From: Vinod Rawat <vinodnfoucault@gmail.com>
To: dr.uditraj@gmail.com
Cc: our-media@googlegroups.com; vikasmogha@gmail.com; kaushy15@gmail.com; praveen025@gmail.com; amarsaroj@gmail.com; nt.jayan@gmail.com; sunitasac@yahoo.com; bbhaskariitk.ac.in@gmail.com; akirti@gmail.com; rksaren@gmail.com; rohitkraj@yahoo.co.in; babasaheb14april@gmail.com; gdsonkar@iitk.ac.in; drvedprakashgautam@in.com
Sent: Tue, 10 November, 2009 12:55:47 AM
Subject: Support for Private Reservation
Namo Buddhaya Jai Bheem
Dear Sir
Thank you so much for finding time to read and quick reply from your busy schedule. Since I know many of many friends who have been hiding their caste identity by using upper caste surnames and surprisingly dominating/discriminating Dalitsls similar to the upper castes but I wonder why I haven't found even a single Dalit using Mishra, Shukla, Pandey, etc. brahmin surname?
Many of us who have got the job are now concerned only with our family, forgetting even those Dalits students with whom we have spent decades during our studies and saying that "I have achieved every thing with my sheer hard work and perseverance." If we are getting 10,000 we would try to invest it in our family members or throw a grand party among our friends but not trying to pay back to our society.
The funniest thing I often hear is, "sorry, I don't get time to participate in Dalit welfare activities." Another funny thing I find is that almost all of us keep watching news channels controlled by the upper castes, sports where I don't find even a single player belonging to Dalit community, T.V serials where there are again no actors/ actresses.
Thirdly, the newspapers, which highlight how the SC/ST person has molested his own daughter in great detail but not about the upper castes. Since I too was a correspondent, I have closely watched how news is made/selected. That's why when Anoop Kumar came with this idea of having a Dalit-media group and online magazine, I immediately donated 5,000 rupees, with the hope that if it gets successful I shall be having a media where I can publish any kind of discrimination and also read what is happening in other parts of the country. His organisation consists of intellectuals, so I feel peace in my heart.
'Voice of Buddha,' earlier I used to think it to be similar to Shri Bal Thakrey ji, but after reading it I find that may be very slowly but at last it will help us in bringing a caste less society. Therefore, I along with my other friends, have subscribed to it.
Last week I was coming from Lucknow and in the bus few Brahmins were making fun of 'reservation,' especially about the medical profession, how patients die in the hands of SC doctors. That's why from 'Sauchalaya to Sachivalaya,' from 'Gram Pradhan to President of India,' when it comes to treatment they only search Pandey, Shukla, Dwivedi, etc. I have seen how so many poor patients died in government hospitals to make these people expert and bold while on the other hand SC/ST students stood at the back as there was no one to lead them, they felt hesitant to ask questions and did not experimented with the patients. Thus, those Dalit students who spent time in the company of general students also became bold. Later, I found that a general's clinic was crowded by all the castes and they became experts and even I find that in Muslim community at least there is unity and they prefer to visit Muslim doctors thus 'practice makes a man perfect and they too have a crowd."
The point I am trying to make is that its we who are making generals as expert doctors and rich, if suppose a Dalit doctor/ architecht is given chance again and again he too will perfect. If we purchase good from a Dalit's shop then money will go to a Dalit with which he too shall be providing quality good, otherwise friends say, " I don't buy goods from a Dalit's shop because they provide goods of bad quality." Hope you understand one aspect/hurdle in the rise of Dalits.
So one way of 'paying back to the society' is by at least purchasing things from a Dalit-shops. I am not asking money from you all but I am requesting this because millions are suffering and its the easiest methods to my knowledge. There might be other methods that's what I want you all to share and may be you don't practice them in your real life, never mind, but through sharing it might bring a revolution.
Sir, If I have to explain the word 'incarnation' to someone then I can say, "Dr. Udit Raj is incarnation of Dr. Ambedkar."
For example: Dr. Ambedkar/ Dr. Udit Raj (Dr. is common) Reservation in education-jobs-elections/ fought to defend reservation Article 81-85, agitations for reservation in private sectors-saved SC/ST act in UP, mass conversion to Buddhism/ ditto, RPI / JPI etc.
