Monday, August 8, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Real Hero Grace rescues 'joginis' in Andhra Pradesh

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/real-hero-grace-rescues-joginis-in-andhra/173835-3.html

Real Hero Grace rescues 'joginis' in Andhra Pradesh
Preeti SinghPreeti Singh, CNN-IBN
Updated Aug 08, 2011 at 09:28am IST

Hyderabad: A cruel and medieval tradition of poor Dalit girls,
forcefully married off to the village deity and then sexually abused
by the men in the village, still continues in Andhra Pradesh. But
there is one woman standing up to it. Grace Nirmala helps rescue these
girls and runs a home for joginis and their children.

Anjali was just 10 years of age when her parents forced her to become
a jogini, a yellamma, married off to the village deity. A jogini is
selected by the village sarpanch and she is usually a pre-pubescent
Dalit girl, who once married becomes a village property, to be abused
and sexually exploited by the men.

"The sarpanch came to tie my mangal sutra, I was very scared. I was
taken to the village centre and raised on a pole and people gathered
around to pray," Anjali said.

There are close to 50,000 joginis in India and many of tem are from
Andhra Pradesh. Once they get old they are of no use to the men and
are left to beg in the streets. However, Anjali managed to escape that
fate.

"Grace ma'am intervened and saved me. My parents were sent to jail and
she brought me here. She is my saviour," said Anjali.

Grace Nirmala has rescued 34 joginis so far. It was in 1993 when
Grace, a teacher in Hyderabad, first read about joginis.

"Many questions rose within me. I met many political people, priests,
government officials. They told it is their custom. They said that
they are just worshiping to god and they asked me why I am questioning
and why do I have a problem with it. I made a strong decision and
started working with the women," Grace said.

Grace quit her job and moved to Mehboobnagar district, notorious for
pushing Dalit girls into the jogini system. She began with a door to
door campaign. But she was accused of corrupting the minds of
villagers and bringing the wrath of the deity on the village. She was
asked to leave, but she refused to give up. She set up a home called
Aashray, for the girls and to the children born to joginis.

Grace, now has awareness and rescue campaigns spread across nine
districts of Andhra Pradesh with a core team of 30 members. These
committees are run by former joginis. They have also conducted the
first legal marriages of joginis in this area.

While the government has a 1988 Jogini Abolition Act in place, Grace
says it is toothless.

"The act is there, but it is not very strong. We are demanding
multiple developments. The government has to see everything, their
income etc. If we implement the schemes, the girls will come out of
the system. Even village administration, political parties, village
sarpanch should bear the responsibilities," she said.

Grace runs Aashray with partial international funding. But in times of
crisis, it's her belief in doing what is right that keeps her going.

Grace said, "It is my achievement. These children are now class
leaders in their class. They stand first in class sometimes. Teachers
also call me and say that my children are very bright. So, I feel very
happy. They are learning dance, alphabets, English and their
hand-writing is also good."

The children make sure that she is not disappointed.

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[ZESTCaste] Cong to hold dalit conference on Aug 20

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5348964

08/08/2011
Cong to hold dalit conference on Aug 20

Lucknow, Aug 7 (PTI) Congress will organise a Dalit conference here on
August 20 in which five members of the community from each Nyay
Panchayat will participate, UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi today said.
The Congress leader made the announcement addressing party district
and city presidents at a meeting here.
Asking partymen to gear up for the 2012 Assembly polls, Joshi said due
to Rahul Gandhi''s "activeness", people of the state looked at
Congress as an alternative.
The UPCC president exuded confidence that the party would form the
government on its own in the state and said no person with a criminal
background would be entertained in the party.

She asked partymen to keep an eye on Rs one crore sanctioned to every
district for flood-relief work and ensure that the money reaches the
beneficiaries.

She asked the party leaders to expose discrepancies in implementation
of MNREGA scheme after NRHM through RTI and directed party office
bearers to see to it that booth committees are formed by August 15.

Party MP Jagdambika Pal and Chairman National Commission for Scheduled
Castes P L Punia also addressed the partymen.

Punia underlined the need for strengthening booth level set-up to
ensure that the party reaches out to people.

