Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Re: [ZESTCaste] Discrimination against Dalits prevalent: study

 

PLEASE RE SEND ANAND TELTUMS ARTICLE AGAIN


From: Siddhartha Kumar <mailsiddhartha.k@gmail.com>
To: zestcaste <zestcaste@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Mon, March 7, 2011 7:13:30 PM
Subject: [ZESTCaste] Discrimination against Dalits prevalent: study

 

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article1515230.ece

NAGAPATTINAM, March 7, 2011
Discrimination against Dalits prevalent: study

P. V. Srividya

Caste discrimination practised against Dalits does not spare even
panchayat presidents, reveals a study conducted in select districts of
Tamil Nadu.

The study conducted by Evidence, a Madurai-based organisation, in 213
panchayats across 12 districts in the State has come up with its
findings on myriad forms of discrimination experienced by Dalits under
various categories.

The survey was held in Madurai, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Sivagangai,
Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Salem, Namakkal, Cuddalore, Villupuram,
Coimbatore and Tirupur.

Forty-five panchayat presidents from nine districts have given
testimonies of discrimination, the survey reports. The discrimination
takes the form of demand for appointment of Caste Hindu writer,
refusal to cooperate with the panchayat president, obstructionist
tactics by the Caste Hindu Ward members and panchayat vice-president
to stall conduct of affairs and harassment of women panchayat
presidents.

The 198-page report reveals an exhaustive account of various forms of
discrimination and how they assume universality under certain
categories. These include discrimination in temples, atrocities
against Dalit women and discrimination in processions, burial of the
dead and in offering services such as hair dressing and laundry to the
Dalits.

With a few exceptions, almost all villages witness such discrimination.
Restrictions

Discrimination in temples varies from restrictions on entry to bar on
touching the temple car rope and participation in festivities or
allowing processions to go through Dalit colonies.

According to the report, 104 villages out of the total villages
surveyed recorded the practice of two-tumbler system, revealing 49 per
cent prevalence. Among them, 14 out of 22 villages in Coimbatore, 14
out of 24 villages in Dindigul, 13 out of 21 in Salem, 13 out of 17
villages in Virudhunagar, 11 out of 17 villages in Thanjavur and seven
out of 13 villages in Madurai, recorded the practice.

In Nagapattinam, the study carried out in 16 villages in Vedaranyam
reveals the prevalence of two tumbler system in Kodiakkarai,
Vedananagar, Ayyakaranpulamirandamsethi, and Siriyankadu.

Of the categories, discrimination was negligible only in Government
Hospitals and PHCs.


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[ZESTCaste] International women's day saga from human justice perspective

 

Dear All

Yesterday on March 8th, i received several messages on my mobile "Happy women's day" and "Watch Cady's Video and get hot", and "We are cute daughters, sisters, wives, lovers, mothers and are sources of strength"

Yes I am happy that my spouse, child and myself are all alive and happy together. But not at the injustices that I see around based on class, caste, race, ethnicity, religion, sex/gender etc. In India around 56% women are anemic, around 45% of the population live below $1.25 per capita per day and many women die during/after delivery (due to hemorrhage, sepsis, toxemia, unsafe abortion in that order). The picture is more pathetic with regard to dalits, adivasis, landless, Muslims (in some pockets), slum dwellers and migrants and women amongst them.

The possibility that there may come a time when women are few with decline in sex ratio at birth is another cause of anguish (in China, India, Georgia, Vietnam, Nepal, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Republic of Korea, and even in Pakistan I hear). In India poor women and girls - dalits in particular-are bought and sold, polyandry is being strengthened in pockets o f India, poor women's wombs are being sold through surrogate motherhood, and sex work will soon be considered as work if liberal feminists and HIV/AIDS lobby have a say (put the men behind bars, and decriminalize women pushed into prostitution). Do we want a society where there are few women/girls and there is no institution of family or an institution where patriarchal family does not exist- whatever form heterosexual- or people of diverse sexual/gender identities living together?

Abortion research and advocates are being pushed in India by northern donors/research institutes due to global concern over population growth, while unsafe abortion is only the fourth reason for maternal death in our country. Perhaps it is the first in some other country where abortion is illegal. Do we need a monoculture of solutions? Climate change is not due to our growing population of poor, but due to unfettered consumption in the north and by elites in growing economies. Is it not due to unequal power relations, lack of temporary methods of contraception and sexuality education that girls and women are pushed into abortion in India? Is not population growth linked to poverty and lack of economic security? Provide safe abortion on the grounds that poor women and girls want- rape, husbands forcing themselves, husbands leaving them, domestic violence etc- but not as a method of contraception or for sex selection of males or sex balancing. Is our body our private property, or are we trustees to our body, intellect and resources to meet our basic needs and then give back to society wherein inequities are a reality?

As I get called every March 8th or before or later to speak I wonder who am I to speak on behalf of the 75% not shining India/global population. Let them speak in proportion to their numbers, not just the LGBTI groups and women compelled into prostitution due to patriarchy and poverty (sorry my friends from out there from both these groups ). Collective rights of marginalized women and girls (dalits, adivasis, slum dwellers, migrants etc) have to prevail over individual ones. Gender justice has to prevail, linked to caste, class, ethnic, race justice. .