Sir, I have been reading/hearing from a very long time that congress prevented Dr. Ambedkar ji win election in Maharashtra with the help of his own PA. History repeats itself. You too have been denied entrance into the Parliament by the political parties or by the voters, .... 131 MP's of SC/ST community can never do what you would have done alone . Firstly because they belong to various parties therefore they are mere puppets in the hands of the puppeteers, simply they have to remain dumb and mute on Dalit issues. I understand you could have easily become MP on the ticket of some other political party but then you too would have been forced to remain silent or expelled from the party.
In your reply you have used "DO or DIE for Dalits," I can feel your pain, what you would have done if power would have been in your hands and also the expectations from us. Sorry, I forgot to tell you that just like we have caste system in Hindu religion, where untouchables were kept at the bottom. Similarly, I feel as if same pattern is being followed in the private companies. Most of the SC/ST persons in these companies are at the bottom.
I have talked with ANOOP KUMAR and I shall be coming with him after 26th November, as I would like you to help him in clearing the Ford foundation Grant which had got struck somewhere. I shall be handing over 6,000 rupees as donation to Pancham lal Valmiki ji, so that he can pass it to you on 24 th November.
Sir, one more message has come related with Safai Karamcharis, please do the needful.
With thanks and regards
Vinod Kumar
---------- Forwarded message ----------
In the 11th Plan, it was said that the practice of manual collection of night soil will be eradicated
'State Government is not using the funds released for rehabilitation of safai karamcharis'
Mysore: The Karnataka State Safai Karamchari Nirmoolana Mahasamsthe here on Thursday has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to direct the State Government to create alternative jobs for safai karamcharis and their dependents as assured by him in the 11th Plan.
Addressing presspersons, Peddanna, State president of the mahasamsthe, said a memorandum detailing the plight of the safai karamcharis, who are engaged in manual collection of night soil, would be submitted shortly to the Prime Minister in New Delhi. Mr. Manmohan Singh declared that the Government was committed to eradicate the obnoxious and inhuman practice of manual collection of night soil. Mr. Manmohan Singh said that safai karamcharis engaged in such work would be provided with alternative employment by 2012. However, the Karnataka State Government was doing nothing to eradicate the practice. Instead the safai karamcharis were continued to be engaged by the State Government in manual collection of night soil.
The number of safai karamcharis who were engaged in collection of night soil was estimated at 6.76 lakh in the country while 2.8 lakh of the karamcharis were in Karnataka. Even after over 60 years after the country became independent, the socio-economic conditions of the safai karamcharis had not improved. This was undoubtedly a blot on the country which was emerging as an important economic power, he added.
Despite passing the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act - 1993 to liberate the safai karamcharis from the obnoxious practice of carrying night soil manually, the State Government had done nothing to liberate them.
Instead the State Government was filing "false" affidavits to the Union Government, Supreme Court and the National Human Rights Commission on eradication of the practice, he alleged.
Thousands of safai karamcharis, who were engaged in handling the night soil manually, clearing chocked drain with minimum equipment, and gathering night soil collected on railway platforms were succumbing to diseases such as tuberculosis and cancer. "The Chairperson of the National Safai Karamchari Commission, Santhosh Choudhry, rightly pointed out that life expectancy of a safai karamchari was only 45 years," he said.
Funds
Although the Centre released Rs. 400 crore in the 10th Plan for the rehabilitation of safai karamcharis, the State Government spent only Rs. 146 crore.
The State Government exhibited similar apathy while spending Rs. 500 crore released in 2007 for the purpose. Same was the case with the 18 per cent funds earmarked in the civic bodies for the purpose, he regretted.
Mr. Peddanna suggested that members of the Karnataka State Safai Karamchari Nirmoolana Mahasamsthe should be included in the Rehabilitation Committee.
He said the funds released for the rehabilitation of the safai karamcharis should be utilised fully.
On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 10:57 AM,
<dr.uditraj@gmail.com> wrote:
Vinodji
I read your message and it is good.All India Confederatin of SC/ST Organisation has given call for reservation in Private Sector .The dharan is from 19thNov to 22nd Dec 09 at Jantar Mantar ,N Delhi .This issue is do or die for dalits and it needs lots of moral,physical and monetary support .Pl join in large number at least on one of the days.
Dr.Uditraj
National President - Indian Justice Party and A.I. Confederation of SC/ST Org.