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[ZESTCaste] Reserved wards jolt civic body stalwarts

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Reserved-wards-jolt-civic-body-stalwarts/Article1-729997.aspx

Reserved wards jolt civic body stalwarts
Bhavika Jain, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, August 06, 2011

The announcement of the 13 reserved wards for the scheduled caste (SC)
and scheduled tribes (ST) candidates for the Brihanmumbai Municipal
Corporation (BMC) elections - scheduled in February 2012 - sprung up
quite a few surprises on Friday. Casualties were big names such as the
civic
standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale, leader of the house Sunil
Prabhu, and BEST committee chairman Sunil Shinde. The seats belonging
to both Shewale (ward no 136) and Prabhu (ward no 47) have been
reserved for ST candidates. So, in order to retain their corporator's
post, they will now have to contest from other wards.

Of the 11 wards reserved for the SC category candidates, six have been
reserved for women. In the two reserved seats for ST category, one
each will be for men and women.

While the formal lottery for the remaining 216 seats will be held on
August 10, the SC and ST wards were announced as the reservation is
carried out on the basis of the SC and ST population of the ward as
per the census and not according to the lottery system.

Apart from the two stalwarts of Shiv Sena, the party will also have to
look for other options for Manmohan Chonkar and Kashinath Tharli, as
their wards have been reserved for the SC category candidates.

About the division affecting their prospects of winning, the Sena men
said that they will toe the party line and act as per the orders of
Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) group leader and MLA Mangesh Sangle,
BJP corporators Rukmini Kharatmol and Vishwanath Maske, Congress
corporators Devidas Borse, Prescilla Kadam, Mangala Gaikwad and Rabia
Iqbal Shaikh will also have to surrender their wards that have now
been reserved for the SC category.

Of the 227 seats, 77 are for the open category candidates. The 50%
reservation mandate has reserved 114 seats for women, in which 31
seats are reserved for OBC candidates, 6 for SC, 76 for open category
and one for ST candidate. "There will be at least 114 women
corporators. Also, depending on the lottery results for the 77
open-for-all seats the number could increase," said Aseem Gupta,
additional municipal commissioner.

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[ZESTCaste] Fwd: The discrete charm of hindu society!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shiva Shankar <sshankar@cmi.ac.in>
Date: Sun, Aug 7, 2011 at 9:07 AM
Subject: The discrete charm of hindu society!
To:

'... when a clerk in the scholarship section "exposed" his caste,
Amit's world changed. He lost his place on the dining table. The
batchmates became hostile: jibes in the classroom or an accidental jab
in the ribcage every now and then became a common occurrence. And the
midnight knocks started. "They don't want me to study. People may
think it's a seat of high learning but for me it's living hell," says
Amit, who has a brilliant academic record. "People here don't believe
in merit. They will push you if you perform better than them," ...'

AARAK SHUN - Shobhan Saxena

TNN | Aug 7, 2011, 05.09AM IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/AARAK-SHUN/articleshow/9512625.cms

A knock on the door always makes Amit nervous. If it is daytime, he
quickly moves the book rack so that it hides the framed photo of B R
Ambedkar, dressed in a dark suit and looking at some distant horizon.
If it's night, Amit lies still in bed, staring at the fan. As the
banging goes on, he slips in and out of sleep. In his dreams he often
sees a boy putting a noose around his neck. Sometimes he sees the boy
hanging from a rope that's furiously twisting by itself. Then there is
dead silence. He can't go back to sleep.

Amit, a student of IIT-Kanpur, is not suicidal. He has been to a
shrink, though, and says he lives in some kind of dread. For two
years, life on the campus was beautiful - at least until the day his
classmates found out his caste, a fact he had masked with a
caste-neutral surname. The Ambedkar photo had already made some
"friends" suspicious, and when a clerk in the scholarship section
"exposed" his caste, Amit's world changed. He lost his place on the
dining table. The batchmates became hostile: jibes in the classroom or
an accidental jab in the ribcage every now and then became a common
occurrence. And the midnight knocks started. "They don't want me to
study. People may think it's a seat of high learning but for me it's
living hell," says Amit, who has a brilliant academic record. "People
here don't believe in merit. They will push you if you perform better
than them," adds the final-year student who is too scared to give his
real name.

