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Monday, December 7, 2009

[ZESTCaste] BJP Leaders Pay Tribute to Dr. Ambedkar

http://www.patnadaily.com/news2009/dec/120609/ambedkar_anniversary.html

BJP Leaders Pay Tribute to Dr. Ambedkar
Patna: December 6, 2009

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, at an event to mark the 54th
death anniversary of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, said that the Bihar
government, in the true spirit of the man also known as the architect
of the Indian Constitution, was committed to the cause of the dalits
and minority, and had initiated a number of schemes to improve their
social and economic status in the society.

Modi, along with party leader and former Central Minister Shahnawaz
Hussain, placed flowers at the picture of Dr. Ambedkar who, they said,
created 'the best' Constitution ever produced by any country in the
world.

"It was Dr. Ambedkar who first raised the issue of reservation for
scheduled castes and tribes who were the targets of caste-based
discrimination in the early years of this country. Because of his
relentless pursuit to create a society where no one was considered
superior or inferior due to the caste one was born into, there are
reservations for dalits in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha today," Modi
said at the function held at the Bharatiya Nritya Kala Mandir.

Hussain also credited Dr. Ambedkar for creating awareness among those
who were considered socially backward and had no representation in the
local or national governance.

BJP state president Radha Mohan Singh and Dr. Sukhda Pandey were among
many who also paid tributes to Dr. Ambedkar.

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[ZESTCaste] Thousands throng Ambedkar Memorial

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Thousands-throng-Ambedkar-Memorial/550767

Thousands throng Ambedkar Memorial

Express News Service Posted online: Monday , Dec 07, 2009 at 0147 hrs
Lucknow : To mark the 53rd death anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, the
ruling Bahujan Samaj Party mobilised thousands of party workers and
supporters at Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal (Ambedkar
Memorial) in Lucknow on Sunday.
In the past, the event was organised near the Dr Ambedkar statue in
Hazratganj. This was the first time it was held at the Ambedkar
memorial.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a plea from the
Mayawati government seeking permission to undertake maintenance and
cleaning work at the premises in view of Sunday's function.

This is the second time the memorial was thrown open to the public
after the Supreme Court had stopped all activity inside memorials on
September 12. The state government, thereafter, had barred the public
from entering the memorial.

The memorial was first opened on September 17, when Chief Minister
Mayawati laid the foundation of Kanshiram Green Eco Garden near the
Kanshiram Memorial.

Mayawati, who reached the venue around 10.30 am, paid a floral tribute
to Dr Ambedkar at the auditorium. She spent over 15 minutes there.

She was accompanied by senior officials including Chief Secretary Atul
Gupta, Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh and DGP Karamvir
Singh.

Most of the visitors who came from Lucknow and adjacent districts like
Barabanki and Sitapur, said they reached the state capital after
receiving a message from the local leaders of the ruling BSP.

"I received a message from my district president Ratan Lal Gautam on
Saturday to bring all party supporters," said Sant Ram Gautam, BSP
Sector President of Surat Block in Barabanki district. "I passed the
message among our people. The vehicle was made available to us by
Saturday evening."

Ram Kumar, convener of the Bahujan Volunteer Force (BVF) in Lucknow's
Itaunja area, said he received the message to reach Lucknow on
Saturday.

Santosh Kumar, a resident of Allunagar in Digoria on IIM-L road, said
the BSP supporters were mobilised by Rakesh Gautam, the local member
of the Block Development Council.

Ram Kumar, president of BSP's Aishbagh area of Lucknow, said the party
district unit held a meeting of the party workers on November 4.

"The plan to come to Lucknow was discussed at the meeting. The final
message came to me on Saturday," he added.

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[ZESTCaste] No temple entry for dalits in Gujarat

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/No-Temple-Entry-For-Dalits-In-Guj/articleshow/5308970.cms

No temple entry for dalits in Gujarat
Vijaysinh Parmar , TNN 7 December 2009, 04:21am IST

AHMEDABAD: Sunday was Dr B R Ambedkar's death anniversary, 'Nirwan
Diwas' as Dalits call it. And we hate to be doing this. But the bubble
of a Vibrant Gujarat needs a prick in the bottom. At the lowest level
of the society, Gujarat is not happy. Untouchability still exists in
various forms in Gujarat.

In a first-of-its-kind study on a large scale, representing 98,000
Dalits across 1,655 villages in Gujarat. it comes out that 97 %
respondents feel they have 'no entry' at certain places in their own
villages, including a temple or where a religious ceremony is taking
place.

Mahatma Gandhi himself wrote about the problem of untouchability in
Gujarat when he set about establishing a base in Ahmedabad. He said in
his writings that when he insisted on keeping a Dalit ('Harijan' as he
insisted on calling them) in his ashram here, people started shying
away. Even sponsors developed cold feet and funds started drying up.
Bapu put his foot down and had his way.

