Thursday, December 22, 2011

[ZESTCaste] BSP won't support Lokpal bill if CBI is kept out, says Mayawati

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/BSP-wont-support-Lokpal-bill-if-CBI-is-kept-out-says-Mayawati/articleshow/11213789.cms

BSP won't support Lokpal bill if CBI is kept out, says Mayawati
TNN | Dec 23, 2011, 03.41AM IST

LUCKNOW: Chief minister Mayawati on Thursday said that her party would
not support the Lokpal bill if the Central Bureau of Investigation was
not brought under its purview. The BSP chief also blamed the Centre of
not paying any heed to her suggestions on the issue.

In an official statement, Mayawati pointed out that none of the BSP
MPs were given a copy of the bill before it was tabled in Parliament
-- a practice that has been going on for decades. "It appears from
media reports that the Centre has not paid heed to the suggestions put
forward earlier for a strong and effective Lokpal bill in which there
was a special thrust on bringing the CBI within its ambit," she said.

"In case CBI is not included in the Lokpal bill, BSP would not support
it," she said, adding that her party had made the demand for its
inclusion, as it had been seen time and again that the Centre was
misusing the premier investigating agency for its political gains and
BSP and its government had been a victim of this.

The BSP chief also said that her party had been pushing for bringing
the prime minister, and group C and D employees under the Lokpal's
purview. Besides this, the party had also demanded proper
representation to members of SC/STs and OBCs, who had been victims of
casteist mentality for a long time. Even the panel which drafted the
bill should have representatives from all religions, castes, tribes
and other sections of the society, she demanded.

Maya cries foul over food security bill: Stating that the food
security bill is only a political stunt of the Congress before the
2012 assembly elections, Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan
Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Thursday alleged that the bill
introduced in the Parliament was without proper provisions of funds
and food grains.

She said since the UPA government has not updated the below poverty
line (BPL) count recently, a big chunk of the deserving populace would
be out of the food security bill, and the bill will put extra fiscal
pressure on non-Congress-ruled state governments. She said tabling the
bill without going into its important details like funding and
availability of foodgrains establishes that main purpose behind the
bill was to extract political mileage for UP poll.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit lawmakers kick up a shindy

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Dalit+lawmakers+kick+up+a+shindy+&NewsID=313677

Dalit lawmakers kick up a shindy

Obstruct Parliament proceedings

Added At: 2011-12-22 11:39 PM

Last Updated At: 2011-12-22 11:39 PM

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: Cutting across party lines, Dalit lawmakers today
obstructed House proceedings, condemning the brutal killing of a Dalit
in the remote Kalikot district over a minor issue, and demanded legal
action against those involved in the incident and due compensation to
his kin.

Manbire Sunar of Jubitha VDC, Kalikot, was beaten to death on December
10 by Mim Bahadur Shahi and Dip Bahadur Shahi after he reportedly
entered the kitchen of Bal Kumari Shahi to light his cigarette.

The Dalit lawmakers raised a ruckus as soon as the House proceedings
began, demanding that the government furnish a reply to the House and
forced Speaker Subas Nembang to adjourn the session till December 27
and issue a ruling to the government regarding the circumstances that
had led to Sunar's death.

Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma of the Unified CPN-Maoist, Chhabilal
Bishwokarma of the CPN-UML, Khadga Bahadur Bashyal Sarki of the Nepali
Congress, Kalawoati Devi Dusandh of Madhesi Janaadhikar
Forum-Democratic, Rashmiraj Nepali of Rastriya Janmorcha Nepal and
Shanti Devi Chamar demanded that the government furnish a reply to the
House about the incident, provide Rs 1 million as compensation to the
bereaved family and ensure his children's education and wellbeing.

"Parliament has passed a law regarding untouchability (crime and
punishment 2068)," Maoist lawmaker Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma said,
adding, "But the government has failed to implement it to punish the
culprits." Chhabilal Bishwokarma said it was unfortunate that a Dalit
was beaten to death over casteism and the local administration could
not arrest those involved in the incident.

