Thursday, July 14, 2011

[ZESTCaste] 14 injured in dalit-Akali clash

 

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5288004

14/07/2011
14 injured in dalit-Akali clash

Batala (Punjab), Jul 13 (PTI) At least 14 persons were injured today
after dalits and Akalis clashed for more than two hours at a village
here, police said.

BSP leader Mohan Singh, who was today nominated as district president
of Bhagwan Valmiki Kranti Sena, reached his village Sandalpura, where
some of his supporters started raising slogans against Akali sarpanch
Harpal Singh, they said.

Singh''s supporters rushed to the spot and started raising
counter-slogans against the BSP leader which was followed by stone
pelting between the two parties, they said.

Being lesser in strength, Harpal Singh''s supporters fired at their
rivals that left 14 injured (on both sides), they said.

Bhagwan Valmiki Kranti Sena state president Swaran Singh Gill and his
colleagues were among the injured.

When contacted, SSP (Batala) Gurdeep Singh said he had sent a police
team to investigate into the entire matter. He also assured strict
action against those persons who were found guilty PTI Corr VJ

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit youth dies in custody; SHO, 5 cops suspended

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Dalit-youth-dies-in-custody-SHO-5-cops-suspended/articleshow/9217240.cms

Dalit youth dies in custody; SHO, 5 cops suspended
TNN | Jul 14, 2011, 02.23am IST

JAIPUR/JODHPUR: A Dalit youth, who was rounded up on suspicion of his
involvement in a theft case in Pali district, died in police custody
at Guda Engla police station of the district on Tuesday night. The
youth was allegedly kept in illegal detention for four days during
which he was brutally tortured, his family members alleged.

Chief minister Ashok Gehlot ordered an administrative inquiry as well
as a magisterial inquiry into the incident. He also ordered immediate
suspension of SHO Bharat Dewasi and five other policemen. The
remaining staff of the station have been sent to the police lines. The
decision was taken at a high-level meeting at the CM's residence on
Wednesday. A compensation of Rs 7 lakh, an LIG category house for the
family and a government job to one of the family members of the
deceased have also been announced.

The deceased, identified as Rahul Kumar (20) was a resident of Keshav
Nagar of Pali town. IG, Jodhpur Range, Umesh Mishra, terming it a
custodial death, said the Guda Engla police had detained Rahul for
interrogation for suspected involvement in a theft case.

"He was in police custody and suddenly his condition worsened on
Tuesday night," said Mishra. He was immediately taken to a hospital
but the doctors there referred him to Jodhpur, where he was declared
brought dead on Wednesday morning. "We have taken action against the
entire staff including SHO Bharat Dewasi and five other constables,
who were involved in the interrogation of the deceased," said Mishra.

According to him, Rahul was to be produced before the magistrate on
Wednesday. Hundreds of people gathered at the district collectorate
and demanded action against the staff of the Gudha Engla police
station and demanded compensation for the family. District collector
Neeraj K Pawan said the post-mortem of the victim was conducted in the
presence of a magistrate. A videography of the entire process was also
done, he said.

In the afternoon, divisional commissioner of Jodhpur, RK Jain, and IG
Umesh Mishra also visited Gudha Engla. Jain said that three separate
inquiries have been ordered by the state government, which includes an
administrative inquiry to look into the lapses and to avoid such
incidents in future, a magisterial inquiry to investigate into the
death and a CID inquiry, since the case has been registered under
Section 302 of the IPC.

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[ZESTCaste] Scheduled Caste Hindus demand marriage registration in Pakistan

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=57576&Cat=4&dt=7/14/2011

Karachi

Scheduled Caste Hindus demand marriage registration in Pakistan

our correspondent
Thursday, July 14, 2011

Karachi

The Scheduled Caste Hindus (Dalits) have demanded marriage
registration in the country, which is home to 3.4 million of them.

According to a press release issued on Wednesday, the community has
demanded that for Hindu families, the lack of marriage registration
mechanism is a matter of serious concern. As shared by them, lack of
Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) and marriage registration
has resulted in many domestic, social and psychological problems for
the Hindu families, especially women and girls.