Amit is not paranoid. His fear is real. In 2008, the year he joined
the institute, a fellow student called Prashant Kureel was found
hanging in his room. In 2009, an MTech student, G Suman, killed
himself. And in 2010, Madhuri Salve, a final-year student, used her
dupatta to hang herself from the ceiling fan. All three were dalits
and IIT authorities were quick to blame academic pressure for these
deaths. "It's because of constant ragging and brazen casteism on the
campus that my son killed himself," says Sunder Lal Kureel, the father
of Prashant, as he continues his fight for justice.

But in this battle, Sunder Lal is alone. There are no middle class-led
candlelight vigils at India Gate for Prashant. There are no campaigns
by TV channels, just the lonely battle of a broken man. There are many
like Sunder Lal in their peculiar tragedy. Since 2007, 18 dalit
students pursuing engineering and medical courses in the country's top
institutes, including the IITs and All India Institute of Medical
Sciences, have committed suicide. And here's the real shocker: only
one of them, Jaspreet Singh of Government Medical College, Chandigarh,
left behind a suicide note. None of the others who hanged themselves
or jumped from a building blamed anyone for pushing them to take the
extreme step. "All of them had complained to their families about
harassment at the hands of faculty and fellow students, yet they
didn't leave a suicide note. Only Jaspreet's was there because his
father found his body. We wonder what happened to all the other
suicide notes," says Ratnesh Kumar of Insight Foundation, which is
trying to get justice for the families. "We're sure the notes vanished
because the victims had accused the authorities of harassment." Hidden
in these missing notes are the dirty secrets of India's top
institutes, where dalits have been treated as outcastes ever since
reservations were introduced for SC and ST students in the 1950s.
Nobody likes to talk about this dark side. Now, as filmmaker Prakash
Jha takes a "fresh look at the issue" with his Aarakshan, the dalits
fear that the film may reinforce old biases. "We get only 15% seats,
while the OBCs get 27%. But, it's the dalits who have to face the
brunt of hate campaigns," says Surya Dev, a 25-year-old engineer from
Guna, MP, who now works with the Insight Foundation helpline.

Ironically, anti-dalit sentiment erupted in 1991, when the V P Singh
government decided to implement 27% reservation for OBCs. In the
Capital's "Left-leaning" university, JNU, caste clashes took place
between students; in the dining-halls of IIT-Delhi, dalits were forced
to sit on separate tables, and the walls of urinals in Delhi
University were covered with puerile graffiti. And the authorities
just watched. "The atmosphere in our institutions is very brahminical
as the upper castes dominate the faculty. In such an environment, the
lower caste students automatically become outcastes," says Dilip
Mandal, who teaches at Delhi's Indian Institute of Mass Communication
(IIMC).

Many dalits have paid a price for being what they are. In 2008,
Narendra Divekar and Nitin Kamble, who worked as cameramen at the
Centre for Distance Engineering Education Programme at IIT Bombay,
took part in a meeting of the institute's union for backward classes.
A torrent of casteist abuses from the centre's web coordinator, Rahul
Deshmukh, followed almost immediately. Deshmukh told them that they
were "not fit to work here". A complaint was made to IIT authorities
and the police. But the abuse went on. Unable to handle it, the duo
tried to commit suicide outside Deshmukh's office.

Many, however, have fought back. Dr Ajay Singh, who joined AIIMS in
2002 with the same marks as the cut-off for "general" students, was
the only dalit in his hostel wing. He was barred from entering the
carrom-board room and one day someone scrawled "Nobody likes you here.
F**k off" on his door. But Dr Singh fought back and that led to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh appointing a three-member committee, headed by
University Grants Commission chairman Sukhdeo Thorat, to look into
caste harassment in the country's top medical institutes. The report
was shocking: dalit students were bullied into vacating their hostel
rooms, leading to a ghetto being formed on two floors of a hostel;
they were specifically targeted during ragging; they were not allowed
to play cricket and basketball; they were not allowed to eat in the
"upper-caste mess"; and the teachers ignored them in class, sometimes
deliberately failing them in exams. Shamed by the damning report,
AIIMS took some remedial steps. "Now the hostels are allotted through
a lottery system and general harassment has come down a bit, but all
the recommendations of the panel are yet to be implemented," says Dr
Singh, who now works with a government hospital in Delhi.

