murder and attempted rape.

The incident was among three incidents of violence against girl students in the State on Monday, including a college student allegedly shooting his girlfriend and an M.Phil student being allegedly gang-raped in Bhopal Memorial Hospital in the State capital.

Zee News

LJP leaders demand end to manual scavenging

http://www.zeenews.com/news592911.html

Updated on Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Patna: Demanding an end to the practise of scavengers carrying night soil on their heads, LJP president Ramvilas Paswan, party leaders and activists on Tuesday courted arrest here.

Hundreds of LJP workers marched in a procession to the busy R-block and courted arrest but were later freed, police said.

The LJP leader called for regularisation of sweepers appointed on contract saying those on government pay roll were inadequate in number to meet the demand.

“The monthly salary of sweepers should also be hiked from Rs 7,000 to Rs 15,000 as received by Group D employees in government offices,” he demanded.

A commission should be formed to look into the problems of the sweepers, he said adding that they should be included in the BPL list and one acre of land be provided to each family.

LJP would demonstrate before Parliament in New Delhi on March 9 demanding immediate dismissal of the Bihar government for neglecting the demands of scavengers.

According to government data, nearly 1.3 million people are engaged in manual scavenging across India.

Manual scavenging has been banned in the country since 1993 by a law that also prohibits use of unplumbed toilets.

Express Buzz

‘Indian democracy belongs to crorepatis’

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=%E2%80%98Indian+democracy+belongs+to+crorepatis%E2%80%99&artid=PVyYeZ9ljy0=&SectionID=1ZkF/jmWuSA=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=X7s7i%7CxOZ5Y=&SEO=

Shevlin Sebastian

First Published : 07 Jan 2010 05:32:00 AM IST

Last Updated :

In December, 1996, Murugesan, a Dalit, contested for the post of president of Melavalavu panchayat, near Madurai, and won. The members of the dominant community, the Kallars, were aghast and angry. “They told Murugesan he would be taught a lesson,” says Dr George Mathew, founder-director of the Delhi-based Institute of Social Sciences.

On June 30, 1997, Murugesan and a few Dalits were travelling on a bus from Madurai. About 2 km from Melavalavu, the bus was forcibly stopped.

More than 20 people attacked Murugesan and his companions. All were killed instantly.

“In many parts of India, people refuse to accept the empowerment of Dalits, women and marginalised people,” says Mathew. “They say, ‘My father, a high caste, sat on this chair. I will not allow anybody else to sit on it.’ Because of this feudalistic attitude, many suffer from harassment at the grassroots level. Scores of people have also been killed.” Most state governments also want to kill off the panchayati raj system.

According to the 73rd Amendment of the Indian Constitution, 29 subjects like agriculture, irrigation, fishing, housing, roads and water, have to be transferred to the panchayats, but so far only lip service has been done.

“The fault lies with the politicians, the bureaucracy, the upper castes, landlords and middlemen, like contractors,” says Mathew. “How can a few thousand powerful people manage this crowd of 30 lakh elected representatives? They prefer to deal with a single MLA or the bureaucracy. So they will not allow the panchayats to flourish.” But Mathew is all praise for Kerala, which has allowed decentralisation to take place. “There is a culture of local government here, thanks to forward-thinking leaders like EMS Namboodiripad, and social reformers like Ayyankali and Sree Narayana Guru,” he says. “Many government departments have to work through the panchayats.” Mathew is also happy with the infrastructure.

“There are proper buildings and the offices are equipped with computers and all the modern facilities,” he says. In other states, the panchayat offices are usually located in the homes of landlords. People from lower castes are not allowed to enter.

There is no office equipment. Despite this, Mathew and the institute have been propagating the need to develop local self-government. “If power is not decentralised, it will lead to alienation,” says Mathew. “When that happens, people will resort to violence.” Mathew says that this is already happening. More than 200 districts in India are under the control of the Naxalites. “Where are we heading?” he says. “The people in the cities are going one way, while the rest of the country is going somewhere else. We must ensure that the other India also becomes developed.” Mathew was in Kerala recently to deliver the Dr. N. Parameswaran Nair Memorial Lecture at the Sree Narayana Guru Institute of Science and Technology at North Paravoor. He spoke on ‘Power to the people: where are we?’ and sounded pessimistic.

“There are 150 MPs who have criminal antecedents,” he says. “Out of that, more than 100 are crorepatis.

Initially, these people did not have a fortune.

After two terms as MLA or MP, they become crorepatis. Can we call it a democracy? The world might respect us because of our system, but, fundamentally, our democracy is flawed,” Mathew points out.Shevlin Sebastian.

PTI

SC declines PIL on quota for Dalits embracing Buddhism

http://www.ptinews.com/news/455766_SC-declines-PIL-on-quota-for-Dalits-embracing-Buddhism

New Delhi, Jan 6 (PTI) The Supreme Court today declined to entertain a petition questioning a provision in the legislation that extends the benefits of reservation to Dalits converted to Buddhism.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice B S Chauhan dismissed the PIL seeking annulment of the Constitutional (Scheduled Castes) Orders Amendment Act, 1990 providing reservation to Dalits converted to Buddhism.
The PIL filed by R H Boudh had contended that bringing the converted Buddhist in the fold of caste-based reservation amounted to defeating the purpose of their conversion.

“We are treated as the same lower caste people of the Hindu religion, to escape from which we had converted to Buddhism,” the petitioner submitted adding that the Buddhist community did not need reservation as it would mean converting the religion of Buddhism into a caste.

