Latest News Update: May 1, 2011

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Re: [ZESTCaste] CII survey says India Inc. employs 18% Dalits

one needs to compare with % in population, in south proabbaly dalits proportion is higher in pop than in industries can we check. i think it is terrible that they are found little in top management. Sex disaggregated would be good. also information on boards and share holders % would be useful. SHARES - WHO IS BENEFITING OUT OF GROWTH IN SERVICES AND INDUSRY.

WILL KEEP PHONE ON IN CASE PEOPLE WANT TO CONTACT ON THERVOY

RANJANI

--- On Wed, 27/4/11, Siddhartha Kumar <mailsiddhartha.k@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Siddhartha Kumar <mailsiddhartha.k@gmail.com>
Subject: [ZESTCaste] CII survey says India Inc. employs 18% Dalits
To: "zestcaste" <zestcaste@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 27 April, 2011, 6:43 PM

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/article1766906.ece

CII survey says India Inc. employs 18% Dalits
Divya Trivedi

New Delhi, April 25:

In the first such mapping exercise of its kind, industry body
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has found that as much as 18
per cent of the work-force of its member companies are Dalits.

This was revealed by Mr B. Muthuraman, Vice-Chairman, Tata Steel Ltd,
in his first interaction with media as CII's new President.

Internal surveys by CII revealed that about 16.2 per cent of the work
force in the South, 22 per cent in the North, 16 per cent in the West
and 24 per cent in the East are Dalits.

On the face of it, these numbers sound positive, but as Mr Muthuraman
pointed out, most of them are employed in lowest grade jobs in
companies and their numbers in the managerial and other higher posts
are minimal or negligible.
Skills upgradation

We should have more skills upgradation programmes for them in order to
scale up their jobs, he added. But he was against making affirmative
action compulsory for companies. He said, "Nothing in life will work
if made compulsory. We should learn from the US's positive
discrimination."

Leading sociologist, Professor Surinder S Jodhka welcomed the news,
but added a word of caution. "We need to know the proportionate
numbers — whether the employees surveyed are permanent or contractual.
Also, there are variations in the types and categories of employees
and the industries they are employed in," he said. According to him,
Dalits may be employed in large numbers at the low-level jobs in
companies, but the problem is that discrimination happens at higher
levels.

The former Chairman of the University Grants Commission and Economist
Professor, Mr Sukhadeo Thorat, said, "I heard that CII conducted the
survey, and that there are State-wise variations. But is the survey
sample based? How have they mapped the employees? Will CII henceforth
maintain a record of their employees' social backgrounds?"

Both Prof Jodhka and Prof Thorat urged that the report be made public
by CII for more deliberations.

For the record, India Inc has been opposing government legislations on
affirmative action for the private sector.

A few years ago, a CII-Assocham committee had been formed under Mr
J.J. Irani, to prepare a report on what industry could do to deepen
representation of weaker sections in Indian industry

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Re: [ZESTCaste] Fwd: URGENT ADVISE

we are not clear if stopped. sill going on please contact.

Arul Doss, Youth representative, National Alliance of people's Movement his phone: 9962361777.
Mahesh, theryoy Munnera Sangam leader number: 9965350288
Narmada cced above visited the village yesterday. she has flims. She can be contacted at: 9940686107.
Geeta Ramakirshnan, National Unorganised workers federation involved in this issue can be contaced at 9444050071,
My number: 9940177127
there is a save thervoy on face book

will start again tom. today keeping it switched off.

