http://www.centralchronicle.com/viewnews.asp?articleID=46879
Personal Thought: Dalit and revenue record of 1950!
Editorial Posted On Thursday, September 09, 2010
India is the world's seventh largest and second most populated
country. It is proud of having multi-cultural societies with many
religions, castes, languages, dialects and States based on them. Yet,
all these are impediments on the country's development some way. The
country is self-sufficient in food production and emerging among the
world's largest economies despite the fact that poverty is still a
serious problem.
The country has 40% area for farmland to reap the crops, but most of
the growers especially scheduled caste and scheduled tribes have to
sleep empty stomach in the night. Around two thirds of the countrymen
are engaged in agrarian sector in India.
Many of them are poor farmers who grow just enough food to feed their
families. If their crops are failure then they have to migrate to
scrape a living by working and living in squalor slums in the big
cities.
The backward class young folk mostly from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and
Orissa make migration in en masse every year. Around 1 lakh people per
annum settle down in Mumbai itself.
The settlers especially from downtrodden community who had shifted to
Maharashtra and other parts of the country for the purpose of
employment have been deprived of the benefits of the state government
schemes.
The government is not giving them the benefits of reservation in spite
of living more than 40 years and assimilating into the culture and
language of the migrated state. Their children are also being treated
as migrated settlers. The citizens of the country have to face
different yardsticks for different people system.
Similarly, people belonging to scheduled caste and tribes, who settled
in Madhya Pradesh after its formation in 1956, have been denied caste
certificates as they are being treated as "migrated".
The third generation of this community has been living from the date
of birth despite the fact that the children are also deemed as
"migrated". The government is issuing caste certificates to the
beneficiaries only if they produce revenue record of 1950 of the
state.
How can a poor Dalit man show revenue record as he is landless and
migrated to other state to feed his family? How can his children come
into mainstream by the benefits of reservation on the denial of caste
certificate? The depressed have equal rights by law but rarely in
practice. They live according to the caste system, which assigns their
role in the society, who they can marry and the work they can do.
It's more than 60 years to have been free from the British colony but
the downtrodden community is still struggling for civil rights and
coming into mainstream of the country so as to lead life with dignity
and prosperity.
They are yet to get freedom in the rural sector where they face
everyday caste discrimination. If discrimination on the part of
Government goes then no Dalit will come into mainstream and can't
install an egalitarian society.
Sunil Salve
INFORMATION OVERLOAD?
Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/
PARTICIPATE:-
On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com
TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:-
If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/
Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/
No comments:
Post a Comment