Pic 01: The lovable, Ex-teacher and the Guide, Mr Sadashiv Salve, lying dead in pool of blood in the hospital
Pic 02 : Even Minors not spared, Praveen lying in Hospital with deep cut on back, bleeding
Pic 03: Bhikchand Salve recuperating after attack from the Hindu upper caste Goons
Pic 04 Irresponsible Deputy Superintendent of Police , Mr Sonavane enjoying his clout
Pic 05 : Family supportless
Pic 06: CHR activists making way for justice to the family
Pic 07 : Adv. Ekanath Awad, a fierce guide and compassionate support for Dalit families in the caste infested Beed District
Pic 08 : Women March on District Headquarter, Manishatai managing the front despite Male-Caste-terror
14 Caste-Goons arrested
2 accused still free, enjoying blessings of DYSP Mr Sonavane?
However….
Thanks to the activism !
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03: Campaign for Human Rights Activist Manisha Tokle, Ashok Tangade and others
The activist have shown yet another time, that India is living and there is a hope. Despite their personal commitments, many have seem to intiate the Protest March against heinous caste violance, wherein a retired teacher Mr Sadanshiv Salve was murdered by the Catiest goons in Phule Pimpalgaon in Beed district.
National civil consensus is still awaited.. Rise India, rise against such inhuman practices…
Pic 01: The Representation
Pic 02: Peaceful Protest MarchPic
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The national media is oblivious, the local Print media has taken some notice, but see for yourself, the reporting style and magnitude of the CAUSE. ’How can people unite against such atrocities’ is a test for ‘Civilisation in Progress’. Wait and see some activists owning up the cause.
You may not join them but voice your protest just by writing on wall here—
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Atrocitynews has been following very closely caste atrocities in Beed district as it is a strong hold of Castiest Goons who still take pride in Caste hierarchy despite no class of education. Dalits have no way to go except (Blog)Media as the Police slips out of the picture, nay, backing perpetrators at times.
See this ghastly incidence wherein a Retired teacher was murdered by rich Groups who are spreading ‘caste tentacles’ in the district.
On 25th June 2009 at 4 Pm Upper caste mob attacked a (nearby peaceful) Dalit-basti in Phule Pimpalgaon, Beed Dist. In which no-one was spared . The caste-mob broke all shackles of shame and beat younger ones and elders mercilessly, four Dalits were injured.
A noable and respected person in the area, teacher himself, Mr. Sadashiv Salve when came forward to stop the menace. He sought explanation for such riot,in result, he was bittten withsticks and with sharp weapons. He was only left when seen bleeding profusely where-after he was taken to hospital by the concerned.
Belligerent Doctors also neglected his treatment. General practice is to pay least heed if the patient is from such community. Same happened with the torch bearer of Basti. Dr Ashok Dabekar didn’t turn up despite requests. Sadashiv (Sir ) was left unattended.
Sadashiv (Sir) died without having access to proper treatment in Civil Hospital of Beed.
Hearing the news, Campaign for Human Rights (CHR) ativists felt the injustice, they were in action and now seeking strong penal action against. The activists demand suspension of the Medical Doctor on duty, Dr Hubekar and also the (caste) currupt Police officer in Charge of Majalgaon Police station Mr Kurumkar, else, they would not cremate the body, also would not send it for postmortem (PM).
The details & photographs of the case are on the way along with FIR later . Activist are seeking explanation from Police station and even protecting victim’s house.
Pic 01: Sandashiv (Sir) and others fighting against atrocity, he lost life !
Following is the written representation in local language given to District Medical Surgeon and District Police Superintendent at Beed by the activists:
Pic 02 : Hand-written Representation Part I
Pic 03: The hand-written Representation Part II
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The SKA earned a big victory when the Supreme Court put the onus of ending manual scavenging on District Collectors. write S.R. RAGHUNATHAN from Frontline.
Pic 01: A protest in Hyderabad on February 20 demanding, among other things, the rehabilitation of families of those working as scavengers and the demolition of dry latrines.
WHEN a few young South Indian Dalit men and women, out of anger and anguish, set out in 1986 to run a campaign against manual scavenging, it was a long journey of continuous struggle that awaited them. All of them had faced discrimination, socially and economically, because they belonged to families of traditional scavengers – people who clean human excreta manually and were considered the lowest even among untouchables. What started as a small effort to eradicate the obnoxious practice has, today, metamorphosed into an all-India movement known as the Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA). It achieved a significant milestone when the Supreme Court, hearing a petition from it on April 30 and May 8, decided to hold District Collectors accountable for any existence of manual scavenging, which is banned (see also “India’s shame”, Frontline, September 22, 2006). In its petition filed in the Supreme Court in 2009, the SKA compiled photographic evidence of the existence of manual scavenging and dry latrines in Punjab, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Haryana. On their part, the State governments, after repeated denial of the practice, agreed to carry out independent surveys with the SKA to locate dry latrines. Following the survey, the State governments sought another six months to rehabilitate the scavengers. The Supreme Court Bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices Arijit Pasayat and P. Sathasivam gave them six weeks instead on the grounds that the State governments had had more than six years to destroy dry latrines in their States. The court’s reference was to the public interest petition it heard in 2003 demanding the abolition of the practice. The petition, filed by the SKA and a few other organisations, had emphasised that manual scavenging still existed in many States and even in public sector undertakings, the chief violator being the Railways. The petitioners sought enforcement of their fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 17 (right against untouchability) and Articles 14, 19 and 21, which guarantee equality, freedom, and protection of life and personal liberty respectively. Manual scavenging is banned under The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, but has hardly been eradicated owing to the failure of the governments at the Centre and in the States to implement the Act. The SKA was instrumental in getting the Bill passed in Parliament in 1993, during the term of the P.V. Narasimha Rao government. Its advocacy of the same had started during the V.P. Singh government, which first recognised the need for such an Act. However, the Centre took four years to notify the Act, and State governments took three more years to adopt it. Even after the Act came into force in many States by 2001, there has not been a significant decline in the number of dry latrines or of those engaged in manual scavenging. Ironically, the SKA and a few other organisations informed the Supreme Court in 2005, when it heard petitions seeking the enforcement of the Act, that the number of manual scavengers had risen to 7.87 lakhs in 2002 from 5.88 lakhs in 1992. The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, however, puts the number of manual scavengers in 2002-03 at 6.76 lakhs. An independent survey by the SKA states that 13 lakh people in India are engaged in the cleaning of other people’s excreta, though it agrees that since 2005 the number has been declining owing to the concerted efforts of the SKA and other organisations working in this area. Holding District Collectors accountable is an important decision. In the past decade or so, it was the responsibility of the Secretaries of various departments, based in the State capitals, to ensure the enforcement of the ban on manual scavenging. But misinformation from the districts led them to either deny the existence of the practice or severely misconstrue the actual figures. Says Bezwada Wilson, national convener of the SKA: “This decision will not only let us point out cases in individual districts but also help us evaluate each Collector’s performance. For example, in Rajasthan and Haryana, immediately after the decision, we saw orders from Collectors to destroy many dry latrines and to book dry-latrine owners under the law.” The Supreme Court at its next hearing of the case will take up the cases of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the two most important States as far as the numbers of manual scavengers are concerned. While both States have denied the existence of the practice, the SKA’s 2009 petition cites cases of people in these States carrying human excreta. The SKA says these two States account for the most number of manual scavengers and dry latrines in the country.
Action 2010 Plan
The SKA operates through 252 community resource persons and 80 full-time workers in 605 districts. Wilson says that most of their workers are from the community itself. They report cases on a daily basis from their regions and also try to dissuade scavengers from doing it. All these efforts are part of the “Action 2010” plan of the SKA. The SKA organised a dharna on November 30, 2007, in New Delhi, followed by a national consultation the next day when Action 2010 was launched to eliminate manual scavenging through an intensive three-year campaign. Since the campaign coincides with the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, the SKA decided to boycott the Games and “to ask the international community not to participate in the Games as such an abhorrent practice still exists in India”. A week-long “Awareness Yatra” in all the States will converge in New Delhi before the Games begin. Around eight lakh people are expected to participate in the yatra and demonstrations in various places of Delhi. As a part of the plan, a national summit was held on February 25, 2009, in New Delhi, where State conveners of the SKA charted the next course of action. An important part of the campaign involves cities, where the number of dry latrines is increasing because of large-scale migration as a result of unbridled urbanisation.
Pic 02:At Chennai Central railway station, night soil being removed manually in this file picture. Pic by S.R. RAGHUNATHAN
The Safai Karamchari Andolan says the main violator of the ban on manual scavenging is the Railways. In its activities in the past decade, the SKA had to face hostility from governments. But the most difficult part perhaps was to convince the safai karamcharis to give up their traditional job. Says Wilson: “Our biggest achievement has been to convince people in our community to leave manual scavenging. The people were sceptical as they knew that they would get no support from society if they left their jobs. They did not have the assurance of government support nor were they confident enough to do something else.”
A Great Motivator
In the absence of a strong labour movement in the country, the SKA is gradually proving to be a great motivator for Dalits to unite and raise their voice against the historical oppression that they have faced in the name of their jobs, which society calls “work”. Says Wilson: “We don’t perceive manual scavenging as work. It is a question of dignity. None of the civilisations I know has allotted such tasks as cleaning other people’s excreta to a particular community, as is prevalent in India. Our effort is to fight not just manual scavenging but also the casteist mindset of Indian society. For example, in one of our surveys with the Haryana government, the official clerks reported that though they found many people engaged in ‘cleaning’, none of them carried ‘human excreta on their head’. What does this mean? As if they are expected to carry excreta on their head? Will any upper-caste Hindu clean other people’s excreta ever, even in the poorest of conditions?” The SKA had to contest not only caste equations but also the patriarchal tendencies of the community itself. “Ninety per cent of the dry-latrine cleaners are women. These women are ridiculed by their own families, but it is satisfying to see that the same women are the most forthcoming in pledging [support for struggles] against their conditions of work,” says Wilson. However, the biggest challenge the movement faces is the proper rehabilitation of scavengers. Though the 1993 Act promises to rehabilitate them, hardly anything has been done until now. Meira Kumar as Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment in the previous government had allotted Rs.50,000 to Rs.5 lakh to families of manual scavengers under the rehabilitation and self-employment scheme for them. A nodal agency – National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation – has been put in place but until recently it excused itself because of lack of funds. Wilson says that at present there are no people working as manual scavengers (according to the definition of the 1993 Act) in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Especially in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, he says, the governments have been strict in enforcing the law after the Supreme Court order. But since the dry latrines have not been destroyed even now, these States cannot be called manual-scavenging- free. So, the SKA’s priority in these States is to get the dry latrines destroyed and to rehabilitate the erstwhile manual scavengers. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) observed in a report in 2003 that the National Scheme of Liberation and Rehabilitation of Scavengers and their dependants, launched in 1992, had failed to achieve its objectives. The CAG found that much of the allotted funds were either unspent or underutilised. Says Wilson: “States like Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar would need a lot of attention before the abhorrent practice is eradicated. Only Haryana in North India has shown considerable improvement. According to Wilson, under the Act the definition of safai karamcharis is limited to manual scavengers, but government sources use the term to represent all people who are engaged in any kind of cleaning work. This, he says, not only dilutes the cause of eradication of manual scavenging but also lets the government justify its inefficiency. All this and much more have been detailed in the Planning Commission’s report on safai karamcharis, written by a subgroup headed by Wilson himself. The SKA has surely brought about a change in the situation of the safai karamcharis, but the movement has a long way to go. Says Wilson: “I, like many others in my community, used to hide my identity when I was a child. But today, the people, especially women, in the community are coming forward as leaders of the movement and using their identity to bring about a change in their lives. They are leaving their jobs voluntarily, which I had never imagined at the start of the movement. This is our biggest political achievement.”
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Thanks Frontline team, for putting up this imp. article; of which intensity is still not guaged by leading Indian newspapers, perpetrating shameless elitist-zone!
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Not only rural areas are infested with caste virus, but urbane India is not far behind. Travel around Pune , come to Pimpari-Chichawad, the hub of economic activity in the western region, you will see caste ghettos and lavishly spread concrete jungle. Economy grows at its pace but its no way fascinating to some section of human kind in 21st Century!
Not in 70’s but here in 2009, a dalit girl, 24, was brutally assaulted by castiest goons. Why? Because she dared to erect her own House in front of the upper caste home. Unlawful bashing is the gift she got, which is order of the day to migrant lower caste populace who cannot voice their pain.
The Scene:
Educated Rekha along with mother, Kalpana, father Sambhaji Waghmare, 3 brothers namely- Vinod, Sunil and Suresh relocated to Tapkir Nagar, Kalewadi in Pimpari-Chinchawad. She bought the plot from hard earned money and duly started constructing a pakka-2-room-kitchen-house. Adjacent was Mr Suresh Supekar,an upper caste household. While Rekha purchased the plot from lower caste, Supekars went from bad to ugly and constantly err about ‘rotten people have gone and the *putrefied people have come’. Further abuses, vulgar remarks, obscene gestures were regular. Even after lodging complaint with police nothing seemed to happen. Thanks to biased intervention of local corporator of Pimpari-Chinchawad Corporation ! On 5th April, height of torture made Waghmare to reach police station again , shocked, police did not register the case itself ( due to pressure from same politicians).
On the fateful day of 13th May at around 7:30 P.M., while Rekha was returning after taking M.A.(English) examination, near Sant Dhyaneshwar garden, close to Ramkrishna More college, she was approached by six men on bikes, two were known faces i.e. Tushar Supekar and Sumit Supekar. One of them asked her name. When she answered to which Sumit Supekar said, “This ! Mahar’s girl is arrogant. We will get her arrogance out.” Then suddenly, one of them hit her on forehead. Next, they held her tightly and clasped her mouth with their hands. They had a bottle of beer in their hands. Tushar and Sumit poured beer in her mouth and sprinkled all over body. Then they scratched her skin on right arm, abdomen and chest by the brocken bottle neck. They were about to hit her on the head by the bottle of beer but her quick movment saved her. Then, they tore her clothes . They blasted hard punches on her lips, forehead and all over, bleeding made her undigestable pain. They kicked her hard in abdomen and thrown her bare on the streets and ran away on bikes. The place, though not very crowded, had a handful of people who saw the incidence, but nobody dared to come forward to save her. She headed to police station in the same condition. She was feeling shameful to approach anyone on the way due to her torn clothes. But a boy of sixteen saw her in that state and enquired her about the cause of her condition which she explained him. The boy dropped her to Yeshvantrao Chavvan Memorial Hospital and informed her brother over the phone. Her brother reached the place. She took the treatment and then they straightway went to NigadiPolice Station at about 1 A.M. The police did not file the F.I.R. But merely registered it as a Non-cognisable offence. Police letf no stone unturned in demoralising her , some unttered ‘couples roam freely at night, any untoward incident happens, they complaint’. But when she told that the companion was her brother, he kept quiet. Disillusioned with police, they both returned home.