Ranjani

--- On Thu, 28/4/11, Siddhartha Kumar <mailsiddhartha.k@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Siddhartha Kumar <mailsiddhartha.k@gmail.com>
Subject: [ZESTCaste] Fwd: URGENT ADVISE
To: "zestcaste" <zestcaste@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Thursday, 28 April, 2011, 6:17 PM

Friends pls advise/help her. Thanks.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ranjani k.murthy <rk_km2000@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 5:42 AM
Subject: URGENT ADVISE
To: dalit siddharta <mailsiddhartha.k@gmail.com>

Dear Sidaharta
do advise me as to which dalit group will take up issue seriously in tn- who will be there till the issue closes. IS IT WORTH AT ALL TO WRITE TO ANY DALIT MP/SC/ST COMMISSION. CAN I HAVE YOUR PHONE

I am not longer happy just writing and going. i want to give them my research time be there till issues close. IPR of what i write should belong to them

please see notes from yesterday visit
Ranjani

Summary of Thervoy village visit 27/4/2011
Met with 40 people, roughly half women, members of Thervoy Graman Munnera Sangam. What was reported by them as well as PRI secretary is given below:
-          2000 dalit hh, as per ration card 959. Some families are joint families. 90% have agric. Land[1] which is irrigated through channels from tanks in the village, which will get affected if the SIPCOT proceeds. Some tanks were destroyed. Of the 90% who had land,   70% had less than two acres, 20% had less than 1 acre and 10% had more than 2 acres. They take two crops most years, and only twice in the last 10 years they had to take one crop. They were employed for 9 months in the year in agriculture because of the irriigation. Few went out in search of wage work
-          80% of the households had livestock for which fodder and water came from the grazing land and tanks/ponds. [2]
-          A check dam built by the forest dept. in 1995 in the MekKal land was already destroyed by the sipcot. This is going to affect water security
-          Of 7 lakes, three have been closed by sipcot. DURING MY VIIST WITH ARUL NAPM TRUCKS WERE SHIFTING SAND FROM MEKKAL POROMBOKKU LAND
-          A Draft non judicial agreement was being finalised in 21-12-2008 between forest department and Thervoy Panchayat stating that the Mekal grazing land (shurbs/trees) will be managed by the panchayat (for year 2008-2009). This draft was cancelled. Again copy of this is available and handed over to sipcot.
-          SIPCOT industry was announced three years back, to be constructed in Mekal grazing land (1025 acres) of the village. It was supposed to be used for Michilen tyre company, brewery and other purposes.
-          Gram sabha on 15-8-2009 in which majority of the villagers took part did not approve the project as it would affect agriculture, livestock, and affect women in particular who were dependent on the grazing shrubs for fuel, fodder, open defecation, cleaning menstrual cloths. Further it was the watershed area, feeding water into the lakes and pond around. 15 hhs lived in mekkal land and some had planted cashew trees
-          The PRI is headed by Vani, a dalit but her husband runs the PRI. In fifteen years, the family has grown economically. Another Gram sabha was convened by him in secret with 10-15 people approving the project and this was given to the govt. He/Vani were purchased.
-          Madhumita Datta filed a RTI on 25/2/2011 and was informed on 24-3-2011 that TN Pollution control board has not issued consent for Establishment to the SIPCOT Industrial Park at Thervoy Kandigai
-          After FAST AND Medha Patkar's visit the collector agreed to settle in a week, but nothing really happened. When protests happened, mainly women they were rounded and their saris were pushed off their shoulders by women and men policemen. Around 8 youthers were charge sheeted, the women were asked to leave after arrest, but they refused till the youth were released. They have come out on bail
-          16 people from therovy were recruited from Therovy Munnetra Mala Sangam - mahesh, kuppan, gautam, gunasundar, kripalandan, thiruvarasu, delhikumR, Silambasan, Muniratnam, Mohan, Arulselvi, Arul , kalpana,, tirpupati gokulan, ligasami, jayalkashmi – by Foundation for Rural Recovery and Development , New delhi and informed that they were going to do a base line of their situation now so that they could document negative impact later. The questionnaire contained one question do you want sipcot project. They Sangam asked them why do you want this information- we do not want. They removed the question and asked about their livelihood. The sangam smelt the rat only when an official of this NGO came to the village with HR manager of Michelin India company, and they chased the NGO out. The report sent by the NGO to NAPM statest that the draft report is not completed, but actually it was not completed because the society chased the orgn. out. THE DRAFT REPORT STATES THAT PEOPLE HAVE LITTLE LAND, LIVESTOCK AND EMPLOYMENT AND HOW THIS SIPCOT WILL HELP CREATE EMPLOYMENT.
-          Caveat Petition issued on 19^th, april 2011 by court of sub court Ponneri stating Thervoy Grama Makkal munnetra Mala Sangam should not be done on the above matter without notice to Michelin India Tamil Nadu Tyres private limited. The counsel for Caveator is M/S Kochar and co, J sivanandaraj, No 6 Indian Chambers (SICCI) Esplanade Chennai 600018
-          1500 household of 2000 did have job cards, but were getting 25 days of employment at 50 days mainly women. While they wanted more days of work, they did report that it was not as though they were dependent on mnregs, as they valued their agriculture land and were employed nine months a year (the forrad report finding that people were starved of work did not apply)
-          The NGO FORRAD's report that tanks, ponds and irrigated land were not being desilted was only partly true -, it needs to be asked why MNREGS was not used fully for this (it was used partly) and why Anna Marumlarchi thittam (20 lakh to pri) was not put to this cause. One tank was de-silted, the rest was used for road and burial ground. No gram sabha meeting was held according to the sangam.
-          Educated youth (male and female) met stated clearly that they enjoyed working in their farms- unlike reports that they wanted factory employment.
-          ON THE WHOLE THE REPORT OF FORRAD IS NOT VALID AS FAR AS THIS VILLAGE IS CONCERNED.
-          Sadly women reported that one young woman who went to collect fuel had to face a naked man, and came back. Now they are forced to go in groups of ten
Inspite of these constraints they gave us a generous hot meal, frankly i deserve a meal only if i can do some thing to prevent this

