Latest News Update: Aug 16, 2010

Monday, August 16, 2010

Re: [ZESTCaste] Casteism worse than racial discrimination, says Rahul

All the leaders and media must stop using the word "honour" for killing, if they
are really not in favour of that. Instead call it as "Horror" Killing or as mad
people killing. That will be more appropriate. And as a punishment for such
horror killings they must be barred from their villages and sent to the victims
villages.
MAY YOU BE EVER HAPPY, WELL AND SECURE
MAY YOU LIVE LONG
MAY ALL SENTIENT AND NON-SENTIENT BEINGS BE EVER HAPPY
MAY YOU BE ALWAYS HAVE CALM, QUIET, ALERT,ATTENTIVE AND
EQUANIMITY MIND WITH A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING THAT
NOTHING IS PERMANENT

________________________________
From: Siddhartha Kumar <mailsiddhartha.k@gmail.com>
To: zestcaste <zestcaste@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Mon, 16 August, 2010 5:08:28 PM
Subject: [ZESTCaste] Casteism worse than racial discrimination, says Rahul

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/national/casteism-worse-racial-discrimination-says-rahul-066

Casteism worse than racial discrimination, says Rahul

August 15th, 2010
DC Correspondent

Gulbarga, Aug. 14:

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[ZESTCaste] To take admission in IAS Coaching center of P N Rajbhoj Institute Nagpur (India).

P N Rajbhoj Institue of Social Studies.
Dr Munshilal Gautam, Retd. IAS is initiating his
contribution to run the P N Rajbhoj Institute at
Gorewada, Nagpur (India)to give teaching of IAS cource.
This is the only IAS coaching Institue in India, who
run by our member of the society. Due to short of
funding by our Social acvtivists in India and abroad,
Dr Gautam never worried about it and give every facilities
to his students.Those who are interested to join the said
institute, they may contact with them. and also they are free
to give their donation to the said institute.
With regards.
Dr. Milind Jiwane

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[ZESTCaste] Court raps man for misusing SC/ST Act

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Court-raps-man-for-misusing-SC-ST-Act/660684

Court raps man for misusing SC/ST Act

Sairam Sanath Kumar Posted online: Mon Aug 16 2010, 00:05 hrs
New Delhi : A Delhi court recently came down heavily on a petitioner
belonging to a lower caste for the misuse of the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989. Additional
Sessions Judge Kamini Lau, in her judgment on a land dispute, said,
"Unfortunately one comes across growing instances of cases where the
provisions of this Act have not been invoked for the betterment of
those it seeks to protect, but by those who want to settle personal
scores by giving to an otherwise ordinary dispute the colour of an
alleged atrocity under the Act."
"This court will not remain a mute spectator to any abuse of law and
will not be a privy to any exploitative situation of misuse of this
Act whose abuse has otherwise raised serious concerns all over the
country."

Complainant SS Khemwal, a former senior officer in the Union Petroleum
Ministry, had alleged that Ravinder Singh and his two brothers
attempted to grab his land and tortured him in September 2007. Khemwal
also indicted the Tehsildar and ex-Tehsildars of Narela for failing to
perform their public duties. He invoked several provisions of the IPC,
Delhi Land Reforms Act and the SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

However, the court observed that the complainant was neither an owner
nor transferee of the land. In fact, Singh had purchased the land in
2005. Khemwal contended that his father started cultivating it in
1990, alongwith the adjoining land which belonged to them, and since
then owners of the land did not take care of it.

The court called the complainant and his father "encroachers" who have
no right over the land. "The provisions of this Special Legislation
(SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989) cannot be invoked as
a device to create and regularise a right where none exists," the
court said.

The court also dismissed the allegations against public functionaries
saying, "Any attempt by a person to approach public officers under the
threat of prosecution is nothing short of criminal intimidation and
cannot be permitted."

In a verdict in April, the same judge had made similar observations on
the Act. The court had noted that the complainant had changed her
statement before the police and invoked the SC/ST Act against the
relatives of her landlord after talking to her lawyer.

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[ZESTCaste] Caste and clarity

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Caste-and-clarity/659619

Caste and clarity

The Indian Express Posted online: Fri Aug 13 2010, 02:34 hrs
There is a thoughtfulness that informs the decennial census exercise.
This time, more than 21 lakh enumerators are tasked with conducting
what Home Minister P. Chidambaram calls "the biggest exercise since
mankind came into existence." Yet there is a sense of a considered
exchange between enumerator and citizen to coax out the fewest
possible details to generate data for better policy-making. It is this
culture of clarity that is currently being shaken by the frenzied
politics of including caste in the census exercise.
On Thursday, Lok Sabha was adjourned with opposition parties,
including the Samajwadi Party, RJD, BJP and JD(U), demanding that
caste be included at the headcount stage. As reported in The Indian
Express, the group of ministers on caste enumeration is of the view
that caste details be taken at the biometric stage for National
Population Register. To hear it from MPs like Mulayam Singh Yadav and
Sharad Yadav, this would amount to indefinitely postponing the entire
exercise. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the GoM,
clarified that the final view on modalities would be taken by the
Union cabinet. But the incident is a caution about the danger of
competitive politics precipitating decisions without discussion.