But resistance is growing on some campuses. "Now the number of
upper-caste and reserved category students is almost the same. It's
not easy to bully them," says Mandal of IIMC. And dalits are now not
prepared to be shunned by the system. "We started celebrating Ambedkar
Jayanti on our campus to unite us," says Manju Kumari Rao, 28, a
former student of Benaras Hindu University who was once denied
permission to go abroad on an exchange programme because she was
dalit. "We don't want to join the system, we want to change it."

(Additional reporting by Anahita Mukherji)

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[ZESTCaste] Fwd: Decade Against Caste Discrimination | Interview with womam Dalit activist | The ILO and manual scavenging | EI's resolution on

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gerard Oonk <g.oonk@indianet.nl>
Date: Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 9:25 PM
Subject: [Arkitect India] Decade Against Caste Discrimination | Interview with womam Dalit activist | The ILO and manual scavenging | EI's resolution on
To: ICN.India.News@server.liw.local

Dear reader,

In this India News a lot of interesting (links to) stories and documents on Dalits and caste-based discrimination, child labour and the threat to internet freedom in India.

Conference: Decisive Decade against Discrimination based on Work and Descent

The Conference Decisive Decade against Discrimination based on Work and Descent (2011-2020) was held in Geneva on June 24-25, 2011. It was organised by a group of organisations including the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights in India (NCDHR), the International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN), and other national and international organisations. The purpose of the conference was to review past interventions, mainly at the UN, and to chalk out effective future strategies required for national and international interventions in the next decade (2011-2020). Participating in the conference were about 50 people from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Japan, and Europe.

More information on the Conference, its Declaration, a speech on behalf of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and a Report on the Conference can be found here: http://idsn.org/news-resources/idsn-news/read/article/conference-on-dalit-rights-the-un/128/

Interview with Dalit women activist Ruth Manorama

''Ruth Manorama started her work with the urban poor in her youth; there has been no turning back ever since. She is the powerful voice of Dalit women today.'' This is the intro of an interesting interview with Ruth in India's reputed newspaper The Hindu:

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article2284501.ece

The ILO and Manual Scavengers in India

The ILO is working with the Government and social partners in India to address the discrimination of Dalits in five states. The main objective is to support the government's efforts to improve the effectiveness of legislation and policies on the issue of manual scavenging, and to include the scavenging community itself in that process.

According to Coen Kompier, an ILO specialist in labour standards working for the ILO office in New Delhi, "rehabilitation of manual scavengers depends on building the confidence of that community, but also on breaking definitively the caste stigma manual scavengers suffer from. Through our project activities we are therefore exploring ways to make rehabilitation effective and genuine, giving scavengers a true voice in choosing their profession or occupation." More information:

http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/insight/WCMS_159813/lang--en/index.htm

Interview: Dutch Parliament urges end to caste-discrimination

In the last India News you were informed about the resolution that Dutch Parliament adopted a motion to urge the Dutch government to be active in e.g. in the EU and the UN and with regard to the corporate sector to work on appropriate policies and measures to help combat caste-based discrimination. The website of Radio Netherlands Worldservice had an interview with the co-ordinator of the Dalit Network Netherlands, on this issue. See:

http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/dutch-parliament-urges-end-caste-discrimination

Education International's resolution on child labour

The 6th World Congress of Education International, meeting in South Africa, adopted an important resolution on combating child labour. One of the recommendations, which is modelled on the experience of the Indian MV Foundation and campaigned for by the Stop Child Labour campaign, is:

'creation of forms of intensive bridging education that enable children who missed the the entry into 1st grade according to their age to catch up with their peers and be mainstreamed into full-time formal education'. This is going to be one of the strategic areas of work of Education International. See the full resolution here:

http://aob.nl/doc/resolutieeicongres.pdf

Internet freedom in India at stake

As we wrote to you in April:

''On the 11th of April the India Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has issued the ''Information Technology Rules, 2011'' restricting web content that can e.g. be considered ''dispaging'', ''harassing'', ''blasphemous'' or ''hateful''. It also includes anything that ''threatens the unity, integrity, defense, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign countries or public order''. Anybody can interpret this as he/she likes likes and require websites, but also Facebook, YouTube etc. to take down such ''offensive content'' with in 36 hours. There is no mechanism to defend your webcontent or appeal a decision to take content down.

