Thursday, August 19, 2010

[ZESTCaste] 21 forged signatures found in school

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/21-forged-signatures-found-in-school/199280.html

21 forged signatures found in school

Express News Service

First Published : 19 Aug 2010 03:27:26 AM IST

Last Updated : 19 Aug 2010 09:01:11 AM IST

CHENNAI: In a perfect case of misappropriation of funds, the Danish
Mission Higher Secondary School authorities have forged the signatures
of over 21 parents in the ledger and have swindled the scholarship
money allocated by the government to Dalit students.


A special team, consisting officials from Adi Dravidar Welfare
department, unearthed this fraud after an inspection of the school
here on Wednesday.

The raid was prompted after an Express report exposed the
misappropriation of post-matric scholarship allocated to Dalit
students — 'Teachers, officials deprive Dalits of scholarship'.

"A surprise check conducted by officials in the rank of joint director
of Adi Dravidar Welfare department from Chennai and local officials at
the school brought to light that 21 signatures have been forged by
teachers on the scholarship ledger," said official sources.

Herber Dhana Sundaram, a teacher at the school had forged the
signature of Siva, father of Perumal, who was studying at the school,
and had misappropriated the money. When inquired the whereabouts of
Herber, headmaster Deivaneethi told them that he had left for a
science exhibition at Chennai.

But when, officials found Herber's signature in the attendance
register next to Wednesday's date, they ordered the headmaster to ask
Herber to report to the joint director's office of the Adi Dravidar
Welfare department in Chennai, said sources.

In addition to this, officials found that the clerk Kanagaraj had also
signed on the scholarship ledger.

When questioned, Kanagaraj told that teachers had asked him to do so
and he was not aware of the misappropriation of funds. Officials got a
statement from him and other teachers, who were suspected to be
involved in the fraud.

The special team would continue its inspection in other schools also,
sources added.


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[ZESTCaste] Indian graphic artists draw outside the box for nonfiction 'Bhimayana'

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081805854.html

Indian graphic artists draw outside the box for nonfiction 'Bhimayana'

By Rama Lakshmi
Thursday, August 19, 2010; C08

NEW DELHI -- When tribal artist Durgabai Vyam was asked by a publisher
to draw for a graphic book about caste untouchability in India, she
leafed through the celebrated titles laid out in front of her -- books
by Art Spiegelman, Joe Sacco, Osamu Tezuka and Marjane Satrapi.

She was aghast.

"The books were full of boxes. I did not want to do a book that cages
art in little boxes," said Vyam, 35, recalling her first brush with
the literary genre that is slowly taking off in India. "I like to draw
in open spaces, where they can breathe."

Two years later she got her wish, and two years after that, she
managed to finish her first graphic book without boxes. And in doing
so, Vyam may have revolutionized the format of the genre.

Vyam and her husband, Subhash Vyam, just put final touches on
"Bhimayana," a graphic nonfiction book about Bhimrao Ambedkar, a
revered 20th-century leader of India's untouchables, now known as
Dalits. The topic is similar to many internationally acclaimed graphic
novels that deal with grave themes such as the Holocaust, Palestine
and the Bosnian war.

But this book is different in that it jettisons sequential, cinematic
narrative style and brings visual magic realism into a new universe.
Symbolism tells the story.

The Vyams are renowned practitioners of Gond tribal art, traditionally
painted on floors, walls and doorways of mud huts in villages. The
indigenous art form made the transition to paper and urban galleries
only three decades ago. The edgy graphic book is the latest
incarnation of their ancient art.

"Bhimayana" traces Ambedkar's personal battles with untouchability and
the 3,000-year-old hierarchical Hindu caste system, which regards the
Dalits as the lowest level. The grim graphic book depicts him as a
thirsty boy desperately seeking water in a segregated school, as a
young traveler denied a bullock-cart ride and as a young man being
thrown out of a motel.

The lake where Ambedkar agitated for access to water takes the shape
of a giant fish; a road winds across the page like a snake; a
desperately thirsty Ambedkar at school is shown with a fish inside
him. A train runs on wheels that look like coiled snails; trees grow
legs and race along as the locomotive's steam billows like long,
flying locks of hair. When Columbia University graduate Ambedkar is
thrown out of a motel because he is an untouchable, the Vyams draw
prickly thorns all over his body.

"Ambedkar must have felt like he had thorns on him, because nobody
would touch him," explained Durgabai Vyam, an unschooled, bony woman
in an orange sari with bright bangles jingling on her wrists. She was
only 6 when she learned from her mother how to plaster the mud walls
with cow dung, collect clay of different colors from the forest and
paint on the walls. She illustrated a few children's books before
"Bhimayana."