Member-National Integration Council,Govt of India
Add: T-22,Atul Grove Road,C.P.,N.Delhi -1
email-dr.uditraj@gmail.com
web-www.ijp.co.in
+91 11 23354841
+91 11 23354842
+91 9899382211 Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 2009 16:22:27 +0530
Subject: Re: Fw: condoms,napkins,sanitation and dalits (fwd)
Dear Anoop
This is a very serious issue and since Padam Ji has taken a step, so at present to give him a helping hand I am forwarding this message to some of my contacts. Secondly, I don't know what are the rules laid down by the government for the cleaners regarding their salaries, etc. When Padam ji has written that they can get soaps from the ration shops, then I hope that there might be many other facilities that must have been kept SECRET from years and they should be found out and revealed to them. Thirdly, I request you all to please find out what are the methods used in the foreign countries regarding cleaning of these sewers, i.e, equipments, gloves, etc. and only then we can compare and contrast the discrimination done with the most marginalized people of our country. Lastly, I request you all to share your views, ideas, since I can expect that it shall be difficult for each one of you to come on roads to participate in agitations concerning such issues.
Always and forever yours
Vinod
Note: Dear Anoop I could not resist myself from sending the carbon copy of this mail to
Dr. Udit Raj (Ex-Income Tax Commissioner)
, National Charmain: All India Confederation of SC/ST Organizations, Chairman: Dalit International, Member: Indian Integration Council, Govt. of India, National President: Indian Justice Party, Editor: Voice of Buddha, President; Lord Buddha Club, Chairman: Dr Ambedkar's ......... because on 4th October 2009, on the eve of Valmiki Jayanti function in IIT Kanpur Campus a similar issue was raised regarding the 300+ Valmiki caste employees in government job to mere 10 in 2009 in IIT Campus and also how the jobs are now offered on the contract basis. Later, I came to know that soon after returning to New Delhi, he has discussed this matter with Dr. Buta Singh (Chairman SC Commission). Secondly, in his one months agitation program at Jantar Mantar during November-December 2009 demanding reservation of jobs for SC/ST in private sectors; he has included this issue too.
On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 4:12 PM, Cynthia Stephen
<cynstepin@gmail.com> wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Cynthia Stephen <cynstepin@yahoo.com>Date: Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 5:47 PM
Subject: Fw: condoms,napkins,
sanitation and dalits (fwd)
To: Cynthia Stephen <cynstepin@gmail.com>
Cynthia Stephen
Independent Researcher and writer
Bangalore, India
--- On Fri, 11/6/09, Shiva Shankar <sshankar@cmi.ac.in> wrote:
From: Shiva Shankar <sshankar@cmi.ac.in>
Subject: condoms,napkins,sanitation and dalits (fwd)
To:
Cc: "ananth narayanan" <teaminforse@yahoo.com>
Date: Friday, November 6, 2009, 4:58 PM
Can we not, all of us, get together on this one issue, and award ourselves a good sewage system? (Atomic weapons, security council, emerging superpower status etc notwithstanding. ) For how long will people, considered 'untouchable' and at the very bottom of the dungheap, have to get into sewers and clean OUR filth?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:46:28 +0530
From: paadam pm <paadam.pm@gmail.com>
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Subject: condoms,napkins,sanitation and dalits
Dear Sir/Madam,
Iam sending this mail to hundreds of my contacts. Please read the content of this letter, attached ppt and your reaction.whatever it may be. I also request right thinking citizens to write on this issue to the Metrowater and Municipal administration officials (email: mwssb@md2.vsnl.net.in, mawssec@tn.gov.in).This can also be taken up in all other states. Please forward to all your friends and contacts. Let us see if change happens.
Regards
Narayanan.A (98403-93581)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: paadam pm <paadam.pm@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 9:12 PM
Subject: Madras High Court order dt 5th August 2009 against Contempt
petition No.352 of 2009
To: cmwssb@md2.vsnl.net.in, mawssec@tn.gov.in
5th November 2009.
Chairman & Managing Director
Chennai Metro water Supply and Sewerage Board
Chindadripet, Chennai – 600
002.
Kind Attn: Mr.Siv Das Meena.
Ref: Madras High Court order dt 5th August 2009 against Contempt petition
No.352 of 2009
Dear Sir,
Greetings.
There is a strong possibility that you may consider the content of this letter and its attachment as 'a cheap Publicity stunt'and you have every right and liberty to think so.
However, I consider it as a method or effort to draw the attention of yourselves, the Government, the politicians and indifferent public. I don't have the wherewithal to organize rallies or marches or go to the beach to start fasting and am only an ordinary activist, if I can call so. Hence this method.