In the meantime there are facts that the Indian government itself is indeed blocking more internet content. See: http://southasia.oneworld.net/todaysheadlines/indian-government-asked-to-block-critical-content-from-google

In a recent article in the Washington Post also other Indians, including Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar, voice strong criticism of the new internet rules. See:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/indias-new-internet-rules-criticized/2011/07/27/gIQA1zS2mI_story.html

Kind regards,

Gerard Oonk

directeur Landelijke India Werkgroep

Mariaplaats 4e, 3511 LH Utrecht

tel. 030-2321340

www.indianet.nl

Lees het Jaarverslag van de LIW: http://www.indianet.nl/jaarverslag2009.html

en de nieuwe India Actief 23: http://www.indianet.nl/actiefl.html

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[ZESTCaste] SC, ST, OBC caste certificate Bill gets GOM's nod

http://zeenews.india.com/news/orissa/sc-st-obc-caste-certificate-bill-gets-gom-s-nod_724726.html

SC, ST, OBC caste certificate Bill gets GOM's nod
Last Updated: Saturday, August 06, 2011, 19:54

Bhubaneswar: The Orissa SC, ST & OBC (Regulation of Issuance and
Verification) of Caste Certificates Bill-2011, on Saturday got nod of
the Group of Ministers in Orissa.

"There was unanimity at the GOM meeting. The Bill will be placed
before the Cabinet soon before being introduced in the assembly,"
Finance minister Prafulla Ghadai told reporters.

The Bill, placed before the Cabinet last week, however, was deferred
as most of the ministers opposed to the provision of punishment in the
Bill.

According to the Bill, the authority whoever (including MLAs) was
found issuing fake certificate will be liable to rigorous imprisonment
for a term of six months, which may extend up to two years or fine of
Rs 2,000 which may go upto Rs 20,000 or with the both.

The ministers strongly opposed to the punishment for issuance of fake
certificate. Besides Revenue department officials in the rank of
tehsildar, MLAs also issue caste certificates to the people at the
time of their need.

As the MLAs have no mechanism for verification of caste of a person,
they should be spared from punishment, many ministers had argued.

However, the GOM reached at a conclusion that there could not be
separate punishment for similar offence. If the officials were being
held liable for the offence of issuing fake certificates as per
provision of the Bill, the same should be applied to MLAs also, the
GOM observed.

The state government mooted the Bill in the wake of the rising
resentment among tribal population who alleged that people belonging
to other castes take benefits meant for them by producing fake caste
certificates.

Fake caste certificate was one of the factors that flared up the
ethno-communal violence in Kandhamal in 2008, the officials at the
SC-ST, OBC and Minorities development department said.

PTI

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[ZESTCaste] IG's 'caste' remark snowballs into controversy

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-07/hyderabad/29860866_1_igs-caste-remark

IG's 'caste' remark snowballs into controversy
TNN Aug 7, 2011, 12.38am IST

KAKINADA: A senior IPS officer has landed himself in trouble over his
alleged remarks on the increasing number of SC/ST atrocities cases.
The reported comment by Visakhapatnam range IG Vinay Kumar Singh that
a lot of SC/ST cases were fake drew strong reactions from several
dalit sanghams who demanded action against the officer.

Earlier on Friday night, 17 dalits were arrested and remanded to
judicial custody for obstructing his vehicle and shouting slogans
against him when he was on his way to Anaparthi.

Trouble had started when the IG, during his visit to Anaparthi police
station on Thursday, told the cops to be wary while dealing with
caste-related cases.

Singh said that caste colour was being given even to minor incidents
and demonstrations were being staged without much provocation.

