Monday, April 5, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Wanted to scrap SC/ST Act when in Cabinet: Meira Kumar

 

http://www.zeenews.com/news616784.html

Wanted to scrap SC/ST Act when in Cabinet: Meira Kumar

Updated on Monday, April 05, 2010, 21:31 IST

New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Monday said when she was
Union minister in the first UPA government she wanted to scrap the
SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocity) Act to affirm her belief that there
should be a classless and casteless society.

"When I was the Social Justice Minister in the previous UPA
government, I wanted to scrap the Prevention of Atrocities against SCs
and ST Act as I believe in my father (Babu Jagjivan Ram's) dictum that
there should be a classless and casteless society.

"However, ironically, much against my wishes, I had to tell my
officers to make the Act more stringent as the society has not been
able to transform itself. Laws cannot legislate attitudes. Therefore
these laws continue to exist and we need to change our mindsets," said
Kumar during a function held to commemorate the 103rd birth
anniversary of her late father.

The Speaker said her father often wondered why there was never a
renaissance in India, "and I feel that this was because we never ever
opened windows of our minds towards change".

Describing class and caste as a hindrance to modern society, Kumar
said that in order to have an inclusive society, there is a need to
have a "revolution within minds".

"There is a need for a revolution within the minds... Earlier poets
and saints tried to change the social mindsets regarding caste and
class but they could not succeed... Today in a free India we should
try again... There is a need for a revolution within our minds... we
need to have an inclusive society as class and caste are a hindrance
to modern society," she said.

Earlier, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, while delivering the Babu
Jagjivan Ram Memorial lecture on "Economic Development Beyond Class
and Caste", said "India's dream should be to ensure that no person is
discriminated upon on the basis of caste and creed."

PTI

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[ZESTCaste] Petty politics to raise Dalit memorial issue: Maya govt

 

http://www.ptinews.com/news/596852_Petty-politics-to-raise-Dalit-memorial-issue--Maya-govt

Petty politics to raise Dalit memorial issue: Maya govt

STAFF WRITER 20:38 HRS IST
Lucknow, Apr 5 (PTI) Under fire for expressing inability to fund the
Right to Education scheme in the midst of a row over spending for
Dalit memorials, the Mayawati government today hit back saying it was
"petty politics" that every time the Chief Minister raises key issues
"some important people" rake up the memorial issue.

Terming as "unfortunate" the attack on Mayawati for pointing to
practical problems in implemention of the Right to Education act in
the state, state cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh said since
the Centre has enacted the law it was the the Centre's "moral duty to
make arrangements for funds for the purpose".

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[ZESTCaste] Chandrababu Naidu's urges govt to confer Bharata Ratna on Jagjivan Ram

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_chandrababu-naidu-s-urges-govt-to-confer-bharata-ratna-on-jagjivan-ram_1367638

Chandrababu Naidu's urges govt to confer Bharata Ratna on Jagjivan Ram
PTI

Monday, April 5, 2010 16:45 IST

Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu has urged
the government of India to confer the country's highest civilian award
Bharat Ratna on late Babu Jagjivan Ram.
At a function held at the TDP headquarters here today, Chandrababu
paid rich tributes to the former deputy prime minister on his 103rd
birth anniversary.

"Conferring Bharat Ratna will be a fitting tribute to Jagjivan Ram who
strove relentlessly for the uplift of Dalits. It will also be an
honour to all the Dalits of the country," Chandrababu said.

He demanded that the State government revive the SC andST Commission
as a tribute to Jagjivan Ram.

Meanwhile, chief minister K Rosaiah and his ministerial colleagues P
Subhash Chandra Bose, M Mukesh Goud, D Manikyavara Prasad and others
also paid tributes to the late
deputy prime minister.

The chief minister and others garlanded the statue of Jagjivan Ram at
Basheerbagh here and paid floral tributes.

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[ZESTCaste] India clashes with Britain over Equality Bill racism law - Daily Telegraph

 

India clashes with Britain over Equality Bill racism law

India is set to clash with Britain over Westminster's new Equality Bill which outlaws caste discrimination as a form of racism.