Hindu married couples face numerous problems in travelling and lodging
outside their residence. Due to an absence of CNIC and marriage
registration mechanism, the Scheduled Caste Hindu women do not get any
share in their husbands' property and their access to health
facilities and participation in social, economic and political
processes is also minimal.

According to them, for years Hindu women have been forcibly converted
to Islam and married to Muslim men, while they were already married to
a Hindu. Since there is no documentation to prove the earlier
marriage, the woman's husband or family is unable to take up the issue
on legal grounds.

The statement mentions that although several letters have been written
to the government but nothing has been done in this regard, and
neither the minority parliamentarians are listening to anyone in
Pakistan.

In a nation of mainly Muslim inhabitants, around 0.25 per cent of the
population comprises of minorities. According to the 1998 census upper
caste, Hindus are just over 2.1 million though these figures are
contested by the representatives of the lower caste Hindus as they
believe that discrimination and the state's denial of their problems
begins with numbers and estimates that the population of lower caste
Hindus is more than two million.


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[ZESTCaste] HC admits plea seeking CB-CID probe into Dalit girl''s death

 

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/hc-admits-plea-seeking-cbcid-probe-into-dalit-girls-death/756468.html

HC admits plea seeking CB-CID probe into Dalit girl''s death
PTI | 03:07 PM,Jul 14,2011

Madurai, Jul 14 (PTI) Madras High Court bench here today ordered
notice to city police to file a status report on the investigation
into the mysterious death of a 14-year old Dalit girl in a government
hostel here on July 9 last year. The court passed the order while
admitting a petition by the girl's father seeking a direction to
transfer the probe into the case to the CB-CID police. Justice R.Mala,
who went through the case diary, asked the Police to file the status
report on July 22. Petitioner Soundarapandian submitted that he
strongly suspected his daughter Pandeeswari was "sexually abused and
murdered" by some DMK men. He said the warden of the Adidravidar
Welfare hostel at Chokkikulam had informed him that his daughter died
due to electric shock. But there were injuries on her chest, loin and
nail marks on the face. Her inner garments were also found damaged and
changed in position. There was no symptom of electric shock, the
petitioner submitted. Authorities did not order Revenue Divisional
Officer inquiry, he said adding no action was taken on his complaint
with Tallakulam police. Hostel officials were giving contradictory
versions regarding when and where she suffered the shock. Other
students were not telling the truth and one particular girl knew about
the incident, he claimed. Alleging that the local police did not
conduct a proper inquiry, he sought transfer of the case to the
CB-CID.

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[ZESTCaste] A shaky Mayawati govt relents and orders CBI probe into murder of Dr Sachan

 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/a-shaky-mayawati-govt-relents-and-orders-cbi-probe-into-murder-of-dr-sachan/articleshow/9212674.cms

13 Jul, 2011, 07.40PM IST, Man Mohan Rai,ET Bureau
A shaky Mayawati govt relents and orders CBI probe into murder of Dr Sachan

LUCKNOW: A day before the High Court was slated to decide on a PIL
demanding CBI probe into the murder of Dr YS Sachan inside jail
premises, the Mayawati government which had till now denied that it
was a murder and also refused to hand over the case to central
investigative agencies, relented and quietly forwarded the case to the
CBI.

With the heat turning on the beleaguered Mayawati government and
public outcry over the spate of murders of government medical
officers, Chief Minister Mayawati at a high level meeting on Wednesday
evening gave the go ahead for a CBI probe as demanded by the family of
the slain Dr YS Sachan.

The Deputy Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Lucknow, Dr YS Sachan was
killed inside jail on June 22, where he was imprisoned for
embezzlement of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) funds.

He was also later accused by the police of hatching the conspiracy to
kill CMO Family Welfare, Dr BP Singh on April 2, this year. Before Dr
Singh his predecessor, CMO Family Welfare, Dr Vinod Kumar Arya was
also killed on October 27, 2010.