Pic 01: Head Injuries
Pic 02: Marks on legs by broken bottle
Pic 03: Lips, part of body smashed
On 15th May, 7 PM Rekha and her cousin, Sachin Kamble, went again to NigadiPoliceStation to lodge F.I.R. against the culprits. But the police did not write F.I.R. properly. They omitted to write the exact number of assailants and did not register the charges u/s 3(1)(xi) of Atrocity Act which is concerned with outraging the modesty of a dalit women. They completely messed up with F.I.R. (99% times Police stations mess up with FIR if its Caste Atrocity). The victim not knowing the intricacies of legal matter, returned home. On 18th May, the police arrested Tushar and Sumit Supekar but released them on bail next day.
On the same day, in another incidence, she was again abused and manhandled by Supekars. She reported the matter to police , but with no effect.
Further Civil response:
A fact finding team comprising delegates from NCDHR, Alliance for Dalits and Manuski visited victim and unearthed the fact of the matter. They also met local police staff. After much request, the police aggred to accept supplementary statements of 13thMay; but did not register supplementary F.I.R. The fact finding team found signature of complainant on previous F.I.R. missing. However they did not question the police staff lest they would not co-operate later.
On 29th May only police registered F.I.R. under Atrocity Act of 18th May incidence -when Supekars assaulted Rekha in her home. Strange, the statement of the victim was recorded on 20th May. Police is in jeopardy as criminal procedure code demands ’statements must be recorded before F.I.R. gets registered’. The police are now pressurising the victim to change the date of statement to 29th May.
The present status of the case is that s till no authentic F.I.R. is registered, there is whole discrepancy in recording statements on 18th May. The accused are roaming free with no fear of law.
Caste Mob Panalty:
And to add to the democratic fury now the ghastly caste mob was in action, indicating how safe India for Dalits. On 11th June,10 P.M., when victim, Rekha, went out to throw the garbage in the public dustbin, she was confronted by a mob of 40 including upper caste women. She was abused and slapped. When her brother heard the cry, he went to help his sister, but he was beaten up mercilessly till he fainted. He was then admitted to Sasson Hospital in Pune. He was so severly beaten that a tube had to be inserted into his abdomen to drain out the blood in his stomach.
The police did not register this case under Atrocity Act instead arrested the supporters of Waghmares. There is complete apathy of police administration and dalit organisations feel helpless fighting for justice. Democratic deficit, what else?
(*Derogatory term used for dalits)
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“Learning the use of symbolic means: Dalits, Ambedkar statues and the state in Uttar Pradesh” is a nice paper written by french scholar Nicolas Jaoul which explains the sociel theory and rationale behind the ever increasing no of statues of Dr Ambedkar in India. Nicolas Jaoul is a research fellow at the Centre d.Etudes de l.Inde et de l.Asie du Sud, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 75006, Paris, France. Email: nicolas.jaoul@wanadoo.
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The Ambedkar statue stands as a major feature of the Dalit movement. In the media, the Dalit emphasis on symbolic politics has been dismissed as mere tokenism, and the Ambedkar icon has been denigrated as Westernised. Despite attempts at studying Dalit politics since the BSP became one of the key players in Uttar Pradesh, there has been a lack of scholarly attention to the deeper social changes involved in the Dalits. relationship with the state. This study of the Ambedkar statues in Uttar Pradesh tries to fill this gap by taking three dimensions into account: the iconography, the way in which the statues have spread historically, and the meanings and stakes involved for those who mobilise around them. The assumption is that the Dalits. struggles for the imposition of their symbol in public places can contribute to an understanding of the manner in which Dalits have imagined the state and engineered strategies towards it. These statues seem to be the focal point for renewed aspirations towards democracy, while the eremonies organised around them have provided these deprived citizens the opportunities to build some support within the state.
I
Introduction
Political symbols play a major part in the way a nation is depicted andfed into the imagination of its citizens (Anderson 1983). This symbolicwork manates generally from the official realm but, as this study willshow, it may also derive from the initiatives of political parties and cialorganisations. Thus, different actors involved in the public sphere insiston particular symbols or .great men. that express their different ideologies,different ideas of the nation and identity struggles. These political symbolsappeal to people at a more private level, reflecting the internalisation ofa political imaginaire that contradicts the usual notion of fixed boundaries between state and society. Indeed, as this article seeks to show, it testifiesto the circular influence of both in the realm of popular culture (Fullerand Harriss 2000).The Ambedkar icon, which has become the symbol of Dalit identity,provides an interesting case study of the understanding of and strategiestowards the state by the unprivileged in India. Attention to the meaningsassociated with symbols like the Ambedkar statues by those who mobilise around them thus assists our understanding of grassroots perceptionsof Indian democracy. In the context of poverty and illiteracy where theyoperate, such symbolic means have profound political implications, promoting ideals of citizenship and nationhood among the politicallydestitute where the state has partially failed. This article seeks to emphasise the instrumental importance of the Ambedkar icon and its contribution to what Khilnani has called the .deep politicisation. of indiansociety (Khilnani 1997).In a recent study on the politics of a Muslim brotherhood in Senegal,Donal Cruise O.Brien goes beyond the conventional opposition betweenethnicity and nationhood to consider the way .symbolic confrontations.by ethnic organisations sustain participation and thus deepen the feeling of nationhood among illiterate citizens. Such increased participationimplies fundamental changes in the way the disadvantaged perceive andrelate to the state:Ideas of participation include the idea that one can organise in makingdemands of the state, that one can bring the state to act on one.s behalf.In this deep process of social adjustment the symbolic confrontationhas a central role, promoting sectional interests, yes, but in a dialogue with the state, engaging people.s loyalties, in the long run probablystrengthening the state, as an institution with its place in the citizens.imagination (O.Brien 2003: 29). The author emphasises the pedagogic dimension of the symbol, whichis part of the emergence of a political language, enabling larger numbersof people to define themselves in relation to the state, if you will to makesense of the state. (O.Brien 2003: 26). O.Brien.s argument can be extendedto other post-colonial contexts, where the politicisation of the lower ordersand the use of religious symbols often go hand in hand. O.Brien takesthe example of the Indian struggle for freedom, in which Gandhi usedHindu symbols to appeal to the rural masses and bring them togetherwith the Congress against the colonial state. He also notes how this political pedagogy alienated Indian Muslims who were unable to findthemselves reflected in a nation defined by Hindu symbols, thus contributing to the communalisation process that led to Partition. This argumentcan also be applied to the case of radical .Untouchables./Scheduled Castes, led by B.R. Ambedkar (1891.1956), who distrusted Gandhi’s charitable attitude towards them. The latter.s reformed Hinduism was still too close to caste hierarchy to be acceptable to those who suffered from untouchability, and whose leaders feared for their future in an upper caste. dominated independent India (Ambedkar 1945).
Ambedkar.s relentless and bitter struggle against Gandhi on thequestion of the recognition of the .Untouchables. as a separate minorityleft its mark on their collective destiny at several levels. At the sociallevel, the policy of positive discrimination that resulted from the compromise between the two leaders (known as the Poona Pact, 1932) en couraged education and social mobility. At the political level, Ambedkar.snomination as the head of the Constitution Drafting Committee was areconciliatory act by Gandhi, designed to involve the Scheduled Castesin the process of nation-building and thereby to sustain national inte gration (Zelliot 1988). However, despite this momentary and partialreconciliation with the Congress, Ambedkar.s struggles against Gandhileft their stigma on Dalit politics. Even though they were depicted nega tively in mainstream Indian historiography, these struggles were rem
embered in Ambedkarite circles as a landmark episode, because of whicha distinct Dalit political identity could be kept alive and nurtured afterIndependence.
Although Ambedkar had warned his admirers against making a cultof his personality, a move that had started in his home state of Maharashtraeven before his death (Tartakov 2000), the statue, perhaps inevitably, became a tool for political mobilisation after he died. The little bluestatues of Ambedkar wearing a three-piece suit and holding the IndianConstitution have indeed become a common sight in contemporary slumsand villages in many parts of the country. This article narrates the history of these statues in Uttar Pradesh (UP), where the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a political outfit led by AmbedkariteDalits, has formed several governments since the mid-1990s. The caseof Uttar Pradesh is especially interesting as far as Ambedkar statuesare concerned. First, the statues have played an instrumental role in theBSP.s successful mobilisations, confirming the popular appeal ofsymbolic politics in a state where the Ayodhya campaign had alreadyhelped the BJP to power in the early 1990s. Second, once in power theBSP put great emphasis on the official installation of statues, which inturn motivated Dalits to install more statues in their villages. The waythe state and society have emulated each other brings an interesting perspective to bear on symbolic politics and on the evolution of relationsbetween Dalits and the state. That is, the influence of the official Ambedkariconography on the popular statues, along with the imitation of officialceremonies in villages, reflects a process of popular learning of symbolicskills.
II
From Parliament to village: Ambedkar.s official image and its appropriation
The practice of setting up statues of political leaders on public sites wasintroduced into India by the British, who installed statues of soldiers andcivil servants of the Raj. After Independence, the practice was continuedwith the installation of statues of Gandhi and regional figures of theindependence movement, as well as historical figures such as Shivaji inMaharashtra. The first official statue of Ambedkar was set up in Bombayin 1962, at the Institute of Science crossing (the former ProvincialAssembly) (Tartakov 2000). Ambedkar was represented as an orator, dressed in a three-piece suit, his right arm and finger upraised as .a greatman lecturing the nation. (ibid.: 102). According to Tartakov, the messagewas both to the nation.on the dangers of caste and inequality.and tohis fellow Dalits, whom he urged to organise democratically to securetheir rights. In 1966, another statue made of bronze was set up in front of theNational Parliament in New Delhi and unveiled by the President of India,Dr S. Radhakrishnan. This national recognition of Ambedkar was a sig nificant move, as the .Untouchable. leader, despite having chaired theConstitution Committee, had been identified more or less as a traitor inthe dominant political stereotype of the ruling party ever since his opposition to Gandhi at the Round Table Conference. In the new political context of the mid-1960s, the decision to honourAmbedkar was an attempt by Indira Gandhi to woo the Ambedkariteconstituency of the Republican Party of India (RPI). At the Ahmedabad convention of the party in 1964, the RPI had adopted a charter of demands,focusing conspicuously (five out of ten points) on problems of poverty,minimum wage and landlessness. This emphasis on the economic demands of the landless peasants, which was designed to build an allianceof the rural poor across castes, is characteristic of the RPI.s socialistic emphasis, but the party.s first demand was for the installation of .a portraitof Dr Ambedkar as .Father of the Indian Constitution. in the central hall of Parliament. (Zelliot 1970). Taking up these demands, massivemobilisations took place in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra inDecember 1964, when 300,000 demonstrators were arrested (Duncan1979: 246).
According to L.R. Balley, who was the Punjab leader of the RPI atthat time, Parliament officially voted to raise the statue around 1964.65,thanks to the support of the Speaker, Hukkum Singh, who had chairedAmbedkar.s welcome committee during the latter.s visit to Punjab in1936. The Sikh politician thus wished to give Ambedkar the national recognition that he felt he deserved as one of the nation-builders. Even ifAmbedkar.s image did not make it to the Central Hall of Parliament, amassive bronze statue was set up outside the premises, representing himin his three-piece suit with the Constitution in one hand, the other armpointing to the sky. The statue was made by the same official sculptor asthe one in Bombay, and its main novelty was that he added the Con stitution, probably to emphasise Ambedkar.s contribution to the nation. That is, the Parliament House statue insisted upon Ambedkar.s conformityto the national agenda rather than recalled his hostility towards Hinduism, which he saw as the essence of caste. While the Constitution thus fitted Ambedkar into a secular mould, it is interesting to note that the Constitution was given a radical meaning by Dalits. As Pauline Mahar-Mollerhas shown in a monograph on a village in western UP, Untouchables inter preted the Constitution as a new law replacing the .Hindu laws of caste.(Mahar-Moller 1958). This attempt at bringing Ambedkar within a nationalconsensus in the name of .secularism. did not prevent Ambedkaritesfrom emphasising their own radical understandings of Ambedkar. Onthe one hand, they took this official recognition as a welcome step thatgave them legitimacy; on the other they continued to publish biographiesof Ambedkar and other vernacular political pamphlets in which hisideology was unfolded more uncompromisingly.
(ibid:1 Different terms are used to refer to those segments of the population treated as .Untouchables., according to Brahminical standards, because of their .unclean. occupationssuch as leather-work, sweeping and scavenging, weaving, cremating the dead, and so on. The term .Scheduled Castes. is an official category, framed by the colonial state in 1935to implement special policies towards the Untouchables following the Poona Pact agreement between Gandhi and Ambedkar. The term .Harijan. (.People of God.) was inventedby a Gujarati poet of the 17th century and popularised by Gandhi after 1932 in order topromote the acceptance of Untouchables by other Hindus as members of their religion. The term .Dalit. (.crushed. or .oppressed.) is a less euphemistic term which has been in usesince the 1910s. In fact it was used by the Arya Samaj and later by Jagjivan Ram. (Bothare considered as representing the non-radical reformist approach to Untouchability, whereupper castes took the lead in promoting reform, though of course both were seen as radicalcompared to conservative upper-caste Hindus.) The term .Dalit. became associated withradicalism when it was re-popularised in the 1970s by radical Ambedkarites such as theDalit Panthers and later by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Today the use of .Dalit. hasbecome widespread in many parts of India, including UP. In this article I use differentterms, according to the historical context.
2 Tartakov also informs us that Ambedkar statues had been installed in Maharashtra, atnon-official functions, by Ambedkar.s own Mahar followers since the early 1950s.evenbefore Ambedkar.s death.
3 I would like to thank Gary Tartakov for providing me with this important date.www.ambedkar.org/images/movement1/target292.html.
4 The formation of this party was announced by Ambedkar during his Buddhistconversion gathering (14.15 October 1956). It was eventually launched by his followersafter his death.
5 Other demands concerned the implementation of quotas, checking harassment ofUntouchables, implementation of the Untouchability Offences Act, maintaining quotasfor Untouchables converted to Buddhism, and full implementation of quotas in governmentservices.
6 Interview with L.R. Balley. )
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Download Entire article : Learning the use of symbolic means
Courtesy: Sage Publications
Filed under: Ambedkar life, democratic activism | 5 Comments
India a ‘more racist society’
Following is a thought-provoking article by Jag Surya and yet a very down to earth realisation of present Indian society which is far from catering ‘one man- one value ‘ as coined by father of Modern Constitutions, Dr Ambedkar. The segregation remains at worst in Indian villages , exemplified in Khairlanji . Irony is ane ducated lot from Indian middle class when crosses national bourdarieds experiences this and makes it a Front-page news. Had they understood Indian realities well in school times , they would have participeted in greater humanity causes across the world. Let it be Africa or Australia!