Lastly, I no longer see myself as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, daughter in law or sister in law. I just want love and friendships, see progress towards justice in my life time, and claim my humanism and self respect from its margins- for i have sold my mind, body and soul for fifteen years for paid development work. Not occupying relation positions and organisations, hopefully my source of strength will emerge soon!

Thanks anyway all those who wished me

Ranjani K.Murthy

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[ZESTCaste] Man held for raping a Dalit girl

 

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5006775

08/03/2011
Man held for raping a Dalit girl

Barabanki(UP), Mar 8 (PTI) A man was arrested for allegedly raping a
minor Dalit girl from Baddupur area here, police said today.
Pyarelal Balmiki, who allegedly raped an eight-year-old girl in
Hasuapur village on March 6, was arrested yesterday, they said.
The victim''s parents had registered an FIR against the accused,
stating that he raped the girl when she had gone out to the field for
some work, they added.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit activist leaves hospital alleging negligence by doctors

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article1520955.ece?homepage=true

JAIPUR, March 9, 2011
Dalit activist leaves hospital alleging negligence by doctors
Mohammed Iqbal

He was brutally attacked recently for seeking information under the RTI Act

Dalit activist Mangala Ram from Bamanor village in Barmer district —
who was brutally attacked recently for seeking information under the
Right to Information Act — left Sawai Man Singh Hospital here on
Tuesday, a day after being brought from Deesa in Gujarat and admitted
to the poly-trauma ward for treatment at the State Government's
expenses.

Mangala Ram, 33, was severely beaten up at the village panchayat's
social audit meeting on March 3 allegedly by Sarpanch Ghulam Shah and
his accomplices, who took exception to his applications under the RTI
Act seeking details of all public works sanctioned and carried out
between 2001 and 2008. He sustained injuries in head and arms, and his
legs were broken in the attack.

Following protests by civil rights groups, the police have registered
a first information report against Mr. Shah, while Barmer Collector
Gaurav Goyal has provided financial assistance worth Rs. 25,000 to Mr.
Ram. On the instructions of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, the victim
was brought from a private hospital in Deesa and admitted to SMS
Hospital here on Monday.
No arrests yet

Mr. Shah and other accused named in the FIR are yet to be arrested.
Dalit groups here point out that the Sarpanch enjoys considerable
clout in the region and has been occupying the office for 22 years. He
had allegedly threatened Mr. Ram several times when he raised the
issue of incomplete information and demanded follow-up on his
applications.

Mr. Ram left the hospital on his own on Tuesday while alleging that
doctors in the poly-trauma ward were not attending to him properly.
His fractured legs were bandaged with a heavy dressing and the
hospital's orthopaedic surgeons were yet to take a final decision on
his surgery.

"Doctors told me yesterday that surgery would be needed for [treatment
of] serious fractures. But they started saying this morning that a
plaster would set my legs right," Mr. Ram told The Hindu lying in an
ambulance after leaving the hospital. He left for Palanpur in Gujarat,
where he said the surgery of his legs would be performed shortly.

The Dalit activist, who rested briefly at the house of an acquaintance
in the city, said he suspected that the doctors were neglecting him
"on the instructions of the political set-up" because he had contested
the panchayat election last year as a rival candidate against Mr.
Shah. "Everyone in our village knows that the Sarpanch has [high]
political connections. He can easily influence the hospital machinery
here."

SMS Hospital Medical Superintendent L.C. Sharma, when contacted, said
since there was a difference of opinion in the orthopaedics department
about the course of treatment for Mr. Ram, the hospital administration
offered to appoint a medical board. "The board would have decided if
the plaster would suffice or the surgery on legs was immediately
required."

Dr. Sharma said Mr. Ram and his relatives were insisting that the
Deesa hospital's opinion in favour of surgery be accepted here. "Even
though we sought some time and facilitated his telephonic talk with
[social activist] Ms. Aruna Roy, Mr. Ram was adamant on leaving. He
gave us in writing that he is not willing to undergo our treatment."

The Centre for Dalit Rights, which has taken up Ram's case, was
dismayed that he had left Jaipur within a day. Gopal Ram Verma of CDR
said the activist's presence in Jaipur would have helped in putting
pressure on the State Government for dealing with the threats issued
by dominant sections to "ordinary people who dare to question them"
through the RTI queries.

"The brutal attack on Mangala Ram depicts a pattern emerging in the
rural areas of Rajasthan. Individuals fighting against corruption in
public life are routinely threatened and implicated in false cases by
those having [vested] interests," pointed out Bhanwar Meghwanshi of
Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan.

In view of the sensitivity of the matter, two teams of the State Human
Rights Commission and the Directorate of Social Audits have visited
Bamanor village to verify the facts. The State's Dalit activists
leaving for Shillong to attend the Third National Convention on RTI
beginning on Thursday also plan to raise the matter vigorously at the
national level.