The killing of three doctors within eight months raised a huge public
outcry forcing two powerful Bahujan Samaj Party leaders, the Family
Welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and Health minister Anant Kumar
Mishra to tender their resignations. While Kushwaha is a blue eyed boy
of Chief Minister Mayawati, the other Anant Kumar Mishra is close
relative of BSP's brahmin face and Mayawati confidante Satish Chandra
Mishra.

The state receives more than Rs 3,000 crore annualy from the central
government for the NRHM scheme which has led to massive corruption in
the state machinery.

The spate of murders led to the opposition alleging that the trail of
corruption in NRHM funds and the murders led to the chief Ministers
office.

What was more brazen was that after Dr Sachan was arrested and then
found murdered inside the jail premises with nine grievous injuries
the government claimed that it was a suicide and not a murder. Dr
Sachan's son has said that his father was about the reveal the names
of those higher ups involved in the murder and that is why he was
killed.

Senior police officers and Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh
had said that it was a case of suicide.

On Tuesday, a judicial probe report submitted to the Lucknow bench of
the High Court had said that Dr Sachan was murdered. The bench
comprising Justice Pradeep Kant and Rituraj Awasthi which was hearing
the PIL demanding a CBI probe into the murder of Dr Sachan while
pulling up the government had decided to pronounce its decision on a
CBI probe on Thursday.

A shaky Mayawati government decided to recommend a CBI probe into the
incident on Wednesday evening itself, after dithering for weeks since
Dr Sachan was murdered.

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[ZESTCaste] Government steps in, Muslims lift boycott of dalits in Sanand village

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_government-steps-in-muslims-lift-boycott-of-dalits-in-sanand-village_1565707

Government steps in, Muslims lift boycott of dalits in Sanand village
Published: Thursday, Jul 14, 2011, 17:05 IST
By Roxy Gagdekar | Place: Ahmedabad | Agency: DNA

Two days after DNA reported about the boycott of dalits by Muslims in
Andej village of Sanand taluka, government officials thronged the
village and eventually brought the boycott to an end.

Residents of Andej village said that after DNA published its reports
about the boycott of dalits in the village and the
official apathy towards their plight,police teams spent the whole day
at Andej on Thursday and held meetings with residents.

Shankar Shenwa, a resident of the village, said that the police were
told about the boycott by the Muslims who are in a majority in the
village. Shankar also said that a meeting of Muslims and members of
backward communities, including dalits, was organised by the police
and other government agencies in the village.

Suresh Jadhav, the local activist, told DNA that members of the Muslim
community had been told to give it in writing to the government
agencies that they will not boycott dalits or members of the backward
communities.

A police team headed by deputy superintendent of police, RK Patel,
held a meeting with people from both the groups and eventually
resolved the matter on an amicable note. As many as 150 members of the
Muslim community were present at the meeting.

"Members of the Muslim community were told to end their hostility
toward the dalits. It was amicably decided that they will not boycott
dalits or any member of the backward communities," Jadhav told DNA.A
committee of six members, including three dalits and three Muslims,
has been formed to ensure that the agreement was observed. Sources
said members of this committee will keep watch on mischievous elements
and keep the police sub-inspector as well as the police inspector of
Sanand police station informed about the situation.

Vigilance officer, schedule caste and tribes, MR Rahver, also visited
the village and prepared a report on the reality of the boycott of the
dalits by Muslims. However, late in the evening on Wednesday, members
of dalit families were celebrating the resolution of the issue.


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[ZESTCaste] Rajasthan: Dalit Man Dies in Custody, SHO Suspended

 

http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?727624

Rajasthan: Dalit Man Dies in Custody, SHO Suspended
PTI | Jodhpur | Jul 13, 2011

A dalit youth, arrested in a theft case, today died in police custody
in Rajasthan's Pali district, leading to the suspension of six
policemen, including a Station House Officer.

Rahul Harijan (20) was arrested four days ago, along with 5 others,
for his alleged involvement in a theft and was locked in Guda Endla
Police Station. Late last night, he fell ill and was taken to the Pali
district hospital, which referred him to a Jodhpur hospital but he was
declared brought dead by the doctors.

The government has ordered three probes - administrative, judicial and
CID - into the death. It also announced Rs 7.5 lakh ex-gratia, a
housing board residential unit of LIG category, a government job and
3-month free ration to the kin to the deceased.

