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Monday, March 7, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Discrimination against Dalits prevalent: study

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article1515230.ece

NAGAPATTINAM, March 7, 2011
Discrimination against Dalits prevalent: study

P. V. Srividya

Caste discrimination practised against Dalits does not spare even
panchayat presidents, reveals a study conducted in select districts of
Tamil Nadu.

The study conducted by Evidence, a Madurai-based organisation, in 213
panchayats across 12 districts in the State has come up with its
findings on myriad forms of discrimination experienced by Dalits under
various categories.

The survey was held in Madurai, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Sivagangai,
Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Salem, Namakkal, Cuddalore, Villupuram,
Coimbatore and Tirupur.

Forty-five panchayat presidents from nine districts have given
testimonies of discrimination, the survey reports. The discrimination
takes the form of demand for appointment of Caste Hindu writer,
refusal to cooperate with the panchayat president, obstructionist
tactics by the Caste Hindu Ward members and panchayat vice-president
to stall conduct of affairs and harassment of women panchayat
presidents.

The 198-page report reveals an exhaustive account of various forms of
discrimination and how they assume universality under certain
categories. These include discrimination in temples, atrocities
against Dalit women and discrimination in processions, burial of the
dead and in offering services such as hair dressing and laundry to the
Dalits.

With a few exceptions, almost all villages witness such discrimination.
Restrictions

Discrimination in temples varies from restrictions on entry to bar on
touching the temple car rope and participation in festivities or
allowing processions to go through Dalit colonies.

According to the report, 104 villages out of the total villages
surveyed recorded the practice of two-tumbler system, revealing 49 per
cent prevalence. Among them, 14 out of 22 villages in Coimbatore, 14
out of 24 villages in Dindigul, 13 out of 21 in Salem, 13 out of 17
villages in Virudhunagar, 11 out of 17 villages in Thanjavur and seven
out of 13 villages in Madurai, recorded the practice.

In Nagapattinam, the study carried out in 16 villages in Vedaranyam
reveals the prevalence of two tumbler system in Kodiakkarai,
Vedananagar, Ayyakaranpulamirandamsethi, and Siriyankadu.

Of the categories, discrimination was negligible only in Government
Hospitals and PHCs.

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[ZESTCaste] Deadlock on over central panel’s review of Dalit welfare schemes

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Deadlock-on-over-central-panel-s-review-of-Dalit-welfare-schemes/758529/

Deadlock on over central panel's review of Dalit welfare schemes
Virendra Nath Bhatt Posted online: Sun Mar 06 2011, 03:17 hrs
Lucknow : The deadlock between the National Commission for Scheduled
Castes and the UP government over the date for full commission review
of the Dalit welfare schemes in the state.

The commission citing the budget session of the Parliament has
rejected the four dates in March suggested by the Uttar Pradesh
government.

The NCSC panel headed by the Congress MP, PL Punia, accuse the UP
government of avoiding the full commission review while the state
maintains it is ready for commission scrutiny.

The BSP-led government, in its bid to clip the Punia's wings, has
already amended the UP State Guest Rules 1961, to deny the protocol
and other facilities to him during his visits to UP. Punia enjoys the
status of Union Cabinet Minister.

"There is no point in holding the full commission review meeting with
the UP government until all the relevant information is provided by
the state government to the panel," said Punia, adding "UP government
is not providing information sought by the commission on Section 156
(3) of the Cr PC, where the FIR relating to atrocities on Dalits were
lodged on the directives of the courts and the action taken by the
state government on the complaints by Dalits.".

On the review meetings, Punia said, "The UP government knows the
chairman of the commission is an MP and budget session of the
Parliament is underway. It is difficult for me to spare time for the
review meeting, yet they deliberately suggested to hold meeting on
March 4, 11, 16 and 24."

On the other hand, the UP government maintains that it is ready for
the review meeting as and when it suits the commission.

"We had suggested four dates to the commission in March. So far we
have received no official communication from them. If they suggest
some alternative dates then we are ready for that," said Balvinder
Kumar, Principal Secretary, Social Welfare, adding "We have furnished
all the information on a questionnaire given to us by the commission.
If they need some additional information then then there is no problem
at our end to furnish it."

In last four months, the review meetings have been postponed for five
times. For the fifth time, the state government suggested four dates
in March for review meeting which were rejected by the commission.