Anyways many thanks Jug for such an eye opener, we Indians need strong Anti-biotic!
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The attacks on Indians in Australia have once again raised the ugly head of racism. Once again India is caught up in the midst of a racist storm. A while ago, the Big Brother controversy launched Shilpa Shetty as an international anti-racism icon from India. This is entirely appropriate as Indians are arguably the biggest targets of racism in the world. And they are targeted not just by unlettered British yobs or Australian thugs but, first and foremost, by their own compatriots. It’s because we are so racist ourselves that we are so quick to react to a racist slur: it takes a racist to catch a racist. And our racism is colour-coded in black-and-white terms: white is intrinsically superior and desirable; black is inferior and undesirable.
In the Indian colour scheme of things, black is far from beautiful. The colloquial word for a black person of African origin is ‘habshi’, an epithet as offensive as the American ‘nigger’, both terms derived from the days of the slave trade.
For all India’s official championing of the anti-apartheid crusade in South Africa’s erstwhile white regime, north India at least is steeped in colour prejudice – ask any African student who’s had a taste of Delhi’s campus life. For the north Indian, fair is lovely, as those abominably tasteless TV commercials keep proclaiming: Don’t get sunburnt, use skin whitening creams, or you’ll end up dark and no one will marry you. (When did you last see a matrimonial ad seeking an ‘attractive, dark-complexioned life partner’?)
Why is dark literally beyond the pale for so many of us? Is it an atavistic throwback to the supposed superiority of ‘white’ Aryans vis-a-vis the ‘non-white’ original inhabitants of the subcontinent? Is it the result of 250 years of white rule under the British? Is a pale skin, as against a deep tan, a testimonial to social rank, segregating those who don’t have to toil under the sun from those who do? Is it an amalgam of all these?
Whatever the reason, ‘chitti chamri’ (fair skin) is a passport to fawning social acceptance — which might partly explain why an increasing number of Caucasians look for assignments in India, be it as MNC executives or bartenders in 5-star hotels.
Our racism is largely, but not exclusively, based on colour. Caste is India’s unique contribution to the lexicon of racial bigotry. Whether ‘caste’ – a result of cultural and social segmentation – can legitimately be conflated with ‘race’ – with its genetic and physiological underpinnings – is a matter of academic debate. However, as only too many horror stories testify, the average rural Dalit fares worse on the human-rights scale than her ‘kafir’ counterpart in the worst days of South African apartheid.
Caste apart, real or imagined ethnic traits compound our racism. People from the north-east are said to have ‘Chinky’ (Chinese) eyes and are routinely asked if they eat dogs. Even in so-called ‘mainstream’ India we sub-divide ourselves with pejoratives: ‘Panjus’, whose only culture is agriculture; stingy ‘Marrus’; mercenary ‘Gujjus’ who eat ‘heavy snakes’ for tea; lazy, shiftless ‘Bongs’; ‘Madrasis’, who all live south of the Vindhyas and speak a funny ‘Illay-po’ language. In our ingrained provincialism is our much-vaunted and illusory unity.
No wonder we can’t stand racism. It reminds us disquietingly of the face we see in our own mirror.
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The atrocities in Pune region are on high pedestal. This news is from the village of Mandavagan in Shirur Tahsil of Pune where Police shamelessly taken up disguised judicial mandate within catsiest throng . It’s a police Raj unabated!
On 11th of this May, police booked dalit youths named Sandeep Kamble and Shankar Samindar for crime they never committed, physically and sexually exploited them in ordert to confess their role in a Murder case. Rupali, a dalit girl who was killed on 15th April in the same village, of which the real murderers are said to be from influential background (caste) still roaming scott-free.
Pic 01: Police multiplies the Caste-Atrocities
However another side of police-caste-brutality sequence goes like this:
5.00 PM | 11th May | Police constable, Mr. Parashu Londhe , seeing small gathering infront of Shankar Samindar’s home, enters his home to find what is happening!
5.30 PM | 11th May|Frustrated to find people blaming Police there for mis-handling (managing) Rupali Murder case, Mr Londhe starts offering fists and blows to Shankar. “You all are bigot and insolent”, Londhe accuses as Shankar’s mother tries to intervene.
6.30 PM |11th May| Mr Londhe asks Shankar to visit Police station at Mandavagan immediately.
7:00 P.M |11th May| Shankar reaches Police station along with his friend Sandeep Kamble. Mr. Londhe starts loathing him as he see him.
7.15 | 11th May| Sandeep Kamble asks the reasons , he angrily yells, “ I will fuck your mother, who are you to ask me? ” When Sandeep asks for legal explanation. Mr Londhe replies, “Oh! you are new law teacher in this village, you bastard , I will teach you the best lessions which you will never forget!”
7.30 PM |11th May| Both taken into cell and 3rd Degree treatment meted out, sex-caste abuses were not spared during the session.
8.00 PM | 11th May| Mr Londhe talks on phone with superiors.
9.00 PM | 11th May| A white coloured Omni car arrives , both are being sent to Shirur Tehsil’s police station.
10.00 PM | 11th May|They were put again in police lock-up at Shirur, repeat severe mal-treatment, least was, thrashing with boots.
10.30 PM | 11th May|They are brought in a close dingy room apparently called court (?)of Mr Laskare. Surnames are asked. When Sandeep told his name, Lashkare says ’”O Mr Kamble ! you Jai-Bhimvalas (the followers of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar) have become more arrogant these days ! You talk law language. Why don’t you take off your clothes and learn some body language first? “.
10.45 PM | 11th May|Both completely nude, Mr Lashkarecommands his other colleagues to sodomise them one by one and asked them again to put their penis in their mouth.
11.30PM |11th May| Holding bottle of Petrol, Mr Lashkare asks both to admit the guilt of murdering Roopali Thorat . If they refuse to sign on the blank papers, he warned to put the swab of petrol in to their ass and put it on fire.
12 PM |11th May| But continue to resist, so are they again beaten up due to which they faint but still police torture them . Some asl them to dance naked to the tune of Lavani song.
12.15 AM| 12th May|One among the policemen says, “ Lashkare’s court will only decide justice for you”.
12.30AM | 12th May| Mr. Lashkare hands them over to police constables, Mr. Deshmukh , Mr.Londhe, Mr. Gaikwadand others. All heavily drunk take no time to make them blue and red with their boots.
12.45 AM | 12th May|Sandeep and Shankar are taken to government Hospital . No medical attention given . Forcibly signatures taken on a blank paper .
1 AM | 12th May|Toasting wine bottles one of the Policemen utters, “Police is the big Boss here, we could have even throne into the Dam or easily would have cut them into pieces . These guys are not even crook of our pubic hair”
1.30 AM | 12th May|Policemen warned them and went away without any medical help.
5PM | 12th May| Sandeep and Shankar were taken to the Magistrate. The Hon. Magistrate asked them if they accept their cruime . Both deny . The magistrate orders police to release them.
7.00PM | 12th May| But instead, the police take them again to police station. Mr Lashkare and other police constables threaten them with consequences and warn them not to leave homes till 26th May. And beaten again for not accepting the crime in front of Magistrate.
8.00 PM| 12th May | They were told , if want to get out of this mess safely, they should think of paying Rs 10,000/- to each of the policemen there.
It is learnt that Sandip and Shankar did not tell this matter to anybody due to local police terror. But they managed to send an application on 21st May to Superintendent of Police , Pune Dist. requesting an action against erring police officers.
However, Atrocitynews Correspondent when enquired the status of complaint on 26th May, Dy.S.P., Mr. Ghatage silently overlooked by saying the complaint is yet to be studied . He said that the department will initiate proper action only after full enquiry which can take longer time. He further informed that the victims may need to visit Superintendent of Police office again for detailed interrogation.
NONE was was called on or summoned till date. The news atleast has managed to reach Atrocitynews blog. What about SHankar and Sandeep’s fate? How many Shankars and Sandeeps will reach us till they are either made dead-logs of the system or they are made to remain silent and accept such structural blows?
Indian GDP still grows at 8%, experts say India is growing! IS that kind of (undemocratic) India growing?
Filed under: dalit atrocity | 1 Comment
In a shocking incident, a budhhist monk , Bhikku Dhammakirti alias Shivkumar with Schedule Caste background was murdered in Hyderabad on 1st May, o9. He was the president and founder of Dhammapeeth, a Budhhist organisation and was very active in propagation of Buddhism in the state. He was also an active member in Anand Buddha Vihar of Hyderabad . He was a native from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. After finishing his studies in Pali from Sri Lanka in 1999, he initiated study-classes in Vipassana. He guided many people for conversion specially from Mysore and Hyderabad.
- Pic 01 : Ven Dharmakirti : The end of peaceful life
On the fateful day, he told attendants that he was going to bed. He also told them he would go early morning to Mysore as he was guide to Ph.D. students there. However he was found dead in his bedroom at 7 AM on 1st May. His dead body was hanging by ceiling fan. Veins of both of his hands were cut and there were marks of injuries by sharp weapon on his chest. Disposable hand gloves along with paper cover were found lying on his bed.
A suicide note in Hindi was found near body, attempting to convey ‘it is suicide for self-liberation’ which is hardly true seeing the circumstantial evidences and buddhist principles.
It is alleged by his family members that he was killed by the person close but rival. There was no reasons whatsoever for ending his life in such tragic way. The police said that the suspense behind his murder will be open only after getting his postmortem report. But it is learnt that his dead body was put to fire soon after the postmortem giving doubts to the credence of the police! The people residing nearby are under some invisible pressure and keeping lips tight . Is this due to political pressure or caste pressure, time will tell.
Filed under: dalit atrocity | 3 Comments
Mandavgan Farata is a village in Shirur Tahasil of Pune District which is at a distance of about 90 Km from Pune City. The population of this village is approximately 12,000 whose main occupation is agriculture. The upper castes Marathas have power and influence all over the village.
This village is the biggest weekly market place for all the nearby villages which assembles on every Friday. There are four Dalit localities namely Chandan Nagar, Gayran, Garmal and Maharwada which consist of Fifteen, Ten , Forty and Twenty-Five houses, respectively. Dalits who had migrated in 1972 live in Chandan Nagar. Devoid of any land or any other source of livelihood, these people have no option except to work in the fields of Marathas as agriculture laborers. These Marathas have stronghold over this part of Baramati Lok Sabha Constituency. Therefore, there is general apprehensiveness in this village. Dalits live in constant fear due to their political clout and power within Nationalist Congress Party, one of the ruling parties in state of Maharashtra. They are not allowed to take out the procession on to the streets of the village on Dr.B.R.Ambedkar’s Birth Anniversary. But from last few years the Walke Family had started taking out the procession. So, the Marathas were having the temper against them. On 30th January 09, taking the advantage of quarrel between two Dalit families, they beat and paraded the half clad teenagers through the village. Such instances are not rare in the village. Last year, the accused Rahul Nagwade , Garud and others from upper caste Maratha, had beat and paraded a Buddhist Rahul Pralhad Kamble . But it was not reported to the police and compromise was reached on the part of accused with victim’s family through police patil of the village, Bhauso Farate alias Baba promising not to do it again. But the same kind of incident was repeated with Dalit teenagers , Balaji and Deepak on 30th January 2009. The police arrested the eighteen accused, but soon released them on the bail.
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- Pic 01 : Shattered Taramati, the mother.
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- Pic 02: Rasacked House
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- Pic 03: ‘Ideal of new world’ – first target of hatred
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- Pic 04: Acivists on Roads
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- Pic 05: Police currupt: implicating Probationary officer from S.B.I Narayan from same community on frivoulous charges
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In an another incident on 15th April, 2009, a Dalit girl from Mang Caste whose engagement was due on next day was strangulated in sugarcane farm. But the police arrested another Dalit, Narayan Kamble from same caste without giving any reasons whatsoever for the arrest. This youth is in the first year of his L.L.B.(Bachelor in Law and Legislation) and recently he was selected in the Probationary Officer’s examination by State Bank of India. He used to help other Dalits in the village for improving their lot and was giving legal guidance to Atul Walke, the brother of Balaji and Deepak who were beaten and paraded. Recently, on 25th April 09, fifteen houses from Dalit families had been burnt by the upper caste.
In all these cases, the police, under the influence of big upper caste politicians, seem to divert the attention of the people by giving it a different paint of causes. The police by protecting the accused are unleashing the terror of caste people. Without spport, the dalits in the village seem to be tense and frightened!
Filed under: dalit atrocity | 3 Comments
On the date of hearing on 24th April, the prosecution lawyer Adv.Ezaz Khan was granted condonation for the delay in appeal to the High Court in response to the defendant’s complaint. The main contention of the defendant was that since the prosecution delayed the appeal for more than 72 days, it should not be allowed and rejected outright. However, the court refused and allowed the petition of appeal.
The next date for hearing is 5th May 2009
Filed under: khairlanji developments | Leave a Comment
Bite the Caste Bullet
Caste inequities can be reduced only by highlighting caste and related differences. It’s time India Inc. went from being caste-blind to becoming caste-sensitive. Following is an article from ‘Outlook Magazine’ directly interacting with Indian Corporate Stalwarts and testing their conditioned views. Thanks BC !
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You don’t take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains, bring him to the starting line in a race and say ‘ you are free to compete with all others’, and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.”
—Former US President Lyndon B Johnson in a famous 1965 speech that laid the foundations of affirmative action there
All this while, the Tatas embraced the very neutral approach to hiring that Johnson cautioned against, and they thought they were being fair. Much of corporate India still believes in a workforce that is alive only to merit, with its dubious definitions, and blind to caste, and they think they are being fair. The numbers mock at them and tell them that scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) constitute around 24.4% of the population, but make up a fraction of the workforce, and that caste prejudices and inequalities run deep in Indian society. Yet, industry captains still don’t think they need to redefine ‘fair’.
The Tatas, though, are now doing a rethink. The $62.5 billion, 350,000 people group has finally bitten the caste bullet, and has quietly undertaken an elaborate caste profiling of its workforce across all its major companies. Over the past few months, the group gingerly distributed forms to employees, asking them to fill in their caste information if they thought it fit to do so. Says Jamshed J Irani, Director, Tata Sons: “Over 99% volunteered their caste status without much ado.” Tata veterans were surprised by the findings. “We thought we had less (dalits) than what we have,” says Irani.
Scheduled castes and tribes constitute 24.4% of the population, but make up a fraction of the private sector workforce
Once the data was collected and analysed, the group got to work correcting caste imbalances across its plants, by focusing on eastern India, for instance. Now, it is hiring, training and integrating dalits into its companies, like never before. It has put in place a “positive discrimination” policy, a deliberate bias towards dalits in the recruitment process. Under this, all else being equal between competing candidates for a job, or even if a dalit candidate’s scores are slightly lower than the others, the job would go to the dalit. This is the first time the group has shown a willingness to put caste above merit, even if only marginally so.