"He (Rahul) was under police the custody under section 109 of IPC...
We have suspended the entire staff - the SHO Bharat Dewasi and 5
constables - who were involved in the interrogation of the deceased,"
IG (Jodhpur Range) Umesh Mishra said.

Rahul was to be produced before the magistrate today.

With the news of Rahul's death reaching his family, hundreds of people
gathered at the district collectorate and demanded action against the
personnel at Guda Endla Police Station and compensation to the family.

District Collector of Pali Neeraj K Pawan said: "We have arranged post
mortem of the body in the presence of the magistrate by a medical
board and the whole process will be filmed."
Filed On: Jul 13, 2011 20:54 IST

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[ZESTCaste] Quota candidates reserve more UG seats

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Quota-candidates-reserve-more-UG-seats/articleshow/9216899.cms

Quota candidates reserve more UG seats
Isha Jain, TNN | Jul 14, 2011, 01.27am IST

LUCKNOW: With admissions process at Lucknow University almost coming
to an end, the reserved category students in general and OBC in
particular seem to be dominating in most of the undergraduate courses.

Sample this. Out of 1,338 students taking admission in various courses
in the open category, 326 belong to reserved category. This includes a
whopping 248 OBC (Other Backward Class) candidates. The success rate
is relatively high because, besides 27% reservation, OBC candidates
have been able to secure good ranks in general category, thereby
making their category positions inapplicable.

In bachelor of arts (BA), the figures stand at 35%. Out of 438 seats
filled in BA I so far, 214 are grabbed by OBC candidates. Scheduled
caste and scheduled tribe (SC/ST) have occupied 59 seats. In BCom,
nearly 25% seats are occupied by reserved category (SC/ST and OBC)
including 20% alone from OBC.

The university officials though were not sure about the statistics in
BSc I but they assured that it almost equals BCom.

However, the craze for Mathematics among reserved class is on rise
this year. As compared to yesteryears, the percentage of OBC students
opting BSc Mathematics is high in the past two years. In fact, the OBC
candidates seen in BSc are almost double of those in BCom but slightly
lesser than BA. The trend for honour courses is no different.

With reserved class especially OBC dominating LU UG admissions, the
officials believe that a similar trend would prevail in postgraduate
courses too.

The university's reservation policy gives an edge to reserved category
candidates. A total of 50% percent seats in LU are under the reserved
category clearly based on caste and dependency. This horizontal
reservation includes 27% seats for OBC, 21% for SC and 2% for ST.
Remaining 50 per cent seats are treated as 'open category'. However,
there is 25 per cent "vertical reservation" in the open category seats
as well for wards of university employees (10 per cent), college
teachers (five per cent), physically handicapped (three per cent),
dependents of freedom fighters (two per cent) and dependents of
ex-army men (5%). This leaves only around 25% seats for "non-reserved
general candidates."

The high number of OBC candidates making way to UG courses is
indicative of their inclination towards higher studies. Perhaps, the
percentage of backward candidates qualifying in open category is
higher than the horizontal reservation they are entitled to,'' said
Sudhir Panwar, a science faculty in the university.

Suggesting a way out, Uma Tiwari, parent of a student seeking
admission in LU said: "The university's counselling process which
first invites open category selected candidates and then waiting ones
is not justified. If they first finish selected list of all categories
and then go for waiting list, non reserved candidates will be able to
get little more seats.'' She added with this, there is hardly any
scope left for general candidate to get admission.

The open category candidates feel the pinch because open category
seats have been further limited by the provision that "reserved
category candidates" will be treated as "open category candidates", if
they score marks equal to or more than the cut off mark for open
category, which means that they will be selected in open category and
other "low-scoring" reserved candidates will get the seats in the
reserved quota.

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[ZESTCaste] FYJC cut-offs reach new high for SC/STs, OBCs

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/FYJC-cut-offs-reach-new-high-for-SC/STs-OBCs/articleshow/9218238.cms

FYJC cut-offs reach new high for SC/STs, OBCs
Shreya Bhandary, TNN | Jul 14, 2011, 04.50am IST

MUMBAI: It's not just junior college aspirants applying for an FYJC
seat in the open category who are spending many a sleepless night
worrying about the high cut-offs.