The Speaker during previous House session had issued a ruling to the
government to provide information about the action initiated in
connection with the incident. But the minister failed to furnish a
reply before the House, which prompted the Dalit lawmakers to rise
from their respective seats in protest. The lawmakers told the Speaker
that they would not let the House proceed with its regular businesses
unless there was a response from the government.

The Dalit lawmakers were demanding that Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister for Home Affairs Bijaya Kumar Gacchadar reply to the House
about Manbire Sunar's brutal killing. It is learnt that Home Minister
Gacchadar could not attend the House due to his illness.

Wife yet to get govt response

KALIKOT: Reshma Sunar, wife of Manbire Sunar, who was beaten to death
on December 10, said she was yet to receive any response or relief
from the government. Reshma, who has been left to fend for herself, is
worried how she would be able to look after her 72-year-old
father-in-law and three children. "There is no one to look after us,"
said Reshma. SP Ram Bahadur Katawal said the police had detained Mim
Bahadur Shahi and Dip Bahadur Shahi and filed a murder case against
them.


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[ZESTCaste] Jayanthi Natarajan hauls up Mayawati for apathy towards rivers’ clean-up in UP

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Jayanthi-Natarajan-hauls-up-Mayawati-for-apathy-towards-rivers-clean-up-in-UP/articleshow/11214045.cms

Jayanthi Natarajan hauls up Mayawati for apathy towards rivers' clean-up in UP
TNN | Dec 23, 2011, 04.12AM IST

NEW DELHI: The UPA government launched another salvo at BSP supremo
Mayawati with the Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan
writing to the Uttar Pradesh CM pointing out that industries were
polluting select rivers in the state leading to contamination of
groundwater in some regions.

The minister also criticized the state government for not utilizing
Central funds properly to abate pollution in the water bodies. "In
last two years, the environment ministry has sanctioned several
projects for conservation of river Ganga and lakes like Ramgarh Tal at
Gorakhpur. Hundreds of crores have been released to Uttar Pradesh for
implementation of these projects. I hear that the state government has
not used the money properly," she said.

"Our efforts, to clean river Ganga that flows to important parts of UP
have not been able to succeed because of the indifference shown by the
state government with regard to pollution," she added.

Natarajan has asked the state government to direct her state pollution
control board to curb pollution, specifically in Aami River in
Gorakhpur.

She noted that effluent from industries in Gorakhpur industrial area
and untreated municipal solid waste was making its way unchecked into
the river and polluting the groundwater of villages in the vicinity.

The central pollution control board, which works under the environment
ministry, had found that the effluent treatment plants of the area
were not working and the waste of Gorakhpur too was being dumped in
Rapti river despite directions from the Centre against it.

In the last two years the environment ministry has sanctioned seven
projects at a total cost of Rs 1341.60 crore for conservation of Ganga
in Allahabad, Varanasi, Garhmukteshwar, Moradabad and Kannauj.

Of the sanctioned amount, Rs 204.20 crore has been released to the
state so far. Another Rs. 217.14 crore has been transferred to UP in
the last three years for implementation of ongoing sanctioned schemes
under the Gomti Action Plan and the Ganga Action Plan Phase-II.


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[ZESTCaste] A Dalit success story

 

http://www.livemint.com/2011/12/22231551/A-Dalit-success-story.html?h=B

Posted: Thu, Dec 22 2011. 11:15 PM IST

A Dalit success story
Dalit entrepreneurs lack the social networks or organizational backing
or access to credit to compete with non-Dalit businesses, and this is
precisely where the state can intervene by, for instance, prioritizing
procurement from Dalit-run companies by public sector enterprises

In just about every way that can be measured, prejudice, both social
and economic, against Dalits has reduced since independence. Since
1991, after liberalization, some Dalits have been able to take
advantage of the new opportunities offered by the growing economy just
as others have. This was in evidence at the first-ever national trade
fair organized by the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries
in Mumbai a few days ago. The fair was supported by corporate
heavyweights such as the Tata and Godrej groups, and found support
from the Confederation of Indian Industry​ as well. There is a move on
the part of industry to encourage Dalit enterprise, which wants to
embrace the concept of "supplier diversity" and promote Dalit
entrepreneurship. No less than titan of industry Ratan Tata called
upon corporate India to use its economic clout in pursuit of social
justice.

