Latest News Update: Sep 10, 2011

Saturday, September 10, 2011

[ZESTCaste] 41 held for persons including women held for communal clash in Madurai

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/41-held-for-persons-including-women-held-for-communal-clash-in-Madurai/articleshow/9930426.cms

41 held for persons including women held for communal clash in Madurai
TNN | Sep 10, 2011, 05.46AM IST

MADURAI: Police have arrested 41 persons, including 22 women after a
clash broke out between the dalits and caste Hindus in Uthapuram
village, on Friday.

The village, which hit the headlines due to the 'untouchability' wall
that prevented dalits from accessing arterial streets that led to
their dwellings, still continues to be sensitive due to the friction
between them and caste Hindus. On Thursday, a caste Hindu woman tore
apart a billboard erected to mark the memorial of dalit leader
Immanuel Sekaran, leading to the clash. Police said that the situation
has been brought under control now.

Moments after the caste Hindu woman damaged the billboard erected
close to Muthalamman temple in the village, dalit youths gathered at
the spot and condemned the woman's act. of the woman.

Immediately, caste Hindus also gathered and opposed the presence of
the board, sparking tension in the village. The heated argument turned
out into a quarrel and soon caste Hindus started pelting stones on the
dalits, who then retaliated. A police constable was also injured in
the stone pelting.

Madurai Rural SP Asra Garg rushed to the spot with striking force
personnel and dispersed the clashing villagers. Though the clash was
stopped, tension prevailed in the village and about 300 police
personnel were deployed to prevent snowballing of the incident.

Asra Garg said that the situation is under control.

"We have provided tight security and conducting a detailed inquiry in
this case," Garg said. Police have registered cases against 200
persons belonging to dalits, as well as caste Hindus and have arrested
41 of them.

Police said that a few days ago, caste Hindus attempted to erect a
billboard of freedom fighter V O Chidambaram in the village to mark
his birth anniversary celebrations. However, police refused
permission. Similarly, the police also denied permission to dalits to
put up a billboard for Immanuel Sekaran's birth anniversary. But
dalits went ahead with erecting a board.

The 'wall of untouchability,' came to light in 2008 after Tamil Nadu
Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF), a wing of the CPM, began a
campaign to demolish the structure. Subsequently, a portion of the
controversial wall built in 1990, allegedly to prevent dalits from
entering caste Hindu areas at Uthapuram village, near Usilampatti in
Madurai district, was razed down by the district administration on May
6, 2008.

Police said that dalits and caste Hindus were frequently clashing,
particularly on the rights over Muthalamman temple. About 800 persons
led by CPM leaders were arrested on February 1, when they tried to
enter the Muthalamman temple where dalits were prevented entry by the
caste Hindus.

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[ZESTCaste] Quotas can't bridge social gaps (Opinion)

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/p-v-indiresan/article2439849.ece?homepage=true

Quotas can't bridge social gaps
P. V. INDIRESAN

The apex court ruling on OBC admissions at university level misses the
point. Instead of carrying on with quotas, the IITs and other colleges
should have the autonomy to admit rich students so that they can
cross-subsidise poorer ones.

According to the Indian constitution, India is a "socialist republic".
Yet, the government never talks of UNDP's Human Development Index
which describes the quality of social development in a country. It
does not because India's performance is woefully poor. All our
political groups swear by reservation of Scheduled Castes (SCs),
Scheduled Tribes (STs) and the lower castes as their programme for
making India a truly socialist state. In its latest order, the Supreme
Court has supported reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs)
by making a distinction between eligibility marks and qualifying marks
and has come down strongly on the side of eligibility marks.

VARYING STANDARDS

Eligibility marks are pre-fixed; nobody below that can be considered
for admission. Qualifying marks vary; they depend on the competition
among the General Category candidates. They also vary with the round
of admissions. In the first round, they are highest. When the
candidates are fewer than the seats available, the qualifying marks
are lowered, and more general candidates join. When that too is not
enough, the qualifying marks are lowered still further, and so on the
process continues until enough general candidates join any
institution.

The Supreme Court has rightly observed that this variation imposes a
strain on the OBC candidates, because when qualifying marks are chosen
as the guide — their qualifying marks too vary. Incidentally, it is
not at all concerned about the strain on the general candidates, whose
qualifying marks too vary.

