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Thursday, April 28, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Fwd: update

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ranjani k.murthy <rk_km2000@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 4:47 PM
Subject: update
To: dalit siddharta <mailsiddhartha.k@gmail.com>

several dalits from therovy village and few of us aksing things under rti, trucks temporarily stopped

Ranjani

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[ZESTCaste] List of Dalit students committing suicide in last four years in India’s premier institutions

List of Dalit students committing suicide in last four years in
India's premier institutions
by Anoop Kumar on Monday, April 25, 2011 at 3:19pm

* Here is the list of the Dalit students who have committed
suicide in last four years.

* This is by no means an exhaustive list but covers only those
cases which we were able to document and where parents and relatives
have raised their voices and had accused the institutions of caste
discrimination against their children that led to their suicides.

* We are sure that the actual numbers of Dalit students committing
suicide in country's premier institutions in last four years will be
much higher.

1. M. Shrikant, final year, B.Tech, IIT Bombay, 1st Jan 07
2. Ajay S. Chandra, integrated PhD, Indian Institute of Sciences
(IISc), Bangalore – 26 Aug, 07
3. Jaspreet Singh, final year MBBS, Government Medical College,
Chandigarh, 27 Jan 08.
4. Senthil Kumar, PHD, School of Physics, University of Hyderabad – 23 Feb 08
5. Prashant Kureel, first year, B.Tech, IIT Kanpur, 19 April, 08
6. G. Suman, final year, M.Tech, IIT Kanpur, 2nd Jan, 09
7. Ankita Veghda, first year, BSc Nursing, Singhi Institute of
Nursing, Ahmedabad, 20 April, 09
8. D Syam Kumar, first year B.Tech, Sarojini Institute of
Engineering and Technology, Vijayawada, 13 Aug, 09
9. S. Amravathi, national level young woman boxer, Centre of
Excellence, Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh,Hyderabad, 4th Nov, 09
10. Bandi Anusha, B.Com final year, Villa Mary College, Hyderabad, 5th Nov, 09
11. Pushpanjali Poorty, first year, MBA, Visvesvaraiah Technological
University, Bangalore, 30th Jan, 10
12. Sushil Kumar Chaudhary, final year MBBS, Chattrapati Shahuji
Maharaj Medical University (formerly KGMC), Lucknow, 31 Jan, 10.
13. Balmukund Bharti, final year MBBS, All India Institute of
Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, 3rd March, 10
14. JK Ramesh, second year, BSc, University of Agricultural
Sciences, Bangalore, 1st July, 10
15. Madhuri Sale, final year B.Tech, IIT Kanpur, 17th November, 10
16. G. Varalakshmi, B.Tech first year, Vignan Engineering College,
Hyderabad, 30 Jan, 2011
17. Manish Kumar, IIIrd Year B.Tech, IIT Roorkee, 13 Feb, 11
18. Linesh Mohan Gawle, PhD, National Institute of Immunology, New
Delhi, 16 April, 11

The large number of Dalit and Adivasi students committing suicide
clearly indicates the wide-spread prevalence of caste discrimination
in the Indian education system, which perceives them as
'non-meritorious', not fit to belong there.

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

When a Dalit or Adivasi student becomes an engineer, doctor, business
graduate or scientist, it should be a cause of pride for not just the
family or the community but for the entire nation.

Instead, why do our nation and its educational institutions reward
their merit with discrimination, humiliation, violence and death?

The time has come for Dalit and Adivasi students to speak up, share
their experiences and bring their struggles in the public domain, so
that we can fight together to make our campuses caste
discrimination-free.

Our communities cannot afford to lose our bright, young hopes like
Linesh and Balmukund, in the hands of an insensitive and casteist
educational system.

Our documentary 'The Death of Merit' documents the horors of
caste-discrimination that is prevalent in AIIMS, New Delhi that
resulted in the suicide of one very bright Dalit student Balmukund
Bharti who was from very humble background.

Please watch the documentary at

http://thedeathofmeritinindia.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/%e2%80%98the-death-of-merit%e2%80%99-a-documentary/

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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Watch the documentary 'The Death of Merit' on the suicides of Dalit students in Higher Education

One more suicide. Once more the death of merit.

On 16th April, 2011, Linesh Mohan Gawle, a PhD scholar at the prestigious National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, became one more name in the long list of Dalit and Adivasi students, who have committed suicide in India's premier educational institutions in recent years.

The large number of Dalit and Adivasi students committing suicide clearly indicates the wide-spread prevalence of caste discrimination in the Indian education system, which perceives them as 'non-meritorious', not fit to belong there.

List of Dalit students committing suicide in last four years in India's premier educational institution

(List is also displayed at our blog www.thedeathofmeritinindia.wordpress.com)

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

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

The Documentary

Last year, on March 3rd, 2010, another Dalit, Balmukund Bharti, final year MBBS student from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi committed suicide. He was from Kundeshwar village from Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh. He was a bright student from a very humble background.

Knowing the history of caste-discrimination in AIIMS our group decided to investigate the matter and went to Balmukund's home to meet his parents on 1st April 2010.