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[ZESTCaste] Self-styled 'avatar' of Buddha, Dr Ambedkar booked

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-25/nagpur/29471051_1_babasaheb-ambedkar-jayanti-police-station-buddha-and-ambedkar

Self-styled 'avatar' of Buddha, Dr Ambedkar booked
Soumittra S Bose, TNN, Apr 25, 2011, 04.25am IST

NAGPUR: The bearded Godman kept his arms tied with handcuffs. His legs
were also shackled with chains, and another chain joined the cuffs
securing his hands and legs. Dilip Gajbhiye, in his thirties, seemed
to wear the chains proudly, to justify the godly name adopted by him,
Shree Sant Vikhteshwar Bediwale.

Based at Dhariwal layout in Yogi Nagar, the baba enjoyed a following
of a sizeable number of devotees and described himself as an
incarnation of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Gautama Buddha. Gajbhiye used
to cite his birthday on April 14, which is also the birth anniversary
of Ambedkar, to authenticate his claims.

This turned out to be his undoing, as some followers of Buddhism took
umbrage at his antics and claims in the name of these two figures.
Local residents of Yogi Nagar dragged him to the Ajni police station
on Sunday.

Ajni police booked Gajbhiye for fraud under the Indian Penal Code
(IPC) and other sections of Drugs and Magical Remedies (Objectionable
Advertisement) Act. He was placed under arrest. He was charged for
assuring to cure his devotees of ailments, ill luck and other
problems, including improving one's luck or getting a job. He had
allegedly promised Devendra Meshram, a local citizen, to cure his
stomach pain for Rs 1,000.

Gajbhiye's downfall began when he left Buddhist followers miffed and
hurt their religious feelings. He got himself photographed in the
nude, and placed the frames beside those of Ambedkar and Buddha. Apart
from calling himself an incarnation of these legends, he claimed to be
an 'avatar' or incarnation of Takalghat-based Baba Vikhtut, who is
also considered a prominent spiritual personality in the region.

Gajbhiye even took out a rally on April 14 to observe as Babasaheb
Ambedkar jayanti, from Dhariwal Nagar to Jai Bhim Nagar. He also
exhibited the photograph of himself in the nude along with Buddha and
Ambedkar.