The Hindu

Law sought on quota for SC/ST in private sector

http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/07/stories/2010010753350300.htm

Special Correspondent

VELLORE: The Oppressed People’s Unity Pledge-Taking Day Conference, organised by the Republican Party of India (RPI) in connection with the 53rd death anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar here on Tuesday, urged the Central government to bring in legislation without delay to ensure reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the private sector. It said it is in the light of the dilution of reservation in the public sector on account of privatisation and the livelihood of the oppressed classes “becoming a question mark.”

A resolution was adopted at the conference presided over by C.K. Thamizharasan, Tamil Nadu State president of the RPI, in the presence of national president Prakash Ambedkar.

The conference urged the United Progressive Alliance government to bear the education expenses of Dalit students in all colleges. It requested the Centre to ensure reservation for SCs/STs in its higher educational institutions. The conference appealed for a separate budget for schemes for the welfare of the SCs/STs, as done for the Railways. It wanted allocations to be made directly to the Department of Adi Dravidar Welfare of State governments for implementation.

The conference appealed to the State government to establish bank branches for the Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation (TAHDCO) in all districts and to enhance the TAHDCO loans by three times. It urged the Central and State governments to waive the TAHDCO loans and educational loans granted to the SC/ST people.

The conference urged the State government to prevent the Palar River from becoming dry and polluted and to take steps to strengthen the waterbodies in such a way that they permanently yield water. It pleaded for the extension of the Hogenakkal scheme to Vellore.

Mr. Prakash Ambedkar called upon the Dalits to be vigilant and ensure that the schemes meant for the welfare of the SCs/STs are not only implemented but also lead to the fruition of the efforts taken by Dalit organisations.

With many SCs/STs having educated themselves and become doctors, engineers, business people and entered the Information Technology and management sector thanks to the reservation brought by the efforts of B.R. Ambedkar in the government sector, the Central government was slowly depriving the Dalits of scholarships and subsidies. He recalled the words of his grandfather, B.R. Ambedkar, who said that the moment the Dalits stopped being vigilant, exploitation would start. Mr. Prakash Ambedkar said that the present problem arising out of the announcement of a separate Telangana State, leading to the demand for the bifurcation of other States, would not have arisen, had the Central government followed the advice of B.R. Ambedkar to form smaller States during the process of linguistic reorganisation of States. Mr. Thamizharasan accused the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government of failure to introduce new schemes for the welfare of Dalits. He urged the DMK government to provide for reservation for Dalits in the Cabinet, and the Central government to increase the reservation for Dalits and tribals from 19 to 22 per cent. C. Senguttuvan, State general secretary of RPI, spoke.

The Economic Times

Inside the mind of young India

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Comments-Analysis/Inside-the-mind-of-young-India/articleshow/5418621.cms

7 Jan 2010, 0640 hrs IST, Rama Bijapurkar, ET Bureau

Do we know what young India is thinking? The English media give us their take based on surveys that they do, which, as has been pointed out often in  this column, represent less than 5% of the country’s youth. Often, it’s hard to even figure out what segment of youth such surveys represent, because the write-up is most economical about facts like which income group or social strata the study was done amongst, merely stating “xx number of respondents aged xyz, from the following cities and towns”.

The internet surveys give us a window into the minds and worlds of the internet-enabled youth; but this sample universe leaves out large chunks of those who form part of our much-promised demographic dividend. That’s why it was so wonderful to see a book, Indian youth in a transforming world: Attitudes and perceptions. Jointly published by CSDS and Sage Publications, it is the report of a high-quality survey of 5,000 people, aged 14 to 34, drawn from all states excluding the north-east, Uttarakhand, Goa and Himachal Pradesh, and representing all socio-economic classes.

The sampling methodology and the survey instrument have been explained in detail, and the fieldwork relatively recent, done in mid-2007. Not meaning to be xenophobic, it was still a bit sad to note that such a study got done because Konrad Adenauer Stiftung initiated and commissioned — and presumably funded — it.

It is true that in India, we generally have trouble finding adequate funding for regular studies of this kind which tell us more about ourselves. If the quantum of data were proportionate to the quantum of our usage of the term demographic dividend, we should have had several more and larger youth studies in the public domain. One is not referring to countrywide studies done for private companies that measure cola consumption or media habits or advertising preferences of young India; but of public domain insights on how young people think and feel about issues like those that this book captures — ‘family and social networks’, engagement with ‘politics and democracy’, views relating to ‘governance and development’, and their view of the world and globalisation, their hopes, dreams and concerns and so on.

To set the big-picture context, according to the Census of India, 2001, we have almost 20% of our population in the age group of 15 to 24 — that’s what actually ought to be considered the core youth target group — and around 27% in the age group of 15 to 29. They are 69% rural and 31% urban, yet what rural youth are thinking about is a big blind spot for many of us, because it never finds mention in any media survey; only 14% have finished school, and the number is just 9% for women. Even in urban India, only 25% of urban youth have finished school, and that actually represents around 8% of all-India youth. So, let’s mute the applause for the big bold move with wide ranging benefits of the MHRD initiative to abolish the Standard X exam.

espite low levels of education and income for the most part, according to the survey report, optimism runs very high. About 84% of the 15 to 34-year-olds in India — referred to in the report, and henceforth in this article, as the youth — are optimistic about the future, and only 3% are pessimistic, the remaining 13% are uncertain. We always talk about aspiring young India and, indeed, 53% have high or very high aspirations as compared to 28% who have low or very low aspirations. Does it hold for the weaker sections of society too? It most certainly does.

About 30% of upper class youth have low or very low aspirations, while only 24 and 26% respectively of the Dalits and tribals have low or very low aspirations. However aspiration levels do rise with socio-economic status, but even on this count, at the lowest strata, 43% have high or very high aspirations and outnumber those who have low or very low aspirations. Just imagine the power of hope and desire that we are sitting on, if only we could channelise it properly!