Debate has centred on how the question about caste would be posed. The
1931 census cannot be a template. India today seeks data on caste for
reasons of policy-making, and in a manner that is not in any way seen
to be legitimising caste's ritual hierarchies. It is not clear whether
a citizen will be given a list of castes and asked if she "belongs" to
one among them, or whether she will be asked for her caste outright.
How the government goes about it will have significant consequences.
Due deliberation is important for another reason. Census 2011 takes
place amidst a worldwide debate on the utility of a traditional caste
survey once substantial databases on the population have been
compiled. Who knows, a decade on, we too may move to statistical
options.

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[ZESTCaste] Stalwarts of the Commentariat

http://thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=4742&mod=1&pg=1&sectionId=9&valid=true

Stalwarts of the Commentariat

Is political representation on so-called national television diverse?
Of course not. National politics is represented on television debates
by just six politicians from the Congress and BJP. A Hoot monitoring
of nine TV discussion shows over one month by MD ALI.

Posted Tuesday, Aug 10 13:12:38, 2010

Though nobody is likely to be surprised, Mani Shankar Aiyar is
emerging as the most tireless member of India's commentariat. He is
always available to speak on a gamut of subjects and shows. He clocked
a total of 11 appearances on nine shows that we monitored over a
month. ( We can hear you saying only 11? Seems like he's there every
night.) It could have been more had he also been present on shows on
English channels in the NDTV bouquet. He was on their two Hindi
shows, Muquabla and Hum Log. He is one of the few members of the TV
guest brigade to cross the English Hindi divide.

What did he hold forth on? Everything. On Newshour, predictably, it
was on Pakistan, no fewer than four shows, given that programme's
obsession with Pakistan. Also on Kashmir. On Do Tak and Muquabla it
was on the Commonwealth Games. Elsewhere it was on the saffron
brigade, wasted foodgrains, and on P V Narasimha Rao being the most
underrated prime minister. Whatever the topic, Mr Aiyar is never at a
loss for words.

Nine shows were monitored for 4 weeks, from June 19, 2010 to July 18,
2010. They are Face the nation (CNN-IBN), News Hour (Times Now), Big
Fight (NDTV 24x7), We the People (NDTV 24x7), Centre Stage (Headlines
Today), Muqabla (NDTV India), Mudda (IBN-7), Do Tuk (News 24) and Hum
Log (NDTV India).

Is political representation on so-called national television diverse?
The answer is of course not. National politics is represented on
television debates by a clutch of just six politicians representing
the Congress and BJP, four of whom are party spokespersons. There
are, in order of most frequent appearance, Mani Shankar Aiyar,
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Chandan Mitra, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Manish
Tiwari and Tom Vadakkan. Jayanti Natarajan and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
bring up the rear. Abhishek Manu Singhvi averaged eight shows during
this month, Mitra seven.

But what about bringing non-Congress, non BJP politicians into the
political discourse on issues of national concern? On issues not
specific to a state, the realm of politics is usually represented by
just two parties. The exception was a News 24 debate which was more
inclusive, simply because its topic was ' Politics of the regional
parties in India'. It featured Abu Asim Azmi, a Samajwadi Party
leader from Maharashtra and Ramkripal Yadav, a leader of the
Rashtriya Janata Dal, Bihar. And Nitin Sardesai, spokesperson, MNS,
Maharashtra.

Mudda, the weekly show on IBN 7 broadened its representation a little
bit more than the others. It had a debate on the price rise with
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi of the BJP, Shahid Siddique of the Rashtriya Lok
Dal, Sanjay Nirupam, the Congress leader from Maharashtra and Brinda
Karat of the CPI(M). It also featured Md Saleem of the CPI(M) on
another panel discussion on whether the government was unsuccessful
in tackling naxal menace.

Mostly other parties enter the picture only when the debate is on a
subject relating to a state.

Centre Stage featured Rahul Narvekar, spokesperson Shiv Sena, when the
topic was the nexus between Maharashtra cops and state arms dealers.
He was similarly featured by The Big Fight when the topic was a
Maharashtra-related free speech issue, and by Face the Nation, on the
Shivaji issue. (More evidence of the fondness for party
spokespersons.) NCP vice president Suhail Lokhandwala was also
featured on the cops and state arms dealers' debate. Similarly a
debate on Centre Stage on the mining scam featured TDP MLA Revant
Reddy.