This year, competition has been fierce even for students applying
under the reservation category. Cut-offs for students applying for
bifocals science and commerce streams under the Scheduled Caste (SC),
Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) hit new highs
this year. Education officials also noted that students from the
reserved category were applying to top-rung colleges where usually
cut-offs cross the 93% mark.

At Patkar College in Goregaon, for instance, cut-offs for the bifocal
Computer Science course for the SC and ST category closed at 94.72%.
Across colleges, the range of cut-offs has been between 85-95%.
According to educationists and principals, cut-offs have been rising
over the past few years. "Earlier, our cut-offs for the reservation
category used to be really low but over the years, the trend has
changed. More and more students with good scores get through good
colleges with or without the help of the reservation quota," said
Naresh Chandra, principal of Birla College. The Computer Science
course at Birla College for the SBC category closed at 94.90%.

This year, most students from reserved categories have opted for seats
in top-rung colleges, shunning the lesser-known institutions. "It is
strange that over 500 seats under the bifocal category have gone
unnoticed by students this year. Every year, students jump at the
sight of a bifocal seat, without paying attention to the college.
Students across all categories have become more choosy about the
choice of college," said an official from the office of the deputy
director of education at Charni Road.

Earlier, our cut-offs for the reservation category used to be low but
over the years, the trend has changed.

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[ZESTCaste] Combating Caste Bias in the Private Sector

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/07/12/india-journal-combatting-caste-bias-in-the-private-sector/

July 12, 2011, 8:30 AM IST

India Journal: Combating Caste Bias in the Private Sector

By Adarsh Kumar

There is no denying that India's rapid economic growth and increase in
urbanization have opened new economic and social opportunities for
Dalits, who fall at the lowest end of the caste spectrum.  Even so,
the sad reality is that caste-based discrimination and outright
violence against lower castes remain depressingly commonplace in many
spheres.

Most people assume that such caste-biases play no role in the
burgeoning private sector. But the results of a series of studies done
by reputed Indian and American academics, using methods originally
developed to study racial discrimination in the United States, point
to caste-biases in the hiring processes of private companies.

These studies–summaries of which were published as early as 2007 in
the peer-reviewed journal, the Economic and Political Weekly, delve
into the ongoing debate on the merits of extending affirmative action
programs to the private sector.

Trying to redress India's long history of discrimination and unequal
opportunities for Dalits, successive Indian governments have
introduced caste-based quotas in educational institutions, pubic
sector companies and government departments. In its first term
beginning in 2004, the UPA government considered extending these
job-quotas to the private sector but shelved the plan due to strong
opposition.

The private sector argued, through industry associations such as the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), that hiring processes in
their member companies were "caste-blind" and that mandatory
job-quotas would only hurt competitiveness by hampering their ability
to hire the best candidates. The question is: are private sector
hiring processes really caste-blind?

S. Jodhka and Katherine Newman interviewed 25 human resource managers
at companies employing a total of 1.9 million full-time workers and
63,000 sub-contracted workers. The researchers found that although all
the managers listed merit as the sole criteria by which employees were
hired, subjective requirements such as "cosmopolitan attitudes" and
"family background" were also used to select candidates. These
amorphous subjective requirements are loaded against poor, lower-caste
candidates who find it difficult to build personal biographies of the
kind valued by private sector recruiters, the study argued.

Another study by Newman and Deshpande interviewed post-graduate
college students from reputed Delhi universities. They found that
lower-caste students from poor families did indeed find "family
background" questions to be stigmatizing and some "reconfigured" their
biographies to be closer to a perceived upper-middle class
professional ideal.

The most troubling results come from a study by Paul Attewell and
Sukhdeo Thorat, who tested for bias in the first stage of the hiring
process in private sector firms in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore
and Chennai. The study involved responding to newspaper advertisements
for entry-level positions with identical resumes and cover letters.