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[ZESTCaste] Dalit Socialists Via Dalit Capitalists: A Response To Anand Teltumbde

http://www.countercurrents.org/karthick080311.htm

Dalit Socialists Via Dalit Capitalists: A Response To Anand Teltumbde

By Karthick RM

08 March, 2011
Countercurrents.org

This article is intended as a response to Anand Teltumbde Dalit
Capitalism And Pseudo Dalitism on Countercurrents dated 7th March,
2011

Fanon writes in The Wretched of the Earth that in colonies, a person
is rich because he is white and he is white because he is rich. Simply
put, the superstructure is the base. Stretching this analysis to
India, one can argue that a Dalit is poor because she is untouchable
and she is untouchable because she is poor. In a society like ours
where hierarchy receives ritual sanction and operates via the medium
of not only religion, but also language, social customs, morality and
of course, the state, social capital determines economic capital. Nay,
social capital is economic capital. If one has a glance at the top 50
'dollar billionaires' in India one finds that there are 2-3 OBC's in
the list. No Dalits at all. Most of the rest are brahmins or baniyas.
Is this capitalism in the classical sense?

Of course as Mr. Teltumbde says "capital does not have race, religion,
caste, creed or even country." But the capitalist has. What is capital
without the capitalist? What struggle against capitalism can be
successful unless it is directed against the face, all too human face,
that embodies it? If we were to purely study the structure of capital
subtracting the human agency that drives it one would just drive down
an Althusserian blind alley. No. Capitalism has a human face and it is
shaped by the thoughts, opinions and prejudices of the actor. In
India, the face of the capitalist is the face of his caste.

Since Mr. Teltumbde is an avowed Marxist, I presume that he believes
that socialism follows/should follow capitalism. Presuming that he is
a Leninist, I believe that he would agree that the working class
requires its organic intellectuals both in and out of a revolutionary
party. In the history of Marxist intellectuals, very rarely have there
been any who have actually emerged from an authentic proletarian
background. They were bourgeois or petty-bourgeois who gave themselves
up intellectually to the cause of the working class. India will be no
exception to this. Where India will be an exception is that the caste
of the intellectual will matter as much as, probably more than, his
class. Here I would ask Mr. Teltumbde to look at various Marxist
intellectuals in the country and their caste-class background. One
does find a alarmingly high percentage of upper-caste adherents to a
philosophy that intends to break all hierarchies. This not at all to
doubt the intentions of the political actors concerned. Of course,
various Maoist party intellectuals like Anuradha and Kobad Ghandy have
taken genuine efforts to deal with caste. Yet, the question is why so
many of them to analyse an experience that they can never feel? Can't
the subaltern think?

A partial answer lies here. We are dealing with a class of
intellectuals that have had a middle class and bourgeois background to
which the social capital of caste did contribute. Being literate
sections for generations (rarely performing the gruelling tasks of
manual labour), they have had access to a decent standard of education
both at schools and more importantly, at home, besides day to day
interaction in a more sophisticated intellectual culture. The texts of
Marxism are not far from the reach of those that can read a text. Only
the intention is required and the resources are given. But the void of
Dalit and backward caste intellectuals in Marxism is precisely due to
the fact that the social conditions around their caste rarely provide
them the cultural and economic resources for them to first get a
decent education and concurrently engage with and absorb a philosophy
that changes them into conscious actors. Crudely put, the lack of a
sizeable petit-bourgeois and bourgeois class of Dalits reflects on
their minimal representation in Marxist circles.

Which is why Dalit Capitalism needs to be welcomed albeit partially.
It does have its flaws in that the involved actors do consider it as
the final stage of Dalit liberation, which is, of course, an act of
bad faith. But there is always the possibility of positive effects on
members the community, let us say, the children of the Dalit
capitalist, relatives or friends who might become beneficiaries out of
a sense of caste solidarity of the Dalit capitalist. More Dalits get
access to education and a different culture that they were previously
denied. From here on, it is a matter of choice on what politics they
seek to enter. But when they do enter, they enter not as objects, but
as knowing subjects adding their experiences, their knowledge, their
visions to a theoretical framework. One cannot expect that all might
make the right choice, that is, the left choice. But the opportunity
should be given to them to choose their political and intellectual
destinies.

In Philosophy of Hinduism, Ambedkar writes that genuine liberty must
be accompanied by three factors (I) Social equality (II) Economic
security (III) Universal knowledge. We know that none of these are
available in India for the Dalits. We can argue that economic
security, even if it is for a miniscule number of Dalit capitalists,
can and will open up possibilities for knowledge accumulation for a
greater number, which consequently open up newer avenues for Dalit
actors in movements for social equality. Caste is not just a social
category. It is an experience. Unless you have representation from all
caste groups to articulate those experiences in theory and execute
them in revolutionary praxis what one would actually end with, I fear,
is a group of upper castes performing the revolution, their
revolution, in the name of the backward castes and the Dalits. The
point is this: Dalit capitalism needn't be glorified the way its
protagonists have for it is not an end in itself. Yet, it needn't be
denounced the way Mr. Teltumbde does.

Karthick RM is a student-activist based in JNU, pursuing Masters in
History. He is associated with the Delhi Tamil Students Union, a
Periyarite-Marxist group.


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