There is some evidence to suggest that the expanded set of
opportunities offered in the post-liberalization economy flattened the
playing field for aspiring Dalit entrepreneurs. A rapidly expanding
economy opened up new jobs and careers to people who were otherwise
pushed to the margins of private industry. Liberalization upended the
status quo and a number of Dalits were able to take advantage of the
resultant chaos to acquire capital like never before. The market could
thus be said to be levelling historical disadvantages more effectively
than caste-based reservation has done.

The necessity of affirmative action—or, in the Indian context,
caste-based reservation—has long been a matter of debate. Enshrined in
article 15(4) of the Constitution, the quota system is intended to
provide equal opportunity in education and employment to scheduled
castes and tribes. How successful such a policy is in equalizing the
playing field for Dalits is highly contentious —and, indeed, it has
been argued that such a policy is more effective as a political tool
to gather votes than to make available educational or professional
opportunities that would have otherwise been closed to them. Certainly
the idea of extending quotas to the private sector to increase Dalit
economic achievement has merited strong opposition.

However, this does not mean that the government cannot incentivize
private enterprise to promote social justice, or aid in removing some
of the barriers that Dalit-owned businesses face. Dalit entrepreneurs
lack the social networks or organizational backing or access to credit
to compete with non-Dalit businesses, and this is precisely where the
state can intervene by, for instance, prioritizing procurement from
Dalit-run companies by public sector enterprises.

Illustration by Jayachandran/Mint

Is affirmative action the way to social justice? Tell us at views@livemint.com

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[ZESTCaste] Can Indian capitalism really beat caste?

 

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-rice-bowl/can-indian-capitalism-really-beat-caste

Can Indian capitalism really beat caste?
Celebrate the exceptions, but don't forget the majority.
Jason Overdorf
December 22, 2011 04:18

Hindu dalits pray during a mass conversion to Buddhism ceremony in
Mumbai, 27 May 2007. Thousands of low-caste and tribal Hindus, seeking
freedom from oppression in India's heirarchy-ridden caste system,
embraced Buddhism in a mass conversion. It is estimated that close to
five thousand dalits - who are on the bottom rung of India's anicent
caste hierarchy - would have converted to Buddhism during the simple
ceremony during which the people recite hymns read out by the monks,
following which they are accepted as Buddhists. (AFP/Getty Images)

The New York Times' Lydia Polgreen's feature
(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/world/asia/indias-boom-creates-openings-for-untouchables.html?_r=1
) on successful Dalit entrepreneurs is thoughtful and evocative, and
her effective character sketch of a millionaire named Ashok Khade will
go some way to help readers identify with the thorny and complex
problem of caste discrimination in India.

But I'm a little concerned that her piece (and one I wrote like it
some time ago) may be looking too resolutely at the bright side.
Polgreen quotes Dalit commentator Chandrabhan Prasad as saying that
the beauty of contemporary India is that class trumps caste, so as
long as Dalits can afford the "goodies" and boast of a healthy bank
balance they can win acceptance from the rest of the society.

Would that were true.

I recall when I met Chandrabhan a couple years ago that he told me
that upper caste society would "never accept" him because of his
background. Among other things, he explained that he didn't wear the
right clothes or speak with the right accent. I'm relatively sure
that he'd still agree with those points. Perhaps he'd add a note of
explanation to the quote he gave the Times: If you're a millionaire,
maybe you can get a free pass.

It's also interesting that Khade's visit to the rural village where he
was once ostracized is the primary (though by no means only) example
of the way his wealth has helped him to overcome his caste. If you
think about it, what are we saying here? If you pull yourself up by
your bootstraps from abject poverty to become a millionaire, when you
go back to your hometown, people who earn a few hundred dollars a year
will give you respect? What about the socialites in Mumbai?

More troubling, still, is the way that the self-empowerment achieved
by these Dalit entrepreneurs is implicitly being used by some people
in India to argue that the Dalits and other underprivileged castes /
groups do not need quotas in government jobs and higher education. In
every single caste story I have written, I have never met a single
successful Dalit who did not name reservations in education -- and
usually in employment -- as the main or only reason that he or she had
escaped poverty.

