Thursday, December 10, 2009

[ZESTCaste] Rahul attacks Mayawati in her stronghold, woos Dalits

 

http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20091208/804/tnl-rahul-attacks-mayawati-in-her-strong.html

Rahul attacks Mayawati in her stronghold, woos Dalits

Agencies
Tue, Dec 8 07:51 PM

Targeting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati in her pocket borough,
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the money
issued for development was being spent on 'stones' even as he tried to
strike a cord with the Dalit youths.

Gandhi claimed the development schemes of Union government for Uttar
Pradesh have not touched the grounds and the "money issued for
development is being spent on stones".

Gandhi, who landed in Ambedkarnagar district headquarters this
afternoon, first garlanded the statue of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar,
installed at the air strip.

He then held a meeting with about 2000 Dalit youths representing 26
parliamentary constituencies in various parts of the state.

Gandhi invited the Dalit youths to join politics and in his session
that lasted for over an hour, said he wanted to educate the young
leadership.

Ambedkarnagar is the stronghold of BSP and its one parliamentary and
all the five assembly seats are with the party.

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[ZESTCaste] Concern at exclusion of Dalits from mainstream polity

http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/09/stories/2009120957780700.htm

Other States - Rajasthan

Concern at exclusion of Dalits from mainstream polity

Special Correspondent

JAIPUR: Speakers at a State-level workshop on "Role of media in
strengthening Scheduled Castes and women's leadership" here on Tuesday
expressed concern over "politics of exclusion" and absence of legal
safeguards which had led to elimination of under-privileged sections
from the mainstream polity and unceasing discrimination against them.

Journalists, academicians, activists and representatives of civil
society groups said while addressing the half-day event that no
political party was serious about bringing Dalits and women to the
frontline leadership and the inclusion of these sections in universal
adult franchise continued to be a neglected area for the State
machinery.

The Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) organised the
workshop as part of its ongoing project for strengthening the SCs and
women's leadership in the Panchayati Raj and urban local bodies.

The project aims at increasing the number of Dalits and women
contesting elections and improving the quality of their leadership.

A study report on "Democratic rights of Dalits: Violation in local
government elections" was released at the workshop to highlight the
gravity of poll-related violence against Dalits and denial of equal
rights to both Dalit candidates and Dalit voters. It listed 37 forms
of aggression faced by Dalit candidates and 47 by Dalit voters.

K. S. Tomar, Senior Coordinating Editor, Hindustan Times, said the
media had a duty to apprise the policy-makers of the pathetic
situation of Dalits and women at the grassroots to enable them to take
measures to improve their lot.

He said the journalists working in the rural areas could factually
report the incidents of bias, prejudices and bigotry and contribute to
the empowerment of these sections.

Creative talent


Sanjeev Bhanawat, Head of the Centre for Mass Communication at
Rajasthan University, said steps were needed to improve the presence
of Dalit and women journalists in both the mainstream and alternative
media to bring depth to the coverage of issues relating to them. "The
creative talent of young Dalits and women for development
communication is yet to be fully harnessed," he added.

Sunny Sebastian of The Hindu said an "affirmative space" was required
for ensuring proper coverage of under-privileged sections in the
present age of "media packages".

He felt that any attempt to sensitise journalists vis-À-vis Dalits and
women would succeed only when the media institutions spell out their
priorities for highlighting the unending discrimination, inequities
and injustice.

While public relations activist Manohar Prabhakar said newspapers
should shift their attention from offering packages to candidates in
elections to laying down of norms for coverage of Dalit issues, former
civil servant S. N. Singh said the national media should expose the
"conspiracy" to discontinue the reservation policy in elections,
education and employment.

Centre for Dalit Rights patron P. L. Mimroth said the political
parties, which field Dalits and women from the reserved seats out of
legal compulsion, should allow them to contest general seats as well
to ensure their empowerment. "Unless the mind-set against these
sections changes, the prospects for transformation in the political
scenario are very bleak," he added.

State Chief Electoral Officer R. K. Jain said the Election Commission
regularly receives reports about threats, intimidation and violence
against Dalits during polls and felt that media persons by their
follow-up stories could help in implementation of legal provisions to
prevent such incidents.

National Dalit Movement for Justice director Sirivella Prasad pointed
out that 64 per cent of violence during elections in the country was
related to caste, while there was no mechanism to hold political
parties responsible for flagrant violation of the Representation of
the People Act.