Almost 95 years later, Gujarat is still not listening to the Mahatma
even as the world tuned in. The bar for Dalits is felt at not only
temples but also 'satsangs' and 'kathas'. At these religious events,
not being able to sit on a cot/chair with other upper castes, has been
clearly established as a sign of untouchability.

The study has been carried out by Ahmedabad-based Navsarjan Trust with
three US-based organisations — the Kroc Institute for International
Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Dartmouth
College at the University of Michigan and Robert F. Kennedy Centre for
Social Justice and Human Rights, Washington, DC.

"This is the first study on such a large sample size and we covered 99
forms of untouchability that are still practised in villages. There
are 12,500 villages in Gujarat where Dalits live. We have covered
1,655 of these villages and around 11 per cent of the total Dalit
population,'' says Manjula Pradeep, director of Navsarjan Trust.
During the study, the researchers did not find a single village where
no form of untouchability is practised, giving an unnerving idea about
the extent of the problem in a state which is home to Mahatma Gandhi.
Ahmedabad-based social scientist Prof Ghanshyam Shah, a retired
professor from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, who has studied
the problem of untouchability in detail, also assisted in the
research.

Prof Shah says, "Dalits face untouchability at religious places the
most because the concept of untouchability has been centered around
religion and 'purity'. It may seem for urban middle classes that many
things have changed, but the ground reality is harsh till today.''

Is Indian society straying from the tolerant nature that it's known for?

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[ZESTCaste] Dalits told to be literate

http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/07/stories/2009120753750300.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Kadapa

Dalits told to be literate

Special Correspondent

KADAPA: Dalits should be united and wage a struggle for safeguarding
their rights besides, becoming literate , Collector Shashi Bhushan
Kumar said on Sunday.

Through education, Dalits can drive away poverty and gain
opportunities on par with other sections, he said, while garlanding a
portrait of Ambedkar on the occasion of the leader's 53rd death
anniversary at DRDA meeting hall.

B.R. Ambedkar was among the Constitution framers and strived for the
uplift of Dalits, he said.

Superintendent of Police D.S. Chauhan garlanded Ambedkar's portrait.

DRDA project director G. Gopal recalled Ambedkar's services. Zilla
Parishad CEO Venkataswamy presided. Kadapa RDO P. Ranjit Basha was
also present.

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[ZESTCaste] Tatas lead India Inc in hiring SC/STs

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Tatas-lead-India-Inc-in-hiring-SC/STs/articleshow/5309196.cms

Tatas lead India Inc in hiring SC/STs

7 Dec 2009, 1015 hrs IST, Kala Vijayraghavan & M V Ramsurya, ET Bureau

MUMBAI: What social revolutionary Babasaheb Ambedkar and late prime
minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh could not see during their lifetime
may be quitely getting underway in corporate India with the largest
group, the Tatas, leading the way.

The Tatas were the first to bring many material things to India —
power, star hotels and steel, to name a few. The $71-billion group
with interests from tea-to-telecom is also now probably the first to
introduce a hiring policy that emphasises 'positive discrimination'
for its scores of enterprises located across the country from the
seashores to deserts to mountain tops.

"What we have said is if everything is equal in merit and so on,
please select somebody from the SC/ST communities. This is positive
discrimination towards Dalits while hiring," says JJ Irani, a director
at Tata Sons. "We now have a Tata (recruitment) policy where our group
chairman personally made the corrections in his own handwriting when
we presented it to him."

A Tata Sons spokesperson said the policy had been in place for some
time, and has been most successful in newer companies which were in
the process of building up their workforce.

"Tata group companies have been following a recruitment policy over
the past few years where they have been encouraged to step up hiring
from disadvantaged sections, particularly the Scheduled Caste and
Scheduled Tribe communities, without sacrificing merit — in the spirit
of positive discrimination. This policy has seen most traction in Tata
companies which are in the process of building or renewing their
workforce, including Trent, Tata Business Support Services, Tata
Teleservices, Tata Capital, Tata Consulting Engineers, Tata Power and
NDPL. In one or more of these companies, there have been significant
additions at the entry levels, both at the worker and the officer
levels, and some of these companies are also endeavouring to increase
numbers at intermediate levels," the spokesperson said.

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Monday, December 7, 2009

[ZESTCaste] BJP Leaders Pay Tribute to Dr. Ambedkar

[ZESTCaste] Thousands throng Ambedkar Memorial

[ZESTCaste] No temple entry for dalits in Gujarat

[ZESTCaste] Dalits told to be literate

[ZESTCaste] Tatas lead India Inc in hiring SC/STs

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