He urged the cops to be on guard against such fake atrocity cases.
These remarks kicked up a controversy in Anaparthi the next day during
the IG's visit. He was gheraoed, his vehicle was obstructed and
slogans were raised against him by SC activists.

Condemning the arrests, Amalapuram MP G V Harsha Kumar said that the
IG's action was uncalled for and demanded immediate release of the
dalit activists. MLC George Victor said use of force on peaceful
protesters was unacceptable.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit, BC OU students confront Kodandaram

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-04/education/29850176_1_ou-jac-kodandaram-students-gheraoed

Dalit, BC OU students confront Kodandaram
TNN Aug 4, 2011, 04.39am IST

HYDERABAD: About 25 students of Osmania University Students Joint
Action committee staged a protest before Telangana JAC convener
Kodandaram asking him to explain why they were not consulted before
calling a Hyderabad bandh on August 8. A major section of OU-JAC had
called for a Hyderabad Bandh with the support of TRS, TDP and BJP on
August 8, in a discussion lead by Prof Kodandaram earlier on
Wednesday.

The protesting students belonging to dalit and BC communities said
that they were not consulted in an all party meeting that was held in
the city before calling a bandh on August 8. The students gheraoed
Kodandaram for about 30 minutes at Basheerbagh at around 8 pm on
Wednesday.

The students said that in the meeting that was held in the city, only
some section of Students' JAC affliated to TRS were called for
discussion. "A large majority of the students of Osmania University
campus and their representatives were left out of the discussion,"
said M Krishank, a student of the university. The students were also
irked by the fact that ABVP which had never participated in OU-JAC
agitations directly were calling in as an ally without consulting
them. The students have also submitted a four page petition addressing
the same concerns to Kodandaram.

Kodandaram later addressed the students and assured them that the
Telangana JAC had been in consultations with student leaders since the
very beginning of the agitation. The students were removed from the
spot by police at around 8.30 pm.

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[ZESTCaste] Archbishop Elanjikal succumbs in hospital

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=451375&version=1&template_id=40&parent_id=22

Archbishop Elanjikal succumbs in hospital

By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram

Archbishop Dr Cornelius Elanjikal
Archbishop Dr Cornelius Elanjikal, known for his tremendous
contributions to the Malayalam church music, died yesterday aged 93.
Church sources said the end came at 7.30am in the Lourdes Hospital in
Kochi where he was admitted on Friday. The archbishop was indisposed
for sometime and was undergoing treatment for lung infection.
He was the archbishop of Verapoly Archdiocese from 1987 until his
resignation in 1996 making way for Dr Archbishop Daniel
Acharuparambil, who died two years back. He had also served as the
President of Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council (KCBC).
The archbishop had written some 500 devotional songs which are widely
in use for worship services across Kerala and the Keralite churches
elsewhere.
His deep knowledge in Hindu philosophy and Vedas are also widely acknowledged.
The author of ten books, he had PhDs in philosophy, canon law and the
Hindu Upanishads.
He initiated several welfare programs for the Dalits and the
downtrodden living in the coastal areas of the region. He's living in
the special home of the archdiocese at Chembumukku in Kochi.
Several leaders, including Defence Minister A K Antony and Kerala
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy expressed grief over the death of the
archbishop.
"He may be no more but his songs will linger on for many more years in
our homes and places of worship," said federal food minister Prof K V
Thomas.
His body will lay in state at St Francis Cathedral and later at St
Alberts College for the public to pay their last respects before taken
back to the cathedral for funeral services at 3pm. The mortal remains
will be interred at the church's cemetery.
Elanjikal was born to Kunjuvira and Thresya on September 8, 1918, at
Kara near Kodungalloor and was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic
Church after his studies on March 18, 1945.
He was appointed to the Diocese of Vijayapuram on January 16, 1971,
and was ordained a bishop on April 4, 1971. Elanjikal was appointed to
the Diocese of Verapoly on January 26, 1987 and retired on June 14,
1996.

------------------------------------

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[ZESTCaste] Video news report: India's Dalits now have a growing role in business

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14440160

India's Dalits now have a growing role in business
Advertisement
8 August 2011 Last updated at 03:23 GMT Help

In India, the country's caste system has largely determined what
people do for thousands of years. It has decided the businesses people
run, and their place in society.