“I was the one who was against caste profiling and kept it at bay in the group for decades,” confesses Irani, who also heads the council for affirmative action of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). But in finally doing so now, the Tatas have shattered prevalent mores of the Indian private sector, which has been running scared of the dreaded c-word. From being a feisty supporter of the merits of being casteblind or caste-neutral, the group has flagged its clear intent of being caste-sensitive, if not caste-focused.
The Tata initiative is, perhaps, for the first time, a formal, structured, coherent caste exercise, with a clear intent, has been undertaken in corporate India. A few companies had taken reluctant, half measures to dissect their workforce and put out guesstimates when the debate on affirmative action in the private sector was triggered by the UPA government three years ago.
India has an affirmative action policy in the generic sense of the term, with reservations in the public sector and in education. The private sector, though, largely remains untouched, and that status is increasingly being questioned in achieving the desired ends.
In 2004-05, in rural areas, 47.6% of the population of STs and 35.8% of SCs were living below the poverty line; for upper castes, the corresponding figure was 16%. Even in urban areas, the difference was stark (See graphic on page 27). These numbers serve as a grim reminder of the centuries of discrimination and prejudices, overt and covert, against SCs and STs. They are a commentary on the failure of our education system and merit-based employment system to correct those inequalities and change social mores.
They are a cry that old, passive approaches have failed to uplift these disadvantaged. A new, active approach is needed, and it has to pivot around the private sector. It might be very inconvenient for the private sector to put caste above the conventional norms of merit. But that is the only way to correct centuries of deliberate and systematic injustice meted out to dalits.
But this is akin to walking a minefield. It will draw strong, explosive reactions from either side. Caste mapping in the private sector was always perceived to be fraught with danger. Industry captains felt it would only exacerbate caste divides, open old wounds and foment friction among the workforce, and lead to a loss in productivity and create turmoil on the shop-floors and in boardrooms.
“As a society, we are moving out of a caste-based system. Wouldn’t going back to caste be regressive?” asks Bharti Gupta Ramola, India Leader for Transaction Practice, PricewaterhouseCoop ers (PwC) India. While Ramola, a member of PwC’s global gender advisory council is open to debate, she hasn’t yet figured out how to approach the caste conundrum. What she is certain about is the persistence of discrimination in Indian industry. “We do tend to hire people like ourselves. Passive biases often come into play,” concedes Ramola.
‘Positive’ Reservations
Caste profiling and consequent corrective actions could also draw charges of ‘reverse discrimination’ by upper castes. Still, this is the way to go. The Tata exercise is significant for its scale, reach and the potential to change the course of the Indian private sector. A few others are also walking a similar path in their own small ways.
The Pune-based, Parsi family-owned, Rs 500 crore Forbes Marshall Group, for instance, is beginning to draw heavily from the US experience with black Americans and other minorities to craft a robust affirmative action and diversity policy. In order to shatter myths around affirmative action, what the Tatas and companies like Forbes Marshall are doing needs to become a movement, a covenant, a law. But the going has been painfully slow.
After an initial burst of bombast over the issue of inclusive growth, the government too, especially the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, had stepped off the pedal in recent times. It was earlier agreed that caste data would be the first step in the long journey of fostering affirmative action. “We cannot cripple Indian industry by imposing measures when we expect them to be competitive,” says Gopal Krishna, Joint Secretary, DIPP. “In our interactions with industry, it was made clear to us that moving from a non-caste approach to a caste-centric one would be incendiary. Therefore, we didn’t push for caste surveys.”
The stand is symptomatic of the UPA government’s ambivalent approach to affirmative action. When asked what Indian industry had to show on ‘voluntary’ affirmative action measures apart from a few, tentative skills and entrepreneurship development programmes that benefit a miniscule few, an official in the PMO turned apologist for Indian industry.
This, when governments worldwide are playing interventionist roles. In the US, for instance, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) makes it mandatory for companies with 50 or more employees and government contracts of $50,000 or more to implement a written-down affirmative action plan. For construction companies, the OFCCP can specify clear ‘goals’, or targets for employment of black Americans and minorities. Companies need to show ‘good faith’ attempts to achieve the goals outlined.
Although affirmative action is not mandatory in the US, the government there does exercise its choice of not doing business with companies unwilling to accept affirmative action plans. Few US companies can afford to ignore the billions worth of government contracts—as of late-1990s, the latest numbers available, 400,000 corporations covering about 42% of the private sector workforce are under OFCCP purview. And if they deviate from it, they have to pay. In 2008, the OFCCP won a record $67.5 million in back pay, salary and benefits for 24,508 American workers who had been subjected to employment discrimination—a 133% increase over 2001.
The goal of a casteless society can perhaps be achieved only by highlighting caste and other differences during the journey
Interestingly, while the UPA government played footsie with industry for three years, in early-2008, the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh (UP) put in place an initiative similar to OFCCP, described as “new positive reservations” in all public-private partnerships (PPP) and projects that seek government assistance in any form, be it land or subsidies. Jobs are to be reserved for SCs (21%), STs (2%) and other backward classes (27%) in all PPP projects. For government-supporte d projects, the break-up is 10% for SCs, 10% for OBCs (including religious minorities) and 10% for weaker sections of upper castes.
The effect of these “new positive reservations” should have been captured in the Rs 52,000 crore worth of infrastructure projects UP has commissioned in recent times, including the Taj and Ganga expressways. “It’s too early to say. Projects are just getting off the ground,” says VN Garg, Principal Secretary to the government of UP, who is steering the programme. “We are setting up a project-monitoring committee. Moreover, we want to tread softly, as we don’t want industry to perceive us as overbearing or as anti-industry.”
The Case For Legislation
The US and Mayawati experiences establish that legislation on affirmative action is a must. Left to its own, industry will soft -peddle the issue; even good intentions might not have the sweeping effect sought. The CII, for instance, has been implementing a voluntary affirmative action plan—proactive measures by industry to level the playing field for dalits—by improving employability through skills and entrepreneurship development programmes. As part of this, Voltas, the Rs 2,450 crore air-conditioning and engineering services major, has been supporting a well-intentioned, but under-performing, initiative in vocational training for underprivileged dalit youth at the Joseph Cardijn Technical School in Mumbai.
Among them is Kamrej Kumar of Sitamarhi in Bihar. “I was snared in the vicious drug-peddling network of Mumbai and am glad to be out of it,” he says, as he picks up the basics required of an air-conditioning mechanic. Over 180 students have gone through the course over the last few years. The present batch, however, is of five students, an appalling number in a city of 18 million. “We in industry are merely paying lip service,” says Anil J Gole, Vice-President, Human Resources, Voltas, in a surprisingly candid observation. “Affirmative action has to be mandated by legislation, by clear laws. Only then will things move.”
Legislation, however, remains elusive. Irani and his cohorts in the CII have been unable to make much headway in putting together a serious, cohesive, pan-Indian affirmative action campaign. “I wonder why he put his personal reputation on the line by leading a CII group not willing to comprehend the import of the issue or take real, corrective measures,” says D Shyam Babu, a Fellow at the Delhi-based Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies.
Babu has been involved with industry and government in the affirmative action debate along with Chandra Bhan Prasad, a dalit writer and self-taught anthropologist. The duo dismisses the entire effort as a “charade”. They are not even enthused by the Congress (I) promising, in its election manifesto, an Equal Opportunities Commission and reservations even for the economically weak upper castes in the private sector. “This only complicates matters further,” laments Prasad. “It only means nothing will be done for anyone.”
Left to its own, industry will soft -peddle the issue; even good intentions might not have the desired effect. Legislations are a must
The other big industry lobby group, the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), fares no better. Ficci even had the gall to present the government with a long quid pro quo list of tax concessions, duty exemptions and investment subsidies for putting up plants and addressing deprivation in predominantly dalit and tribal districts. While Irani affirms that the CII promise on affirmative action was “unconditional”, the general perception is that Indian industry has failed to rise to the occasion and that the government willingly played along for inexplicable reasons. “I cannot expect uniformity of approach by industry,” says Irani.
Caste Conundrums
What the Tatas are now doing is in line with global trends. The NR Madhava Menon expert group, which examined the need for an Equal Opportunities Commission, tracked trends in several democracies. Its report, submitted last year, states: “If one really wishes to work towards equality of opportunity, non-recognition of social identities is simply not an option.” This flies in the face of Indian industry’s stance of being unaware of or being blind to caste, race, religion and other differences in hiring. Their refrain has been: merit is the only criterion. This when scholars worldwide have examined the meritocracy argument to subsequently claim that merit in an objective sense doesn’t really exist and that it’s merely a social construct.
It’s a paradox: the goal of a casteless society can perhaps be achieved only by highlighting caste and other differences during the journey. “Denying the presence of caste shields status quo. It’s only with the recognition of the caste reality can Indian corporates go beyond tokenism,” says Surinder S Jodhka, Director of the Delhi-based Indian Institute of Dalit Studies (IIDS).
Farhad Forbes of the Forbes Marshall Group agrees. “If industry has to make a difference, it’s essential to pin down caste, and then track and measure corporate performance along caste-based lines,” he insists. He has made a beginning in his group by integrating the caste factor into a number of corporate functions, including that of vendor development (See page 28).
Others are not so sure. PepsiCo, a diversity leader in the US, in fact, takes an extreme position in India, despite its phenomenal work with black Americans and minorities. “Even if the government mandates caste surveys, we will oppose it by seeking legal options,” says Pavan Bhatia, Executive Director, Human Resources, PepsiCo India.
Supplier Diversity
“Positive discrimination is on a higher plane than affirmative action to help the downtrodden
—Jamshed J Irani, Director, Tata Sons
The IIDS, in 2007, conducted a series of studies in India along with the Princeton University that confirmed that dalits and other minorities are discriminated against in the Indian jobs market; it’s endemic, irrespective of what captains of Indian industry might claim. Farhad Forbes seconds this. “Personal prejudices inevitably manifest as discrimination. Without a doubt, discrimination is prevalent in the private sector,” adds Forbes, who is particularly bothered about the muslim community.
“Even if the government mandates caste surveys, we will oppose it by seeking legal options
—Pavan Bhatia, Executive Director, HR, PepsiCo India
Discrimination manifests itself in many ways besides in the realm of hiring and jobs. “Why is it that a majority of vendors, distributors and dealers of Bajaj Auto belong to a particular community?” asks Milind Kamble of the Dalit India Chamber of Commerce and Industries, a rag-tag support group of dalit entrepreneurs in Pune.
It is in this context that ‘supplier diversity’, an unfamiliar term in Indian corporate lingo, acquires meaning. Large corporations committed to supplier diversity seek and support businesses owned by the disadvantaged: dalits, minorities, women. “If such empowering concepts and tools take root in India, it will indeed be a boon for companies like mine,” says Kalpana Saroj, Chairperson, Kamani Tubes. Saroj, a dalit businesswoman who grew up in Mumbai’s slums, recently acquired the sick company and is trying to resurrect it back to life (See page 38).
“Affirmative action has to be mandated by legislation, by clear laws. Only then will things move
—Anil J Gole, Vice-President, HR, Voltas
Supplier diversity is an area where companies can make a huge difference. About 3,500 corporate members of the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) in the US did transactions worth $104.7 billion with Asian, black, hispanic and native American businesses in 2007. Johnson Controls alone did $1.3 billion of business with 276 minority-owned companies, which supported about 11,000 jobs and paid $251 million in salaries. Th irteen US corporations that have come together as the Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR), including General Motors, Ford, Verizon and Wal-Mart, source products and services in excess of $1 billion annually from minority and disadvantaged suppliers.
The US government too pitches in. In surface transportation, rules stipulate that 10% of federal money should go to minority and women contractors. In the space programme, the figure is 8%. There are several rules favouring contracts to Asian-Americans, Tongans, even Hasidic Jewish Americans! In India, the Madhya Pradesh government, under Digvijay Singh, had put in place a similar piece of legislation, but a regime change rendered it useless.
Caste As An Advantage
In India, still, only a small, but growing, section of industry is seeing merit in diversity. Concepts in diversity and related terms —like affirmative action, positive discrimination, equal opportunity and supplier diversity—are creeping into boardrooms in India, primarily due to the activism of a few MNCs exposed to these concepts in the US and elsewhere. However, this clutch of MNCs in India—PepsiCo, P&G and IBM, for instance—have skirted the dalit and caste issue, and have put diversity frameworks in place with a focus only on gender or the differently- abled.
The Dalit Solidarity Network (DSN) in the UK has been trying to amend the situation. Meera Verma, Director of DSN, is lobbying with MNCs to include caste in their diversity frameworks by getting them to sign on the ‘Ambedkar principles’, a set of guidelines the network has formulated. Verma believes an MNC cannot have an effective global statement on diversity that “fights shy of being country- or culture-specific within particular contexts” and that “any diversity initiative in India has to focus primarily on caste”. There is no escaping caste in India as PepsiCo India is trying to do.
A subtle change of heart can be spied among some MNCs. HSBC recently signed on the Ambedkar principles and is beginning to comprehend the caste complexities in India. The bank has added ‘caste’ as a non-discriminatory factor in its employment policy.
As the affirmative action and diversity debate gains maturity, there is a need to better understand the numerous terminologies. There is a tendency to use affirmative action and diversity interchangeably. There are subtle differences. In an affirmative action approach, the emphasis is on levelling the playing field, and employers are expected to make an effort to hire, train and promote employees of previously excluded groups. It is numbers-oriented.
Diversity management goes further, and focuses on changing mindsets, organisation culture. It’s strategy-driven and is seen as contributing to the organisational goals of profit, productivity and morale. Diversity management builds on affirmative action.
Indian companies are slowly recognising the virtues of diversity as the business case comes out of the shadows. “When there is no diversity, it constrains thinking. Differing viewpoints enrich the workplace. It doesn’t diminish. It enhances the competitive advantage of a company,” explains Forbes.
Worldwide experiences with African-Americans, hispanics and other minorities, even with dalits in India, have recorded the fact that the disadvantaged work harder. “Tapping from these communities also improves efficiencies. Attrition is very low,” says Irani.
“There is a huge amount of idealism among dalits. Non-dalits lack this idealism, and hence, oft en under-perform,” explains Chandra Bhan Prasad. “It is this great sociological phenomenon that American companies harness. US corporations seek black talent and get it in plenty. Three decades ago, black talent seemed absent, since no one sought it.” The dalit situation in India is similar and it can be harnessed in a similar transformational way. Corporate India has to take the lead.
What’s In A Name?
For dalits looking to break into business, evidently, a lot
Mukund Kamble and Mukund Kamalakar. They are similar sounding names, but vastly different in the social identities they betray and the responses they evoke. And in a city like Pune—progressive and egalitarian on the surface, yet conservative beneath—names can mean a lot.