During June and July as turmoil raged in Kashmir the state's
politicians featured a lot. Sajjad Lone on four panels, across
Newshour, Face the Nation, We the People and Big Fight. Mehbooba
Mufti, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, Senior Leader, PDP, Dr Mehboob Baig, MP,
National Conference, GN Ratnapuri, Rajya Sabha MP, National
Conference, Md. Shafi, MP, National Conference, and Ali Mohammed
Sagar, Law Minister, J&K.

For the rest, it was Aiyar, Mitra, and Singhvi all the way. All
equally versatile. Singhvi was there for 'Does Bandh block nation?'
on Newshour. He is a Times Now favourite, six of his eight appearances
were on Newshour. He was also there for Kashmir, Indo Pak relations,
the protest over the Shivaji book, cabinet action on honor killings,
and so on.

A spokesperson will of course talk on many subjects. But why don't TV
channels go beyond getting spokespersons for guests? Don't they want
genuine views, rather than the party line?

When Pakistan-based commentators are drawn upon, there too the base is
small. The channel which featured the most debates on Indo-Pak
relations was Times Now. Tariq Azim, Pakistan's former Deputy
Information Minister made three appearances in the period under survey
on Newshour. The channel likes to repeat its guests. During this
period Gauhar Ayub Khan, Former Foreign Minister, Pakistan was
drafted for comments three times on different shows, and Tasneem
Noorani, Former Interior Secretary, Pakistan twice. Asad Durrani,
former ISI chief also popped up on two different shows.

Secondly, the commentariat is overwhelmingly composed of political
party spokespersons and journalists, though the topic may call for
other professionals. They are present in equal numbers: Abhishek Manu
Singhvi (8) and Chandan Mitra (7), Ravishankar Prasad (5) and Praveen
Swami (5), Manish Tiwari (4) and Vinod Mehta (4), Sajjad Lone (4),
and Vinod Sharma (4), Mahbooba Mufti (3) and Shefali Vasudev (3),
Tom Vadakkan (2) and Swapan Dasgupta (2), Jayanti Natarajan (1) and
Siddharth Varadarajan (1).

Civil society stalwarts on these talk shows include G Parthasarathy,
Kiran Bedi , Madhu Kishwar, Nafeesa Ali, Ranjana Kumar, and Poornima
Advani, three appearances each.

The panelists in the studio are naturally Delhi-based, but the
linked-up panelists are also Delhi-based, unless they are in
Pakistan.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit RTI petitioner faces BSP politico's wrath

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_dalit-rti-petitioner-faces-bsp-politico-s-wrath_1424097

Dalit RTI petitioner faces BSP politico's wrath

Published: Monday, Aug 16, 2010, 13:42 IST
Place: Sitapur | Agency: PTI

Uttar Pradesh may be ruled by a Dalit chief minister but poor Dalits
in the state's rural areas continue to suffer under the oppression of
upper caste politicians. One such case is that of a 50-year old dalit
Budhai Ram of Sidhauli village in Sitapur district, 80 kilometres from Lucknow.

Budhai Ram apparently made the mistake of filing a Right to
Information petition at the office of the Sitapur district magistrate
seeking details of sub-standard building material in the construction
of government buildings in his village by contractors.

He received no reply to his petition. What he did receive, he alleges,
were threats from the chairman of the Sidhauli nagar panchayat, an
upper-caste politician considered close to a top-leader of the ruling
BSP. He says he was asked to stop his enquiries and keep his mouth
shut.

The leader's henchmenoffered him a "settlement" but when he approached
the state Lok Ayukta with a complaint of corruption, they attacked him
and his wife.

"On May 15 this year, body of my five-year old daughter was found in
the pool of my village. I was threatened that I will also meet the
fate of my daughter but Police did not provide any protection to us.
On August 8, about 15 armed goons beat me and my wife mercilessly at
my home. I escaped and called the police station, the circle officer
and the ASP but to no avail," Budhai told PTI.

When contacted, Sitapur superintendent of police, Jyoti Narayan termed
it a dispute between neighbours and denied that there had been any
attack on the family of Budhai.

"We have investigated his case at least thrice. On all these occasions
the complaints were found to be without any basis," he said. Narayan
said a new officer has been asked to re-investigate.

RTI activists have been the target of violence in several cases and
nine of them have been killed in different parts of the country this
year forcing the Centre to consider offering protection to them under
the whistleblowers category.

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[ZESTCaste] Speed up justice delivery system, say Dalits

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/15/stories/2010081553990500.htm

Karnataka - Bijapur

Speed up justice delivery system, say Dalits

Staff Correspondent

'Special courts should be set up in all districts in the State'

A struggle: Members of district unit of the Human Rights Forum for
Dalit Liberation submitting a memorandum to Additional Deputy
Commissioner Jiddimani in Bijapur on Saturday.