But in modern-day India, Dalits once deemed the 'untouchables' of
society are finding a new place in the growing business landscape.

Nidhi Dutt found entrepreneurs from this community who are turning
from job seekers into job providers.

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[ZESTCaste] Fwd: Forum for the Protection of Reservation - Blog

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: SANTHI SWAROOP SIRAPANGI <ssanthiswaroop@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 9:17 PM
Subject: Forum for the Protection of Reservation - Blog

Dear Friends,

I've created a Blog for our Forum for the Protection of Reservation,
University of Hyderabad. You can find this at this web link:

http://forumfortheprotectionofreservation.wordpress.com/

Please go through all the posts and inform me your satisfactory
level/comments. But, please don't inform to the wider world about this
blog till we agree in principle that the update on the blog is
satisfactory and can be informed to the wider audience. Please go
through this blog as early as possible and inform me your impression
in coming few hours from now.

Thank you,

Yours.

--
Santhi Swaroop Sirapangi,
Doctoral Fellow,
Department of Political Science,
University of Hyderabad.

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[ZESTCaste] Fwd: Bhagwan Gawai& Dalit Entrepreneurs: From slum boy to millionaire, a true global citizen

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Panthukala Srinivas <seenanna@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 12:07 PM
Subject: {DIET} Bhagwan Gawai& Dalit Entrepreneurs: From slum boy to millionaire, a true global citizen
To: DIET <dalit-information-n-education-trust@googlegroups.com>

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-07-18/news/29787504_1_public-sector-business-group-global-citizen

Bhagwan Gawai: From slum boy to millionaire, a true global citizen

Paris|Mumbai|Gawai|Dilip Rumde|BNP Paribas

Bhagwan Gawai

MUMBAI: BNP Paribas in Paris , one of the world's largest banking groups, is mindful when it transacts with Bhagwan Gawai, a small customer, but with considerable potential. The bank recently extended a $50 million line of credit to his business group.

Gawai, who as a young lad, worked on construction sites, alongside his illiterate mother and brothers, is now truly a global citizen. As an itinerant businessman, trading in petroleum products, petrochemicals and commodities, his interests straddle the globe. He led an itinerant life earlier too. But back then, he was constrained to do so, as his family moved from one construction site to the other, hauling gravel or laying bricks, raising Mumbai's factories and plush houses.

Eventually, the family settled down at a sprawling slum, Hanuman Nagar, an address that continues to resonate in his life, for the family still retains the shanty. "When we migrated from Buldana in rural Maharashtra to Mumbai , we lived and worked at the site that is now the Mahindra & Mahindra plant in Kandivali," recalls 52-year-old Gawai, now Chairman and CEO of Saurabh Energy DMCC, his trading bridgehead in Dubai. Through the previous decade, his company, established in a joint venture with an Arab partner, recorded a peak turnover of $400 million. In 2008-09, when his partner wound up his numerous businesses following adeath in the family, Gawai launched Saurabh Energy, at the Jumeirah Lake Towers Free Zone, on his own.

He, however, had to start all over again, beginning with securing registrations from oil companies like Shell, BP and the Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC). Gawai buys petroleum products like naphtha, petrol, diesel, bitumen, furnace and base oils from them for onward sales. Today, his firm has a turnover of $20 million. "In a couple of years, I will gather the same momentum as before," he says. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE This innate confidence in himself and his abilities, and a perennial urge to seek challenges, has brought Gawai to where he is today. "He always wanted to test his talents, in newer ways," recalls Dilip Rumde , chief manager at the Girguam branch of the Bank of India in Mumbai, and a first mentor of sorts to Gawai.

When Gawai was studying in Mumbai's Siddharth College, he worked with Rumde at a small electroplating unit as a part-time accounts assistant. Gawai's early years in a job were quite uneventful. "I got my first proper job, as a clerk with L&T, after appearing for a written test," he says, implying that merit was the sole criterion for his selection. After some prodding, he concedes his first big job break came on the strength of reservations for scheduled castes (SCs), when he was appointed officer-trainee with HPCL, the public sector oilmarketing company, in 1982. Talent alone wouldn't have sufficed. At HPCL, his talent was recognised. But soon, the pitfalls of a public sector work ethic overwhelmed him, as he hit a glass ceiling in growth. Gawai attributes this to caste prejudices - subtle, subterranean, never overtly articulated.