Dean Nelson, in New Delhi
Published: 6:50PM BST 31 Mar 2010

The bill, which has been passed in the House of Lords, has been welcomed by campaigners for India's "dalits" or "untouchables", a caste which suffers extreme violence and persecution, but has been rejected by their government.

There are more than 250 million dalits in India, many of whom are denied water, access to schools, and in some cases the right to pass through villages by upper caste Hindus who believe their presence, or even their shadow, pollutes them. Some dalits in India still work as "night soil carriers" – transporting human waste from latrines.

One prominent dalit campaigner had his arms and legs amputated because he refused to withdraw a police complaint against higher caste men who had raped his daughter.

Ministers in London have become increasingly concerned about discrimination and persecution against lower caste Indians in Britain following a report last year which claimed thousands had been ill-treated because of their caste.

The report, by the Anti-Caste Discrimination Alliance, surveyed 300 British Asians and cited cases of children being bullied at school, bus inspectors refusing to work with lower caste drivers, and employees being sacked after their bosses discovered their caste status.

Until now victims of caste discrimination in Britain have had no recourse to law. India also has legislation outlawing caste discrimination but is fiercely opposed to any comparison with racism.

The Indian government has made its views known to British delegations at the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva and at a European Union-India Human Rights Dialogue last month.

"India's position on this issue has been clear and consistent. Caste and race discrimination are two separate issues and there is no case to equate the two. We are opposed to attempts at international fora to equate the issues," said an official source.

Until the mid-1990s India had back moves to include all discrimination based on descent as a feature of racism in the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. But it changed its position in 1996 when it is understood to have become concerned at onerous reporting obligations under the convention.

India's leading campaigner for dalit rights, Dr Udit Raj, last night welcomed the Equality Bill and said it would increase pressure for the UN to recognise caste as a form of racism.

"The United Kingdom has done the right thing. The new law will give moral boost to the people discriminated on the basis of their caste and will force the UN to include caste as a tool of discrimination. The government of India has been adopting dual standards. At world forums they accept Indians are victims of caste but when it comes to local politics and policies they cash in on caste politics," he told The Daily Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph...racism-law.html



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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati has money for statues, not for education?

 

http://www.timesnow.tv/Money-for-statues-not-for-education/articleshow/4342250.cms

Mayawati has money for statues, not for education?

5 Apr 2010, 0852 hrs IST
Union Education Minister Kapil Sibal has slammed Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister Mayawati for her recent statements against the Right to
Education Act. After the BSP chief Mayawati claimed her state did not
have enough funds to implement the RTE Act, Sibal has suggested that
the CM divert some of the funds she allotted to build memorials
towards the welfare of children.

Sibal has said the Uttar Pradesh government could easily use some of
the money it has set aside to build statues, towards implementing the
RTE Act and that this would be "money well spent."

"Uttar Pradesh (government) has loads of money that they are spending
on memorials. If that very money was to be diverted to empower the
children of Uttar Pradesh and of course the children of India, perhaps
that would be money better spent," HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said,
reacting to Mayawati's remark in Lucknow yesterday.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Pradesh too hit out at the Chief
Minister, saying, "Mayawati has money only for the statues... that's
the real problem."

Mayawati had on Saturday (April 3) criticised the UPA government for
enacting and implementing the RTE without provisioning funds for the
programme and asked the Central government to provide the money for
imparting compulsory education to children of the state. Her comments
have added yet another spark to the already raging fire of controversy
over the vast amounts allocated by her government to build memorials
of Dalit leaders.

Sibal said no other Chief Minister had raised an issue of this nature
with regard to the RTE and that the law should not be politicised.

"I do not think that other Chief Ministers have raised issues of this
nature and I do not think we have to inject politics on an issue that
deals with the empowerment of children," he added.

Prasad, on his part said, Mayawati had also spoken of unavailability
of funds to compensate the victims of a recent stampede at an ashram
in Uttar Pradesh.

"She has funds for statues, security guards for those statues and such
things," he added.

Mayawati claimed that to implement the Act in Uttar Pradesh, Rs 18,000
crore would be needed in one year, of which 45 per cent - Rs 8,000
crore - has to be contributed by the state.