Bhante Harshdeep, a monk residing at Chandramani Nagar, said there was
no place for blind faith and superstition in Buddhism and such
practices are barred in Buddhist culture. "The person concerned cannot
hurt the religious sentiments of the community. He was also indulging
in blasphemy by equating himself with the lord," said the monk.

However, Gajbhiye's supporters had also assembled at the police
station and refuted the charges levelled against him, claiming that he
was indeed equipped with special powers. "We will fight these
allegations legally," said one of Gajbhiye's followers.

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[ZESTCaste] Evocative masterpiece

http://www.hindu.com/lr/2011/05/01/stories/2011050150060300.htm

DALIT LITERATURE

Evocative masterpiece

SOWMYA SIVAKUMAR

If the book succeeds in making the reader ask what independent India's
worst affliction is, it would go down in history as a document as
important as the story of Ambedkar it tells.

Bhimayana: Experiences Of Untouchability; Srividya Natarajan, S.
Anand, Navayana Publishing, Rs. 395 (Paperback)

When I took Bhimayana out from the cover in which it arrived, its
beauty stunned me into silence, while my not-yet-three-year-old
daughter went into raptures. Losing no time, we settled in a corner,
as she sat through 45 pages without budging, getting up only because I
had to. Bursting with comments and questions, she was visibly moved
when I read out how Ambedkar, as a 10-year-old school boy, was denied
water from the handpump because of his 'mahar' status. By the end of
the book she had made her connection. She half-asked, half-stated,
"Amma, dalits are 'bonded labourers'? (a term she had learnt last
month due to my repeated visits to Baran district in Rajasthan where
many tribal labourers spoke out about their bondage and indignity at
the hands of local zamindars.)

Such is the power of Bhimayana, as I experienced first-hand. And if
Bhimayana succeeds in making every child — and adult — ask, reflect
and engage in what is 'independent' India's worst affliction, it would
go down in history as a document as important as the story of Ambedkar
it tells.

To call Bhimayana a 'book' would amount to a trivialisation — it is a
magnificent work of breathtaking art that symbolises the soul-stirring
biography of an exceptional leader. What makes this even more
incredible is that traditional Pardhan Gond artists Durgabai Vyam and
Subhash Vyam who created this masterpiece, were unaware of Ambedkar
until Navayana publisher S. Anand approached them. Unlettered, the
artists were read out his story over several sessions, based on
Ambedkar's own autobiographic illustrations titled Waiting for a Visa
— accounts that inspired, moved and transformed into free-flowing,
magical drawings in a sequential form as we see them.

Leafing through Bhimayana, one cannot cease to wonder at and discover
the layers of meaning that Durgabai and Subhash Vyam have lent to
Ambedkar's story. The art, literally "out of the box" on each page,
compels one to go back to it again and again, to discover another
nuance here, another message there, lest it was missed.

Every single detail — the three speech bubbles as explained towards
the end of the book, the constant flashing of "the mind's eye", the
humour (horse laughing on page 82), the symbolic representations of
Ambedkar (sometimes a thirsty fish, sometimes a buffalo or a park),
loudspeakers as sprinklers, the earthmover, the pond, the handpump,
the train, the fort ,all as having a mind and feelings of their own —
lends a richness to Ambedkar's life experiences, evocatively bringing
out what it is to be born as an "untouchable", and what it means to be
a dalit even today.

The use of colour and black and white pages in alternation, and the
easy-to-read Bhim font developed by young Aparajita gives a sense of
relief in what would otherwise have been a bit too densely packed
visual.

Although it is said the book has won acclaim "more frequently for its
art than for its narrative", the latter surely deserves credit for its
simple yet thought-provoking prose. Ambedkar's story — woven into what
begins as a bus-stop conversation between an urban woman and a man
(from a 'privileged' caste) — is interspersed with recent news reports
on atrocities against dalits in different parts of India, a constant
reminder that his experiences have a tremendous relevance for each one
of us more so today.