It can mean battling overt and covert discrimination, or easy acceptance and assimilation. Kamalakar, from a scheduled caste (SC), realised this early on, while in college—he changed his surname from the castegiveaway ‘Kamble’ to the brahmanical ‘Kamalakar’. “The attitudinal change in the people and groups I interacted with then on was remarkable. Access into the competitive world was so much easier,” says Kamalakar, who now owns a flourishing solar equipment manufacturing unit, Suryatech Solar Systems.
He flaunts the usual trappings of a successful entrepreneur, including a swanky sedan, and is certain that he couldn’t have established himself in business with a surname like Kamble, especially in the initial years. “What is critical for dalits is the initial break-in, the access,” he says. “Once you prove your worth in whatever you attempt, you are accepted.” Some of his business associates have stumbled upon his dalit moorings, but now they don’t really mind.
Kamalakar’s turnover, today, exceeds Rs 1 crore. He has a customer base of over 4,000, a majority from the upper castes, for they are the ones who comprehend the benefits of renewable energy and also have the money to invest. The Erandawane-Kothrud stretch of the city, teeming with upwardly mobile upper castes, is where he cut his teeth in business.
He, however, concedes he is an exception and that not all dalit entrepreneurs can adopt his ways; and, therefore, the need for an enabling and facilitating environment for dalits to turn entrepreneurs. He rues the fact that as a first-generation dalit entrepreneur, he has no network he can tap into, unlike the marwaris or other traditional business communities.
“I couldn’t secure a bank loan of a mere Rs 1 lakh to set up an inverter manufacturing unit, even after trying for years,” recalls Avinash Gawai of Media4U, a consultancy. He had to abandon his ken for manufacturing and veer towards the services sector.
Both Kamalakar and Gawai are members of the fledgling Dalit India Chamber of Commerce and Industries (DICCI) in Pune, a 100-member support group for dalit businessmen and entrepreneurs, that wants to, among other things, press for a state where such namedropping is not called for.
A Measure Of Diversity
A new index quantifies a company’s diversity—and links incentives to it
The caste-profiling exercise undertaken by the Tatas and a few others is timely as the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs has crafted a ‘diversity index’, which companies and institutions may have to deploy to measure their diversity performance. That is, if a political consensus emerges on its utility.
The idea of the index is to link it up with a bevy of tax concessions, funds and other subsidies the government often doles out to industry. The quantum of incentives for a particular company may be decided on the basis of its score on the index. A value of ‘1’ on the band is an organisation with high diversity and ‘0’ is low. Underperformers are to be penalised.
A diversity index is basically a rating of an organisation at the micro or national level based on its employment profile. The index, developed by an expert group appointed by the ministry, limits itself to religion, caste and gender. “We didn’t want to burden the index with too many responsibilities,” says Amitabh Kundu, Chairman of the expert group and professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, on why the differently- abled, for instance, were left out from its purview.
A key proposition of the mechanism is the “eligible population”. For instance, a company’s record on supporting muslims will be measured on the basis of the muslim population eligible for a post in the region it operates in. Similarly, a diversity score for a large group like the Tatas can be determined on a national basis.
Again, the index lays emphasis on “vertical integration”, which means a company cannot merely focus on bluecollar workers, for instance, and claim it’s a diversity champion, while the higher categories remain untouched. “An index-driven system is more flexible and acceptable than a rigid reservation or quota-based system,” says Kundu, even as he insists that reservations may continue for a while in the public sector and other spaces. “Quotas and an index mechanism can co-exist.”
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Last month C.B.I. submitted the petition in Nagpur Bench of High Court In Khairlanji Massacre Case after a lapse of around six months. The readers may recall that on 24th September 08, trial court in Bhandara had convicted eight accused among which six were punished with capital punishment and other two were sentenced with life imprisonment. The accused punished with hang till death were Sakru Binjewar, Shatrughna Dhande, Vishwanath Dhande, Ramu Dhande, Jagdish Mandalekar and Prabhakar Mandalekar. Gopal Binjewar and Shishuapal Dhande had been delivered life imprisonment. Three of the accused were acquitted of all the charges. The C.B.I. in its petition appealed the high court against acquittal of three accused and acquittal of other eight accused from the charges Prevention of Atrocity Act u/s 3(1)(x), 3(1)(xi), 3(2)(v) & 3(2)(vi). It also asked the court for enhancement of punishment of hang till death to the accused sentenced with life imprisonments.
However, it took a revision petition from Akhil Bhartiya Dhammasena , Nagpur, a social organisation founded under leadership of Ven. Surai Sasai, asking the court to give directions to prosecution for submitting the appeal. The petition was submitted on behalf of victim, Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange. Earlier, the prosecuting lawyer from C.B.I., Adv. Ejaj Khan had been removed from the case. But timely action from vigilant activists averted it and he was given the original charge of the case. This once again shows that unless we are awake to the demands of justice, the judiciary does not take care to act. So, the time has arrived to dust off our intermittent apathy and amnesia and be watchful over our rights. The next date for hearing in high court is on 24th April 09 when the accused will be questioned over the admission of their crimes. If they deny, which is obvious, the arguments will be carried on. The defendants too have submitted their petition for the acquittal of accused. Their main contention will be the false implications of the accused on the basis of delay of 72 days when the C.B.I. came into picture and recorded the witnesses’ statements.
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That was 14th April
The day 14th April has special significance for human history for the direction it set by witnessing a birth of an Enlighened being. Everywhere in the world the day is celebrated every year from japan, Korea, Europe to Orissa and North East. We salute this great architect of Modern India and a role model,Dr Ambedkar, has given apt tool to fight against nuisances of neo-liberalism in todays context. Asian Human rights center celebrates this occassion by producing a nice piece. Let’s read what Basil Fernando has to say..
B.R. Ambedkar was a man whose work unraveled the unique nature of the master-servant relationship in South Asia. Today is the anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar s birth. Born to the family of an untouchable on April 14th 1891, Dr. Ambedkar was destined to reveal the central mystery of the South Asian social relationship which, has for its grounding a system of human grading or branding based on a classification known as the caste system. From his lifetime until now, the understandingof this issue has spread from small groups of militant intellectuals and activists to one that has spread into mainstream thinking, not only in South Asia but also throughout the world. Mahatma Gandhi spoke of Ambedkar as one of the few who had taken the radical stance of the interpretation of the entire history of India on the basis of caste. However, if that was a radical view then that is no longer the case. Today there is almost unanimous acceptance that without paying serious attention to the implication of the system that is called caste, there is hardly any possibility of understanding South Asian society, culture or politics. The same can be said of the understanding of South Asian conflicts which, in recent decades have turned into some of the world s most violence clashes. In the understanding of these clashes insight into the work of Ambedkar could be an enormous resource. In fact, much of the analysis of these clashes and conflicts is poorer for the lack of attention to the central issue of caste and its implications on countries where Indian culture had a foundational influence. Two well known creative writers in India through their work have brought the issue of caste into mainstream contemporary thought. Arundhati Roy, in her work, the God of Small Things and Aravind Adiga, in his novel the White Tiger have based their stories around the social behaviour rooted in the caste system. Aravind Adiga makes this more explicit. He writes:The greatest thing to come out of this country in the ten thousand years of its history is the Rooster Coop. Go to Old Delhi, behind the Jama Masjid, and look at the way they keep chickens there in the market. Hundreds of pale hens and brightly coloured roosters, stuffed tightly into wire-mesh cages, packed as tightly as worms in a belly, pecking each other and shitting on each other, jostling just for breathing space; the whole cage giving off a horrible stench the stench of terrified, feathered flesh. On the wooden desk above this coop sits a grinning young butcher, showing off the flesh and organs of a recently chopped-up chicken, still oleaginous with a coating of dark blood. The roosters in the coop smell the blood from above. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they re next. Yet they do not rebel.They do not try to get out of the coop.The very same thing is done with human beings in this country.Watch the roads in the evenings in Delhi; sooner or later you will see a man on a cycle-rickshaw, pedaling down the road, with a giant bed, or a table, tied to the cart that is attached to his cycle. Every day furniture is delivered to people s homes by this man the delivery- man. A bed costs five thousand rupees, maybe six thousand. Add the chairs, and a coffee table, and it s ten or fifteen thousand. A man comes on a cycle-cart, bringing you this bed, table, and chairs,a poor man who may make five hundred rupees a month. He unloads all this furniture for you, and you give him the money in cash a fat wad of cash the size of a brick. He puts it into his pocket, or into his shirt, or into his underwear, and cycles back to his boss and hands it over without touching a single rupee of it! A year s salary, two years salary, in his hands, and he never takes a rupee of it. Every day, on the roads of Delhi, some chauffeur is driving an empty car with a black suitcase sitting on the backseat. Inside that suitcase is a million, two million rupees; more money than that chauffeur will see in his lifetime. If he took the money he could go to America, Australia, anywhere, and start a new life. He could go inside the five-star hotels he has dreamed about all his life and only seen from the outside. He could take his family to Goa, to England. Yet he takes that black suitcase where his master wants. He puts it down where he is meant to, and never touches a rupee. Why? Because Indians are the world s most honest people, like the prime minister s booklet will inform you? No. It s because per cent of us are-caught in the Rooster Coop just like those poor guys in the poultry market.The Rooster Coop doesn t always work with minuscule sums of money. Don t test your chauffeur with a rupee coin or two he may well steal that much. But leave a million dollars in front of a servant and he won t touch a penny. Try it: leave a black bag with a million dollars in a Mumbai taxi. The taxi driver will call the police and return the money by the day s end. I guarantee it. (Whether the police will give it to you or not is another story, sir!) Masters trust their servants with diamonds in this country! It s true. Every evening on the train out of Surat, where they run the world s biggest diamond- cutting and polishing business, the servants of diamond merchants are carrying suitcases full of cut diamonds that they have to give to someone in Mumbai. Why doesn t that servant take the suitcase full of diamonds? He s no Gandhi, he s human, he s you and me. But he s in the Rooster Coop. The trustworthiness of servants is the basis of the entire Indian economy.
The Great Indian Rooster Coop. Do you have something like it in China too? I doubt it, Mr Jiabao. Or you wouldn’t need the Communist Party to shoot people and a secret police to raid their houses at night and put them in jail like I ve heard you have over there. Here in India we have no dictatorship. No secret police. That’s because we have the coop. Never before in human history have so few owed so much to so many, Mr Jiabao. A handful of men in this country have trained the remaining 99.9 per cent as strong, as talented, as intelligent in every way to exist in perpetual servitude; a servitude so strong that you can put the key of his emancipation in a man s hands and he will throw it back at you with a curse.You ll have to come here and see it, for yourself to believe it. Every day millions wake up at ,dawn stand in dirty, crowded buses get off at their masters posh houses and then clean the floors, wash the dishes, weed the garden, feed their children, press their feet all for a pittance. I will never envy the rich of America or England, Mr Jiabao: they have no servants there. They cannot even begin to understand what a good life is.
Now, a thinking man like you, Mr Premier, must ask two questions. Why does the Rooster Coop work? How does it trap so many millions of men and women so effectively?Secondly, can a man break out of the coop? What if one day, forinstance, a driver took his employer s money and ran? What would his life be like? I will answer both for you, sir.The answer to the first question is that the pride and glory of our nation, the repository of all our love and sacrifice, the subject of no doubt considerable space in the pamphlet that the prime minister will hand over to you, the Indian family, is the reason we are trapped and fled to the coop.The answer to the second question is that only a man who is prepared to see his family destroyed hunted, beaten, and burned alive by the masters can break out of the coop. That would take no normal human being, but a freak, a pervert of nature.The understanding of punishment within the caste context involves two components. One was that the punishment far exceeded, in proportion,the alleged offense. For example an untouchable who is not supposed to learn meditation and the practices of yogis may be punished with death for doing so as demonstrated in the story of Sambuka, or an untouchable boy who is not supposed to learn archery may have his thumb cut off for having done so arbitrarily. Coming down even to the modern day are examples of children being blinded for looking at a TV screen at a shop belonging to an upper caste person or people being punished for drinking water in a glass instead of using the utensils that are allowed for the lower castes. However, the spread of the concept of punishing the poor in the severest possible ways has become inbuilt into the criminal justice systems of the countries in the region. Even today, the prisons are full of the poor who, of course, at the same time belong to the so-called lower castes. Torture meted out at police stations and prisons is also directed towards this same class of persons. The second aspect of punishment within the caste system is that it is collective. As Aravind Adiga has graphically explained, for thetransgressions of any single person the entire family will be massacred. This message is written deep in the psyche of all persons and acts as a motivating factor on matters regarding safety at the deepest levels of their minds.Another talented India thinker Dr. D.R. Nagaraj, in his famous study called the Flaming Feet the Study of the Dalit Movement, wrote: The important thing here is that the entire community of Dalits is punished for the offence committed by a single individual. That traditional society in India has never accepted the concept of individual should not make us blind towards the working of the caste ethos here. When similar offences are committed by an individual of upper caste he is always treated as an individual, and his act is not linked to his community. In other words, the notion of the individual is preserved in the context of deviant behaviour of the upper castes. We are yet to hear the news of a village boycotting an upper caste for a crime, that too a petty one, committed by one of its members. In Indian literature there are enough descriptions of the unpardonable violation of ethical codes of society, but only the individual concerned is held responsible. To put it differently, one of the chief characteristics of the caste system is to attribute certain inerasable traits to each caste, and they are even judged in moral terms: the superiority of the caste is indeed decided by its rank and station in the hierarchy. A careful analysis of proverbs and popular sayings of Indian languages will reveal the hidden and not so hidden biases and prejudices of the caste system. When it comes to understanding the nature of virtues and vices of a social stratification, the caste system accepts the collective category as the criterion. While confronting deviant behaviour of upper castes the individual is used to explain away the aberration, but in the context of lower castes the category of the individual is never accepted as legitimate. Such at least is the value system that informs the eruption of violence against the untouchables. To give a charitable reading of this phenomenon one could say that the charges in historical situation have intensified the hypocritical behaviour of the caste society which was under check in the pre-conflict situation. Recent conflicts and the caste based habits of disproportionate and collective punishment. The tracing of many of the existing violent conflicts in South Asia would clearly demonstrate that one of the most important contributory factors that continue to contribute to these conflicts is the culturally inherited habits of disproportionate and collective punishment towards the weaker sections of society. Many conflicts which have today blown up into so much violence that they have come to the notice of the global community are often the result of a limited protest of one or another weaker group within society, protesting on some issue and being subjected to disproportionate and collective punishment. The use of police fire power against small groups engaged in protests and the use of state sponsored riots to retaliate against some violent act done by a militant group has later developed into the type of crises that has undermined the stability of entire nations.