Bhagwan Gawai

18 Jul, 2011, 01.48AM IST, Naren KarunakaranNaren Karunakaran,ET Bureau

Dalits gain traction; govt plans preferential purchases from SC, ST businesses

MUMBAI: Scheduled castes, or dalits, who make up about 180 million of 1.2 billion Indians, are usually seen as a homogenous entity.

Not anymore. The dalits are splintering. And interestingly, our public-policy processes are beginning to respond to some of the new challenges. In recent times, dalit enterprise, in all its hues, has gained traction and heft. It is revealing unique entrepreneurial skills, products and services; it is also announcing, in a way, the emergence of the dalit elite.

It is a class thrown up by, but distinct from, the burgeoning dalit middle-class, which has been engendered over the years by reservations in education and public sector jobs. Of course, the bulk of dalits continue to battle difficult circumstances, with about 60% of such households still depending on wage labour for subsistence.

"You can see prosperity among a fraction of dalits, but the real situation is grim," says Anand Teltumbde , civil rights activist and grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar.

/photo.cms?msid=9264063 Demarcations among dalits are now visible and pronounced. Quaintly, it is akin to, though not identical to, what is happening among black Americans in the US. Eugene Robinson , a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, in a recent book, Disintegration, describes the breaking up of the black community into four parts: "the mainstream middle-class; the abandoned underclass; the transcendent elite; and black immigrants and those of mixed-race heritage".

While trends among dalits in India go along similar lines, what is pertinent is that India is beginning to borrow from the US policy responses to this hierarchy. This is especially true with regard to support mechanisms for disadvantaged entrepreneurs. Supplier diversity - a system of enforcing purchases from disadvantaged businesses - is one such tool in the support kit.

A few weeks ago, Uday Kumar Varma , secretary, ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) met Karen G Mills and her team at the US Small Business Administration (SBA) in Washington DC. He was trying to get a fix on an American law that channelises a considerable amount of federal contracts to SMEs and disadvantaged enterprises.

RESERVATION ROAD

In 2010, according to SBA, US federal contracts worth $98 billion were awarded to SMEs and disadvantaged businesses; of this, $34 billion of contracts went to businesses run by African- Americans and other minorities. Mills, appointed by US President Barack Obama, is pivotal to the new economic push by the American administration, focused on job creation. As in the US, MSMEs in India are critical to employment.

Indian MSMEs employ 59 million people across 26 million units and account for 45% of all manufacturing output, according to government data. On June 24, while announcing the US SBA's numbers, Mills said: "...when the federal government gets contracts into the hands of small businesses...they have the opportunity to grow and create jobs, and the federal government gets access to some of the most innovative and nimble entrepreneurs".

India now wants to take this road. The ministry of MSMEs, working in tandem with the ministry of social justice and empowerment, has put together a plan for preferential purchases from MSMEs, and also from businesses owned by scheduled castes (dalits) and scheduled tribes.

"Last month, the prime minister told a meeting of state ministers of welfare and social justice that the rollout is imminent," says Mukul Wasnik, minister for social justice, indicating that the possibility of the plan getting stuck in policy meanderings is remote.

"The new scheme proposes 20% of all government purchases be reserved for SMEs; within this, a 20% sub-quota is proposed for units owned by scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs)," says Varma. If it becomes law, the concept of supplier diversity will finally make its formal appearance in India, though in the public sector for starters.

"It's not prudent to make it mandatory right away. We propose a threeyear, graded, gradual approach to achieving the goal," explains Varma. "We have to tread carefully, address possible supply bottlenecks and capacity constraints."

The initiative is not just about purchases from SMEs. It is expected to foster the creation of an entire ecosystem, complete with mentoring and capacity building process, as in the US. "Progress and impact will have to be measured each year," he says.

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