Sunday, August 15, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Not advisable

 

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/88475/not-advisable.html

Sunday 15 August 2010

Not advisable

''A system of incentives is a better idea.''

The idea of mandating reservations in the private sector has for long
been a subject of public debate. But the issue has never been
consistently in the forefront of national attention, and has engaged
it only fitfully, sometimes during election campaigns or when there
happens to be a sudden dearth of controversial issues. The occasional
debates have not thrown up any wide consensus either. Though there are
some people who still question the very need for continuance of
reservations in government employment and educational institutions,
they are in a minority. Affirmative action as an instrument of public
policy is widely supported. Questions are sometimes raised about
implementation. One major criticism is that the truly deserving do not
always benefit from reservations, as opportunities are mostly availed
of by the better off among the weaker sections.

But the proposal to introduce job reservations will invite greater
opposition, not only from industry and business managements but from
others too. The department of industrial policy and promotion under
the Union ministry of industry and commerce has proposed that
companies benefiting from various government incentives should reserve
about 5 per cent of their jobs for scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes. Some other ministries are also considering the move. Industry
bodies have been asked for their views. Industry has in the past not
been responsive to the proposal. It has also been pointed out that in
some states the representation for SCs and STs in the private sector
is not less than 15 per cent now. The figures vary from sector to
sector, and it is admitted that representation in new sectors like IT
is low.

It may not be advisable to force a reservation regime as it will be
seen as compromising the principle of merit which makes the private
sector competitive. More effective implementation of social and
educational policies will better equip those belonging to the weakest
sections to compete with others and reduce the need for reservations.
Equity and efficiency are not simple categories that can be
counterposed to each other in a country where long-persisting
discrimination has warped society and individuals. They cannot even be
always viewed separately. But mandating reservations in the private
sector may turn out to be counter-productive. A system of incentives
may perhaps be a better idea.

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[ZESTCaste] Shampoo & social equality (Opinion)

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Shampoo---social-equality/660431/

Shampoo & social equality

Ila Patnaik
Posted online: 2010-08-15 00:23:37+05:30

Economists have tended to focus on expenditure patterns, consumption
and income to assess poverty and inequality in rural India. Within
these categories, the debate among economists normally focuses on the
average consumer or the one living below the poverty line. This
approach fits well with methods for studying changing inequality in
most countries. However, it ignores the most important aspect of rural
India—the inequality created by the caste system. A focused study of
Dalits finds that the growth of the market economy has ushered in a
reduction in caste and social inequality with an impact more
fundamental and far reaching than the changes in average income or
expenditure patterns. Dalit well being, when measured by personal
consumption patterns, practices around social events, personal
relationships across castes and expansion into non-traditional
economic activities and occupations, shows rapid improvement in the
market reform era in contrast to previous decades.

A study by Devesh Kapur, Chandra Bhan Prasad, Lant Pritchett and Shyam
Babu, titled Rethinking Inequality: Dalits in Uttar Pradesh in the
Market Reform Era, presents results from a study of Dalits in two
blocks of Uttar Pradesh— Azamgarh district in east UP and Bulandshahar
district in west UP. The survey was designed and implemented by
members of the Dalit community and all Dalit households in the Block
responded to questions about social practices and conditions important
to them currently and in 1990.

The study finds that there have been major changes in the grooming,
eating, and ceremonial consumption patterns of Dalits, signaling their
higher social status by adopting higher status consumption patterns.
The study starts the analysis of social changes with what might seem
not social, but apparently trivial consumer items: the use of personal
grooming products such as toothpaste, shampoo, bottled hair oil. When
Dalits are treated as social inferiors, then they also can appear in
society with lower standards of personal appearance. Change in
grooming is seen as an assertion of social aspirations. The study
finds massive shifts in the use of the three personal grooming
products. Almost none of the respondents recalls using these in 1990,
while today over half of the people in both blocks report someone in
the household using each of the three items. Dalits who used none of
these three items went down by 80%. The use of toothpaste and shampoo
rose from near zero levels to over half the respondents using these
products today.

The study shows the shifts in diet among Dalits, as some foods with
low social markers, which were the community's main sources of
calories, have practically disappeared and new items—spices and
vegetables —have appeared. One example is drinks made from sugarcane
or hardened molasses. These are high-calorie drinks that provide
energy for manual labour. As these were often provided by landlords
for their workers in the field as part of the wage, they came to be
associated with agricultural labour and low social status. This has
mostly disappeared from Dalit consumption baskets in these two blocks.
Tomatoes and packaged salt, which were uncommon in Dalit diets in
1990s, are now part of regular consumption items.