The use of disproportionate and collective punishment by those in power leads the more self-conscious sections among the protestors to take precautions for their security by adopting methodologies that can equal the ways of disproportionate and collective punishment of their opponents. In this way a conflict is magnified from its very inception because of the fear of annihilation by such disproportionate and collective punishment.In this kind of conflict those who represent the state develop the ideology of the total annihilation of the opponent. In preparation for this the protestors also acquire a similar mentality and prepare themselves for a kind of battle which has, for its aim, the annihilation of the state counterparts. Such conflicts defy any form of resolution by way of agreements arrived at on the basis of the mutual understanding of each others legitimate positions. Even the very thought of a dialogue or compromise does not enter into a mindset that is full of fear of disproportionate and collective punishment.The state, when faced with a conflict abandons the rule of law rapidly. The concept of the rule of law is based on the idea of proportionality of punishment to the offense and the total rejection of collective punishment. Within the rule of law context offenders are always individuals and it is the guilt or otherwise of the individual that the judicial system deals with. By this means the rule of law system when properly used prevents the conflicts degenerating into collective conflicts. When the state abandons the rule of law and goes back to the cultural habits of trying to deal with opponents with ideologies of annihilation there is no room for any mediators to deal with the parties to the conflict with a view to bring about a rational discourse leading to settlements which both sides can accept as legitimate. While almost all leaders of the independence movements in South Asian countries attempt to romanticise and glorify the cultural traditions of their countries, B.R. Ambedkar alone raised the issue of the internal contradictions which were inherent within all cultural traditions which had the Indian culture as its core by pointing to the nature of the master-servant relationship within this setup rooted in the organisation of caste. By raising this issue he provided the basis for the understanding of conflicts in the post independence societies of South Asia. His life and work and the enormous amount of writings that he left behind remain a guide to the understanding of the type of conflicts that many people have thought of as defying any kind of rational understanding.
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A trial court here on Saturday acquitted all the 10 accused in the Narayanpur massacre case in Bihar’s Jehanabad district in which 11
Dalits were shot dead by the banned Ranvir Sena 10 years ago, for want of evidence.
Additional district and sessions judge, Jehanabad, Shambhu Nath Mishra, acquitted them as the prosecution failed to establish the charge against the accused beyond reasonable doubt.
Eleven Dalits, including five women, had been shot dead on February 10, 1999, by suspected members of the Ranvir Sena, a militia of upper caste landowners, as part of a series of caste killings perpetrated by the Sena and CPI-ML (Liberation), which were then locked in a bloody turf war in several districts of Bihar.
The incident, coupled with some others caste killings by the Sena and ML, led to public outrage against the then Rabri Devi government and the state was brought under President’s Rule for 25 days between February 12, 1999 and March 8, 1999 by the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
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At 10 am on Friday, people poured into the Sardar Patel shopping centre at Patan which houses the fast-track court trying the Patan rape case.
Some policemen were standing guard outside the complex. A casual conversation with them revealed that the verdict in the gangrape case would be passed at 11 am. The verdict, however, was delivered only at 3 pm.
During the 4-hour-long wait for the start of the final proceedings of the court, Aarti Parmar, wife of the accused Ashwin Parmar, and his father, caused a great deal of commotion outside courtroom.
The two blamed the media for the ‘injustice’ that was being done to Parmar and others accused in the case. Parmar’s wife shouted cuss words at all those involved in the case against her husband, including the 18-year-old Dalit girl student who was gangraped, the media, special public prosecutor Naina Bhatt and the Navsarjan executive director, Manjula Pradeep.
Most family members of the other accused refused to talk to the media. Some of them alleged that the entire case was a ‘conspiracy’, and that Bharti Patel (the Patan PTC teacher who was the whistleblower in the multiple gangrape case), the victim, and Bela Chaudhary were the ‘chief conspirators’.
While a packed courtroom waited for the verdict, at 3 pm a police officer asked media-persons who were already in the courtroom, to leave the court. He said that media-persons could not stay in the courtroom as it was an in-camera hearing.
The media-persons, however, argued that there was going to be no in-camera hearing and that the court was going to deliver the verdict in the case that day. After a brief argument, the journalists prevailed over the police officer and were allowed to watch the proceedings.
The proceedings began just after 3:00 pm. Fast-track court judge SC Shrivastav pronounced the accused guilty and gave both sides some time to submit their arguments in the case.
During her submission, special public prosecutor Naina Bhatt, said, “A woman’s silence is not a sign of stupidity, but it is her weapon, the weapon of truth.” Defence lawyers argued that as the accused belonged to the noble profession of teaching and had taught many students, their sentences should be reduced.
Bhatt recited the traditional mantra for the Guru and said that the relationship between a student and her teacher was held in high esteem till the Patan incident. “But the heinous crime of the accused had maligned the teaching profession. They should, therefore, be given a harsh punishment,” she said.
Judge Shrivastav then adjourned the court till 4:45 pm.
The relatives of the accusedsaid the accused were ready to take a narco-test to prove their innocence. “They were not given a fair chance to defend themselves,” a relative said. “Even now, if they get the media’s support, the accused would like to take the narco-test.”
When the court reassembled for the verdict, the judge sentenced the accused to life imprisonment. On hearing the sentence, the relatives of the accused broke down and started weeping. Kiran Patel’s wife refused to leave the campus without him.
Kiran Patel’s advocate Bharat Barot said, “The sentence is too harsh. We will certainly move the Gujarat high court against the verdict.”
Source: DNA
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Rohidas Tupe was stoned to death by the Castiest hooligans last week. He belonged to ex-untouchable, Mang community from Pal Taluka, Fulambari Dist rict of Aurangabad.
The story goes like this-
Rohidas Tupe and Vaishali Vitthal Jadhav were class mates in school days. She belonged to Maratha community, an upper caste. Rohidas coming from ex-untouchable background was witty and cleaver that made him distinct personality in school. Vaishali got attracted to him and became friends. Due to caste biases the situation became difficult for both. When her parents came to know about this, he admonished Rohidas and pressurised his father to make him leave the school.
Rohidas and Vaishali could manage some time after school to meet. Vaishali’s father came to know the meetings, he gotten angry to which she did not pay heed to.
Post-schooling, Rohdas went to Aurangabad for further education. Despite opposition the friendship did not stop. Mr Jadhav, the father, attempted to poison Rohidas on several accounts. Even Rohidas was once admitted to the hospital. He recovered in long time.
Mr Jadhav additionally registered a false case against Rohidas under IPC section 354. Police arrested Rohidas but he got bail immediately. Since 2007, Rohidas was working with a pharmaceutical company that improved his living standards. Warnings from home, Vaishali would still meet Rohidas. Mr. Jadhav realised that he could not separate both so he finally decided to revenge on him, to exterminate him. The ire of uppercaste barons in the village who were against such allience was also at threshhold. They fuelled Mr Jadhav and extended every kind of animistic help in the forthcoming revenge game.
On the fateful day of 23rd Feb 2009, Mahashivratri Hindu festival was in force, Rohidas arrived in the village, he visited the Mahadeo temple. Soon the uppercaste villagers gathered upfront and cought him. They seem to have started beating him up. They took him to statue of King Shivaji where his cloths were removed. Rohidas was tied up to electricity poll and was bitten in blues by mob. Villager threw chilli powder and salt on the his wounds. When Rohidas asked water to drink, animal named ‘Bau Tejrao Jadhav’ urinated in his mouth. Kerosene was thrown on his body. Whole episode was shamelessly witnessed by the village mob of 150 just similar to Khairlanji. Most of them took part in the hienous process, beating to him till death. Rohidas died soon.
• In this village Police patil name Ramesh Reshwal an ex-utouchable (Chamar caste) rang Fulawari police station. Two policemen came in but villagers pelted stones at them. They returned and demanded more police but Rohidas died much earlier. In this case police Patil and both two police constable are applicant.
• Soon after the incidence Dalit colony was terrorized by some upper castes goons. This introduced height of fear among the suffering community.
• It is later learnt that there is is huge anger among Maratha community due to Dalit awareness on Land rights. Dalits are seen fighting a legal battle for ownership of grazing land of 450 acres. They know much of law than the police here due to higher education. Irony is most of uppercasre are still powerful with muscle and money . They are hurdle in giving lawful rights to Dalits whereas in many instances they hold even Grazing land unlawfully. There is no end to the suggering if the civil society doesn’t come to rescue of peace loving progressive Dalits.
Election are near every uppercaste is posing with a Gandhian hat in an ugly gait.
Mr. Gandhi, Are you listening? What does Panchayati raj mean to your educated upper caste brother for whom you secured political freedom and ran away from social equality?
Is it your own religious way to establish a Ramrajya where Dalits are butchered every day like animals despite thier lofty education?
( The converted buddhists after Dr Ambedkar in Maharastra are making roads to equality every day and soon crossing 85% literacy rate mark far above national average.)
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Shindi: Accused gets bail
The result is the same, the system protects prejudice. Only way to suffering ex-untouchables is to leave the village.
The district court today granted a bail to the accused and in spur of moment these demons have shaped into community heros for their deeds, terrifying the victims more. The judgement has increased their appetite for unlisted malpractices. That suggests now Shinde’s will have to vacate the village. If not they will be summarily punished till life ends with caste-community veto.
In the subsequent even the Supritendent of Police is also transfered. What happens to the legal course and Police investigations will not be much, if in such situation the victims get justice then it would be miracle.
Meanwhile the activist from CHR are helping morally the suffering family in Shindi
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‘Rape !’, It’s a Caste order
RAPE OF DALIT GIRL AT PIPALGAON SADAK , Tahsil- Lakhni, District- Bhandara, MAHARASHTRA. Our correspondant Sandeep reports…
Many of us must have read about this incidence from different sources, but to get detail first hand information, I asked one of my friend to visit the place and find the real facts regarding the actual incidence. My friend Vinod visited Pimpalgaon and asked the brother of the victim girl regarding this whole incidence. He came up with several facts which are very much shocking. Actual case as published in the newspapers is just a tip of the iceberg . The newspapers have written – the 17 year old girl , while returning to her home , after taking some groceries from local shop was abused by three fellows, taken to nearby tank , and raped. Police has arrested 3 accused and the inquiry is still going on. The actual information which I got speaks up a very different story. Actually it all started with the social tension that has arisen between the dalits and other castes during the time of Dhammachakra Pravartan Day celebrations. Before the incidence took place the victimized family had quarrels with their neighbour named Ramkrushna Behre aged 28 years. He decided to take revenge and got a chance when the girl was returning from the grocery shop taking match box with her at around 8 pm . It needs to be mentioned that her home is away from the locality and the road leading to her home was quiet deserted at that time.
Shameless Newspapers reporting only three fellows were involved in the case but actually there were five . One of them named as Ramesh Jivtode is 37 year old. All five of them took her to nearby Talab ( a small Lake )and gang raped her in turn. Finally they tried to kill her by dipping her in water. Once they were assured that the girl is dead they left the body and returned back . In fact the girl was not dead but had got unconcious. When she regained her senses, she came back to home and narrated the whole incidence to the family. She was then taken to the nearby PHC at Lakhni. She was examined their for evidences of rape and then case was lodged in police station. The accused were arrested and are in Police remand. But the shocking thing is that only 3 of them have been arrested and remainng two are still at large. One of the friend of girl named Chaya acted as witness and told whole story to the police as narrated to her by the suffering girl.
Already tainted Local political leader Mr Nana Patole then came into picture . He tried to put a premature end to the case. The family of the vistim was offered monetary help to allure them and withdraw the case. Family was even tortured by saying that they will be killed if they don¢t give in. Most interesting part of the story is statement of Chhaya the witness ; she was taken by police at local office of Chhava sangram parishad a organization headed by nana patole , organization imfamous for spreading hatred between Dalits and OBCs. The whole case is all about the atrocities faced by dalits but still atrocity act has not been lodged on the accused. The whole victimized family and the witness are pressurized by the influential people of the local area. The two doctors who examined the body are well known to us and their report can be obtained. Case is very sensitive but due to the lacunas in our system and absence of our pressure groups in our society , the fate of the case may be just like 100s of such cases of Dalit atrocities where the culprits go unpunished. So I request all of you to create substantial mechanism which will take care of such happenings in the future. There is need of organizational support to the victimized family and that must be provided. Hoping for the better future when we will be ruling and no one will dare to see towards our women with bad intensions. more details available soon….
Filed under: dalit atrocity | 28 Comments
Tags: Nana Padole, Pimpalgaon
Violation of fundamental rights enshrined in Constitution of India by proposing features like section 4 under ‘The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation in Posts and Services) Bill 2008’
With reference to above mentioned subject, we people of the unprivileged community of India would like to bring the following facts in your kind notice for necessary and immediate action:
1. Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment (Article 16) and Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth (Article 15) are vital section of the Fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. These Articles of Constitution cannot be amended by a simple majority in both the Houses of parliament. Also parliament can’t make law prohibiting these essential rights.
2. The proposed features like section 4 under ‘The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation in Posts and Services) Bill 2008’ are unwarranted and violate the fundamental rights enshrined under Article 16 (Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment). According to Art 16 (1)-There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State.
(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State.
3. According the Constitution of India, in the name of national importance can’t make any rules to discriminate SC/ST population. Nowhere in the world is government makes a law to discriminate their oppressed population projecting something important and hence should have exclusion policy (against SC/ST in India). Rather the most prestigious institutes should be first to implement the affirmative action policies.
4. Most of the institutions amongst 47 mentioned under section 4 schedule of the proposed bill, have SC/ST reservation policy of Indian constitution. Central government can’t put forth a bill which violets the basic fundamental rights of Constitution. If central government wants to enact a law to discriminate SC/ST faculties in public institutions, government need to amend the Art.15, Art 16 and all other basic structure of Constitution. Such amendment is not possible under the constitutional law of the Indian nation. Article 13 (2) provides for the protection of the fundamental rights of the citizen and change the basic structure of the constitution. Parliament and the state legislatures are clearly prohibited from making laws that may take away or abridge the fundamental rights guaranteed to the citizen.
5. As you are aware that SC/ST representation in teaching posts in the Central Universities, IITs, IIMs, NITs and other Institutes of higher education is negligible even after 62 years of independence of India. We hope that you are very well familiar about the reasons for this situation.
6. First time in the year 2005, the Govt. of India, MHRD vide their order No. 6-30/2005 U-5 dated 6th December, 2005 has directed the UGC to implement the SC/ST reservation on teaching posts in Central Universities and Institutes which are deemed to be Universities receiving grants from Govt. of India. Consequently, the UGC directed all the Central Universities and other Institutes to implement the SC/ST reservation on all the teaching posts such as Lecturer, Reader and Professor and by whatever other nomenclature the posts are known. The same type of order was sent by MHRD to IITs in June, 2008. These orders were validated by the Hon`ble Supreme Court in case of SC/ST. Moreover, in these orders only posts were made reserved and no relaxation was given to SC/ST candidates in eligibility criteria to maintain the standard of higher education.
7. Working Group Report of the “DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION OF SC/ST/MINORITIES/GIRLS AND OTHER DISADVANTAGED GROUPS” for 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012) states that the teaching and other posts in the universities and other institutions should be filled as per the reservation policy without any dilution. UGC should make strict rules and regulations to fill in the post of reserved category. Defaulting universities or affiliated colleges should not be granted financial support or any grants.