With aspiration comes anxiety of course, and 68% of the youth have high anxiety about their future, 50% very high anxiety. If my generation paid the price of the socialist ideology, then this generation is bearing the cross of the free market, survival of the fittest, keep up with the Joneses society that we are becoming.

What do they see as the big problem that this country has to deal with? It is poverty and unemployment (27% votes each), while only 4% chose illiteracy and lack of education, 3% terrorism and 6% corruption. In fact, if we were to add population growth to unemployment and poverty, then 67% of young people are saying, “ I’m optimistic but please give me opportunity and improve my quality of living”.

Poverty is seen to be the No. 1 problem ahead of unemployment by those in the lowest socio-economic strata and the illiterate, but unemployment is what everyone is deeply concerned about across the board — irrespective of education levels or socio-economic status.

When asked ‘what should be the first priority of the government’, guarantee of employment wins by a very wide margin over provision of educational facilities or betterment of health services. May be it is time to debate the value of jobless growth in the economy, and the notion that growing self-employment is out of choice.

And what kind of social issues will gen-next grapple with? Ensuring environmental sustainability comes in a distant third after ‘strengthening defence’. Gender equality will be a strident call, especially from the women, and more so from the less educated women. Related to that, presumably, will be shaky marriages, though belief in family still reigns supreme.

A big thank you to the editors and publishers of the volume for putting this important study the public domain, and let’s make a new year wish that we will have internally-generated funding to do more of this kind of work that will help us both in business strategy and in public policy, to understand ourselves better, and shape the future better.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Wardha-VC-accused-of-being-anti-dalit/articleshow/5408327.cms

Akshaya Mukul, TNN 4 January 2010, 03:03am IST

NEW DELHI: When police officer and Hindi writer VN Rai joined as vice-chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya at Wardha, there were great expectations from him. But now serious allegations have been made against him for being anti-Dalit, which he denies.

Dalit teachers and students of the university have called Rai a “secular-castesist”.

The latest relates to Rai’s action against Lela Karunyakara, director of the Balasahaeb Ambedkar Centre for Dalit and Tribal Studies, for participating in a candle light procession in the university on Ambedkar’s Mahaparinirvan Day. Rai sought an explanation from him on the ground that the processionists had raised “provocative casteist slogans”. Rai had maintained that such an act endangered peace and harmony in the campus.

In his detailed reply, Karunyakara, while narrating the age-old discrimination against Dalits, even by secularists, gave the context of Dalit assertion and explained that the slogans raised were not casteist but against casteism. He maintained that there was nothing wrong in what he did. Not satisfied with the reply, Rai in an order on December 31 charged Karunyakara with turning a fact-finding exercise into an “unwarranted platform of expression of your ill-conceived prejudices and egoist frustrations”.

Justifying his decision, Rai told TOI, “Senior faculty members told me that very abusive slogans were being used in the procession.”

The Hindu

Official accused of being anti-Dalit

http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/04/stories/2010010452910300.htm

Staff Correspondent

Chitradurga: Accusing Deputy Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas of being “anti-Dalit”, Basava Madarachannayyaswami of Madarachannayya Gurupeetha announced that he and several Dalit leaders from the district would hold a protest against Mr. Biswas. The date would be announced later.

Addressing presspersons here on Sunday, the seer alleged that the Deputy Commissioner had failed in ensuring justice to victims of atrocities against Dalits, and also cases had not been booked against those who committed the atrocities.

“Atrocities against Dalits and harassment of Dalits have been increasing in various parts of the district. Yet, he (Mr. Biswas) has failed to curb them,” he charged. The swamiji said that recently about 20 Dalit families from Budihalli village in Challakere taluk had allegedly been forced to leave the village by “caste Hindus.” Even though the ousted families staged a dharna in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner demanding security and justice, the official had allegedly not heeded to their demands. Instead, it was the Superintendent of Police Labhu Ram who had sent the families back to their village with police security, the swamiji alleged. No relief had been distributed to the victims, he alleged.

The Pioneer

Rajaka community faces social boycott in CM’s constituency

http://www.dailypioneer.com/226877/Rajaka-community-faces-social-boycott-in-CM’s-constituency.html

Santanu Barad | Berhampur

When the Government is talking of the social security particularly for the downtrodden and Harijans, the administration remains helpless in providing justice and even the police are unable to provide security to some families who face ‘social boycott’ and that too at a village under Hinjili police limits and within the constituency of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The sufferings of the families belonging to the washerman (Rajaka) community of the Thuruburai village under Hinjili police limits dates back to two years when villagers belonging to the upper caste took inhuman action against 13 families and boycotted the families socially. Then, these people demanded Rs 50 per annum instead of Rs 20 which was meagre amount. As a result, the villagers after a meeting boycotted them socially. But then, the villagers in presence of the police withdrew the ‘social boycott’ on these families after taking Rs 21,600 as fine.

But afterwards, the village people again started their social torture. On December 18, they torched the paddy crops of these people and when the victims lodged an FIR at Hinjili police station, the police did register the case, alleged Pradip Sethi who has been facing the boycott. On December 24, hundreds of villagers attacked one Bhima Sethi and his family belonging to the Rajaka community. Even they assaulted his wife physically, alleged Bhima who is receiving treatment at MKCG Medical College and Hospital. Bhima’s condition is critical and he apprehends that his backbone may not work properly again due to permanent injury.

The members of the Rajaka community are now leaving the village as the police and administration fail to provide security and justice. For the last three days, the male members of the community have been agitating in front of the Sheragarh Tehsildar’s office. The police were stating that they could not provide security, informed Pradeep adding that even the local administration has expressed their helplessness stating that this was not in their hands.