Battle begins

In the narrative are many touching moments — points of extreme
vulnerability (for instance, his defining trip to Gurgaon as a young
lad when he is denied "so elemental a feeling as thirst" or later,
when upon his return from Columbia University, he is travelling on the
train from Bombay to Baroda and stops short from declaring to an
impressed co-passenger that he is not a Brahmin, or when he is thrown
out of the Parsi inn in Baroda) and historic assertions — like the
first Mahad satyagraha where Ambedkar declares — "we are not going to
the Chavadar Tank to merely drink its water. We are going to the tank
to assert that we too are human beings like others." In these moments,
through these words, we see the continuing battles of millions of
dalits for basic respect, dignity and equality.

The polemic of Gandhi versus Ambedkar towards the end necessarily
brings to our attention that, unlike Gandhi, Ambedkar's was a far more
universal struggle against injustice perpetrated by home-grown
oppressors. And the fact that a crime is committed against a dalit
every 18 minutes even today shows how his has proved, in many ways, a
far more difficult one. Bhimayana drives home that it is high time
each one of us owned this struggle. A must-read for every child and
adult in the nation and a must-include in every school's curriculum.

The reviewer is a freelance journalist and activist based in Jaipur.

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[ZESTCaste] Unthinkable? An Ambedkar memorial

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/30/unthinkable-ambedkar-memorial

Unthinkable? An Ambedkar memorial

Born 'untouchable', he fought for freedom and emancipation of all
castes and helped to draft the constitution of India

Editorial
The Guardian, Saturday 30 April 2011

Among the most tiresome of all observations made about the royal
wedding was that it represented some kind of triumph of social
mobility. The new Duchess of Cambridge is the
great-great-granddaughter of a coalminer, runs this story, and her
mother worked as an air hostess. Never mind that she also went to
Marlborough College. Such cant brings to mind a more potent example of
social mobility – and of that mobility being put to significant
purpose. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born in 1891, an untouchable in an
India run by the British – that is to say a subaltern twice over,
subjugated by an imperial government and by high-caste Indians. He
died in 1956, with doctorates from Columbia University and the LSE.
Most importantly, he will be remembered as the emancipator of other
untouchables and the jurist in charge of drafting the constitution of
the Indian republic. Ambedkar fought for a free India, and for the
freedom of all castes within that state. He sought advancement not
just for himself, nor for those like him, but also for Brahmins,
Muslims, Sikhs and Buddhists. His time at the bar in London and at the
LSE, but most of all his sterling example, surely make him more than
deserving of public memorial here. "How long shall we continue to deny
equality in our social and economic life?" asked Ambedkar. "If we
continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our
political democracy in peril." His message, intended for 20th-century
India, is just as relevant for 21st-century Britain.

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[ZESTCaste] The Ambedkar party

http://www.hindu.com/op/2011/04/24/stories/2011042453602000.htm

The Ambedkar party

SIDDHARTHYA SWAPAN ROY

FESTIVE SPIRIT: A procession to celebrate the 120th birth anniversary
of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in Dharwad, Karnataka, last week.

We are having a party in the slums of Maharashtra tonight, April 14.
It's got everything that you can think of in a rollicking bash. There
are DJs spinning awesome dance beats, remixing everything from
matkajhatka numbers to lawanis with bits of angrezi lines thrown in
and the adrenaline is rushing out in blaring pulses through huge black
speakers. Our women have coloured their lips, dabbed their faces with
powder, put flowers in their hair and turned out in the best dress
from their trunks. If they look cheap, then you have noted correctly.
The dresses and the make-up were bought in a low-end bazaar at places
that hold defective dress sales. They had saved this dress from many
temptations gone by just for this special day.

Our children too have been dolled up in even cheaper frilly synthetic
dresses and the talcum powder stands out on their dark-skinned faces.
As for our men, they have a bit of cheap liquor in their breath and
are dying to let loose and dance like mad men. Our rowdy young boys
were never really known for their decency and hence have thrown all
care to the winds and are dancing like clowns while our young girls
look at them coyly and giggle from some distance.