Be that as it may, going by the law of the country, as determined by
the Supreme Court, OBC candidates alone are marked by the eligibility
marks, while the admission of general candidates is determined by
qualifying marks.

COLLEGE AUTONOMY

It is also not clear whether every college has the autonomy to
determine its own qualifying marks, or whether all colleges have to
accept the number set by the university to which they are affiliated.
Can the abler colleges set higher eligibility marks or should they
accept the standards set by their poorer colleagues? That is not
clear; that may have to be checked.

The case of the IITs is peculiar — they have no second lists at all.
They set qualifying marks and offer admissions once and once only —
whether a course is over-filled or under-filled. Do the IITs have the
right to adopt the qualifying marks or are they compelled to fix some
eligibility marks? That is not clear. Perhaps that too needs to be
checked with the Supreme Court. We have interesting times ahead.

Mr Kapil Sibal, Minister for Human Resources, laments as to why the
IITs have not produced any Nobel Prize winners in spite of admitting
the very best students (community wise) and having (by Indian
standards) large budgetary contributions. I must say that he needs to
rethink a little. However grand it may appear from the Indian point
of view, the budget of any IIT is woefully small compared to that of
its competitors abroad. More important, foreign institutions have an
autonomy which the IITs lack.

What Harvard and Stanford have and the IITs do not is freedom, freedom
to admit whosoever they like, freedom to select teachers, and freedom
to teach what they like. American universities have that freedom
because (a) they are not dependent on government grants, and (b)
particularly because the American government does not let its babus
breathe down their necks.

Hence, American universities are free to admit (the way Indian
institutions were) anybody they liked, particularly both rich students
who make valuable monetary contributions and also abler but poorer
ones.

CROSS-SUBSIDISATION

Harvard makes no secret of it; it will admit children of rich parents
whereas the IITs will not. That is how Harvard has accumulated over
Rs 120,000 crore worth of endowments which it uses to subsidise
brilliant but poor students, support research of fundamental nature or
hire outstanding faculty at high salaries. With cross-subsidy from the
wealthy, it performs social development better than the government
can. The fact is that constant government interference has destroyed
the quality of education in India. It is time to ask some tough
questions.

Will our politicians and bureaucrats send their children to the
schools which they administer rather than to private schools? (2) Do
they agree that brilliant but poor children should get the same kind
of education which they want for their own progeny? (3) Then, will
they offer scholarships to enable them to do so? (4) Will the
governments decentralise and let schools make the selection of poor
but brilliant children instead of insisting on nationwide or
state-wide tests?

India is a socialist state where the rich are free to spend their
taxed (and untaxed) incomes in any manner they like. They can and do
send their children abroad but they cannot pay even large amounts to
get them admitted to Indian institutions (except under the table).

The government dictum is the rich cannot cross-subsidise the able
poor. It is unable to do that itself but will not let the willing rich
to do so voluntarily. Our politicians — and our Supreme Court too —
should ask why our system does not promote social justice. Should the
government (and hence the courts) insist on how educational
institutions should run, or will the country be better off by giving
institutions freedom to administer schools and colleges the way
Western nations do?

After all, every institution would like to get the best students even
if that needs some rich ones to cross-subsidise them. Our politicians
are like the one who rides a tiger but cannot get off — but the
Supreme Court need not be!

(This is 311th in the Vision 2020 series. The last article appeared on
August 27.)

(The author is a former Director, IIT Madras. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)

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[ZESTCaste] SCs, STs do not have much access to public infrastructure: report

http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/society/article2439776.ece

NEW DELHI, September 9, 2011
SCs, STs do not have much access to public infrastructure: report
Aarti Dhar

National Infrastructure Equity Audit conducted in 125 gram panchayats
in five States

There is a continued prevalence of deep-rooted caste-based inequity in
the contribution and availability of infrastructure and, hence, of the
accessibility of services and entitlements, a report has suggested.

The Scheduled Castes (SC), the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and minorities do
not have access to functional infrastructure facilities as they are
'merely situated in the general or backward classes habitations,'
according to the National Infrastructure Equity Audit done by the
Social Equity Watch.