Consequently, these people are now living in front of the Tehsildar’s office. Some families are now living in their in-laws’ villages. However, the male members who have been agitating seeking justice stated that they would continue to agitate with the hope that they would get justice as their village comes under the Assembly constituency of CM Naveen Patnaik.

Frontline

POLITICS
Relevance of Ambedkar

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/19910427014.htm

N. RAM

IN the centenary year of his birth, Babasaheb Ambedkar stands taller than he ever did before – his role in the struggle for a modern, new India gaining steadily in weight, stature and centrality at the expense of various other outstanding national figures who were contemporaries and opponents in the great battles of the freedom movement era. This is essentially because the deep-seated and central problems spotlighted by his life, struggles, studies and experimentation in ideas remain alive and kicking while the big socio-political questions he raised about the state, well-being and future of India remain basically unanswered.   He was born Bhimrao on April 14, 1891, at Mhow in Central India in an austere and religious Mahar family with a military service background and considerable respect for education. In school (Satara and Bombay), college (Bombay), service under the Maharaja of Baroda (briefly in 1913 and again between July and November 1917) and study abroad (Columbia University, the London School of Economics, Gray’s Inn, the University of Bonn), he displayed a scholarly orientation, a commitment to the life of the mind and trained intellectual gifts that no other national figure in Indian politics could match over this century.   He benefited from opportunities which had just opened up, which none in his family (or, for that matter, in the recorded history of his people) had access to over the centuries; yet every one of his academic, intellectual and professional achievements was hard earned, in social battle, against entrenched oppression, discrimination and anti-human prejudice. By the time he was finished with his formal studies in the early 1920s, Dr Ambedkar had acquired qualifications that surpassed the M.A., Ph.D., M.Sc. (Econ), D.Sc. (Econ), Barrister-at-law he had added, by right, to his name and title; the young man had been through a real life educational experience which most people (including the most renowned scholars) do not manage to acquire in a lifetime.   There may be various opinions on the formidable range of issues and controversies in which Dr Ambedkar figured as a protagonist over 40 years of his public life – which can be said to have begun with the sharp and insightful paper on “The Castes in India, Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development” which he did for Dr Goldenweiser’s anthropology seminar in New York in May 1916. He was a searchingly honest, challenging, analytical eclectic liberal thinker who was attracted to utilitarianism (and eventually to Buddhism) in philosophy and to the ideals of the French Revolution as much as to the socially forward-looking and humanistic elements and values in Indian culture and civilisation over the millennia.   He delved into the Marxist classics (claiming, during the historic anti-khot mobilisation of peasants in Bombay in early 1938, that “I have definitely read studiously more books on the Communist philosophy than all Communist leaders here”), but was not persuaded either by the revolutionary theory or the practice. He was emphatically opposed to Gandhism and to the Congress ideology, although on some social issues he shared common points with Jawaharlal Nehru – who badly let down his Minister of Law on the Hindu Code Bill in the early 1950s. Right from his early days, Ambedkar made a mark as a restless and courageous experimenter who, obviously, did not always get it right in the matter of trade-offs (and did not claim to). He fell in love with ideas as a socially oppressed and humiliated schoolboy who refused to be taken for a ride by anyone, including Baroda’s royalty. Throughout his life (which ended on December 6, 1956, a couple of months after he publicly embraced Buddhism along with his followers), he was interested in the big picture. But the boy who was socially barred from playing cricket with his schoolmates in Satara (by the curse of untouchability) never took his eye off the ball. He concentrated in his public life on attainable, practical goals and never became too big to go into specifics, details, doubts, books, the problems of ordinary people, especially the lowliest of the low in Indian society.   During Dr Ambedkar’s lifetime, his many opponents and critics – especially Congressmen – alleged from time to time that he had missed the main strategic task or objective. Such criticism gained wide currency, especially in the press which tended to patronise him as a sort of sub-national leader, a sectional leader of the Scheduled Castes rather than the towering and challenging national figure he was in every objective sense. Unfortunately, some of the heroes of the freedom struggle, social reactionaries themselves, completely missed the point about how Dr Ambedkar’s studious, tough-minded, powerful social questioning and battles fitted into the overall picture; some of them even questioned his patriotism and called him names, but who remembers them today? Looking at this inspiring but contradictory freedom movement experience in late-twentieth century light, we can begin to appreciate why Dr Ambedkar was unerringly on target on social questions and his critics and opponents dead wrong (even if they were so for understandable reasons).   What is absolutely clear in this centenary year is that Dr Ambedkar represented, in the truly national sense, the profound side of the socio-political struggle which formed an irrepressible part of the nationalist movement, although it was not often understood (by conservatism and orthodoxy in politics) to be such. Politically moderate, he tended towards radicalism and uncompromising struggle in the social arena in which he generalled many battles. His lifelong concern with religion, morality and justice in the idealistic sense was marked by a restlessly serious attempt to get the intellectual, social and political measure of these things. He did not believe in class analysis, but intuitively and intellectually grasped the link between caste and class in India. What is impressive is that the giant whose moderately couched, constitutionally canalised socio-political revolt we are observing retains a formidable constituency – in terms of people, gut issues and social and moral dilemmas to be addressed by a complicated nation which needs to find its way out of a host of troubles.   Aside from his collected works, there are some reasonably good biographies, such as W.N. Kuber’s Dr. Ambedkar: A Critical Study (People’s Publishing House, New Delhi, 1973) and B.R. Ambedkar in the Builders of Modern India series (1978). Eleanor Zelliot’s unpublished PhD dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania (1969) and Gail Omvedt’s more recent studies on Dr Ambedkar and Dalit Labour radicalism and protest movements do contribute useful insights. This literature can be significantly improved upon if centenary celebration resources are intelligently deployed in the relevant research and study (as the Central government has promised).   