Monday, July 25, 2011

[ZESTCaste] With tech, caste bias has acquired new forms

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/with-tech-caste-bias-has-acquired-new-forms/297524.html

With tech, caste bias has acquired new forms
Sangeetha Neeraja
Express News Service
Last Updated : 25 Jul 2011 10:34:28 AM IST

CHENNAI: In this age of technology, caste discrimination had only got
tech savvy, asserted Sampath, State president of Dalit Untouchability
Eradication Front, on Sunday. Speaking at the North Chennai District
Committee conference in Chennai, Sampath said, "As an organisation, we
identified 85 different forms of discrimination suffered by dalits in
various walks of life. In this age of technology, even discrimination
is getting more tech savvy."

Elaborating, he recalled a few incidents that relayed to him by those
who reportedly suffered. He said, "A landlord in Coimbatore calls the
agricultural labourer who works at his farmland on his cell phone.
Hearing the caller tune landlord gets angry. This labourers caller
tune was the famous MGR song 'Naan Anai Ittal Athu Nadanthu Vittal'.
The moment the labourer answered, the landlord abused him for
harboring lofty aspirations."

In another incident an advertisement in a popular matrimonial site
said "The man about his expectations from the bride had listed 'caste
no bar'. But at the end of the long passage of his expectations from
the bride, in small letters was a disclaimer, PS: All are welcome,
except Dalits."

Sampath said, "This is the reality we live in. Untouchability and
discrimination have not disappeared for the dalits. With the
advancement of technology and globalisation, it is only taking new
avatars. After the caste wall fell at Uthapuram, we see more such
walls hidden from public view coming into spotlight."

He also stated that the journey before the dalits is not an easy one.
More than 85 per cent of the landless agricultural labourers today are
the dalits. About 70 per cent of unorganised workers in the cities are
dalits. Dalits who constitute the biggest chunk of BPL families.
Sampath shot off a question to the audience, "Do you think this is all
a mere accident? I would say no. This kind of socio-economic
oppression designed to serve the caste Hindus is a 3,000-year-old
planned strategy."

In Tamil Nadu, the special component plan funds given by the central
government to be used for the overall development of the dalits, were
misused by the earlier DMK government for their free TV scheme and
other freebies. He called upon the dalits to stand united and fight
for their rights as humans.


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