Bijapur: Members of district unit of the Human Rights Forum for Dalit
Liberation staged a protest demonstration demanding action against
police officers who refuse to register complaints regarding atrocities
on Dalits.

They submitted a memorandum to Governor H.R. Bhardwaj through Deputy
Commissioner S.S. Pattanshetty here on Saturday. They urged the
Governor to intervene and instruct authorities concerned to stop
atrocities on Dalits in the State.

The memorandum said that special courts should be set up in all
districts so that the cases of atrocities are tried and the guilty are
brought to book at the shortest possible time.

The Dalits said that the guilty in rape and attempt to rape cases
should be awarded life sentence.

The memorandum criticised Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa for his
"anti-Dalit attitude" during the BJP convention in Davangere recently.
The Dalits demanded an apology from the Chief Minister.

The agitation was led by Ramesh Honmore, Shivanna Madar, Prema Bilagi,
Tejavva Gayakawad and Dhanappa Shinde.

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[ZESTCaste] Manu Who?

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266665

The Dalits

Manu Who?

Dalit businessmen are taking baby steps, in spite of small-town malice
and the walls around India Inc. The fortress is breached.
Lola Nayar
"People don't care about caste anymore. Perhaps being academically and
financially better off helped me," says 29-year-old Mahesh Kamble, one
of the promoters of Mumbai's L.N. College of Management and
Technology. An IIM-K graduate who turned entrepreneur with friends
seven years ago, Mahesh says, "In 99 per cent cases, caste is no
issue. Maybe at corporate gatherings one or two questions are asked
but I have never faced an adverse situation because of my background."

A slightly different picture emerges in speaking to Mukund Kamalakar,
who runs Suryatech Solar Systems, a flourishing business of solar
water heaters. "A small percentage of clients, well-off upper-caste
people, delay their decision once they come to know my caste...so I
prefer to keep quiet about it," he says.

Photograph by Yusuf Khan

"I know the difficulties of an entrepreneur...I now plan to give
financial and tech help to others from my community." Mukund
Kamalakar, Founder, Suryatech Solar
When Mukund (who changed his surname from Kamble) quit a secure
government job to turn entrepreneur in 1999, he didn't tell anyone at
home for a full three months. Today, the economics PG is happy he took
the risk to venture into a field far, far away from his traditional
family occupation, that of a cobbler. Having installed 4,500
solar-water heating systems, his firm currently has a turnover of Rs.
1.5 crore.

It's hardly surprising that there are many shades of grey in the India
growth story. After over 60 years of independence, the gulf between
the haves and have-nots still runs wide. And barring some rays of
light, this socio-economic divide continues to work to the detriment
of marginalised communities like Dalits. This particularly applies to
India's villages, where the Dalits—who officially make up some 17 per
cent of the population—are largely landless labourers. Has the high
economic growth of the last two decades brought no benefits to the
marginalised? More importantly, is the government mantra of inclusive
growth bringing no social mobility?

Understandably, there are differences of opinion here. Planning
Commission member Narendra Jadhav, for one, believes that economic
reforms have proved to be both a challenge and an opening up of new
vistas for some of the most backward of communities. "There is a
silent revolution taking place. From painting and sculpture to
neurosurgery, in every sphere of economic activity you will find a
Dalit making his or her place in society," says Jadhav.

For triggers, he points to the government decision to reduce and even
freeze recruitments in state-run institutions in the '90s, which
forced many educated Dalits to look beyond their preferred secure
employment avenue. The dismantling of the licence raj also opened the
door for many prospective entrepreneurs. "A lot of talent which was
suppressed has suddenly blossomed with opportunity, and this is with
or without education. Those traditionally on the outskirts of the
village are now in the mainstream," stresses Jadhav.

Alas, tellingly, there is as yet no authentic data available on the
number of enterprises owned by Dalits. At last count, the Dalit Indian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (based in Pune) had over 400
enterprises on the rolls, in sectors like construction, engineering
and manufacturing as well as specialisations like offshore platform
installation.

When it comes to India Inc, despite the promises of affirmative
action little has happened on the ground.

Set up in 2005, the chamber fulfils the need to bring Dalits together
on a common platform for sharing experiences and leveraging strengths
"as till then we had not been approached or entertained by any other
business forum", says Milind Kamble, chairman of DICCI. He admits that
"we are still on the fringes despite having proved our capabilities".
Today, though, some of the other chambers are extending DICCI a
helping hand with various events. DICCI now has plans to set up
regional arms to cater to its scores of members from outside
Maharashtra. And though it may not compare to the bigger chambers,
DICCI does have some impressive patrons. Ranging from those with a
minimum Rs 25 lakh turnover, the majority of the Dalit chamber members
have annual turnovers of over Rs 100 crore. A few are in the big
league with over Rs 500 crore worth of annual business. Kamble himself
heads two firms, a construction company and one that does turnkey
infrastructure projects—with a combined turnover of Rs 70 crore.