All the fictitious applicants were male and had relevant degrees from
reputed universities. The applications differed only in one way: the
names of the applicants were changed to reflect distinctively high
caste Hindu names, Dalit names and Muslim names.  Research staff
pretending to be the applicants recorded responses from potential
employers. Astonishingly, the study found that, compared to upper
caste Hindus, Dalits were 33% less likely to get a call back for the
next stage of the hiring process, and Muslims were even worse off,
getting called back 66% less frequently.

Experience from other parts of the world tell us that larger social
biases are almost always reflected in the private sector and that
specific safeguards and corrective measures are needed to overturn
them. The results of the above studies calls, at the very least, for a
thorough review of hiring processes to find and correct for biases.
But unfortunately, besides initiatives by individual companies such as
the Tata Group, sector-wide efforts have not gone far enough.

CII launched an affirmative action initiative in 2007, which currently
has 729 signatory companies. Under the initiative, companies agree to
a voluntary Code of Conduct for affirmative action which commits them
to vocational training, educational scholarships and efforts to
increase procurement from lower-caste entrepreneurs.

But a key provision to appoint ombudsmen to investigate complaints of
discrimination has not been implemented; there is no systematic method
to track compliance of signatory companies; and the code itself
commits companies only to making a blanket statement that they will
not indulge in discriminatory practices without laying out any
concrete measures to collect information on and correct biases in
hiring.

Is there middle ground for the private sector between mandatory
job-quotas and pretending that caste-biases do not exist? In the
United States of America, racial discrimination has been reduced by
adopting stricter anti-discrimination laws, mandating reporting
requirements on hiring and proportional employment figures within
companies and creating an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that
enforces the anti-discrimination framework.

Similar efforts need to be explored in India to ensure that historical
patterns of discrimination are not replicated in the rapidly growing
private sector.

[This is the third in a series of India Journals looking at the
intersection of business and the poor in India. His next India Journal
will look at partnerships between farmers and big business through
contract farming.]

Adarsh Kumar is the founder and chief executive of Livelihoods Equity
Connect, a fund that seeks to invest in the Indian agricultural sector
and promote models connecting small farmers to mainstream markets. His
prior work experience includes stints at the Ford Foundation and the
World Bank.


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[ZESTCaste] General Benefits of the OBC Quota

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/general-benefits-of-the-obc-quota

9 July 2011
General Benefits of the OBC Quota
Percentages and other tricks that educational institutions use to hand
over OBC seats to general category candidates

BY MT Hany Babu

Given the extraordinary noise being raised over admission quotas for
Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in India's institutions of higher
learning, a little fact-checking is in order. Right To Information
(RTI) data obtained by the Academic Forum for Social Justice has
brought to light the fact that in 31 colleges affiliated to the
University of Delhi, 4,023—almost 57 per cent—of the 7,024 OBC seats
were either vacant or passed on to general category candidates in
2010. These colleges were given a grant of more than Rs 200 crore for
extra infrastructure to accommodate OBC students. Also, almost 1,000
new teaching posts were created to cope with the increase in numbers.
As it turns out, little of this was used for the benefit of OBC
students, with the gains going instead to other students. By the RTI
data, the number of general category admissions in these 31 colleges
was almost 40 per cent higher than the allotted strength.

This was enabled by several manipulative devices adopted by most
universities. Take the most common of these. Consider students A and
B, who get 80 and 72 marks, respectively, out of 100. What is the
difference in percentage between their marks? Most readers may find
this a trivial question. The mathematically minded will see the catch.
If your answer is 8 per cent, you are wrong. For, B's marks are 10 per
cent below A's marks, since 8 is 10 per cent of 80. However, it is
fair to say that the difference in the marks of A and B is '8
percentage points'.

Now, consider what has been the practice at these learned
institutions. In 2008, the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court
pronounced a judgment that the 'cut-off marks for OBCs be 10 per cent
below the cut-off marks of general category candidates' (in the Ashoka
Kumar Thakur vs Union of India case). So, central universities like
Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) and University of Hyderabad fixed 40
as the cut-off for the general category and 36 for OBCs, the
calculation being that 36 is 10 per cent less than 40. The arithmetic
ingenuity here is in taking 'difference in percentage' in its
strictest sense, even though it is clear the court's judgment of 2008
meant what mathematicians would call 'percentage points'. In demanding
that the cut-off marks for 'OBCs should be set not more than 10 marks
out of 100 below that of the general category', the judges definitely
meant 'percentage points'.