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[ZESTCaste] State can't develop without taking care of downtrodden: Nitish

 

http://www.zeenews.com/news586317.html

State can't develop without taking care of downtrodden: Nitish

Updated on Thursday, December 10, 2009, 18:31 IST

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said that no
state could develop if the interests of the downtrodden were ignored.

Inaugurating a loan distribution ceremony organized by Scheduled Caste
Cooperative Development Corporation at S K Memorial hall here, Kumar
said the state government had launched a major drive to abolish the
practice of manual scavenging by rehabilitating all those people
engaged in the inhuman practice of carrying night soil on their heads
from dry toilets.

We are identifying each individual engaged in manual scavenging and
providing them loans upto Rs 30000 to women under Mahila Samridhi
Yojna to take up any alternative profession. While the government
would ensure bank loans upto Rs 17,500 the rest amount (Rs.12,500)
would be made available to them as subsidy by the state government,
Kumar said.

Similar facilities are also being made available to male members of
this section of the society under micro credit financing scheme.

So far the state government had distributed over Rs 13.54 crore among
46,515 beneficiaries.

Kumar expressed his displeasure over negative participation of
commercial banks in rehabilitating the scavengers and said that his
government has fixed 2010 as the deadline to rehabilitate all the
families engaged in carrying night soil on their heads.

"I have directed the district magistrates and block level officers to
coordinate with bank officials to provide loans to scavengers on a
priority basis as the state was committed to eradicate this demeaning
profession," Kumar said.

He asked the Secretary of SC/ST Welfare department to write a letter
to the Centre with a request to direct the bankers to grant loans to
people from Dalit community engaged in the degrading work to take up
other profession.

Replying to Bihar minister for SC/ST development Jitan Ram Manjhi's
demand that SC/ST Development Corporation should be accorded state
guarantee for term loan, Kumar asked the minister to come out with a
proposal and if required the law would be amended to provide state
guarantee to the Commission.

The function was also addressed by members of the state Mahadalit commission.

PTI

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[ZESTCaste] Opp raps Govt over SC/ST funds ‘misuse’

http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=dec1009/at04

Opp raps Govt over SC/ST funds 'misuse'

Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Dec 9 – Opposition members today attacked the State
Government for failing to ensure effective utilization of funds meant
for various welfare schemes of the ST and SC people, saying that
instead the Government had systematically been depriving the ST/SC
populace of their legitimate share of funds flouting Planning
Commission guidelines in the process. They also demanded a probe by a
high-level House Committee into the alleged anomalies.

Bhuban Pegu (Independent) charged the Government with failing to
comply with the Planning Commission guidelines concerning allocation
of funds in proportion to the ST/SC populace, which resulted in
deprivation of sums worth several hundred crores in the last three
State annual plans.

"These funds are supposed to be non-lapsable and non-divertible but
the Planning and Finance Departments have regularly been hiding facts
and making false representations causing the funds to lapse and
depriving the SC/ST population of their lawful share of development
funds," he said, adding that all this were going on under the
knowledge of the Chief Minister as he headed the Finance Department.

The House witnessed a noisy scene when the Minister for Welfare of
Plain Tribes and Other Backward Classes (WPT&OBC), Pramila Rani Brahma
was making the reply. Her explanation of the situation vis-à-vis
non-utilization of funds and cut in funds making it disproportionate
to the SC/ST populace apparently was not acceptable to the opposition
members who started shouting and tried to interrupt the minister in
the middle of her speech. The minister said that some departments were
unable to submit timely proposals for securing funds resulting in the
expenditure as being shown as nil. She also said that some lapses had
been there and the Government would ensure that those did not recur in
future.

Amidst the chaos, minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the State
Government would revive the fund that lapsed during the past three
financial years of the State Plan allocation. "We will revive the
entire fund and even give ten per cent more above that," he said.

Earlier, several opposition members expressed grave concern over the
poor socio-economic conditions of the SC/ST populace and called for
adequate constitutional safeguards. Encroachments on tribal blocks and
belts and failure of the Government to fill up the backlog of vacant
posts reserved for SC/ST candidates drew sharp criticism from the
members. Those who participated in the voting on supplementary demands
for grants for 2009-10 included Dr Aditya Langthasa (AIUDF), KS
Narzary (BPF), Udhab Barman (CPM), Sushila Hazarika (AGP), Bhuban Pegu
(Independent), Dr Rumi Nath (BJP), Rajiv Lochan Pegu (Congress), AR
Mazarbhuyan (AIUDF), Karendra Basumatary (BPF), and Anup Phukan (AGP).