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[ZESTCaste] Cabinet must extend SC status to Dalit Christians, Dalit Muslims: Churches

http://twocircles.net/2011mar07/cabinet_must_extend_sc_status_dalit_christians_dalit_muslims_churches.html

Cabinet must extend SC status to Dalit Christians, Dalit Muslims: Churches
Submitted by admin4 on 7 March 2011 - 12:48pm

By TCN News,

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Federation of Churches (APFC) has
demanded the Union Cabinet to immediately decide for extending the
Scheduled Caste privileges to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. The
General Body of APFC which met here on 4th March made the demand. SC
status is limited to Dalits among Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.

APFC has also urged the Central Government to give an appropriate
answer to the query of the Supreme Court to the writ petitions
demanding the deletion of the paragraph 3 of the Constitution
Scheduled Castes Order 1950 in order to extend SC status to Christians
and Muslims of Scheduled Caste origin.

The group warned that if these demands are not fulfilled, many Dalit
Christians and Dalit Muslims will not vote for Congress and its allies
in the forthcoming Assembly elections and General Election 2014, Rev.
Gali Bali, Bishop of Guntur and General Secretary, APFC said in a
statement.

The Constitutional Scheduled Caste Order 1950 restricted Scheduled
Caste (SC) status only to Scheduled Castes professing Hinduism. Later
on it was extended to Scheduled Castes who embraced Sikhism and
Buddhism. However, Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims have been denied
SC status for the last sixty years.

National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (NCRLM)
stated that non inclusion of Scheduled Caste Christians and Scheduled
Caste Muslims in the Scheduled Caste list is a discrimination based on
religion and goes against the articles 14, 15, 16 and 25 of the
Constitution of India. Religion must be de-linked from caste. The
discriminatory paragraph 3 of the Constitution Scheduled Caste Order
1950 should be deleted by appropriate action.

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has recommended
that Scheduled Caste status must be extended to Christians and Muslims
of Scheduled Caste origin.

The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) too has supported the demand.

The hearing of the writ petitions filed in the Supreme Court in 2004
and other petitions is unduly delayed because of the unreasonable
tactics of the Union Government to give a reply to the Supreme Court.

On 24th Feb. the SC was to hear the case but the central government
did not file its reply.

Chief Minister of Tamilnadu M Karunanidhi on 25th Feb. wrote a letter
to the Prime Minister to take urgent decision and extend SC status to
Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims.

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[ZESTCaste] In a language darkly…

http://www.hindu.com/lr/2011/03/06/stories/2011030650050200.htm

Poetry

In a language darkly…

SUBASH JEYAN

Meena Kandasamy writes angrily, often eloquently, about the politics
of the body and caste in contemporary Indian society.

Ms. Militancy, Meena Kandasamy, Navayana, 2010, p.60, Rs. 150.

A man who saw the poet Meena Kandasamy read out from her latest poetry
collection, Ms. Militancy, at the Jaipur Literary Festival this
January apparently felt threatened enough to post his reactions on his
Facebook wall: "Watched a so called poetry reading session of a so
called dalit-feminist-poet from chennai! The so called poem and the so
called reading postures quite resembled that of w***** invitation to
clients on roadsides! She addressed herself as a dalit-feminist! All
the way i wondered, what did dalitism and feminism had to do in that
poem, which literally worshiped group sex practice!!" Perhaps it is
unfair to give such reactionary words more circulation than they
deserve but they do give us an entry point to the kind of poems that
Meena Kandasamy writes (definitely not pornography) and a counterpoint
from 'real' life to our notions of ourselves as a 'progressive'
society. I don't know what that Facebook person's idea of poetry
really is but if yours is anywhere remotely in alignment with his,
perhaps you shouldn't be reading this collection. Or, come to think of
it, perhaps you need to read it more than anyone else...

No easy passage

It won't be an easy passage if your politics are mainstream, let alone
conservative. As a woman dalit poet, Meena Kandasamy writes angrily,
often eloquently, about the politics of the body and caste in
contemporary Indian society. Necessarily, what she sees is different
from the images we have constructed for ourselves. It was Ambedkar who
said that "women are the gateways of the caste system". Kandasamy is
intensely aware of how the female body is used as an instrument of
control, by naming it, fixing it and locating it within a discourse
whose concerns are very different. Talking about the female self and
body in ways not 'allowed' by this discourse becomes a way of
reclaiming it, of declaring one's independence from this discourse:

Tongues untied, we swallow suns.