She went on to say it would be difficult for the state to arrange for
Rs 8,000 crore considering its present financial condition.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalits take centrestage in Bihar’s poll year

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100405/jsp/nation/story_12302198.jsp

Dalits take centrestage in Bihar's poll year
NALIN VERMA

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, flanked by his deputy Sushil Kumar
Modi (left) and PWD minister Chedi Paswan, at the maha-Dalit rally in
Patna on Sunday. Picture by Deepak Kumar
Patna, April 4: The Dalits have apparently become the flavour of the
poll season in Bihar.

A day after LJP boss Ram Vilas Paswan organised his Dalit Sena rally,
the NDA convened a maha-Dalit rally here today. Chief minister Nitish
Kumar dwelt at length on the special measures that his government had
initiated to uplift the maha-Dalits (lowly among the Dalits).

The measures include constitution of the Mahadalit Commission to
identify the lowly among the Dalits and take up schemes to provide
them with house, work, food, education besides financial assistance.
NDA strategists believe that Nitish's maha-Dalit mantra has paid off
handsomely for the party with the "special measures" for them drawing
a large section of the Dalit communities towards the ruling
combination.

Initially, there were only 22 sub-castes of the Dalits were included
in the maha-Dalit bracket. Later, the government included all the
Dalit castes except the Paswans in the maha-Dalit bracket. Ram Vilas
also belongs to the militant Paswan community and as such its
exclusion provided him with the weapon to attack the Nitish government
for "dividing" the Dalit community for political gains.

Nitish, however, announced that he was equally concerned for the
Paswans and his government would bring out schemes to improve the lot
of the community.

The differences within the JD(U) also came to the fore at the
maha-Dalit rally, as its president Sharad Yadav failed to attend
despite his name finding a place among the speakers.

Differences between the two leaders came to the fore over the women's
bill with Sharad opposing it in its current form and Nitish supporting
it.

But the differences on the women's bill issue appears to be taking a
bigger dimension with Sharad trying to emerge as the centre of a few
dissident MPs led by the ousted state JD(U) chief Lallan Singh.

However, Nitish still appears to have a stronger grip over the
parliamentary party, too, as all the five MPs present in the Rajya
Sabha at the time of voting on the women's bill voted in favour of the
bill despite Sharad opposing it.

Today also, almost all senior JD(U) and BJP leaders, including deputy
chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, participated in the maha-Dalit
rally.


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[ZESTCaste] The suspense ends, now all Dalits are Mahadalits in Bihar

 

http://bihartimes.com/Newsbihar/2010/April/Newsbihar05April1.html

The suspense ends, now all Dalits are Mahadalits in Bihar

Patna,(BiharTimes): Now it is clear: the Bihar chief minister had
problem with the expression, Dalit. Therefore, the Bihar government
coined a new concept, Mahadalit. On Sunday Nitish Kumar announced that
his government would soon be distributing three decimals of land to
the landless members of the Dussadh (Paswan) sub-caste of the Dalit
too, that is, they would also come under the category of Mahadalit. He
also regretted that the condition of Dussadh women is not good.

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[ZESTCaste] Nitish announces sops for Paswan community

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/article388175.ece

Published: April 4, 2010 23:58 IST | Updated: April 4, 2010 23:58 IST
Patna, April 4, 2010

Nitish announces sops for Paswan community
Shoumojit Banerjee

A move to sow seeds of divisiveness among Dalits: Ram Vilas Paswan

In a significant overture to woo the Paswan community, Bihar Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday announced that the State government
would shortly begin distributing land to landless members among the
Paswan (Dusadh) community.

As of now, 21 backward castes, with the exception of the Paswan
community, have been included in the Maha Dalit caste list under the
Maha Dalit Committee set up by Mr. Kumar to identify the most backward
castes among the Dalits.

The move means that every landless member of the Paswan community will
receive three decimals of land as decided by the Bihar government in
their land allocation procedures regarding Maha Dalits.

Mr. Kumar also expressed concern for women in the Paswan community and
said appropriate steps for their welfare would be taken up soon.

"We believe in practising the politics of unity," said Mr. Kumar.
Alluding to Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) party supremo Ram Vilas Paswan,
Mr. Kumar said that some leaders were "living under false illusions
that he was interested in dividing the Dalit fraternity."

"Our credo is to strive for the equality and integration of every
section of society. This is only proper as it is in keeping with
Bihar's changing image of a progressive State," said Mr. Kumar.