What came out of our interaction with his parents and other family members was a shocking tale of how a young and bright Dalit student from very poor background was victimized so much on caste grounds in one of the premier educational institutions of the country that despite his entire record of struggle all through his life, he finally lost his willingness to even live.

The Documentary 'The Death of Merit' is based on these testimonies and is a result of our amateur efforts to bring out the truth behind the kind of caste oppression suffered by Dalit and Adivasi students in higher education and the resulting suicides of our bright students like Balmukund Bharti.

Please watch the documentary embedded at our blog www.thedeathofmeritinindia.wordpress.com

or watch it by clicking at the link here

'The Death of Merit' - Part I: http://youtu.be/2L3y9O1HCBw

'The Death of Merit'- Part II: http://youtu.be/ADXnFf_5JT4

Please watch the documentary and share it widely among your friends and colleagues. We must not allow our educational institutions to become graveyard for Dalit and Adivasi students.

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[ZESTCaste] HC notice to govt over social boycott of Dalits in Dindigul

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/hc-notice-to-govt-over-social-boycott-of-dalits-in-dindigul/662849.html

HC notice to govt over social boycott of Dalits in Dindigul
PTI | 10:04 PM,Apr 26,2011

Madurai, Apr 26 (PTI): The Madras High Court Bench here today issued
notice to the Government, including the Chief Secretary, on a writ
petition filed against alleged social boycott imposed on 300 Dalit
families by the dominant community in a village in Dindigul district.
Justices K Suguna and A Arumugaswamy admitted the writ petition and
ordered the notice, returnable in 15 days. The petitioner, Kaliyappan,
a Dalit of Therkutheru Velayutham Puthur in Dindigul district,also
sought a direction to abolish the 'double tumbler' system (plastic
tumblers for Dalits and glass tumblers for others) in three tea shops
in the village. Dalits in the village were also not permitted to enter
the three temples and offer prayers to the deity, he claimed. He
submitted that trouble started in the village, which has 1,400
families of caste Hindus as the dominant community, when Dalits
decided to fight against discrimination and start Dalits' Arts and
Literature Association on Nov 15, 2010. However, the local police
inspector refused permission to install even a board for the
association and detained three Dalit leaders, Kaliyappan alleged. He
claimed social boycott followed soon after, with the 300 Dalit
families living in the village not being called for farm work. The
local shops were also not allowed to sell goods and groceries to
Dalits, he claimed. Though the tahsildar held a peace committee
meeting on Nov 19, 2010 and ordered that Dalits be provided food and
other goods, shopkeepers did so only during police monitoring,
Kaliyappan alleged. The petitioner said Dalit families in the region
were facing hardships as they were being denied work in farms. PTI

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[ZESTCaste] Who is Angela Milind Teltumbde

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Who-is-Angela-Milind-Teltumbde/Article1-690126.aspx

Who is Angela Milind Teltumbde
Pradip Kumar Maitra, Hindustan Times
Nagpur, April 27, 2011
First Published: 01:56 IST(27/4/2011)

Angela Milind Teltumbde (41), who was arrested at Thane on Monday, was
very active in students' politics in Chandrapur in the 90s. Daughter
of a school teacher, Angela Sontakke, married Milind Teltumbde, now
the secretary of Maharashtra unit of CPI (Maoist) at Chandrapur in
1994. It was said
that Anuradha Ghandy, the then central committee member of Maoist
group, was present at the marriage reception. Anuradha, wife of CPI
(Maoist) politburo member, Kobad Ghandy, later died of malaria in
Bastar jungles. Kobad Ghandy was arrested in Delhi a few years ago.
Angela, who did MSc in Biology, was a school teacher in Chandrapur.

When Milind went underground, she left Chandrapur within a couple of
years because of police harassment. She shifted to Mumbai four years
ago and was associated with several rights groups.

Police were looking for her after the arrest of Sudhir Dhawale (42),
an alleged aide of Teltumbde, at Wardha. Dhawale, a resident of
Byculla was in Wardha to attend the Ambedkar Yuva Sahitya Sammelan
when he was arrested in January this year.

Incidentally, Milind Teltumbde, Sudhir Dhawale and Angela belong to
dalit community. Naxalite movement watchers in the region point out
that a large number of educated dalit youths were motivated and
drafted into the ultra-Left movement by naxalite ideologue Kobad
Ghandy and his wife, Anuradha, both of whom used to stay in north
Nagpur (a dalit dominated area in Nagpur) in the '80s. The Ghandys
were instrumental in setting off the civil rights movement in Nagpur
and Vidarbha during the period and involved more dalits to join them.

Later, they went underground and rest is history -- Kobad Ghandy
became a politburo member and Anuradha became the central committee
member of CPI (Maoist) before dying of cerebral malaria a few years
ago.

Milind Teltumbde, whose brother Anand, a dalit scholar, is married to
granddaughter of Babasaheb Ambedkar The deputy inspector general of
police (DIG) of anti-naxal squad, Ravindra Kadam, claimed that Angela
was one of the members of state committee of CPI (Maoist), Maharashtra
unit. "She was also involved in a case at Deori in Gondia district,"
he informed.

Kadam dismissed the rumours that a couple of suspected naxalites were
arrested in Vidarbha region after the arrest of Angela.