Second, respondents report changes in the accepted behaviors between
castes, with rapid erosion in discriminatory processes. By and large
in these blocks, Dalits are less likely to be seated separately at
weddings, they no longer are expected to handle the dead animals of
other castes, there is a noticeable increase in births in Dalit
households that are attended by non-Dalit midwives, and non-Dalits
increasingly accept hospitality in Dalit homes.

None of these practices were common in 1990s.

Third, there have been large shifts in the pattern of economic life,
both away from and within the villages. There has been a considerable
increase in migration to distant cities to work. Nearly half of Dalit
households have a member working in the cities. In the villages,
Dalits have shifted into professions such as tailors, masons, and
drivers, and businesses such as grocers, paan shop owners.
Agricultural relations have changed such that almost no Dalits
participate in bonded economic ties (halwaha) and fewer Dalits work as
agricultural labourers on upper caste lands. Dalits now are much more
likely to contract in factors from high caste groups (say tractors,
land) than sell their labour to them.

Many other dimensions of social practices have also seen impressive
improvement. In the 1990s, it was almost unheard of for non-Dalits to
accept drinks or snacks if they visited Dalit households, which, in a
culture of hospitality, excludes Dalits from reciprocal relationships.
By 2007, in more than half of the villages, non-Dalits would accept
drinks or food on visits. Another traditional practice was that only
Dalits would lift the dead animals of the non-Dalits. Enumerators
recorded whether dead animals of non-Dalits were lifted by 'only
Dalits', 'mainly non-Dalits', 'equally', or 'no one'. In the western
block in the 1990s, in three-quarters of the villages only Dalits
lifted the dead animals of non-Dalits. By 2007 this was only true of
5% of villages.

Social inequalities based on caste still remain an important aspect of
Indian reality. But the changes accompanying the growth of a market
economy offer a growing sense of empowerment and opportunity that can
help change the face of rural India.

—The writer is a professor at the National Institute of Public Finance
and Policy, Delhi


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[ZESTCaste] 21st Century cast(e)aways!

 

http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/mobile.aspx?article=yes&pageid=2&edlabel=ETBG&mydateHid=15-08-2010&pubname=&edname=&articleid=Ar00200&format=&publabel=ET

kaleidoscope
21st Century cast(e)aways!

The Caste Census will do irreparable damage to the fabric of society

MYTHILI BHUSNURMATH

AChittapavan Brahmin a group traditionally known for integrity and
intellectual honesty Bhave was not keen to be the chairman of the
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) because,as the head of
National Securities Depository Ltd he was fighting with the regulator
and there was a clear conflict of interest.
On the face of it,a perfectly innocuous statement! Really Except that
how is Bhaves caste or its purported integrity and intellectual
honesty relevant in a serious assessment of the Sebi chiefs
performance I have no clue.It should be a completely irrelevant detail
in 21st century India.Yet the author clearly thought it a detail worth
mentioning.
Just as the bhel-puri wallah in the local market had sought to allay
my fears about his chutney on the grounds that he is a Brahmin and
hence would never cheat.What was the connection,I asked,aghast.What
does caste have to do with honesty Are there no cheats among Brahmins
The two statements,from the two ends of the social spectrum,show how
pervasive is the hold of caste over the Indian consciousness.But does
it follow that we should give such consciousness official
sanction,turn the clock back and include caste enumeration in the
on-going Census Should we blindly pursue something that even the
British,with their fondness for divide and rule,eschewed (the last
caste census was in 1931)
As the political class demonstrates,once again,its ability to close
ranks on anything that furthers its own interests,it is time all good
men (and women) show the same unity of purpose as their political
masters and oppose the move tooth and nail.Lest we all become
cast(e)aways of a State that is not a patch on what we had in 1947!
In a society that is already deeply stratified on the lines of
religion,language,culture,ethnicity,one would imagine any responsible
polity would try to paper over existing differences rather than dig up
divisive forces that are slowly,but surely,becoming less
important.True,caste is still an unpleasant reality in much of rural
India but urbanisation and the greater social mobility that has come
with increased prosperity have slowly made inroads into caste
barriers.Inter-caste marriages are far more common than before and
though khap panchayats are a depressing reality,unlike in the
past,caste is no longer the sole defining factor in modern
India,especially in metros and big towns.
In such a scenario no purpose other than furthering narrow identity
politics will be served by raking up the injustices,real or
perceived,of the past.Should we not,instead,be taking a leaf from the
books of South Africa that opted for the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission instead of trying to settle scores with those guilty of
atrocities under the apartheid regime

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