Yes. Attached please find photographs of me holding in both my hands, half a dozen each, of 'faeces lubricated sanitary napkins, condoms' that I could manage to dish out of 'scores of the same' which were in the slush of blocked manhole opposite to Loyola College, Nungambakkam today (5-11-2009).
Just this afternoon, as I was passing by, I could see that your department had, as usual sent a truck with a Jetroding machine and a couple of 'temporary staff' plus a crowbar 'minus' ofcourse soap, gloves, etc to clean up an overflowing sewer line.
The job of removing sanitary napkins, condoms, throw away plastics, clothe,debris, broken liquor bottles, mutton wastes, food wastes, vegetable wastes etc, etc., from sewer manholes has become such a permanent job for Sewerage workers on a daily basis in so many parts of our city and other towns. When this is so, why is the department keeping such temporary workers for daily wages of Rs.110 per day minus all benefits, for such permanent jobs, which is one of the most basic violation of the labour laws of the country.
I could see that except for the Jetroding machine, the crowbar and a pair of slippers, the temporary worker was not given any protective gear. After a half-hearted job at removing the blockage using the machine, he closed the lid of the manhole and heaped all the slush & debris mainly consisting of more than two dozens of sanitary napkins and condoms (the culprits for the sewer overflow) removed from the blockage, back on the manhole itself, with his bare hands.
If we employ only a temporary worker with no training for just Rs.110 per day as daily wages with neither social security nor protective gear, we will only get such a sloppy and substandard work.
When I enquired with him about why he is not using a soap (he is entitled to) to wash his hands and body parts of the stink and deadly virus that he was in touch with via the sludge, he replied that he doesn't even know that he is eligible for a ration of soap from the department.
I still managed to scoop out atleast 6 no.s each of used condoms and sanitary napkins with my bare hands to get myself photographed. When I returned home, the stench refused to go off my hands and finger nails, despite using half of an expensive soap and scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing.
As I ate my lunch with my hands (despite the availability of spoon), I could 'only' empathize with the municipal workers of our country, how they continue to eat their lunch every day after 'such calls of duty from our nation'.
As I type out this letter, 'the stink of faeces, condoms and napkins of men and women unknown to me' refuses to go out of my hands. I keep sniffing my finger nails to see if the stink is vanishing and may be, it will go in a day or two. But the stink of official apathy and public indifference will permanently stay in our citizenry unless some of us put our act together.
Only when we go, physically verify and photograph what causes frequent sewerage overflows and makes urban sanitation a nightmare in our country, we realize the seriousness of it all.
Hence, I once again urge you, in your capacity as the Chairman, to immediately convene the special committee setup by the honourable High court so that we can attempt to make our cities and towns a better place to live in, attempt to sensitise the citizens of the crime that they are indulging, the crime of indifference, the crime of flush and forget, the crime of letting our Dalit brothers and migrant labourers eke out a living of manual scavenging or similar such 'reserved'occupations which keeps their lives and that of their families miserable and stinking throughout their lifetime.
Only the other day, I was witness to a migrant mother (employed by the contractor) inside what you would call (of course) the manhole of the Storm water drain. Her 2 year old child was playing dangerously outside the manhole on the platform. For all practical purposes, the drain in which the mother was inside scooping out debris was an unofficial / unauthorised sewer line, a dust bin of plastic debris, broken beer bottles, with chicken waste thrown in as an add on. We conveniently call this a storm water drain. The Municipal Corporation and Metrowater Board, each think it is the other department's issue.
If we do not reverse the way, we the civil society and the Government manage urban sanitation in our state in the immediate future possible, we can only be fit to rename our department, the Department of Municipal Mis-administration and Sewerage Supply.
May I atleast now look forward to your initiative please.
Thank You and with Warm Regards,
Narayanan.A Trustee- INFORSE IDL Editor-PAADAM
Copy to : The Secretary, Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply, Government of Tamilnadu.
|
--
Cynthia Stephen
Independent Writer and Researcher
And may you be blessed with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world, so that you will do things which others tell you cannot be done
"Every budding dictatorship begins by muzzling the artists, because they're a mouthy lot and they don't line up and salute very easily." Margaret Atwood : Canadian Literary Icon.
blog: http.//cynstepin.wordpress.com
--
With warm regards
Joy d Vinod
9532885450
--
With warm regards
Joy d Vinod
9532885450
--~--~------
---~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Our Media" group.
To post to this group, send email to our-media@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to our-media+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/our-media?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