Symbolism is central to the Gond art world; nothing is perceived
literally. Subhash Vyam, 40, dismisses realistic representations as
"ditto art."

Years ago, the couple drew the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks after hearing
about them on the village radio. They never saw the troubling
newspapers and television images. Their painting showed two tall
thatch-roofed mud huts and a bird gently swooping down to hit them.

Even the speech bubbles in "Bhimayana" are shaped like animals. "If
you speak sweet words of truth and justice, then your bubble is like a
sparrow. If your words are going to sting and cause pain, then the
bubble is like a scorpion," Subhash Vyam said.

About 40 percent of the text and dialogue were changed to suit the
drawings. For example, the Vyams inserted bats in the scene before
Ambedkar falls from a bullock cart, because a bat is considered a bad
omen. The publisher inserted text explaining that bats are a bad omen.

"I want people to pick up the book for its beauty and get to know the
ugly social reality of India," said S. Anand, who published and
co-wrote "Bhimayana." Anand runs Navayana in New Delhi, which
publishes anti-caste books. He also inserted news of caste atrocities
in contemporary India into the book.

The graphic book, in its final stages, will be released in October in
English and three Indian languages. Discussions continue with
publishers and agents in the United States and Britain.

Celebrated American graphic novelist Joe Sacco is one of the endorsers
on "Bhimayana's" cover.

"The story was very engaging and done in a style that was completely
new to me. I applaud the artists for sidestepping the standard Western
comic-book conventions and drawing from their own traditions to tell
the story of Ambedkar," said Sacco, author of "Palestine," in an
e-mail.

The graphic novel, which is sustained around the world by urban
subcultures and enjoys a cult following, is evolving in India. Since
2004, a dozen books have been released dealing with themes of urban
angst, strife in Kashmir, corruption and most recently, about the two
troubling years when democracy was suspended in India in the 1970s.

This year, New Delhi-based architect and writer Gautam Bhatia wrote a
graphic novel called "Lie," using the medieval Mughal miniature
painters to tell a tale of modern India's political and social decay.

"These miniature artists used to portray scenes from Hindu
mythologies. It was difficult to try to get them to paint modern
politicians, multiplexes and malls," Bhatia said. "The graphic book is
still in its very early stages in India. Writers are testing new
ground and new methods."

Three months into their work, the Vyams almost quit the project. They
just could not draw boxes.

Then one day, they hit upon an idea. It was called "digna," the
decorative pattern that the Gond tribal people drew on their walls
during weddings and festivals.

They began using the digna motif as the dividers on the page. The
graphic book took off.

"A digna is auspicious and conveys purity," Subhash Vyam said. "It is
the beginning of all our art. It is like an ornament. It is not a
box."

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[ZESTCaste] HC stays Maya move to rename Amethi

http://expressbuzz.com/nation/hc-stays-maya-move-to-rename-amethi/199267.html

HC stays Maya move to rename Amethi

Anand Raj Singh

Express News ServiceFirst Published : 19 Aug 2010 03:17:52 AM IST

Last Updated : 19 Aug 2010 01:04:03 PM IST

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday
stayed the move of BSP supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati to rename Amethi, the parliamentary constituency of Congress
general secretary Rahul Gandhi, as Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar.


On July 1, Mayawati had renamed Amethi after the Dalit leader and
declared that it would be a new district, the 72nd in the state.

The move was aimed at blunting the rising influence of Rahul in the
area as also to check the revival of the Congress party in the state
after it doubled its parliamentary seat tally in the Lok Sabha
elections held in 2009. Earlier in 2003, inspired by political
vengeance, Mayawati had converted the name of Amethi to Chhatrapati
Shahuji Maharaj Nagar district. It was later reverted to its earlier
name after the Mulayam Singh Yadav government came to power.

Amethi is a town and a nagar panchayat on Rae Bareli- Sultanpur road
in Sultanpur district of the state. It is known as the seat of power
of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty.

Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his grandsons Sanjay and Rajiv
Gandhi (the sons of Indira Gandhi), as well as Rajiv's wife Sonia have
all represented this constituency in the Lok Sabha.


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[ZESTCaste] The caste count(Opinion)

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/dc-comment/caste-count-287

The caste count

August 19th, 2010

By Nirmala Sitharaman , Census 2010 is the seventh, Independent India,
planning and formulation of policies Share Buzz up!Census 2010 is the
seventh in Independent India and the 15th since India had its first
census in 1872. It is the largest such activity in the world which
will cover 600,000 villages across 640 districts and 7,742 towns. A
total of 2.5 million census officials will knock at the doors of 240
million households to do a head count of 1.2 billion people. This
census will cost the state exchequer over Rs 220.9 billion.