Ideologically, Dr Ambedkar occupied the “centre”, frequently the space right of centre, but at times he moved sharply the other way, to the radical side. This happened especially when his ideas, campaigns and political organisational work were backed by powerful mass movements (in the “radical” second half of the 1930s, for example, during the 1938 workers’ struggle in Bombay against the anti-strike Bill). He was the builder of the Independent Labour Party, which did not take off in an all-India sense, but yielded some valuable political, ideological and organisational lessons to the Opposition round the nation. Despite his chairmanship of the Constitution Draft Committee in the Constituent Assembly and his stint in the Union Ministry under Nehru, Dr Ambedkar can be considered as a founder of non-Congressism and anti-Congressism in Indian politics.   Even while championing social egalitarianism and popular liberties and criticising the sway of big business and landlordism, campaigning for social and economic democracy, he remained a conscious ideological and political adversary of Marxism and Communism – for the basic reason that he found them challenging in the same way he found Buddhism inspiring. He had a number of interesting things to say about tricky national problems – Kashmir, language, nationhood, citizenship, ethnicity and so on – and his analysis lit up the field for a proper democratic understanding of federalism and Centre-State relations in India. On international questions and foreign policy, his approach was that of a centrist-conservative dissenting from non-alignment and from the Nehruvian (not to mention radical) world view.The social and class basis of the following he commanded; the non-philanthropic, non-petitioning nature of his social questioning; his passion for social justice (going well beyond Gandhiji’s compromising vision so far as the ancien regime and the oppressed sections were concerned) and democratic liberties; his openness to modern, scientific and rational ideas, his unyielding secularism and progressive views on a number of questions, especially on the condition and future of women and on what it took to make a civil society; his great intellectual gifts and wide-ranging interests; his ability to concentrate on attainable, practical goals and his constructive sense of realism – these marked him out as a unique kind of leader.   The recent period of socio-political development in India has seen a blossoming of Hindutva and a majority chauvinist ideological and political offensive which can only be classified as extremist in relation to national unity. At this juncture, Dr Ambedkar’s fearless analysis of the caste system, of chaturvarnya, of notions of pollution, of unalterable or rigid social hierarchy and so forth, and of the implications of the hegemony of the shastras must be read, re-read and made part of a national debate. His major theoretical exposition of such questions is contained in a 1936 presidential address which stirred up a hornet’s nest, the radical “Annihilation of Caste”. This ideological offering to the building of a new India must be ranked on a par with his signal and justly celebrated contribution to the making of a Republican Constitution.   In this work, Dr Ambedkar emphasised the anti-social, anti-progress character of an unjust social order as well as its vital connection, through networks of force and ideology, with political power. The caste system, in his analysis, militated against fraternity, “sanghatan and cooperation for a good cause”, public charity and broad-based virtue and morality. When critics challenged him to specify his “ideal society” in lieu of a caste-based order, he replied: “My ideal would be a society based on liberty, equality and fraternity.” He specified that his ideal society would be mobile; there would be “social endormosis”; there would be fraternity, which was only another name for democracy; and democracy was primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoining communicated experience and breeding an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow human beings.   “Chaturvarnya must fail for the very reason for which Plato’s Republic must fail,” warned the seriously read intellectual as social rebel. He pointed out that “the lower classes of Hindus” were “completely disabled for direct action on account of a wretched system”. He asserted: “There cannot be a more degrading system of social organisation. … It is the system which deadens, paralyses and cripples the people from helpful activity.” He attempted to follow through the implications of this system in the political sphere. To him the real remedy was “to destroy the belief in the sanctity of the shastras” and their caste-borne tyranny.   It was no wonder that Gandhiji, a notable compromiser in such matters, declared more than half a century ago: “Dr Ambedkar is a challenge to Hinduism.” He remains so today, which is why the votaries of Hindutva and the forces which form part of the RSS constellation will not be celebrating Ambedkar   One battle in which social orthodoxy and opportunist politics allied to defeat progress was the instructive fight over the Hindu Code Bill in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The leading author of the Constitution led the effort to institute a reasonably forward-looking and egalitarian Hindu Code law (especially from the standpoint of women), but it was sabotaged by orthodox elements. The Congress party, despite Nehru’s claim to rationality and progressivism, refused to support the Bill. The abandonment of this progressive legislative measure meant the betrayal of Dr Ambedkar’s vision on such gut issues.   His solid contribution to institution-building apart, he had a great deal to say about democracy as a real way of life and about citizens’ rights, about authoritarianism and also about a healthy democratic political system. He detested hereditary, dynastic rule and a one-party system. “To have popular government run by a single party is to let democracy become a mere form for despotism to play its parts from behind it,” is a typical Ambedkar formulation. He warned: “Despotism does not cease to be despotism because it is elective. The real guarantee against despotism is to confront it with the possibility of its dethronement, of its being laid low, of its being superseded by a rival party.” Dr Ambedkar clearly had little use for political stability premised on a single party’s rule, or on a social philosophy of “letting sleeping dogs lie”.

Two other political principles which he focussed on have been honoured in their systematic and cynical violation over the years. Do not lay liberties at the feet of a great man; in politics, bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation. Make political democracy a social democracy; resolve the contradictions, else they will undermine, or blow up, democracy itself. Over a historic century, the many-sided achievement of Dr Ambedkar – as an individual of prodigious intellectual, political and moral gifts and as a towering national figure representing large forces of historical change in a process that is painfully incomplete – inspires awe.