8. The policy guidelines mentioned in Para 2 above are in infant stage and being formulated for implementation by the Central Universities and IITs. In the same time the Govt. of India is going to pass ‘The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation in Posts and Services) Bill 2008’ in the Parliament, whose only objective is to end the representation of the SC/ST community from the premier and resourceful institutes of higher education.
9. The most disappointing parts of the above said bill are clause (iii) and clause (iv) of subsection (1) of section 4, according to which there is no reservation to posts higher than the lowest grade of group ‘A’ posts and classified as scientific and technical post; and to posts higher than the lowest grade of group ‘A’ posts in institutions of national importance and Indian Institutes of Management specified in the Schedule. It means that there will be no SC/ST teacher in IITs and very few SC/ST teachers in Central Universities (total 47 educational institutes at present and more can be added). Therefore, section (4) of the bill is against to the existing reservation policy mentioned in Para 2 and that will result in bad to worse condition of SC/ST community in higher education.
10. The Banaras Hindu University itself has around 2300 teaching posts. As an average all the 47 institutes mentioned in the Schedule have twenty three thousand and five hundred (47×500 = 23500) teaching posts and as per the recommendations of Sixth Pay commission, all of them are higher than the lowest grade of group ‘A’. Thus around 5287 posts out of which many can be filled by the SC/ST candidates are being exempted from the preview of reservation. Most of the Universities have affiliated colleges also (more than 100 colleges are affiliated with DU) and therefore, this number may go up to 10 thousand.
11. It is worth to mention that there is no representation of the members of SC/ST community in the Executive Boards and Selection Committees constituted for the recruitment of teachers in higher educational institutes. History is evident that the merit of candidates belonging to SC/ST category is ignored by the selection committee when they apply under general category. Further, due to negligible representation of SC/ST candidates on teaching posts in the universities, the SC/ST students face lot of difficulties in completing their projects and Ph.D. etc; and welfare schemes for SC/ST students also do not run successfully.
12. In the present bill, nothing has been mentioned about the ban on de-reservation, steps to stop the discrimination with SC/ST candidates in selection committees and panel action against the defaulter officers. Moreover, in this Bill all the existing provisions for SC/ST reservation on teaching posts in Central Universities and other Higher Educational Institutes mentioned in Para 2 above have been weaken and an instrument (subsection 2 of section 4) has been provided to prevent the SC/ST candidates from entering into the higher education. One day, Govt. of India will declare the Parliament as an Institute of National Importance and therefore no reservation for SC/ST in the seats of MPs/MLAs.
13. You are the only politician in the country who is carrying forward the Dalit Movement initiated by Baba Saheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. In the present situation you are the only reliable person who can raise voice in the Parliament against the Reservation Bill -2008.
In view of the above facts, you are humbly requested for the following necessary action which is required for the overall upliftment of the SC/ST community.
* Kindly take necessary actions to stop the unconstitutional bill to be presented in parliament- Loksabha.
* Kindly try your level best to unite all the SC/ST MPs in Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha and remove the Section 4 with Schedule from the Bill.
* Kindly try to include appropriate provisions in the bill to stop caste based discrimination with the SC/ST candidates during the interviews for selection.
* Kindly emphasize on recasting of the Bill in the light of 11th five year plan.
Filed under: democratic activism | 3 Comments
Shindi: Houses burnt Again
In a continual pouring caste-hatred out, where even Police administration failed, Dalit lives are put at stake. They left with two options: Either obey the dictates of castiest supremacy or die at their will, is a message that passes thru every village in Beed District.
In a most horrendous incident, Dalit family in Shindi is torn apart by burning the houses early morning. A factory of terror is here, Beware educated dalit families!
Pic01: Local newspaper reports the additional torture by castiest goons
Pic02: Rasta Gerao, a demonstration for Justice to Shinde Family in Shindi
Pic 01: Victims brother's house are burnt by the upper caste people at night 3.30 am in Shindi village
Pic02: Cruelty depicted by Burns of baffallows and goats
Pic 03: 'Life saved, but not human yet' says Victims brother Mahadeo Shinde
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- Pic01:Civil rights organization and parties activist gahtered for Dharane andolan in Beed
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- Pic 02:CHR Activist Manisha Tokale giving speech in Dharane Andolan in Beed
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- Pic 03:All Dalit women gathered in Dharane Andolan Beed
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- Pic 04: Advocate Eknath Awad Giving information about atrocity act and also lack of police department in Maharashtra Dharane andolan Beed
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- Pic 05:Manisha Tokale submitting ‘Letters of Demand’ to collector with civil rights activist
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Today,Guardian Minister Mr Babanrao Pachpute visited Shindi where two educated girls from Buddhist families were beaten and paraded mercilessly. He took up unconcerned stance instead of really building moral of the family and helping girls rehabilitate. It is learnt from Atrocitynews correspondant that the Minister pulled out its short words , nay, long tounge and admonished family by saying ‘ aggree to patch up!’ Babanrao is said to be under the shadow of castiest panchayat politics that bestows in him gulliable protection for spoiled Local leaders and creations that are silimar to machinations of Khairlanji.
Pic 01: Baban Pachpute, Gurdian Minister, Guarding the Caste Goons?
Such kind of crude insensibility in the minds of Ministers prevails, how will democracy reach desired egalitarian goals? Please comment readers
…
Recent news comes from Kej Taluka, the Dalit youths are aribitrarily being arrested by Police under the disguise of Ministerial advice while most of them in a fear, fled from home. The situation is beyond imaginations as families depend on the daily wages that these young members earn!
Mr Pachpute are you listening?
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Tags: Khadki, Ladewad Gaon, Shindi village, Vida
Today Beed BAND , 12.00 AM
Seeing the ruination of democratic values and civil rights in the country of Fule, Shahu and Ambedkar, the activits from all corners of the Beed District are converging at the District headquarter today. They are here to take a call of their suffering sisters and brothers. Social boycott, humiliation or caste violance has made thier life , a wood. The heads of village assembly in all the three places like Khadki, Ladewad Gaon and Vida village were humiliated in public defying the consituitonal morality. Educated sisters from Shindi village were treated like animals. The call for today’s BAND can be seen as sentimental echo targeted at dumb administartion.
Till this time, no untoward incident reported from Beed. Our correspondant conveys that Today’s Day long-Band is all inclusive in asense it takes into account participation from diffrent caste groups.
The band will be followed by a 60,000 activist protest March in two days time.
Lets unite against the caste hatred and absolve related ill mentality…Comment
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Tags: Beed
The well known Romanticism of villages thru Panchayati raj has come to stale as it is devaluing the sociatal morality. The Gandhian concepts have bore wild fruits of deep humiliation and of castiest sore. Neither women nor the Heads of Panchayat are left safe at the hands of castiest goons who are unstoppably ruling the Rural India. The warning given by Dr Ambedkar is not far but its reality.
Incidence 01: Panchayat ‘Vida’-Sarpanch Mr Chandrakand Dadarao Waghamare was asked by upper caste goons to grant free shop licences with no deposits which was not accepted by the Head. The 26th Jan republic day function required a Village assembly to be gathered under the presidency of Sarpanch in which the caste-goons thru stones at the Assembly head Waghamare also injured the Head along with sticks. After which the Police acted. Some were arrested; some were not but one thing was made sure i.e.to white-wash the whole anarchy..6 family members of the compalinant (Mr Waghamare) were arrested by police under frivolous charges.
Incidence 02 : Panchayat ‘Ladewad Gaon’-Sarpanch Mr. Baliram Shinde who shares similar story . He was barred from the hoisting the National flag on Republic day. The convention is that the Chief of the Village assembly has to preside over the Republic day function. Mr Keshav Bapuran Shepap along with his gang not only abused the Head but also beaten him and asked to hoist the flag their hands. Mr Shinde was beaten and along with his men. He has nothing left but to go on hunger strike before Beed collectorate. Atrocitynews would publish the pics of the strike soon, if possible.
Incidence 03 : Panchayat ‘Khadki”-In an event that could rule out India as a true Democracy while celebrating 59th republic day seeing the social picture at the village level so stinking and harmful for suffering lot. There needs a genuine effort from Govt and civil society to adress the caste-ills. See the situation in Village Khadkai. The uppercaste fellows forcibly wanted the Dalit homes on their name. When they could not get hold of any allotment, due to the efficacy of the Village Assembly, upper caste mob burnt 6 homes belonging to the Dalit Sarpanch Mr Dadasaheb Waghamare and his brothers. Accused Raghunath Bhonsale and Praddep Balasaheb launched false complaints against the victims (whose houses are burnt) as a usual tactics to remain far from the punishment ad terrorise the Victims further. Police acts only on behalf of money and muscle power and contains the Victims who suppressed doubly. What a mockery of democracy!
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Tags: Khadki, Ladewad Gaon, Vida
Name of Victims: 1. Miss. Panchshila Ashruba Shinde
2. Miss Diksha Ashruba Shinde
Caste: Mahar
Type of crime: Beating, molestation, exposed to disgrace
Date and place
Of the crime: 19th Jan 2009, Shindi Tal – Kaij Dist- Beed
F.I.R.: 354, 323,504,147,149
Atrocity Act, 3(1)10, 3(1)11,
Police Station: Kaij Tal – Kaij Dist –Beed
Main Accused: 1. Jagganath Mssslidhar Jadhav
2. Bharat Rajaram Jadhav
3. Kailas Gopal Deshmukh
4. Barik Gopal Deshmukh
5. Tukaram Rajaram Jadhav
6. Datta Ashruba Deshmukh
7. Sham Rambhau Jadhav
8. Mrs. Limbabai Ashruba Deshmukh
9. Anil Radhakisan Jadhav
10. Devidas Babasaheb Jadhav
11. Shashikant Murlidhar Jadhav
12. Mrs. Manubai Murlidhar Jadhav
All accused from Maratha caste at. Shindi Tq.kaij Dist. Beed.
Background of the case:
Miss Diksha Ashruba Shinde (age 20) and her sister Miss Panchshila Shinde (age 18 ) resident of Shindi village belonging to (newly Converted Buddhist fold) from schedule caste background studying B.A. –I and H.S.C respectively.
Pic 01: Panchshila, the educated girl of village along with her staunch mother
After routine college, Panchshila returned home nearly at 12.30 on 19th Jan 2009 and had with Diksha and were heading for their farm to help mother, father and brother. On the way to field, accused Jagganath Jadhav and Bharat Jadhav saw them and commented “Salam Tumacha Sabhetela” (Salute to your silence ladies!) . Alonng with that they uttered nasty words however the girls did not react and went to the field.
In the evening at around 5.45 p.m Panchshila, Diksha and her elder sister Suvarna’s daughter named Priya (age 4) were returning from field, accused Jagganath Jadhav, Bharat Jadhav, Kailas Deshmukh and Barik Deshmukh walking back side of both sister Diksha and Panchshila with whistle and ringing songs in the mobile. After some time Jagganath Jadhav pushed Panchshila. She asked him why he is doing so. But Jagganath slapped both the sisters. He also abused on caste lines “ Dhedgyano Lay Mazlat kay ani amahala vicharayachi tumachi maharachi himmat hai ka ?” ( “You untouchables have no right to ask whatever we do) and four accused started hurling abuses containing caste and mother. This was not Worst. Beating started. Four accused used stick, still, hand and legs. They smashed girls on chick , hand, chest, waist and pulled hairs. Jagganath called his colleagues named as 1.Tukaram Rajaram Jadhav 2. Datta Ashruba Deshmukh 3. Anil Jadhav 4. Devidas Jadhav 5. Shashikant Jadhav 6. Shyam Jadhav 7. Manubai Jadhav 8. Limbabai Deshmukh. They soon started abusing “lay mazalet dhed” ( “These Mahars have crossed the limits”) and warned to kill. They brought them while beating in the village. Diksha could no withstand. She felt down. She can not talk or walk. However Panchshila ran fast and told the incidence to her brother and other family members.
With the ready intervention of a Dalit activist, Mr. Rajesh Sonvane they went to police station at 10 p.m on 19th Jan 2009. To their surprise irresponsible Police Inspector Mr Pawar was not ready to register the FIR. When Mr. Rajesh Sonvane called Superintendent of Pawar then only P.I could register case at late in night at 2 P.M.
During this night Diksha’s health condition went bad to worst. She was serious and her brother went to Kaij Rural hospital with Diksha , Dr. Pritam Raut a medical officer too did not care much .
Pic 02: Diksha is in worst condition
Dr Pritam sent back Diksha and her brother to home. Next morning her condition deteriorated further as she was under huge psychological trauma.During that time, another Civil rights activist Ms. Manisha Tokale and her team reached Shindi village. She supported the family emotionally and lead them to Kaij Rural hospital. As if planned Dr. Pritam Raut was on leave . Their Diksha went unconscious due to lack of oxygen support , immediately Diksha was referred to Ambajogai governmental hospital.
- Pic 03: 18 year old Diksha Shinde being taken to hospital by her brother
Present situation: Diksha and Panchshila health condition is good but they are under psycholigcal fear . Both girls and her family member also under the stress. Police officer did enquiry of both girls and her family. S.P. and District collector of Beed met Diksha and Panchshila. While S.P was talking , Diksha said if the accused are not arrest she may commit suicide in the collector office.
The electricity for Dalit community is cut off. People are not allowed to shop in the village. Its social boycott. Dalits are unsecured in the village. They are under stress and fear from upper caste people in the village.
Pic 04: Mrs Manish Tokale (Centre for Human Rights activist) taking the lead
Tainted Legal course :
- Till date other eight accused are not arrested
- Dr. Pritam Raut is not punished under POA Act Section 4
- Dalit girls beating invites Atrocity Act Section 3 (1) 3, but applied.
- Local leaders Mr. Sanjay Patil and Amar Patil are supporting with money & muscle power, nno police action against them under POA Section 8.
Filed under: dalit atrocity | 1 Comment
Shindi: Police favour for…
The village politics in and around Beed district is opening up for a call from the caste-superiors in denying the essentials to suffering Buddhist Community that includes newly convert Mangs and Mahars. The scene in Beed is CasteYouth are flying on pillions with a message -’Mutilate the Buddhists who dare to protest for their rights’.
The police essentially allies of majority remaining dull,no efforts to stop this menance,nay, helping the castiest goons by appling IPC sect 295 on the women groups. 5 women activists are in Police custody who hurled set of bangles at Babanrao Pachpute, the gaurdian Minister of the region who is infamous for his dillay-dalli in administartion and caste biases.
Ministers have their say in the forthcoming election sets them happy when such incidences happen specially at when elections near.