At the same time, for every one of these success stories there are
literally millions of people whom caste discrimination -- and not just
problems related to economic conditions (i.e. class) -- has prevented
from escaping dire poverty and horrible social humiliation.

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[ZESTCaste] Nepal: Dalits bring House to standstill

 

http://reportersnepal.com/eng/index.php?action=news&id=4610

Dalits bring House to standstill Thursday, Dec 22, 2011

KATHMANDU-- Dalit lawmakers affiliated to various political parties
occupied the floor of the Legislative parliament on Thursday to
protest lack of response towards the murder of a dalit Manbir Sunuwar.

Dalit lawmakers from CPN (UML), UCPN (Maoist) and other parties
obstructed the House proceedings and boycotted the meeting accusing
the government of remaining silent of Sunuwar's death.

Sunuwar, a 'dalit' was beaten to death by some locals belonging to the
so called 'high caste' after accusing him of entering into the kitchen
of a hotel run by 'high caste' owner Jas Bahadur Shahi in Kalikot.

The lawmakers also accused the government of not taking the issue
seriously and for interfering into the protests made by dalits.

Sunuwar's death has sparked agitation among the Dalits across the nation.

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[ZESTCaste] 'Govt 'spineless', have textile mill vacated'

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/Govt-spineless-have-textile-mill-vacated/Article1-785806.aspx

'Govt 'spineless', have textile mill vacated'
Press Trust Of India
Mumbai, December 22, 2011

Censured by the Bombay high court for being "spineless" and
"ridiculous", the Maharashtra government on Thursday assured that it
would try to amicably settle the issue of the recent encroachment of a
textile mill in central Mumbai by followers of Babasaheb Ambedkar,
failing which the squatters
will be evicted.

"Government will make efforts to settle the issue and get the
followers to vacate the mill premises voluntarily within a week. If
the government does not succeed then the encroachers would be evicted
forcibly within three days thereafter," additional government pleader
GW Mattos told the court.

A division bench of justices DK Deshmukh and AV Mohta was hearing a
petition filed by the National Textile Corporation (NTC) seeking
directions to Mumbai police and state government to evict the
encroachers who forced their way into the India United Mill compound
on December 6 demanding an Ambedkar memorial there.

The statement was made after the court came down heavily on the
government for its inaction against the encroachers. "We are in
complete dismay over the stand adopted by the government. Why are you
(government) supporting this blatant illegality? Government is
spineless and has reduced itself to a ridiculous situation," justice
Deshmukh said.

The court's remark came when it was informed that the government has
initiated dialogue with the activists from various factions and is
negotiating the matter. "There is no question of negotiation. You
should remove them by force. Would you (government) have held
negotiations with the terrorists who entered Taj hotel also? The mob
has illegally entered a land which belongs to the government of
India," the bench said.

Counsels for the Anandraj Ambedkar-led Republican Sena told the court
that they were ready to give an undertaking that the activists would
voluntarily vacate the premises if the Centre made a statement that a
portion of the land would be given to construct the memorial.

Irked by this, justice Deshmukh said, "How can you threaten the
government like this? You have made your point and got attention. Now
you should voluntarily go away. Politicians will support you as they
always want their share of attention."

There was heavy police deployment outside the high court premises
following rumours that RPI activists would stage a protest there.

The two houses of Maharashtra legislature had recently adopted a
resolution asking the Centre to hand over the entire 12.5 acres of
INDU Mills land to the state government for Ambedkar Memorial.

The resolution was moved by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan following
a heated debate over Centre's offer of just four acres of the land of
the mills for the memorial.

INDU Mills is located next to Chaityabhoomi where Ambedkar was
cremated. Chaityabhoomi, over the years, has become a shrine of sorts
for his followers.


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[ZESTCaste] Indian outcast millionaire mulls caste, riches

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iws9ZK4f6NWSYIsaLP-ZTaEc_mAA?docId=c058bb2cbeb9435aa59d0a128956f7db

Indian outcast millionaire mulls caste, riches

By TIM SULLIVAN, Associated Press – 15 hours ago

AGRA, India (AP) — As far back as he can remember, people told Hari
Kishan Pippal that he was unclean, with a filthiness that had tainted
his family for centuries. Teachers forced him to sit apart from other
students. Employers sometimes didn't bother to pay him.