Break-up
The four castes — Dusadh, Pasi, Dhobi and Chamar — constitute 69 per
cent of the Dalit population in the State, of which the Ravidas and
Dusadh (Paswan) castes form 31.34 per cent and 30.88 per cent.

The Dusadh community is more literate among the other Scheduled Castes
in the State, with a literacy rate of 25.62 per cent.

Speaking to The Hindu from his constituency Hajipur, Mr. Paswan said:
"Mr. Kumar is trying to sow the seeds of divisiveness among the Dalit
fraternity."

"He is playing with a live electric wire," Mr. Paswan said. "He
[Nitish] first insulted the Dalit community by inventing and then
thrusting the abusive nomenclature of Maha Dalit upon them."

Mr. Paswan said his original demand to the Bihar government was that
every Dalit be given one bigha of land, and not a mere three decimals.

"Earlier, he [Nitish] had included 18 castes. Now, he is slyly trying
to secure the goodwill of the educated Dalit castes. But his scheming
will not give him much political mileage," he warned.


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[ZESTCaste] Discrimination helps perpetuate poverty

http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/Readers-Editor/article387090.ece


Published: April 4, 2010 23:08 IST | Updated: April 4, 2010 23:08 IST
April 4, 2010

Discrimination helps perpetuate poverty

The Hindu S. Viswanathan, Readers' Editor

The findings of a major survey, titled "Human Development in India:
Challenges for a Society in Transition," reported by Aarti Dhar in The
Hindu of March 28 are stark: Indigenous groups and Dalits continue to
be at the bottom in most indicators of well-being; Muslims and the
Other Backward Classes (OBCs) occupy the middle rung; and forward
caste Hindus and other minority religions are at the top. The data
relating to the period 2004-05 are drawn from a survey of 41,554
households in 1,503 villages and 971 urban blocks across 33 States and
Union Territories.

Expose inadequacy

These findings expose the inadequacy of governmental efforts to set
right centuries-old wrongs done to nearly one-fourth of the population
by caste-based oppression, discrimination, and exploitation. It shows
India has a long, long way to go in doing justice to the victims of
prejudice.

The report found the disturbing pattern to hold in respect of several
indicators, including household incomes, poverty rates, land-ownership
and agricultural incomes, health, and education. The survey also
noticed some variations. For instance, in respect of access to
education, Muslims find themselves in the company of Dalits and at the
bottom. Similarly, in respect of health care, tribal folk are better
placed than Dalits in north-eastern States.

The survey has done a valuable service by demarcating two major
aspects of disparities among these social groups.

Two major aspects

The first aspect is that much of the inequality is caused by
differential access to livelihoods. Salaried jobs, which account for
higher earnings, elude Dalits and tribal people who have no choice but
to settle for agricultural labour. They mostly live in rural areas and
do not have the necessary education to seek more lucrative jobs. The
salaried jobs tend to go to people from upper castes and religious
minorities other than Muslims. To quote from The Hindu report: "… more
than three out of 10 forward caste and [non-Muslim] minority religion
men have salaried jobs, compared with about two out of 10 Muslim, OBC
and Dalit men, and even fewer Adivasi men." Another disadvantage that
makes Dalits and tribal people more vulnerable is their landlessness.
Even if a small proportion of them manage to possess some land, they
find that this land is less productive.

The second major aspect of the group disparities brought out by the
survey is that, as Aarti Dhar notes, "future generations seem doomed
to replicate these inequalities because of the continuing differences
in education — both in quality and quantity … social inequalities
begin early in primary schools. Thus, affirmative action remedies are
too little and too late by the time students reach the higher
secondary level."

From discrimination to deprivation

A recent book, Blocked by Caste: Economic Discrimination in Modern
India (2010, Oxford University Press), deals elaborately with the
linkages between discrimination, more particularly economic
discrimination, and the denial of many entitlements to rights, which
the victims of such discrimination suffer. Economist Sukhadeo Thorat,
who is Chairman of the University Grants Commission, and sociologist
Katherine S. Newman, have edited, and contributed sensitively to, this
valuable volume.