Sure as sluts, we strip random men.

Sleepless. There's stardust on our lids.

Naked. There's self-love on our minds.

And yes, my dears, we are all friends.

There will be no blood on our bridal beds.

We are not the ones you will choose for wives.

We are not the ones you can sentence for life.

("Backstreet girls")

And it goes hand it hand with an irreverent taking apart of the
contradictions, hypocrisies and pretences she finds around her
everywhere in life, literature and the mythologies of the mainstream.
But it's not all mockery, for, she can also write with chilling
clarity about the way things still are. Sample this:

One-eyed

the pot sees just another noisy child

the glass sees an eager and clumsy hand

the water sees a parched throat slaking thirst

but the teacher sees a girl breaking the rule

the doctor sees a medical emergency

the school sees a potential embarrassment

the press sees a headline and a photofeature

dhanam sees a world torn in half.

her left eye, lid open but light slapped away,

the price for a taste of that touchable water.

In other poems, she writes with a gay abandon that comes from the
liberating knowledge that she doesn't have to play by your rules
anymore. Her poems mock the countless edifices of tradition, culture
and literature that had been/are complicit in keeping a whole people
invisible and worse for centuries. In spite of the delight in
wordplay, the startling phrases that catch you unawares and ambush you
as you turn a corner (there's that delightful emperuman, Emperor-man),
her poems are mostly simple, direct, effective and often violent.
Because it takes violence to rip apart structures that have kept you
down, structures that have become invisible, transparent and part of
the 'natural' order of things to those who don't have to live with its
stifling oppressiveness. Actually, Meena Kandasamy does a favour to
people like that gentleman on Facebook by enabling them to see again.
For, acceptance could be the first step towards change, for oneself
and others.

Possible redemptions

For herself, it is through rebellion that the path to freedom lies, to
other more enabling possibilities. As she puts it poignantly in the '
foreword': "I have to write poetry to be heard, I have to turn insane
to stay alive....Telling my story another way lets me forgive you.
Twisting your story to the scariest extent allows me the liberty of
trying to trust you. I work to not only get back at you, I actually
fight to get back to myself." The possibility of redemption, then,
through the rubble of rebellion, both for her and us. But if her
poetry only shocks or offends us, if we can only mourn the past that
has been shown up for what it is, the possibility of reconfiguring our
world and living spaces and discourses on a more equal and just
footing would be lost, yet again...

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit writers must stir debate: Malagathi

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/143716/dalit-writers-must-stir-debate.html

Dalit writers must stir debate: Malagathi
Mysore, March 6, DHNS

Writer Prof Aravinda Malagathi, faculty of Kannada, Kuvempu Institute
of Kannada Studies (KIKS) has called upon the Dalit community to come
out with writings that stir serious debate in the society and literary
circles.

He was speaking at a programme after releasing a book, 'Gandhi Horata
Yaara Virudha?' - (Who did Gandhi fight against) organised by Baba
Saheb Ambedkar Royal Society and Bahujan Vidyarthi Sangha at the EMMRC
hall at Manasagangothri here on Sunday. The book is authored by H B
Raghotham.

Malagathi said there should be productive and constructive debate on
crucial issues if the society had to achieve progress. Raghotham's
book stirs such a debate. He has been able to portray effectively
different dimensions of Ambedkar and Gandhiji's principles, the writer
said.

"The Dalit writings should not only focus on the loopholes of the
society, but also suggest remedies. It is possible only when the
writings stir a debate among intellectuals in society," he remarked.

The criticism against Dr Ambedkar should be carefully analysed to
develop a response that is comprehensive and stand up to the
expectations of the Dalit community. Earlier, Journalist Rajashekara
Koti inaugurated the programme and urged the various factious of
Dalits to forge a single forum and fight for their rights.

Former mayor Purushotham, writer H B Raghotham and others were present.

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

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Monday, March 7, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Discrimination against Dalits prevalent: study

[ZESTCaste] Deadlock on over central panel’s review of Dalit welfare schemes

[ZESTCaste] Cabinet must extend SC status to Dalit Christians, Dalit Muslims: Churches

[ZESTCaste] In a language darkly…

[ZESTCaste] Dalit writers must stir debate: Malagathi

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