Dalit girl’s gangrape has hung for 11 yrs on an MLA’s note

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/dalit-girls-gangrape-has-hung-for-11-yrs-on-an-mlas-note/561767/0

She was a minor; her alleged assaulter a man with clout. The police initially turned her away; while a decade later, her case is still on in courts. And while Ruchika Girhotra’s tragic story may have got the nation’s and government’s ear, no one remembers the then 13-year-old Dalit girl who was allegedly gangraped on the night of the Dhuleti festival, a day after Holi, in a Vadodara village by an MLA’s relative and a friend of his.

In the 11 years since, the case is still at a stage where the witnesses are to be examined. Her grandfather has had to sell most of his land in the court battle, while the girl herself is now married to a local youth and has two children.

As for Khumansinh Chauhan, on whose official letterhead a handwritten note was sent to the police sub-inspector concerned over the case (a copy of which is with The Indian Express), he continues to be the Congress MLA from Savli.

On the night of March 13, 1998, the girl from Mokshi village was reportedly abducted fom her home by Ramesh Baria and his friend, gangraped and found abandoned and bleeding near the village pond the next morning. Her grandfather Vashram Vankar had just stepped out, leaving her alone (her parents having split, she was being raised by Vashram).

“We took her to the police outpost, but they told us to go to the Bhadarva Police Station. The Bhadarva police did not register a case, and told us to take her to hospital for medical examination,” Vankar says.

At the SSG Hospital, the doctors initially thought that the girl, who was in deep shock, was mentally challenged, and referred her to the Vadodara Hospital for Mental Health. The doctors there realised she had been raped and sent her back. A medical examination confirmed rape.

It took four days for the police to register a complaint. “When the police kept delaying, we met the then Vadodara Superintendent of Police, but he accused us of making up the case to extort money,” says Vankar.

The police finally relented after Vankar moved the Gujarat High Court. The family believes the note on Chauhan’s letterhead that was hand-delivered to the Bhadarva Police Station on March 14, 1998, even before the grandfather had reached there with the rape complaint, was behind the police delay.

The letter, signed by Chauhan, says the person delivering it was known to him: “Virendra B Solanki is from Mokshi. He is a personal supporter of mine, I had introduced him to you earlier too. His is the issue concerning the rape case. I know this issue. So, it is my recommendation that you too understand the issue as he will tell you, and do the needful.”

Chauhan claims his letterhead may have been “misused” by someone and that he doesn’t know anybody by the name of Ramesh Baria. “I routinely give many recommendation letters, but I don’t recall giving any such letter,” he told The Indian Express. “I would never do that, not in a serious case like rape.”

Valjibhai Patel, secretary of the Council for Social Justice, which took up the issue, says Chauhan isn’t telling the truth. “Baria was definitely a relative on his maternal side,” he says.

The police were just the first stumbling block. At every stage, the Vankars met delay, callousness and apathy:

* Police take a month to submit a chargesheet before the local Sessions Court, on April 25, 1998, naming Baria and accomplice Ramesh Vankar.

* A year later, on April 14, 1999, the Additional Sessions Judge refers the case to the Lok Adalat, deciding that the gangrape of a minor was a fit case to try for an amicable “compromise”. The girl’s family doesn’t agree.

* Eight more years would pass, until May 30, 2007, before the court, which had by then completed the entire trial proceedings, would realise that proper procedure was not followed in submitting the chargesheet and that it was submitted directly to the Sessions Court instead of the court of the Judicial First Class Magistrate (JFMC), which could have committed it to the Sessions Court. The case papers were sent back to the Investigating Officer, who was told to submit those to the JFMC court.

* Police would take five months, till October 9, 2007, to submit the case to the Magistrate.

* As things stand, the Sessions Court is to conduct “further hearing” in the case on January 23, 2010.

Says former Gujarat High Court judge Justice S M Soni: “A case so serious as rape cannot go to the Lok Adalat. The court should not have done that. As for sending it back to the Investigating Officer after the trial was almost over, the court could have found some way to rectify the error instead of following mere official formality.”

Vashram Vankar, who is in his late 70s now, and the girl’s maternal uncle Suresh Vankar say they are determined to fight on. “We were offered Rs 50,000 by relatives of the accused… We refused,” says Suresh.

“I wish someone understood our pain,” adds the grandfather. “Our only relief is she has settled down with a loving husband and in-laws, who do not object to her appearing in court to fight for justice.”

Frontline

SOCIAL JUSTICE
Lesser citizens

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100115270105600.htm

S. VISWANATHAN

THE first 25 years of Frontline covered a turbulent period in the political, economic and social histories of the country. The period witnessed several incidents and events of far-reaching consequences. These include the brutal assassination of Rajiv Gandhi; India’s adoption of neoliberal economic policies; the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the consolidation of Hindutva forces; the growing assertion of Dalits inspired by the Ambedkar centenary celebrations; the extension of quota benefits to larger sections as recommended by the Mandal Commission, the Sachar Committee, and so on; a spurt in incidents of violence against Dalits and tribal people; and attempts to empower Dalits and women under the panchayat raj system. The last three are considered significant in terms of social justice.

In a large country ridden with poverty, unemployment and disparities in income, reservation of government jobs and seats in educational institutions is an effective instrument for ensuring social justice. The Constitution provided for reservation in education and employment for the Scheduled Castes (Dalits) and the Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their share in the population. This provision was made as part of positive discrimination in view of the historical discrimination and social injustice faced by these sections. An amendment to the Constitution in the early years of its operation empowered the States to provide reservation for the educationally and socially backward classes in educational institutions and government service.