Many of our homes will be cooking beef; it's far cheaper than mutton
and chicken so frankly we can't afford to care about your religious
sentiments. In fact, if you look at us everything about is low on
price, save the million-dollar smiles on our face today.

What's the occasion? It's the 14th of April and we are celebrating
Babasaheb Dr. Ambedkar's birthday.

I know you dislike us and everything we are doing. But today is our
day and you must simply endure us. And why not, I say? We put up with
everything you do every single day, and have been doing so from time
immemorial, so save us that look for today. You turn up your pretty
noses at the stench of our slums when you pass by. Have you ever
realised that the stench is because we live beside a gutter that
carries the shit out of your clean houses? Tonight, we dance free from
the straitjackets of your decency – which we of all people know is
bloody fake because remember we work in your homes silently and see
all your dirt all the while.

Tonight, we dance because it's the birthday of the man who showed us
clearly that we were human beings. He didn't simply rename us and
soothe your guilt by being euphemistic. He actually told us we were
humans who had the right to dream and the right to be happy. We know
you find us dirty, ugly, ignorant and wretched. But he showed us we
were dirty because you took away our clothes and our water, ugly and
undeveloped because you took away our food and left us to eat the
rotting things, ignorant because you wrote books in languages we did
not know and you wouldn't let us be taught and we were wretched
because slaves are always that. And from then on we worked at stopping
to be dirty, ugly, ignorant and wretched. Of course, most of us are
still all of that but that's because you have had a few centuries of
head start and even now you'd do everything in your power to stop us —
including buying some of us out.

We know we are dancing in the middle of the road and your car is held
up in the traffic. Don't swear like you own the road! What makes you
think the road belongs exclusively to you? Why should it? Because you
drive home from glass covered buildings? Look around someday. For
every car you drive, a score of us are walking by the side or have
stuffed ourselves into buses and share autos. In fact, when the mud
was dug and the tar as black as our skins was laid for your car to
zoom smoothly, it was we who were here working in the sun and into the
late night while you cursed the country's bad system in your imported
style. Whether or not the road belongs to you is of little importance,
the bigger truth is we belong to the road! Do you even know how many
of us were born here? Or how many of us eat, sleep, love, have
families and live out our entire lives here on the roads? And yet you
think you have the right of way?

And by all means we will dance, drunk and ugly, on the road. We could
never go to the places your spoilt brats go to do their drunk and ugly
dancing, could we? What you pay as tip is what we spend for food for
an entire day! Even otherwise, the only way we go into those places
where your kids act out their orgies is when we stand in the toilets
waiting to clean up after them. So we will dance on the road. Think of
it, when we are drunk and dancing and out on the road, we merely hold
up your car. But when you have done your drinking and dancing and are
out on the roads, you bloody drive your cars onto us and smash us into
the pavements. That should set the record straight about who is more
dangerous when drunk.

Even though we know will be back to working for you tomorrow,
underpaid, abused and putting up with your acting as though you carry
the world on your shoulders, tonight we celebrate. Clearly, you have
two options. Sit in your cars and curse us, or join The Party.

(The writer's email is siddharthyaroy@gmail.com)

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[ZESTCaste] Importance of Guardian's editorial on Babasaheb

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/30/unthinkable-ambedkar-memorial

Please click on this link and like it and help Guardian notice how popular Babasaheb even among online communities. It helps the foreign press realise how much we appreciate international coverage on Dalit leaders and concerns.

It surely will help the campaigns by our oversees sisters and brothers in their efforts to replace that pseudo Mahatma by revolutionary Ambedkar.

It will also help hasten the long-overdue recognition for Babasaheb to be a suitable icon for the struggles of the oppressed all over the world. Efforts by Dalits abroad helped invoking Babasaheb's name and message in the "Gypsy" struggles for dignity in Europe.

This editorial strikingly places Ambdkar's life and message as a better example of uplift in the middle of a debate on class in the context of royal wedding. Guardian deserves accolades for this sensible gesture.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/30/unthinkable-ambedkar-memorial

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