The fact that Dalit entrepreneurs are growing in number is
substantiated by Dalit writer and researcher Chandra Bhan Prasad who's
working on a study on Dalit enterprises for the Centre for Advanced
Study of India, University of Pennsylvania. "We are profiling Dalits
with over Rs 1 crore turnover. We will soon be raising the bar to over
Rs 10-crore turnover...the list is too big below that," he says.
Chandra's data has mostly first-generation entrepreneurs who set up
shop in the '90s. After an initial struggle, these companies are
finding unlimited opportunities to not just grow within the country
but also expand overseas. "Today, Dalits say people are more worried
about money than caste because competition is severe," he says.

Photograph by Apoorva Salkade

"Once you cross the crore boundary, attitudes change...poverty and
caste end up having no meaning." Khade Ashok, Director, Das Offshore
Engg
Born in a poor Dalit family in Sangli, Maharashtra, 55-year-old K.
Ashok says family support, hard work and the loyalty of his workforce
helped build the Rs 130-crore company. With 4,500 employees, Ashok's
firm, which erects deep-sea platforms and pipelines, has Rs 550-crore
worth of orders in hand.

But for all the successes, there are many parts of the country where
caste barriers continue to be a wall. A survey of Dalit entrepreneurs
in urban centres of Haryana and Punjab by JNU's Prof Surinder S.
Jodhka shows that invariably Dalits lack economic resources. Sometimes
despite having economic resources, they are crippled by lack of social
resources. "Business works through cartels and they are mostly formed
on caste and kinship lines. This is particularly true about
small-scale businesses/industries in small towns. These cartels are
invariable controlled by the traditionally dominant business caste
groups of the region," says Jodhka, a former director of the Indian
Institute of Dalit Studies.

If there is change happening, one of the pointers is the slow
disintegration of the village social order in some parts of the
country where Dalits are seeking education for upward mobility. (The
literacy level among SCs has gone up from 10.27 per cent in 1961 to
nearly 55 per cent in 2001). The number of Dalits pursuing higher
education has also been increasing steadily. This is clearly evident
in government jobs, where though their overall share has remained
steady at 17 per cent, they now occupy more positions in higher
categories of jobs.

However, when it comes to corporate India, there is consensus among
experts that despite business houses and lobbies promising affirmative
action, not much has happened on the ground. "Social mobility in the
private sector is still minimal. Voluntary affirmative action has not
happened. In terms of jobs too, discrimination persists. In addition,
hemmed in by labour laws (which don't favour hiring and firing) and
the Scheduled Caste Commission, sme entrepreneurs too are wary of
employing Dalits," says Pratap Bhanu Mehta of the Centre for Policy
Research.

Clearly, there has been improvement in the material existence of
Dalits. But mobility is still at a nascent stage, and the glass
ceiling at the higher echelons endures. The fact that "the image of
Dalits is changing from Gandhi's Harijan to a more assertive,
politically aware, rights-oriented individual who is not scared to
demand or move to a diverse range of occupations", as Jodhka puts it,
gives room for hope. The question now is, is corporate India ready for
competition?

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[ZESTCaste] Cash amount of post-matric scholarships for SCs to be hiked

http://www.zeenews.com/news648324.html

Cash amount of post-matric scholarships for SCs to be hiked

Updated on Saturday, August 14, 2010, 22:23

New Delhi: The cash amount of post-matric scholarships meant for
students belonging to scheduled castes will be raised by 70 per cent,
the Government said on Saturday.

"Rate of post-matric scholarship will be raised by about 70 per cent.
Steps have been initiated in this direction," Union Minister for
Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik said at a conference
organised by the LIC's SC, ST and Buddhist Employees and Officers
Association here.

Union Minister for State for Women and Child Development Krishna
Tirath and several MPs also attended the programme.

The government has taken a decision to revise and increase the cash
amount of post-matric scholarships keeping the rise in consumer price
index in mind, Wasnik said.

He underlined that the scheme, which was started in 1944, was revised
in 2003 only. "Since there is a big difference in consumer price index
now, we decided to revise it," he said.

The budget allocation on the scheme, which was Rs 750 crore last year,
will now be Rs 1,750 crore, he added.

The post-matric scholarships, a 100 per cent centrally sponsored
scheme, enable a considerable number of SC students to obtain
post-matric and higher level of education resulting in their overall
educational and economic development.

The value of scholarship includes maintenance allowance, additional
allowance for disabled students, reimbursement of compulsory
non-refundable fees, study tour charges, charges for thesis typing or
printing, book allowance for students pursuing correspondence courses
and book bank facility for specified courses for complete duration of
the course.

According to ministry, the scheme presently covers over 30 lakh
scheduled caste students.

On cases of atrocities against Dalits, Wasnik said that over 35,000
cases are registered every year.