Pic 01: Police terrorising already 'Broken' people
Filed under: dalit atrocity | 2 Comments
Tags: Shindi village
In a continual depiction of caste hatred even after the cognizance of community dissatisfaction, the castiestness of Indian society is coming to streets in an ugly fashion. The Police administration, the judiciary and the local Panchayat are aggreeing to the nodes of higher powers in the caste structure. The psychophantic hatred is reported widely from Shindi, Vida, Khadki, Ladewad Gaon and adjoining area of Beed district.
While somewhere the houses are burnt, elsewhere the condition of the affected families is so severe that they find only rain water to survive, even flour is not being to sold to them, what to say about other daily needs.
Even Rescue /outside help is obstructed. Situation is worse than worst. It has lead to a systmatic social bicott of the Dalit ghettos. Marginalised are again thrown on the margins far from the Republic.
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Khadki: Today houses burning !
The atrocious event had nothing left behind for the Dalit families in Shindi and nearby villages. In Kadki, houses of dalit sarpanch( Matang Caste) were made zero into ashes in a ragging cast anger by the well-to-do uppercast mentality.
Pic01: Burnt house, stale household in Khadki
In the added humiliation the Sarpanch (head of Village assembly) Ladewad Gaon despite he was educated and shares qualification of MA, BED served as a Pricipal of a College expelled out by the castiest mob from the ceremoney and not allowed to hoist the flag on 26th Jan., the republic day.
Pic02: 30 years of making; ruined in day. Thanks caste-virus!
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Tags: Ladewad Gaon, Shindi village
..and Fight is on in Shindi
Dared demonstration led by women activists of SPMM in Beed. Appearently, for a strong symbolic gesture, bangles were thrown at ‘responsible’ Guardian Minister who visited the district in order to commemorate the Republic Day.
Women from dalit community have no republic when they suffer, suffer and suffer due to 3 kinds of discrimination. SPMM is a group of activist in Marathawada who are infusing the spirit of rights among the lot.
It must be noted that educated girls were beaten and paraded by the castiest mob in an early attempt. The case is just another kind that goes unnoticed adding to huge hummiliaion to the community. Such suppression is rain of the day in India.
Pic01: Outside the Guest House, Group of activist surrounding the Minister
Pic 02: Dared activist taking the lead
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Tags: Shindi village
Republic day and We
Following is an extract of a speech delivered by one of Atrocitynews Editors on this 26th Jan 2009, in an event to pick commomerative reflection of the revolutionary significance of the day. Please read and comment
Dear Friends,
We gathered here on occasion of India’s Republic Day — a momentous journey, a history in Modern World, and all this has achieved because of famous document, which we adopt, enact and presented to ourselves , on 26th November, 1949. To shape it and make it workable our beloved Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar did tremendous effort, sacrificing and struggling almost single handed. The constitution was accepted fully on 26th January 1950.
Today’s subject assigned to me is Indian Constitution; The Indian Constitution is the lengthiest document in the world. And I’ll try not go give you answer on salient features of Indian Constitution, which I did few months back while appearing for exam of Law of Constitution. I’ll also not enter into technical details of Constitution like no of articles, amendments, and schedule. Nonetheless, today, we will try to explore the principles enshrined in this document through preamble and from views of Babasaheb Ambedkar expressed during constitutional debates.
But before going into that discussion, we all know Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar was a chairman of drafting committee. And as a Chairman he has to shape the primary text before submitting them to Constituent Assembly, and most often discussion were guided and channelled by him. And besides, chairman he was member of more that fifteen committees, which were responsible to understand and present a draft on particular topic.
And as per the testimonies of few members and particularly of Krishnamachari, a member, editorial tasks rested largely on Babasaheb Ambedkar’s shoulder, which he completed irrespective of bad health. Because his intention though was to serve the interest of Scheduled Castes, he did the commendable work to serve the Nation. Prior to constitution there was only law of Manu, and we all know what does that law talk about. We won’t go into details of it here, so by adopting constitution we have established is incredible. A major framework/ skeleton of establishing social transformation is laid. If we go through the Articles of this constitution, you can see. It has that power! It is that weapon, by which social revolution can be brought without a bloodshed. It has rejected all forms of oppression which was existing prior to constitution. It was rejected the romanticism of village and Gandhian model of village, were we witness all forms of caste based discrimination. It rejected the ideal of ‘Ram Rajya’, which was advocated by many then, including Gandhiji. The constitution upholds the dignity of man, cherished principles, and talk about the modernisation, education and values. Perhaps, Indian constitution is the only constitution in the world which talks about scientific inquiry. But still Babas and Devis are mushrooming in India, rather are felicitated by awarding Universities to them, and the result is that, education being imparted is not contributing to enlightened India. Granville Austin has described the Indian Constitution drafted by Dr Ambedkar as ‘first and foremost a social document.’ … ‘The majority of India’s constitutional provisions are either directly arrived at furthering the aim of social revolution or attempt to foster this revolution by establishing conditions necessary for its achievement.
Dear friends, what we see today are very sorry state of affairs. The document lays responsibility and duty on educated lot to remove the conflict among castes and classes. But what we witness today here in Pune, the educated lot is making appeal to maintain the purity of race, avoid intercaste marriages, engaged in ritual and traditions, which segregate people. How we are going to be a nation, there will be more than 6000 nations if such things are being practised by every castes. And on top of that, our state revenue minister, a maratha lady, while participating in Brahmin Convention said, ‘I will never make an allegation of casteism against Brahmin Community’. What a paradox, one is participating in caste sammelan and demanding scraping of caste based reservation.
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, in Thoughts on Pakistan, disagreed with both the Congress’s position that India was a nation and Muslim league’s that it could never be a nation. He observed, ‘My confident hope is that we can be a nation provided proper processes of social amalgamation can be put forth’. Nor there was, nor there is a process of Nation Buidling initiated on the contrary we see the argument of Hindu Nationalism, artificial fear is being created in the name of terrorism. Was there no terror before attack on Taj, and suddenly a wave is created against terrorism. Thousands of people flock to street taking candles, its good people have shown the solidarity. Was there no terror before Taj attack. Thousands of people are still displaced and are under attacks, in Orissa. Is it not terror? How many of us has shown the solidarity for those thousands, none. What do you see, in parliament today is that, two anti-terror law is passed, 10-15 bills are passed, without discussion in 10 minutes.
Social Conflict, are continuous, as compared to attacks on Taj, which is occasional. Babasaheb, In buddha and his dhamma cites Buddha as saying, ‘the problem of war is a problem of conflict. It is only part of a larger problem. This conflict is going on not only between kings and nations but between nobles and Brahmans, between householders,.. The conflict between nations is occassional. But the conflict between classes is constant and perpetual. It is which is the root of all suffering in the world… I have to find a solution to the problem of social conflict.’
A democracy as defined by Walter Bagehot, is government by discussion. But what we see is 10-15 bills are passed in parliament without discussion. I’m raising this point because, according to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, two matters should be dealt by every constitution. Firstly, What is the form of Government that is envisaged in the Constitution, and secondly what is the form of the constitution. Though, today we can’t enter into detail discussion of this two points. I’ll state briefly that, we have adopted a Parliamentary Democracy as a form of Government and Our Constitution have Federation and at the same time have uniformity in all basic matters which are essential to maintain the unity of the country. According to Babasaheb, The constitution… Both unitary as well as federal according to the requirements of time and circumstances. The means adopted by the Constitution are three:-
a. A single judiciary,
b. Uniformity in fundamental laws, civil and criminal, and
c. A common all india civil services to man important posts
Indian Constitution is such historic document, a document of social change, social transformation. While delivering the concluding speech, the architect of the Indian Constitution said, ‘I feel that it is workable, it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country together both in peace time and war time. Indeed, if I may say so, if things go wrong under the new constitution, the reason will not be that we had a bad constitution. What we will have to say is, that Man was vile’.
He also warned, that today we are entering in the world of contradictions, Politically we are equal and socio-economically we are divided, and urged the people to remove this difference. Even after six decades of governance, the rule of law in the Indian society have not achieved the intended results, however, the participation in Parliament from so called lower castes has increased, and there’s still ray of hope. The survey conducted in 2005 confirms that participation from lower castes is increasing, which I think is a good sign. The election in America has shown, change can happen within democratic setup, and lets hope for that, on this occasion of Republic Day. Perhaps, we have to ‘Obey the Constitution’, which the life-size statute of Dr. Ambedkar appeals to member of parliament and citizens, with constitution in left-hand and fore-finger of right hand forcefully stretched towards parliament. In order to realised the goals set-forth by this revolutionary document.
So now lets look at the principles enshrined in this document. In order to do that, we will go through the preamble of the constitution which mentions the objectives of constitution makers. Study of Preamble of any legal document helps to understand the intent. It is a guide for rest of the document
The Preamble says,
WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.
The Preamble to our Constitution serves two purposes: -
A) It indicates the source from which the Constitution derives its authority;
B) It also states the objects, which the Constitution seeks to establish and promote.
As pointed out by Chief justice of Supreme Court in Golak Nath vs. State of Punjab, 1967 and also in Kesavananda Bharti Vs. State of Kerala, 1973
The words secular and socialist were inserted by the 42nd amendment.
As we go through the preamble there are certain key words, which we can see in today’s discussion.
WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA
It lays responsibility and also represent the desire of members present then and every citizens…
To constitute India into
SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
No authority created under the Constitution is supreme; it is the Constitution which is supreme.
Democratic
The independent word in objective resolution was replaced by Democratic by Drafting Committee. Lets see in brief what democracy meant, and how Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar defines democracy. As I mentioned earlier the definition of Walter Bagehot earlier, Democracy means government by discussion. Abraham Lincoln defines democracy as, ‘A government of the people, by the people, and for the people’. Dr. Ambedkar, defines democracy in different way, according to him democracy is, a form and a method of government whereby revolutionary changes in the economic and social life of the people are brought about without booldshed’. He goes even further to that and says democracy as form of associated living, which we can see very much in Buddhist Sangha, model adopted by Buddha as form of ideal society.
Republic
(Latin res publica, literally “the public thing”), form of state based on the concept that sovereignty resides in the people, who delegate the power to rule in their behalf to elected representatives and officials
Today’s nature of political parties and representation- Supremo, party high command. Sanjay Dutt.
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar argued for one man one value in all walks of life, he said, ‘On the 26th January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognising the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of democracy which this Constituent Assembly has so laboriously built up.
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
In Part III of constitution, we can find articles saying about equality before law and equal opportunities, and freedoms. Dr. Ambedkar emphasised the two fold objectives of Fundamental rights on their application. He said, The object of Fundamental Right is two fold, first that every citizen must be in position to claim those rights. Secondly, they must be binding upon every authority.
It is worth noting that, Dr. Ambedkar was the first leader in India who emphasised as early as 1927 the importance of the words, liberty, equality and fraternity. Speaking about his philosophy of life, he said, ‘My philosophy may be said to be enshrined in three words, liberty, equality and fraternity’. He further said, that it has root in the teachings of his master, the Buddha and not French revolution.
In his philosophy, liberty and equality had a place, but he added that unlimited liberty destroyed equality, absolute equality left no room for liberty. He gave the highest place to fraternity as the only real safeguard against the denial of liberty or equality.
In one late essay. ‘Buddha and Karl Marx’, he concludes by referring to the three revolutionary values, …Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, the three can coexists only if one follows the way of the Buddha.
Filed under: democratic deficit | Leave a Comment
News cutting of a Girl bitten
Pic 02:FIR Copy p-1
Pic 03: FIR Copy pg-2
Pic 04: FIR Copy pg 3
Pic05: Memorandum01
Pic 06: Memorandum2
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Urge to intiate ‘Revolution’
Dear Friends,
Greetings.
Most of you will be aware of a landmark judgement, the Madras High court passed on 20th November 2008 banning entry of human beings into sewer manholes and septic tanks in Tamilnadu and asking the State Government to file an action taken report on 11 specific directions complying with the court order. Even 3 days back, the Chennai metrowater Chairman confirmed that no worker is being used to clean sewer lines and septic tanks and that they will be filing the report in the court before 15th January.
But, the authorities seemed to have kept low only for a month. Unfortunately, today after the sun set, 3 workers were made to clean a sewer manhole in North chennai in which a sewer board worker Mr.Ettiappan aged 50 died inside the sewer line like a stray dog. Even the strongest high court order is being thrown to the dustbin.
While, the authorities and Government staff down to the local Asst engineer care very little about social responsibility, accountability and minimum ethics, the Politicians are busy flooding a By-election consitituency with alcohol. Yes. Democracy is being de-robed (undermining is too mild a word) by corrupting the common man with bribery and immersing him in alcohol.A so-called literate state like Tamilnadu is certainly heading for a point of no-return. What is happening in Tamilnadu today will be the norm in entire India.
As everyone is hankering for power through all ruthless means, words like justice, empowerment, equity etc will be bereft of any meaning. Caste,corruption and status quo will become all the more deeply entrenched. It is time for civil society to act, to start a real 2nd freedom movement through not just writing, speaking but through concrete action.
For the past 3 hours, I have been coordinating the story on Ettiappan’s death, pleading with all the print media to give much space as it deserves tomorrow, for this contempt of court and negligence of the Government. They have promised, hopefully, the news will not get diluted in all the sound and fury of the by-election.
Request each of you to contemplate on this and give your positive response.How, all right thinking civil society in the entire of India can unite and work, both at micro level as well as national level. The change that is happening is too slow and painful.
What is required is a Second Freedom Movement (SFM) that should spread like wild fire and burn all the bad into ashes in a constructive way.. Not the typical response of middle class, candle light vigils.
We are better off. Hence, we owe it to Ettiappan and his orphaned wife & children.
Narayanan.A
PAADAM
Filed under: dalit atrocity | 2 Comments
The ‘untouchables’ are hoping to break centuries of discrimination with thehelp of the charity One World Action. Andrew Buncombe reports from Dhaka
Saturday, 20 December 2008
Ramu Nandikolla’s dream is quite simple. He hopes that unlike himself, unlike his father, unlike his grandfather and unlike every member of his family for centuries, his four-year-old daughter grows up to be something other than a sweeper.
“I have been educated to an advanced level by Bangladeshi standards and I have applied for government jobs but they tell me that I have to work as a sweeper,” says the 29-year-old. “They say, ‘Your father was a sweeper and you have to be a sweeper as well’. It makes me feel very bad. I wanted to train to be a nurse.”
Ramu is a Dalit, a member of a so-called “untouchable” caste that sits at the very bottom of traditional Hindu society. Forced to live in separate communities, tradition has held that a higher-caste person touching a Dalit, or in some cases coming within the shadow of a Dalit, had to be ritually cleansed. In some communities Dalits were forced to ring a bell as they walked to warn of their presence.
There are 300 million Dalits in South Asia. They are expected to perform only society’s most unpleasant tasks such as unclogging drains, removing corpses and cleaning toilets by hand. In India, Dalits have recently made considerable progress in terms of poverty reduction, access to jobs and winning power. