Tuesday, September 14, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Caste census: Mere tokenism won’t do

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/view-point/Caste-census-Mere-tokenism-wont-do/articleshow/6543871.cms

13 Sep, 2010, 05.26AM IST, Surendra Kumar,
Caste census: Mere tokenism won't do

So, the Union Cabinet has approved the caste-based census. Those who
oppose it argue that it will be divisive and rekindle and strengthen
caste consciousness which is supposedly getting forgotten otherwise.
However, isn't their opposition largely ritualistic, at best mere
tokenism ? Can deep-rooted caste consciousness and prejudices be
wished away by processions and fiery speeches? If they are genuinely
interested in helping in dilution, if not total elimination of caste
prejudices, they should embrace the following Ten Commandments.

Most of English dailies and papers in regional languages earn more
from matrimonial advertisements than from their subscriptions. These
advertisements clearly highlight the irrepressible desire for finding
suitable brides and groom of various castes. Mind it, this search is
by millions of highly educated, well employed and professionally
trained individuals. The opponents of the castebased census should,
through a PIL to the Supreme Court, demand a ban on such divisive
advertisements . Simultaneously, they should urge the owners
/publishers of these newspapers/magazines to refuse to carry such
caste-based advertisements even if it meant considerable loss of
revenue.

Our elected representatives across the country, from the panchayat up
to Parliament, supposed protectors and custodians of our democracy,
must lead from the front and set up example of a casteprejudice-free
society. Ask them and all the ministers , governors and CMs to take a
vow that they will strive to see, at least, one daughter in the family
married to a groom from a lower caste. There will most probably be
coldness and awkwardness initially but if not in the lifetime of the
couples so married, in the lives of the offspring's of such mixed
marriages, filial feelings and emotional bonding will result in
weakening of caste prejudices if not their complete disappearance.

Untouchability was legally abolished decades ago, but it is alive and
kicking in thousands of villages , practised most brazenly under the
eyes of official machinery with total impunity (a Dalit girl committed
suicide as she was made to clean toilets in the same school she was
studying to get free education ). Demand strict action against the
practitioners of untouchability under the anti-untouchability Act. It
is shame that more than sixty years after Independence millions of
lower caste Hindus can't draw water from the common well and their
entry in temples can still trigger off bloodbath. In Haryana, in
several villages Dalits can't ride a bicycle ; in Karnataka many
barbers won't cut their hair, in Tamil Nadu breasts of Dalit women
have been chopped off for drinking water from the pond which was meant
for cows/buffaloes!

Governments come and governments go, their names may be different but
one thing doesn't change. In this incredible independent India, more
than 30.000 officially registered attacks of various descriptions take
place against lower castes each year (This was admitted by the home
minister in Parliament). Anyone familiar with rural India will vouch
that out of four crimes committed; on an average , only one gets
officially registered. Demand a time bound trial of such cases in
special courts and exemplary punishment to perpetrators to deter
repetition of such attacks.

It is a known fact that Dalit students in hostels of
universities/medical colleges/engineering colleges are routinely
harassed and humiliated; demand an immediate end to these despicable
practices.

Every week national dailies carry news of some Dalit woman having been
stripped of her clothes and paraded naked and unashamed bystanders
like Pandavas of Mahabharat remain impotent, dehumanised spectators of
such humiliations. Demand life imprisonment to perpetrators of such
crimes and dismissal of officials giving a blind eye to such
incidents.


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