The Janata Party government led by Morarji Desai appointed a commission headed by the parliamentarian Brindeshwari Prasad Mandal to identify “the socially and educationally backward” and consider their case for reservation. (Article 340 of the Constitution enables the President to appoint a commission to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes and the difficulties under which they labour and to recommend steps that should be taken by the Union and State governments to improve their condition.)

Although Mandal submitted his report as early as 1980, it gathered dust for nearly a decade. It was Prime Minister V.P. Singh who took the initiative in 1990 to implement the commission’s recommendations, as promised by the ruling National Front during its election campaign. He announced in Delhi on December 6, just four days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, that his government would implement the Mandal Commission recommendations and that both Hindu and non-Hindu Other Backward Classes, together accounting for 52 per cent of the population, would be given 27 per cent reservation.

The announcement triggered instant protests, mostly from “upper caste” students. Protesters, who included over 3,000 university students, staged demonstrations and stopped traffic in many places. Violence was reported from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. The next move from V.P. Singh came only on August 13, 1990, when he issued a notification for the OBC reservation, which was also met with a series of agitations. Notwithstanding legal battles against the scheme on one pretext or another, the system has managed to survive.

The next significant move in respect of reservation came in 2006. It was the Central Educational Institution (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006. It provided for the extension of reservation to the prestigious institutions of higher learning. The Act is a significant legislative measure – for the first time, Parliament recognised, through a law, the need for reserving seats in higher educational institutions as an expedient and necessary measure. The Supreme Court has stayed the operation of the Act in respect of Other Backward Classes pending the final disposal of certain petitions. The court also clarified that the operation of the relevant section to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes had not been stayed. The Mandal Commission report pointed out that mere reservation of seats in educational institutions or government jobs would not solve the problems of OBCs. It recommended many other initiatives, such as the intensification of land reforms, extension of credit facilities to deprived sections, clearance of backlogs in respect of poverty alleviation programmes, development initiatives, and measures to spread education. A notable point in this context is that most of those who come under the OBC category live in villages, something that administrators and political leaders simply ignore.

In recent years, some State governments granted separate reservation for Muslims and Christians in the OBC quota. In Tamil Nadu, this has been done by enacting a law, in response to representations from people belonging to these two communities. The law was based on the recommendations of the State Backward Classes Commission. Another reservation-related step taken by some State governments was the creation of sub-quotas for Dalit sub-castes such as Arunthathiyars and Chakkiliyars (in Tamil Nadu), who are the worst sufferers of untouchability, in the 18-20 per cent quota for Dalits. In Tamil Nadu, the State government, through a resolution, has provided for a 3 per cent sub-quota for some sub-sects from the existing 18 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Castes. The percentage, however, changes from State to State depending upon the Dalit share in the population. People belonging to these sub-castes mostly serve as sanitation workers.

Sixty years after Independence, reservation has not done much to elevate these hapless people to any higher position in society. Despite tremendous developments in science and technology, and in violation of a Supreme Court order, the Centre and the State governments have failed to bring an end to the practice of manual scavenging and to rehabilitate those engaged in it in decent jobs elsewhere.

Though reservation has substantially benefited large sections, it must be remembered that with sections of people remaining outside this safety net, ensuring social justice to all will continue to be a distant dream. The disinvestment policy under the neoliberal regime has posed a serious threat to those employed in scores of public sector undertakings (PSUs). The dismantling of PSUs and the steadily falling state investment in employment-generating industries are posing even more serious challenges to the system. More and more people are made to be dependent on jobs in private establishments, which are in no mood to introduce reservation. This has only resulted in increasing the number of the unemployed in the country. Adding to this is the closure of a number of factories and the resultant spurt in the number of the jobless.

In the case of Dalits, the situation is worse, particularly because of what Dalit leaders describe as “tardy” implementation of reservation. Dalit activists complain of discrimination against Dalits in this policy of “positive discrimination”. Bureaucrats from the “oppressor castes” do not show any genuine interest in implementing reservation. A large number of posts under the quota remain unfilled, and upper-caste officials show the least interest in clearing backlogs. This only proves that reservation in employment and education is not enough to bring about any big change in raising the social status of Dalits. Dalits on the payroll of private employers presumably suffer a much worse form of discrimination.

A shocking expose in recent years is how Dalits, numbering more than 22 crore in the country, were taken for a ride by the governments at the Centre and in the States in the matter of allotment of funds for improving their lot. The Centre and the State governments failed to implement faithfully the Special Component Plan (SCP), now known as the Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP). The SCP was supposed to be in operation for the past over 30 years. Because of the failure of the Ministries to allot money for Dalit-related schemes in proportion to their share in the population, Dalits, according to one estimate, could have lost a whopping Rs.3,75,000 crore in the last 25 years. (“Plan and prejudice”, Frontline, October 19, 2007). This shows that even Ministers and highly placed officials cannot claim to be free from prejudice against Dalits.

It is not surprising that the outlawed practice of untouchability is very much alive in the country, taking several new forms, and atrocities against Dalits have become almost a daily affair in most places. The 1990s saw a steep rise in atrocities against Dalits across the country. The manifestation of “upper caste” prejudice against Dalits is now more cruel and vulgar than in the past. However, one can also see a qualitative shift in the response of Dalits to the physical and verbal assaults on them. Dalits appeared determined to resist these, apparently inspired by the nationwide celebrations of the birth centenary of Ambedkar in 1991. They began to hit back. The caste-Hindu response to this Dalit assertion has also been manifesting itself in even more cruel ways. The police force, mostly packed with members of non-Dalit castes, often side with the attackers.

