http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/From-the-margins-dalit-tycoons-take-centrestage/articleshow/7194028.cms
From the margins, dalit tycoons take centrestage
ARATI R JERATH, TNN, Dec 31, 2010, 05.06am IST
NEW DELHI: Dalit entrepreneurs will make a historic journey to Delhi
next week for a pre-budget meeting with Planning Commission deputy
chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. This is the first time that business
leaders from the country's most marginalized communities will be
included in the government's budget consultation process.
The meeting is scheduled for Monday afternoon with 40 entrepreneurs
from different parts of the country expected to attend. It marks the
emergence of a nascent trend in India of enterprising dalits choosing
to create independent businesses instead of depending on quotas in
government jobs to get ahead.
Some of them have built impressive empires like Kalpana Saroj who
heads Kamani Tubes with an estimated turnover of Rs 500 crore and
Ratibhai Makwana whose Rs 300-crore Gujarat Pickers is one of the
country's largest polymer distributors. The delegation will be led by
Milind Kamble who has taken the initiative of grouping dalit
entrepreneurs into a Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Kamble saw the invitation from the Plan panel as an acknowledgement
that Dalit entrepreneurs are making their presence felt in Indian
business circles. "It's a great day for us that the government wants
to hear our expectations from the union budget," he said. "We want the
government to formulate a policy to help Dalit businesses to grow so
that we get out of the reservation trap."
But there's more to the Delhi visit than a meeting with Montek. The
presence of such a large group of dalit business leaders in the
Capital will also be an occasion to do some image re-engineering by
presenting the changing face of these communities. On Sunday evening,
delegation members will hold an open dialogue with intelligentsia
representatives on their plans for 2011 and their dreams and
ambitions.
"Somebody will announce his plans to buy a private jet, another will
be purchasing a helicopter," said Chandrabhan Prasad, a Dalit writer
and intellectual who is organizing the dialogue. "The idea is to tell
everybody that Dalits have arrived and have the same social and
economic capacity as business leaders from other communities."
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