Administrators of central educational institutions, however, refuse to
accept this. In effect, they have set the bar for OBC applicants
higher than the policy intended, thus depriving them of seats funded
by the Government in their name.

This is not their only ploy. Manipulation of the admission process is
rampant in various guises. Institutions, for example, often fix a
higher 'eligibility condition' in the qualifying examination and/or
the admission test conducted by them. For scores below that level, a
candidate is not considered for admission at all; above the specified
level, a candidate is placed on the 'admission threshold'. Thus, the
board of the Indian Medical Council fixed '50 per cent' in the common
medical entrance test as a necessary condition for admission to the
Bachelor's programme at medical colleges. This is a 'cut-off' fixed
'well in time'—as a 2008 Human Resource Development Ministry circular
demanded—by the institutions in question, and will remain constant.
But mere eligibility alone is naturally not sufficient to secure
admission. The marks actually needed vary from year to year, depending
on demand for seats. No institution can fix this cut-off 'well in
time'. In fact, institutions have no control over it, as exemplified
by the skyrocketing cut-off marks in prestigious colleges of Delhi
University this admission season.

Following the apex court judgment of 2008, JNU adopted the 10 per cent
eligibility relaxation for OBCs. But soon, JNU was forced to seek the
legal opinion of its counsel, and went back on its initial decision.
Instead of admitting all eligible OBC candidates above the percentage
of marks fixed at the outset, JNU decided to admit only those OBCs
whose marks did not vary by more than 10 per cent from that of the
last admitted general category candidate.

There was no legal reason to adopt this practice, and by doing so,
again, a substantial number of OBC students were denied admission in
2009 and 2010. Once 'cut-off' was understood as the marks of the last
admitted candidate, OBC prospects were doomed, and a large number of
seats remain unfilled. In 2009, of JNU's 123 seats reserved for OBCs
at the MA/MPhil level, only 22—about 18 per cent—were taken by OBC
candidates and the rest were 'converted' to general category seats.

The University of Delhi had always been a champion of this
interpretation of the rule, as it took only OBC candidates in the 10
per cent bandwidth of the last admitted general student. (Actually,
very few colleges even allowed a 10 per cent relaxation, citing one
technicality or another.) The result was that the university would
announce the date for the 'conversion of vacant OBC seats' right at
the outset of the admission process, as everyone knew that OBC
candidates would never make up the allotted 27 per cent.

Interestingly, many institutions use the phrase 'revert to general
category' instead of 'convert' when reserved category seats are given
to general category candidates—an expression that smacks of the
prejudiced belief that reserved category candidates are grabbing
something that is not due to them.

In September 2010, in response to a writ petition filed by Apurva on
JNU's admission policy, the Delhi High Court said that universities
can only fix their eligibility criteria, and that relaxation for
reserved seats should be on the basis of this criteria.  Soon after,
Tanvi Yadav, an OBC candidate seeking admission to University of
Delhi's law programme, approached the High Court. Tanvi had scored 148
marks and the last admitted general category candidate had 172 marks.
If the Faculty of Law had interpreted 'difference in percentage' as it
was meant to be, she would have got admission. Instead, it admitted
OBC candidates with marks only up to 149, and converted hundreds of
OBC seats to the general category. The High Court did not give Tanvi
any relief, as it was already too late, but its judgment of December
2010 made a very important observation:  that the university is bound
by the provisions of Apurva vs Union of India, which meant that it had
to relax the eligibility norms, and not on the basis of the last
admitted general category candidate. Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw
concluded his judgment that the matter is 'best left… to work itself
out in the next academic year'. The university, however, did not let
the matter 'work itself out'. It appealed against the Tanvi Yadav case
judgment. In an interim order passed on 3 June 2011, a division bench
of the Delhi High Court stayed the December judgment of the single
bench.