Human rights activists and political observers say caste-based violence against Dalits cannot be contained unless the police are impartial and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is effectively used against the guilty. The situation that Dalits find themselves in has been aggravated by the economic downslide brought about by the policies of an insensitive, market-driven, neoliberal regime in the past 25 years. The period saw the emergence of powerful Dalit leaders in almost all States in which Dalit concentration is substantial, but not all could succeed to any great extent in consolidating their base, maybe because of their need to depend on bigger parties. Also, they did not have an agenda that could radically transform the social and economic condition of Dalits.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/01/stories/2010010150940500.htm

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: A report on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development 2009-10 has recommended increased allocation for the education of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students and opening of more schools in areas dominated by SC/ST people.

The report, which was prepared by Nehru Cha Olekar, MLA, was submitted to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday.

It recommended several improvement in the training given to SC/ST candidates under various employment schemes of the Central and State governments. Candidates who failed to obtain degree certificates should be given quality training to give them job skills, the report said. For effective utilisation of funds sanctioned for the welfare of SC/STs, it suggested setting up a Special Planning Cell in each department to monitor utilisation of funds under welfare schemes. The Chief Secretary of the State should hold review meetings of each department every quarter to monitor the progress of the schemes, it said.

The Hindu

Mahadalits to get money to buy land

http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/01/stories/2010010157840300.htm

Patna: Poorest of the poor Mahadalit families in Bihar will be given Rs.20,000 to purchase homestead land under a housing scheme, official sources said on Thursday.

“All Mahadalit families in the State will be provided money to purchase three decimals of homestead land on mutual consent,” sources in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s office here said. The decision was approved by the State cabinet also, they said.

A new life

Thousands of landless and homeless Dalits in Bihar see the decision as the beginning of a new life for them.

Nearly a month ago, Bihar had announced that over two lakh Mahadalit families would be given homestead land and that the State government would also help in constructing their dwellings.

Earlier, it was decided that the government would purchase land for Mahadalits. The Chief Minister had directed sub-divisional officers to identify government land that could be distributed among 2.16 lakh Mahadalit families in accordance with the Bihar Privileged Persons Homestead Tenancy Act.

But later it was decided that they would be provided with money to purchase a plot of homestead land.

A government commission set up two years ago for the welfare of certain Dalit groups, which are socially and educationally more backward than others, painted a bleak picture of their lives in its first interim report submitted a few months ago. — IANS

Express Buzz

Dalits ‘beaten up’ for touching deity parasol

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Dalits+%E2%80%98beaten+up%E2%80%99+for+touching+deity+parasol&artid=QSbG355mtAg=&SectionID=vBlkz7JCFvA=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=EL7znOtxBM3qzgMyXZKtxw==&SEO=

P Krishnaswamy

MADURAI: Yet another case of unbridled atrocity against Dalits in a village in Madurai has been reported and police have belatedly filed a case.

The Dalits were allegedly assaulted and a woman from the community pushed into the gutters – the ‘provocation’ for this action was that a Dalit youth had touched the decorated parasol held above the idol of a deity during the temple festival.

The festival of Ayyappan temple in Uthangudi near Madurai is celebrated every year. The chariot bearing the idol of the Lord used to be taken around all streets of the village, except those in the Dalit area, claiming that the ‘untouchables’ were not fit to worship the deity.

This year the festival was celebrated on December 26 and the deity was taken in procession. Some people of high caste were holding aloft the decorated umbrella above the idol. One of the men holding the umbrella had asked a Dalit, Pratap (19), to hold the umbrella while he tied his dhoti.

When Pratap held the stem of the umbrella, a high caste man had pulled him out, abused and slapped him saying,”how dare you defile the sacred umbrella? Have you developed such courage?’’.

Other Dalit youth who were witnessing the incident had tried to prevent this assault but they were also subjected to the same treatment. Other caste Hindus had also joined the rabble and beaten the Dalits.

The Dalits had fled from the place to avoid further attack. According to A Kadir, director of Evidence, a Madurai-based NGO which went to the village on a fact finding mission, that night about 30 caste Hindus armed with lethal weapons had entered the Dalit colony and broken open the door of Vinothkumar.

The mob had dragged Letchumy (21) wife of Arumugam and sister of Vinothkumar, who was pregnant and beaten her with chappals.

She was then pushed into the sewer and kicked.

Kadir said that the affected Dalits had lodged a complaint with the Othakadai police who had not filed a case. Therefore, the Dalits of the village and members of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Party resorted to picketing on December 27, after which the police registered cases.

Letchumy’s mother Rasammal had given a separate complaint about the molestation of her daughter and the atrocities she was subjected to.

Indian Express

IGP orders probe into ‘lapses’ in Gujarat gangrape

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/IGP-orders-probe-into–lapses–in-Gujarat-gangrape/562127

Express news service

Friday , Jan 01, 2010 at 0342 hrs Ahmedabad:

The same day as The Indian Express reported how a Dalit girl’s family had been fighting for justice 11 years after she was gangraped, allegedly by an MLA’s relative, the Gujarat Police has ordered an inquiry.

Calling the case “disturbing”, the state Inspector General of Police, SC/ST Cell, P C Thakur, has called for a probe into the “serious lapses” in the case.

While the girl, then 13, was raped in Vadodara’s Mokshi village in 1998, the trial is still on in the concerned Sessions Court with witnesses yet to be examined. “Following The Indian Express report, we have instituted an inquiry into the matter. A very serious issue has been raised in the report, and we have ordered an inquiry so that action can be taken against any officer who has committed willful negligence in the case,” IGP Thakur said, adding he had sent a letter to this effect to the concerned Range Deputy Inspector General of Police.