"In India," they point out in their Introduction, "exclusion revolves
around societal institutions that exclude, discriminate against,
isolate, and deprive some groups on the basis of group identities such
as caste, ethnicity, religion and gender … Caste/untouchability-based
exclusion is reflected in the inability of individuals from the lower
castes to interact freely and productively with others and this also
inhibits their full participation in the economic, social and
political life of the community."

Thorat and Newman point out that the economic organisation of the
caste system is based on the division of people in social groups (or
castes), in which the social and economic rights of each individual
caste are predetermined or ascribed by birth and made hereditary.
However, the entitlement to economic rights is "unequal and
hierarchical (graded)" and since "economic and social rights are
unequally assigned … the entitlement to rights diminishes as one moves
down the caste ladder."

As a consequence of the working of this kind of discriminatory system,
those at the bottom-most layer of this unequal society are deprived of
their otherwise rightful share in the land, jobs, and wages they are
entitled to, and also access to education, public health facilities,
free lunch for school children, the public distribution system, and
numerous other governmental schemes, including food security
programmes which are supposed to be universal. (It seems the only
universal programme Dalits can access without difficulty is the
immunisation scheme meant for children.)

In health centres

Sangh Mitra S. Acharya explains, in his article (Chapter 7), how
certain social and religious groups have been excluded from the health
care system and how equitable use of medical services has been
discouraged. Incidents of doctors using derogatory language against
Dalit children, refusing to touch Dalit patients, showing reluctance
to talk to them on the nature of their illness, and keeping them
waiting for a long time are not unusual in the primary health centres
in several places. All these are not uncommon in rural hospitals.
Studies have found that doctors are unwilling to visit Dalit patients
at their homes. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that
Dalits receive little or no care in medicare centres.

The plight of Dalit schoolgirls is even worse. "When Dalit and Muslim
children go to school," Thorat and Newman note in their Introduction,
"with young people from HC ["Higher Caste"] backgrounds and majority
religions, they often face subtle forms of discouragement and
ostracism that make school a painful place to be." This explains why a
sizeable number of Dalit children, particularly girls, drop out of
school.

Caste and religion are factors

Under such circumstances, how can one expect better results in respect
of human development indicators? Some chapters in the book provide
sufficient evidence to show how continued discrimination practised in
the name of caste and religion plays a powerful role in keeping
hundreds of millions of oppressed people at the bottom-most layer in
all perceivable ways. This applies to education, access to decent and
well-paying jobs, possessing wealth in the form of land and buildings,
improving their health, and so on. This is the state of the oppressed
six decades after the republican Constitution outlawed the heinous
practice of untouchability and mandated, through not fewer than 20
Articles, protection against discrimination of every kind.

Slogans like 'inclusive growth' are not going to achieve in the next
10 or even 20 years what independent India has failed to deliver over
the last six decades. For those who suffer the double handicap of
socio-economic discrimination and denial of entitlement to several
rights, 'inclusive growth' sounds like a slap in the face, a mockery
of their condition. Unless policies are adopted, backed by massive
investments, to radically change the situation on the ground, that
condition is not going to change. It means expanding in a big way
social opportunity — in education, health, employment, livelihood,
ownership of land and other assets, and so on — as part of the process
of development, as progressive thinkers like Amartya Sen envisage. It
means more effective legal protection against discrimination and
exploitation.

Rural India must be the focus

Since nearly 70 per cent of Dalits live in villages, a very strong
focus on transforming the situation of rural India is an absolute
imperative. This became absolutely clear to me during the course of
field visits over a decade (1995-2005), as Frontline's Special
Correspondent, to study and write about the condition of Dalits in
Tamil Nadu villages. My investigation began with the anti-Dalit
violence that broke out in the southern districts in 1995 but went
beyond that. The realities even in a progressive southern State were
shocking beyond words and I tried to convey them in more than 50
articles published in Frontline.

As Readers' Editor, I can see that journalists, especially young
journalists, working for newspapers, television, and radio can do a
lot more to cover both discrimination and deprivation than they are
doing today. In this connection, the Asian College of Journalism,
Chennai, has done commendable work by making the hundreds of young
women and men who have graduated from it over the past decade do a
required course called "Covering Deprivation," which involves field
visits as well as a critical reflection on the issues.

readerseditor@thehindu.co.in


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