Pippal is a dalit, a member of the outcast community once known as
untouchables. Born at the bottom of Hinduism's complex social ladder,
that meant he could not eat with people from higher castes or drink
from their wells. He was not supposed to aspire to a life beyond that
of his father, an illiterate cobbler. Years later, he still won't
repeat the slurs that people called him.

Now, though, people call him something else.

They call him rich.

Pippal owns a hospital, a shoe factory, a car dealership and a
publishing company. He owns six cars. He lives in a maze of linked
apartments in a quiet if dusty neighborhood of high walls and
wrought-iron gates.

"In my heart I am dalit. But with good clothes, good food, good
business, it is like I am high-caste," he said, a 60-year-old with a
shock of white hair, a well-tailored vest and the girth of a Victorian
gentleman. Now, he points out, he is richer than most Brahmins, who
sit at the top of the caste hierarchy: "I am more than Brahmin!"

But in an increasingly globalized nation wrestling with centuries of
deeply held caste beliefs, there is little agreement about what that
means. Do Pippal and the handful of other dalit millionaires reflect a
country shrugging off centuries of caste bias? Does caste hold still
hold sway the way it used to?

Even Hari Kishan Pippal isn't sure.

"Life is good for me," says Pippal, sitting in his office in Heritage
Hospital, one of the largest private medical facilities in this north
Indian city. "But life is very bad for many, many people."

The vast majority of India's 170 million dalits live amid a thicket of
grim statistics: less than a third are literate, well over 40 percent
survive on less than $2 a day, infant mortality rates are dramatically
higher than among higher castes. Dalits are far more likely than the
overall population to be underweight, and far less likely to get
postnatal care.

While caste discrimination has been outlawed for more than 60 years,
and the term "untouchable" is now taboo in public, thousands of
anti-dalit attacks occur every year. Hundreds of people are killed.

The stories spill from India's newspapers: the 14-year-old dalit
strangled because he shared his first name with a higher-caste boy;
the 70-year-old man and his disabled daughter burned alive after a
dalit-owned dog barked at higher-caste neighbors; the man run over at
a gas station because he refused to give up his place in line to a
high-caste customer.

But amid centuries of caste tradition that can seem immutable, there
has been slow change.

In an extensive survey by the Center for the Advanced Study of India
at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers found that dalits
living in concrete homes, not huts made from mud and straw, had jumped
from 18 percent to 64 percent between 1990 and 2007 in one north
Indian district. Ownership of various household goods — fans, chairs,
pressure cookers and bicycles — had skyrocketed over the same period.

It also found a weakening of some caste traditions, with, for example,
far fewer dalits being seated separately at non-dalit weddings.

While most dalits still support themselves as rural laborers, there is
also a growing dalit middle class, many of them civil servants who
have benefited from affirmative action laws.

"Caste is losing its grip," said Chandra Bhan Prasad, a dalit writer,
social scientist and one-time Marxist militant who has become a
leading voice urging the dalit poor to see the virtues of capitalism.

In a consumer society, Prasad argues, wealth can trump caste — at
least some of the time. Growing economies also foster urbanization, he
says, allowing low-caste Indians to escape traditional village
strictures. Finally, economic growth also means that the traditional
merchant castes are not large enough to fill every job.

"This means other castes also have a chance" in the business world, Prasad said.

To Prasad, the new millionaires are a way to prove that dalits can
make it in a globalized world.

"Don't say (success) is not possible because of the caste system," he
said. "Here is a list of dalits who are doing so well."

The list is impressive, even if its members are far from India's
traditional centers of wealth, power and celebrity. They are, for the
most part, blue-collar rich, often finding their niches in
less-glamorous industries: building working-class housing
developments, manufacturing immense concrete pipes, churning out cheap
polyester shirts.

No one knows how many wealthy dalit entrepreneurs have emerged since
India opened its economy in the early 1990s, sparking some of the
world's fastest economic growth. Hundreds certainly, maybe thousands.