Other institutions have taken note. Former IIT Madras Director PV
Indiresan has already moved the Supreme Court for a stay on the
September 2010 judgment on Apurva's JNU-related petition. For OBCs,
there is still a long way to go.

+++

MT Hany Babu teaches English and linguistics at the University of
Delhi. These are his personal views.


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[ZESTCaste] The Death of Merit: Manish Kumar (IIT Roorkee) [A Documentary]

http://thedeathofmeritinindia.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/the-death-of-merit-manish-kumar-iit-roorkee/

The Death of Merit: Manish Kumar (IIT Roorkee) [A Documentary]

July 6, 2011

by thedeathofmerit

   When a student from the lowest strata of society fights against
all odds to prove her merit and reach the best educational
institutions in India, are those institutions proving themselves
meritorious enough to recognize her worth, to accommodate, let alone
nurture her aspirations?

   When a Dalit or Adivasi student becomes an engineer, doctor,
business graduate or scientist, it should be a cause of pride for not
just the family or the community but for the entire nation. Instead,
why do our nation and its educational institutions reward their merit
with discrimination, humiliation, violence and death?

   This documentary is third in the series of our efforts to document
caste-based discrimination prevalent in Indian higher education system
resulting in large number of suicides of Dalit students in the Indian
campuses.

Manish Kumar Guddolian, 20 years of age, was pursuing his IInd year,
Integrated Dual Degree Programme, Department of Computer Science &
Information Technology, at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Roorkee.

The only son of a Junior Warrant Officer at Indian Air Force, Manish
committed 'suicide' by jumping off from 5th floor of his hostel on 6th
February, 2011.

The documentary is based on the testimonies of Manish's parents and
other family members who have yet to come in terms with his death and
are fighting against the collective might of IIT Roorkee and Roorkee
Police that, as usual, want to relegate their child's death to 'a weak
student getting depressed for not able to cope up with rigorous
academic environment of highly competitive IITs' .

However the truth is Manish committed suicide, unable to bear the
constant castetist assaults and abuses by his own batch-mates,
criminal attitude of his hostel warden and IIT Administration that
instead of acting on his complaints forced him to live outside IIT
Roorkee, and perhaps also due to the complete shattering of his faith
on IIT Administration that was supposed to treat all its students as
equals and without using caste-lenses.

The Death Of Merit – Manish Kumar (IIT Roorkee) Part – I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QA3wEeD4m2g

The Death Of Merit – Manish Kumar (IIT Roorkee) Part – II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4SRzk8Sf32Q

   First two documentaries

       The Death of Merit:Dr Jaspreet Singh

   Dr Jaspreet Singh, 22 years,a student of Final Year, MBBS at
Government Medical College, Chandigarh committed suicide on 27th Jan,
2008.

       The Death of Merit: Dr Balmukund Bharti

   On March 3rd, 2010, another Dalit, Balmukund Bharti, final year
MBBS student from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New
Delhi committed suicide.

   Read More

       List of Dalit students committing suicides in India's Premier
Educational Institutions, (click here)
       Report of Prof Thorat Committee on Caste Discrimination in
AIIMS, New Delhi, (click here)
       Report on Caste Discrimination in IIT Delhi,(click here)
       An article 'On Suicides, Caste and Higher Education',  (click here)

   Media Coverage

       In Dalit student suicides, the death of merit, The Hindu, (May 8, 2011)
       Death of merit, and of a family's dreams, Hindustan Times, (May 10,2011)
       Icarus goes to flying school:Why are Dalit students in India's
best educational institutions committing suicide?, Tehelka Magazine
(Vol 8, Issue 20, 21 May 2011)
       Les dalits ne sont pas les bienvenus dans les grandes écoles
indiennes, inde.aujourdhuilemonde.com (May 19, 2011)
       India education: Dalit student suicide, Global Post (May 24, 2011)
       A Dissonance In Saraswati's Divine Veena:The spectre of caste
prejudice lingers on even in our most prized institutions, OUTLOOK
Magazine, June 27, 2011


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