"This (atrocity) is still continuing. Pendency of cases and low rate
of convictions are matters of concern," he added.

He said that government is trying its best to see that the law to
prevent atrocities against Dalits is implemented properly. The Centre
is monitoring the situation, he said.

On the issue of reservation to SCs and STs in private sector, Wasnik
said the India Inc and Chamber of Commerce had assured of
"affirmative" action on this issue (instead of agreeing to provide
quota). "We are trying to ascertain the progress made (by India Inc
and others) in this regard."

Addressing the conference, Tirath appealed to members of SC and ST
communities to provide proper education to their children and asked
the students to do their best to do well in their studies.

She said efforts should be made by SC and ST students to focus on
their education to the extent that they could be at the same level of
that of students from other categories.

She appealed the members of SC and ST communities to remain united so
that they can firmly demand their rights.

"If you place your demands with facts, it becomes duty of the
government to fulfil them," she added.

PTI

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[ZESTCaste] Karnataka Dalit Sangarsh Samiti Protests Against Bajrang Dal

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=83331&n_tit=Mangalore%3A+Karnataka+Dalit+Sangarsh+Samiti+Protests+Against+Bajrang+Dal

Saturday, August 14, 2010 11:26:20 AM (IST)
Mangalore: Karnataka Dalit Sangarsh Samiti Protests Against Bajrang Dal

Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (SR/CN)

Mangalore, Aug 13: The Dakshina Kannada district branch of the
Karnataka Dalit Sangarsh Samiti staged a protest against the brutal
activities of the Bajrang Dal in the state, in front of the deputy
commissioner's (DC) office on Friday August 13.

The protest was staged under the leadership of S P Anand, district
convener of the Samiti who said that Shreedhar, a resident of Paraje
Kodagu district, was taken from his house and tortured and then
paraded naked. He claimed that the complaint has been lodged at
Bantwal police station, but due to the
political influence of the Bajrang Dal no action has been taken
against the culprits.

Anand added that such activities of the Bajarang Dal shall be stopped
in the state so as to enable all innocent citizens to live without any
fear.

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[ZESTCaste] How scholarship cash eludes Dalit students

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/how-scholarship-cash-eludes-dalit-students/197970.html

How scholarship cash eludes Dalit students

Gokul Vannan

Express News ServiceFirst Published : 14 Aug 2010 03:17:07 AM ISTLast
Updated : 14 Aug 2010 10:20:03 AM IST

CHENNAI: When S Perumal found that a post-matric scholarship he won
did not reach him, the Dalit student managed to mobilise funds through
his relatives and complete his plus-one in 2007-08.

The next year, he learned the money was pocketed his own teacher by
forging the signature of the boy's (late) father. ''That is when I
lost heart," the teenager from Athiyanthal says, adding that he found
no option then but to discontinue education.

Perumal's is just one of such stories Dalit students face in
Tiruvanamalai district, which has 9,000 Dalit students and 150
schools; 110 of them government-run.

The Dalit Liberation Movement, which stumbled upon the story through
an RTI application, learned that many teachers in Tiruvannamalai do
it.

S Karuppaiah, general secretary of the Madurai-based organisation,
says district authorities have themselves failed to pay the
scholarship to many students during the past two years.

A Chelladurai, another student who was cheated the same way, unveils
another layer to the story. "Students cannot raise this issue, because
if they do it they will be failed in the practicals."

Not surprisingly, a Class XII boy pleads anonymity when says he did
not receive his scholarship money. "My parents are daily-wagers. We
are struggling."

Deepa of Pavupattu village passed her Class XII exams last year
without obtaining her scholarship. "My mother borrowed money to meet
the expenses."

Recently, these students met Tiruvannamalai district collector M
Rajendran and filed a complaint. They also sent petitions to the Chief
Minister Cell and the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department, but have found
no action taken so far.

Karuppaiah says he even sent a petition to the National Commission for
Scheduled Caste on the issue, but that was directed to the district
Adi-Dravidar Welfare and Tribal Welfare office.

District authorities say it requires an additional sanction of Rs 4
crore to clear the scholarship backlog.

feedback@expressbuzz.com

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[ZESTCaste] Must We Dream Of India In English?

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266672

Debate
Must We Dream Of India In English?

Our misguided faith in this 'Globish-Inglish' hides a vile elitism
Alok Rai
In thinking of the conundrum of English-in-India, it is important to
get past two "nationalist" misconceptions, and perhaps August 15 is an
appropriate date therefore: the first rests on the assertion that
English is irredeemably foreign and contaminated because it was the
language of the vile Brits, and it doesn't behove a proud and
independent nation to have anything to do with it. This is
nonsense—English has been here and become ours over long centuries.
The other, and opposite, misconception derives from the macho
nationalism of the globalising Indian, misled by the great success of
outsourced drudgery (think BPOs) into thinking that the minimal
English that demands, liberally interspersed with lazy localisms ('we
are like this only'), somehow makes them—us—equal participants in the
global banquet, as well as equal inheritors of English's proud past.

The key word here is equality: both nationally and internationally,
English seems to hold out the promise of equality, of mobility,
Friedman's flat world—while in fact it serves to camouflage,
consolidate and reinforce deep, systemic inequality. Of course, there
is much more to this inequality—global as well as national—than merely
English. If, by some miracle, everyone in the world were to acquire
fluency in English tomorrow we would not awake into utopia. Day would
still break upon the world we know, one of war, and weariness, and
woe. Worse, we would not even be able to blame it on misunderstanding!
The Globish-English hyped by Robert McCrum, and brayed incessantly on
the TV channels of the semi-literate, is—after Orwell—merely the
Newspeak of this brave new world, the bare and brainless dialect in
which the stark inequalities of this world cannot even be called to
mind, let alone be talked about.

India, then. Two of the most visible routes to mobility and success in
our wonderful land are, of course, English and crime—perhaps in
reverse order, because crime involves less investment. But of course
if someone can combine the two (English and crime!) then they have
access right to the top: the higher judiciary, the civil service—you
want names?—and, why not, politics too. Under these circumstances, it
is not surprising that the timid majority still prefers English.
However, the likely social outcomes of this process are similar to
what happens when hungry individuals run a red light, or break a
queue. The collective as a whole—traffic-jammed, jostled,
frustrated—is worse off, even if a few individuals do get ahead.

Under these circumstances, any attempt to restrict or even interrogate
the epidemic longing for English rightly appears as an attempt to
preserve the privilege of the relatively Anglophone. But by the same
token, it is absurd to say—although people who should know better do
say it—that somehow English can escape its Indian destiny as a
language of privilege, and that English can become the lingua franca
of the whole country, so that everybody can participate equally in the
democratic life of the country because your flawless Oxbridge accent
counts for no more than my stumbling, broken syntax. Further, English
also bestows international mobility on everybody: the economic
strategy of export-led growth extended to the very population of India
as a whole!

This is an absurd and, yes, cruel fantasy; it truly doesn't behove a
proud and independent and half-way intelligent country to entertain or
encourage such delusions. It is often said that the trouble with
Indian writing in English is that English is not an Indian language.
Actually, the problem is exactly the opposite—English is an Indian
language. It is here, endowed with a legacy, associations with class
and privilege that one might well wish were different. There is a
powerful class of people for whom it is virtually a first
language—indeed, their only language. There are many others for whom
it will always remain entirely foreign. The cruel, damaging sense of
inferiority that is inflicted on the non-English knowing is only half
the tragedy implicit in this configuration. The worst of it is the
wholly undeserved sense of superiority, the insensitive arrogance
which characterises that highly visible section of the elite, whose
sole intellectual and cultural asset is the ability to gabble away in
a kind of semi-literate, fluently moronic English.

(Alok Rai is a professor of English at Delhi University)

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[ZESTCaste] English bespeaks progress. India’s youth is much the worse without it. (Opinion)

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266671

Debate
Stranger At Home
English bespeaks progress. India's youth is much the worse without it.
Gurcharan Das

Special Issue: The Mobile Republic

Our obsession with the English language has served us brilliantly. It
has kept us united as a nation; it has contributed significantly to
the social mobility of Indians; it has been a major factor in our
recent success in the global economy. One of the cheerful things
happening in India is the quiet democratising of English. Dalits are
today its biggest advocates because English allows them to work in
call centres and other modern jobs, where there are fewer caste
barriers. A recent survey in Mumbai shows Dalit women who knew English
rose economically by marrying outside their caste—31 per cent of Dalit
women who knew English had inter-caste marriages and rose
economically, but the average figure for this category of mobility in
the community was just 9 per cent. Dalits identify our regional
languages with caste oppression. Hence, Dalits across the country
hailed Mayawati's decision to introduce English from the first grade
in UP. (That there aren't English teachers is another issue!)

The linguist, Peggy Mohan, likens social mobility through English to
the mobile phone. Just as the masses today are leapfrogging to
cellphones without going through a landline stage, Mohan thinks that
English will evolve from an elite to a mass, second language of the
new Indian middle class. If the pre-literate, dialect stage is not to
have a phone, and learning a standard regional language, say shuddh
Hindi, is to acquire a landline, then aspiring Dalits at English
schools will actually leapfrog from their phoneless (pre-literate)
stage to mobile telephony (literacy in functional English).

UP is also a crucible where one can observe the social mobility of
Muslims. Mulayam Singh Yadav shares a distaste for the English
language and computers with many Muslim clerics. Because he lost
Muslim support after his bear hug with Kalyan Singh, he decided to win
Muslims back with an anti-English crusade. This strategy backfired,
however, for young Muslims find English and computers are the route to
good jobs—minority employment in the it/ites industry is 12 per cent,
compared to less than 4 per cent in other sectors. It escaped
Mulayam's attention that every mofussil Muslim mohalla and qasba in UP
has small, private English medium schools catering to artisans,
rikshawallas and reriwallas.

Since the nineties there is a new, quiet confidence in our nation, and
our attitude to English has also changed. It has become an Indian
language. Unlike my generation, today's young are more relaxed about
English and think it a skill, like learning Microsoft Windows, and
comfortably mix it with their mother tongues. When they speak English,
even if inaccurately, they feel that they own it.

I do not agree with critics who claim that we have created a rootless
elite which has lost the ability to think because it does speak any
language well. I went to an English medium school and work mostly in
English, but Hindi is my street language. Even though I do not read
Hindi newspapers or novels, I have spent the last six years reading
the Mahabharata. There are millions of Indians like me, who balance
our language of empowerment (English) with our language of identity
(Indian).

There is thus no danger of losing rich languages like Marathi and
Kannada; regional chauvinists are unnecessarily alarmed. That said, if
our children had learned both English and the local languages in a
lively way from class one, we would have become a truly bilingual and
culturally richer nation.

There is also a problem with the way we teach language. We teach an
artificial Hindi in a soulless way, which doesn't connect with people.
Bollywood does a much better job and Hindi's popularity continues to
grow. Unless we reform how we teach regional languages, they will
suffer the landline's fate.

English, too, continues to be taught abysmally and we have run out of
English teachers. Over the next ten years 3.5 million jobs will be
outsourced globally. India is likely to lose these jobs, according to
David Graddol, author of English Next, because we are losing our
"English advantage" to other countries. China is doing a far better
job in training English teachers, and soon English speakers in China
will outnumber those in India, according to Graddol. If this is not a
wake-up call,

I don't know what is!

(Gurcharan Das is the author of India Unbound and The Difficulty of Being Good)

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[ZESTCaste] After Rajputs Lalu eyeing on other upper castes

http://bihartimes.com/Newsbihar/2010/Aug/Newsbihar16Aug3.html

After Rajputs Lalu eyeing on other upper castes

Patna,(BiharTimes): If the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief, Mayawati,
known for her anti-upper caste diatribes, can win the support of
Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh why not RJD supremo Lalu Yadav do so in
Bihar.

This seems to be the latest strategy of the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Why
not? After all it has been provided an opportunity to do so by none
else but the Janata Dal (United), which has suddenly ditched them.

Mayawati started her experiment by wooing Brahmins, which has around
10 per cent population in Uttar Pradesh. Lalu initiated his campaign
to befriend upper castes by winning over arch-rival, Prabhunath Singh,
an influential Rajput leader of north Bihar.

It was rather by default that RJD turned into Rajput Janata Dal, when
three out of four MPs, who got elected on the party ticket in the last
year parliamentary election, came from this caste. True some Rajputs
did vote for the party, but Rajputs, as a whole, were not inclined
towards the RJD till the Nitish government's reported plan to
introduce Bataidari law late last year. The wheel finally turned full
circle with Prabhunath, with hundreds of supporters, joining the RJD
on August 7 last. A new formula PMRY (Paswan, Muslim, Rajput and
Yadav) has been floated to counter the Janata Dal (United)-BJP
combine.

Now efforts are on to woo Bhumihars, Brahmins and Kayasthas, the three
other upper castes of the state. In fact Lalu was, a few months back,
invited by an organization of Bhumihars, to speak on the issue of land
and sharecropping. This in itself was a big conciliatory move from
both the sides as during the 15 years rule Bhumihars were in the
forefront of their opposition to Lalu Yadav. This, in spite of the
fact, that before the implementation of the Mandal Commission
recommendation Lalu had a good relationship with Bhumihars, especially
in his home turf of Gopalganj.

There is also plan to give more tickets to Brahmins, especially in
Mithilanchal, where there is a sizeable Yadav and Muslim population
too. Attempts are also on to win over Kayasthas, considered as the
BJP's strong votebank. There are quite a few disgruntled Kayastha and
Brahmin leaders in Janata Dal (United), whom RJD may allure by giving
tickets in assembly election.

Upper castes may form only 15 per cent of Bihar's population but they
have considerable influence in the state politics. However, only time
will tell whether it could neutralize the efforts made by the chief
minister, Nitish Kumar, to allure Extreme Backward Castes and
Mahadalits.

Since there is no permanent enemy or friend in politics the RJD would
certainly try to widen its support-base. True it still has full faith
in Muslims and Yadavs, yet it is aware that if it wants to come back
to power it needs the support of the other social groups too.

In this regard the party organized a high-level meeting last week.

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