They are also increasingly visible. A decade ago, dalit businessmen
regularly changed their last names, since these almost always identify
someone's caste. Even Pippal did it at first, playing off the
pronunciation of his name and calling his first company "People's
Exports" to mask his caste background.

Now, the dalit rich are chatting over cocktails at meetings of their
own chamber of commerce, and setting up booths at dalit trade fairs.
Top government officials are talking about a venture capital fund to
make financing more easily available to entrepreneurs from India's
outcast communities.

The wealthiest, meanwhile, have become darlings of the Indian media,
held up as proof that modern India is an increasingly caste-blind
society.

Nonsense, says Anand Teltumbde, a prominent dalit activist.

"These stories (about successful dalits) sit well with the middle
class," said Teltumbde, who is a grandson of B.R. Ambedkar, an
independence-era dalit lawyer revered as a hero by dalits across
India. "The entire world has changed ... but the number of well-off
dalits is no more than 10 percent. Ninety percent of dalits live a
dilapidated kind of life."

As for Pippal, he finds himself uncomfortably in the middle of this
debate. He is a rich dalit who thinks very little has changed for
India's outcasts, a man who credits his own success to hard work and
one enormous advantage: ego.

"From my childhood, I was thinking one day I will be a big man," he said.

Raised in poverty, he only made it through high school before his
father became ill, and he had to go to work pulling a rickshaw to
support the family. His first break came when he married a dalit woman
from a slightly better-off family that owned a small shoe workshop.

Dalits have long dominated the shoe business. Caste is largely a
reflection of traditional trades, and since making shoes involved
working with the skins of dead animals, it was left to dalits.

But Pippal shifted the focus of his father-in-law's workshop,
concentrating on high-quality shoes and teaching himself a slew of
languages — English, Tamil, Punjabi, Russian, German — to sell his
footwear more widely. Today, he owns a 300-worker factory where 500
handmade shoes are turned out every day, then packed into boxes
already marked with prices in euros and British pounds. The expensive
ones retail for as much as $500 a pair.

He used his footwear profits to start the small Honda dealership, and
then the hospital. Immense profits are being made in India's private
health care industry, as the new middle class seeks alternatives to
the often-questionable care at most public hospitals.

"I didn't know ABC about hospitals," Pippal said, laughing his barking
laugh. He gleefully talks about the Brahmin doctors who at first
worked for him very reluctantly.

"Now they are earning lot of money from this hospital," he said.

Of course, so is Pippal. He's still a long way from being a
billionaire, but says his businesses have a total turnover of about
$12 million a year.

At first glance, Heritage Hospital doesn't look state-of-the-art.
Pippal's office has stained green carpeting and paint coming away in
bubbly clumps. On a recent day, masons were working near the main
entrance, forcing patients to enter through a dark hallway beneath his
Honda dealership, which is next door. Janitors do little but move
around the dirt with wet rags.

But it is cleaner and has more resources than the public hospitals
most Indians must rely upon. Pippal proudly ticks off its assets: 150
beds, 187 doctors, a range of care from oncology to plastic surgery.

In so many ways, Pippal has proven himself a success. He is rich. He
is greeted with respect on the streets. His children went to good
schools, and grew up with friends from across the caste spectrum.

Yet he also believes that he remains, very often, a figure of quiet contempt.

"These people are very bloody clever," Pippal said of the high-caste
businessmen with whom he deals. "When there are profits to be made,
then everything (about his caste) is OK."

"But in their mind, they're thinking: 'He is a dalit.'"


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[ZESTCaste] Manda Krishna Madiga condemns attack on Shankar Rao

 
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[ZESTCaste] Dalit lawmakers obstruct House

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=39879

Dalit lawmakers obstruct House

Lawmakers representing the dalit community have obstructed the
Legislature-Parliament's meeting Thursday afternoon, accusing the
government of failing to act on the killing of Manbir Sunar, a dalit,
in Kalitkot two weeks ago.

On December 10, the 31-year-old dalit youth of Jubitha-4 was thrashed
to death for going to the kitchen fireplace at a hotel owned by Jash
Bahadur Shahi, who belongs to one of the so-called upper castes.

The lawmakers of different political parties including UCPN (Maoist)
and CPN-UML obstructed the House proceedings, saying the government
has failed to address their demand that include, among other things,
action against the culprit and due compensation to the bereaved
family.

The lawmakers have also made it clear that they would not allow
resumption of the House business unless the government furnishes
clarification in that regard.

Lawmakers including UML's lawmaker Chhabilal Biswokarma and UCPN
(Maoist)'s Khadga Bahadur Biswokarma and Khadga Bahadur Basyal, took
time at today´s House session to raise their concerns before the
meeting was adjourned.

Soon after the adjournment of the House, lawmaker Sanjay Kumar Sah,
who earlier broke away from Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic
,smashed three microphones, in a show of an unruly act that he did out
of frustration for not being allowed time to put forth his opinion.

Published on 2011-12-22 15:32:27


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[ZESTCaste] Dalit capitalism

http://www.brownpundits.com/2011/12/22/dalit-capitalism/

Dalit capitalism

Posted By Razib Khan on December 22, 2011

When it comes to caste and capitalism in India, The New York Times
reads rather like Reason or a house publication of the Cato Institute.
Last fall there was Business Class Rises in Ashes of Caste System
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/world/asia/11caste.html. Now,
Scaling Caste Walls With Capitalism's Ladders in India:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/world/asia/indias-boom-creates-openings-for-untouchables.html

As the founder of a successful offshore oil-rig engineering
company, Mr. Khade is part of a tiny but growing class of millionaires
from the Dalit population, the 200 million so-called untouchables who
occupy the very lowest rung in Hinduism's social hierarchy.

"This is a golden period for Dalits," said Chandra Bhan Prasad, a
Dalit activist and researcher who has championed capitalism among the
untouchables. "Because of the new market economy, material markers are
replacing social markers. Dalits can buy rank in the market economy.
India is moving from a caste-based to a class-based society, where if
you have all the goodies in life and your bank account is booming, you
are acceptable."

Dalits still lag behind the rest of India, but they have
experienced gains as the country's economy has expanded. A recent
analysis of government survey data by economists at the University of
British Columbia found that the wage gap between other castes and
Dalits has decreased to 21 percent, down from 36 percent in 1983, less
than the gap between white male and black male workers in the United
States. The education gap has been halved.

Another survey conducted by Indian researchers along with
professors from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard showed that
the social status of Dalits has risen as well — they are more likely
to be invited to non-Dalit weddings, to eat the same foods and wear
the same clothes as upper-caste people, and use grooming products like
shampoo and bottled hair oil.

For most of India's history after independence, the government was
the only thing that could improve the Dalits' lot. For nearly all
Indians but especially for Dalits, a government job, even a low-level
one, was the surest ticket out of poverty, guaranteeing education,
housing, a salary and a pension. Few in the socialist government or in
India's generally risk-averse society saw entrepreneurship as an
attractive option.


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[ZESTCaste] SC/ST Commission summons Collector

 

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/scst-commission-summons-collector/214242-60-117.html

Orissa | Posted on Dec 22, 2011 at 11:03am IST
SC/ST Commission summons Collector
indianexpress Express News Service , The New Indian Express

PARADIP: The Chairman of National Commission for SC and ST, PL Punia,
has summoned Jagatsinghpur Collector Narayan Chandra Jena and SP S.
Debdatta Singh for personal appearance on December 27 in connection
with the Kujang firecrackers explosion case.

�As Kujang police have been silent on the issue even a month after the
incident,� State Dalit Association president Ashok Biswal and
Jagatsinghpur Ambedkar Association president Manoj Bhoi had sought the
intervention of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled
Tribes seeking proper inquiry into the explosion besides compensation
to the injured persons and kin of the deceased.

�Though two persons of Balrampur village had lodged an FIR against the
accused, Kujang police are yet to act against those involved. Police
have, however, registered a case against the owner of firecracker
manufacturing unit.

�The Collector, meanwhile, said he is yet to receive any letter from
the Commission� for appearance but the administration has already
requested the State Government to compensate the victim families and
steps have been taken for the purpose.

�Meanwhile, IG (Crime Branch) Susant Nath visited Kujang police
station and inquired about the probe status. He also visited the spot
at Kujang bazaar where the explosion took place in November.

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