The audit is a first-of-its-kind study determining the access of
different social groups to public infrastructure in about 1,000
caste/religious habitations across five States. While village-level
infrastructure investment has been crucial in developmental
programmes, they are seldom equitably distributed. This equity audit
has been done in 125 Gram Panchayats in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,
Karnataka, Orissa and Rajasthan.

Releasing the report here on Friday, Tom Thomas, CEO of Praxis
(Institute for Participatory Practices) — the secretariat of Social
Equity Watch — said there were still many SC/ST habitations which were
left uncovered and people in these habitations had to travel longer
distance than prescribed in official norms. The equity gap is severe
in certain Gram Panchayats.

"At places where the infrastructure facilities are located in SC/ST
habitations, a sizable percentage of the service providers are from
the general or backward classes category. Further, most of these
infrastructure facilities are in private lands or buildings," Mr.
Thomas said.

The public infrastructure include, primary school, anganwadi centre,
health sub-centre, drinking water, primary health centres, community
centre, Panchayat Bhavan, road, Public Distribution System, post
office, secondary school, telephone and information kiosk.

The rating of services by SC/ST and minorities in accessing these
facilities was much lower than their backward class and general
counterparts in the same habitations. The satisfaction gap was largely
due to location of services in other habitation.

"From the findings, it emerges that the task ahead is to monitor the
location of new infrastructure in such a way that the existing equity
gap can be filled over the years. This would be crucial for scarce
resources such as drinking water and certain newer infrastructure such
as internet kiosks in the coming years," Mr. Thomas said.

The findings of audit will be presented before the Planning Commission
as a run-up to the 12{+t}{+h} Plan. The Praxis team has also sought an
appointment with the Rural Development Minister.

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[ZESTCaste] 2-tumbler system in a new avatar in Pollachi

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/2tumbler-system-in-a-new-avatar-in-pollachi/182901-60-118.html

Tamil Nadu
2-tumbler system in a new avatar in Pollachi
indianexpress Express News Service , The New Indian Express
Posted on Sep 10, 2011 at 10:58am IST

POLLACHI: The scenic environs of Pollachi-Coimbatore's most well-known
tourist destination - may welcome outsiders with open arms, but when
it comes to treating their own Dalit villagers, tea stall owners here
follow the socially-abhorrent practice of the two-tumbler system.

The system, reported mostly in southern districts of TN, is prevalent
in tea shops in many hamlets in Pollachi.

In many stalls, tea is served in disposable plastic cups to Dalit
villagers, whereas for customers belonging to the� so-called upper
castes, it is served in a glass. Worse, tea shops in villages such as
Guruvekoundenpalayam, Kappilipalayam and Mettuvavi, have come up with
an innovative two tumbler system to deceive authorities in case of a
surprise inspection.

"At the tea stalls in these villages, separate tumblers for Dalits are
identified by dots marked in green or yellow at the bottom. In some
cases, there is a cut mark on the top edge of the tumbler for
Dalits,"� alleged K Marimuthu, president, Makkal Viduthalai Munnani, a
local outfit which fights for the rights of Dalits.

Tea shop owners, however, are hesitant to admit that Dalit customers
were discriminated against and claim that they do not have separate
tumblers for the caste Hindus. But a visit to most tea stalls proved
otherwise.

While elderls belonging to the oppressed sections have accepted the
practice, presumably out of fear for caste Hindus, Dalit youth have
begun to assert themselves against the practice.

According to K S Nagaraj, district secretary, Periyar DK, several tea
shop owners at Mannur, Chedimuthur, Vadakkipalayam and Sulakkal,
coming under Pollachi north union, hide the separate tumblers meant
for Dalits. "They have been clandestinely serving tea in a separate
tumbler for Dalits ever since we stepped up our campaign," he said.

Pollachi MLA Muthukarupannasamy, who hails from Mettuvavi, where the
system is prevalent, is unwilling to acknowledge it. "I had put an end
to this when I was the village's panchayat president 10 years ago. In
any case, I will check if the practice continues in neighbouring
villages," he said.

Marimuthu, however, said that the Revenue Department and Adi Dravidar
Welfare Department should jointly take up a campaign in Pollachi's
hamlets to abolish the practice.

When contacted, Pollachi Sub-Collector Arunsundar Dayalan said
appropriate measures would be taken after an inquiry.

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