The decennial Indian Census, conducted without a break since 1872, is
a credible source of information on various vital statistics of our
country — economic activity, literacy and education, housing and
household amenities, urbanisation, fertility and mortality, scheduled
castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs), language, migration, disability
and other socio, cultural and demographic data. It is the only
available primary data at the village, town and ward level.

The importance of such data for planning and formulation of policies
for the Central and state governments cannot be over stated. The
demographic data which emerges from the census also forms the basis of
the delimitation/reservation of constituencies for parliamentary,
Assembly, panchayat and local bodies.

In India, the census data is used for more complex matters in
comparison with the UK census after which it is broadly fashioned. In
the UK, John Rickman, who managed his country's first four census
beginning 1801, used the census to ascertain the number of men who
will be able to fight the Napoleonic Wars. Even before he commenced
the census, Rickman had, in 1798, stated 12 reasons why the census was
important. Two among the 12 are relevant to India today: "A census
would indicate the government's intention to promote public good" and
"the need to plan the production of corn and thus know the number of
people who had to be fed".

Our Constitution underlines the need for affirmative action "to
promote public good". In order to enable this, it has provided for
reservations for the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes. The
reservation system in our country relies on quotas which numerically
correspond with a group's share in the total population. These quotas
are applicable for education, for government jobs and for welfare
schemes. The scheduled castes constitute nearly 160 million and hence
they receive 15 per cent of the quota; the tribal population is
estimated to be 70 million and hence a seven per cent reservation.

Under Article 340 of our Constitution it is obligatory for the
government to promote the welfare of other backward classes (OBCs).
The First Backward Classes Commission (Kaka Kalelkar, 1951) and the
subsequent Second Backward Classes Commission (Mandal, 1979) gave
their inputs. The Kalelkar Commission identified 2,399 castes as
backward and 837 among them as most backward. In fact, it recommended
undertaking a caste-wise enumeration in the 1961 Census.

The Mandal Commission covered more than 3,000 castes under the OBC
category. It inferred without sufficient primary data that Hindu and
non-Hindu "other backward classes" constituted nearly 52 per cent of
the Indian population. However, the National Sample Survey put the
figure at 32 per cent. Owing to the legal constraint that total
reservation should not exceed 50 per cent, and with 15 per cent and
seven per cent already given to SCs and STs, the OBCs received 27 per
cent. In a few states like Tamil Nadu, reservations had already
exceeded the 50 per cent ceiling.

In two recent cases the Supreme Court has voiced its concern on the
absence of quantifiable data. In July 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in
favour of Tamil Nadu continuing the 69 per cent reservation for SCs,
STs, BCs and MBCs for another one year in jobs and educational
institutions. It is important to note here that Chief Justice of India
S.H. Kapadia and Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan directed the state to
submit quantifiable data on backward classes for the determination of
a fresh quota limit. They also directed the state Backward Classes
Commission to consider the issue based on quantifiable data in respect
of the concerned communities.

Earlier, in March 2007, passing an interim order (Ashok Kumar Thakur
vs the Union of India), the Supreme Court held that the 1931 Census
could not be a determinative factor for identifying OBCs for the
purpose of reservations. 1931 was indeed the last census in which
information on caste was collected.

In both the above instances the need for data was in the context of
reservation in higher educational institutions. This could also extend
to jobs, particularly in the public sector. The need for quantifiable
data is desperately felt in extending government's welfare schemes
too.

Castes and their backwardness varies by states. The Backward Classes
Commission in each state has to inquire, study and then categorise
castes based on their backwardness. Levels of backwardness for any one
caste, for instance, is not comparable even in neighbouring districts,
leave aside states.

So in the context of Census 2010 two questions stood out for
policymakers to address: Where is the database for education, jobs and
welfare schemes? How does this database get collected without
affecting the integrity of the headcount? Integrity of headcount
depends on reliability of data and its verifiability. Respect for
privacy too could not be compromised.

A householder can have the last word on declaring his caste. However,
he cannot be the authority to decide whether his caste is backward in
his area. Only a constitutionally-empowered commission in his state
can do that. So, to obtain primary reliable data, the census
enumerator could ask the householder to respond on his caste. However,
he should not be asked of its backwardness. As Union home minister P.
Chidambaram observed in Parliament, "The enumerator is not an
investigator or verifier. And it must be clearly understood that the
enumerator has no training or expertise to classify the answer as OBC
or otherwise". After all, huge sums of taxpayers' money cannot be
spent on welfare schemes without knowing the number of intended
beneficiaries. In the name of good governance, how else can we plan
and account for our actions?

- Nirmala Sitharaman is spokesperson of the
Bharatiya Janata Party. The views expressed in this column are her own.


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