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[ZESTCaste] Slur on sarpanchs

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Slur-on-sarpanchs/articleshow/5320866.cms

Slur on sarpanchs
Vijaysinh Parmar, TNN 10 December 2009, 05:20am IST


AHMEDABAD: A sarpanch would normally be respected as the most powerful
person in any village. As per the Panchayati Raj institution, he or
she is

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expected to play a pivotal role in the village's development.

But, a Dalit sarpanch, man or woman, hardly has any say in panchayats
if the village is dominated by upper castes or even backward castes.
Some of them are made to sit on the floor even as other elected
members get chairs. Some are not even offered drinking water at
panchayat meetings. It is another matter that as sarpanchs drinking
water to villagers is their primary responsibility.

Two months ago, Kanchan Harijan, 35, deputy sarpanch of Valotri
village in Kheda, lodged a police complaint against three members of
the panchayat under the Atrocities Act. "I decided to approach police
only after things got out of hand. I was subjected to casteist slurs
and abuses during panchayat meetings.

But, when some members hurled abuses at me in public, I could not take
it any more," she says. It was only after Amrat Vaghela, a Dalit
sarpanch in Karoli in Surendranagar, complained to the taluka
development office that the village talati started talking to her.
"The talati would not talk to me because I am a Dalit. How do you
expect me to work," she asks. But, even today, nobody offers Vaghela a
glass of water at the panchayat office.

As many as 62.71% Dalit members elected to panchayats are
discriminated against when it comes simple courtesy like offering
water, according to findings of the 'Census on Untouchability', a
study carried out by Ahmedabad-based Navsarjan Trust with three
US-based organisations — the Kroc Institute for International Peace
Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Dartmouth College at
the University of Michigan and Robert F Kennedy Centre for Social
Justice and Human Rights, Washington, DC. P K Valera, a retired IAS
officer, recalls a social gathering he had organized in his native
Borisana village near Kalol in 1997. "The caterer refused to clean up
utensils at my place. They all suddenly disappeared after the
community lunch," he says. Having worked as director of social
welfare, Valera says discrimination against elected members in
panchayat is a reality.

Voluntary organizations in rural Gujarat say those who oppose the
social norms face no-confidence motions in the local body. "Even
genuine protests from Dalit or women sarpanchs snowball into political
issues. We have come across cases where no-confidence motions were
moved against sarpanchs who questioned discrimination at the hands of
other members," says Paresh Parmar of Mahila Swaraj Abhiyaan.

Social scientist Ganshyam Shah, who assisted the study, says
untouchability in government establishments is the first thing the
government should address, even if it can't bring change at the social
or village level.


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[ZESTCaste] Atrocities against Dalits

 

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55607

Thursday, December 10, 2009
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Atrocities against Dalits

16:53 IST

RAJYA SABHA

The number of cases in regard to various offences of atrocities
against Scheduled Castes, registered under the Scheduled Castes and
the Scheduled Tribes (prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, during last
five years, were as under: -

Year
Number of cases

2004
26523

2005
25836

2006
26665

2007
29825

2008
24971

Total
1,33,820

Source:- National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB); Data for 2008 is provisional

Implementation of the said Act is the responsibility of
State Governments. They are addressed from time to time at the
highest level, to implement it, in letter and spirit. Its
implementation is also reviewed in high-level meetings with them.

With a view to ensure effective implementation of the Act, central
assistance is also provided to State Governments/Union Territory
Administrations, mainly for strengthening their enforcement and
judicial machinery, relief to atrocity victims, incentive for
inter-caste marriages and awareness generation.

This information was given by Shri. D. Napoleon, the Minister of State
for Social Justice & Empowerment, in a written reply to a question in
Rajya Sabha today.

SB/AP

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[ZESTCaste] Post-Hindu India by Kancha Ilaiah

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/38375/book-rack.html

Post-Hindu India
Kancha Ilaiah
Sage, 2009, pp 302, Rs 295

A thought-provoking critique of Brahmanism and the caste system in
India, while anticipating the death of Hindusim as a direct
consequence of what the author says is, its anti-scientific and
anti-nationalistic stand. This work challenges Hinduism's
interpretation of history with a virulent attack on caste-politics and
also takes a refreshing look at the necessity of encouraging
indigenous scientific thought for the sake of national progress.


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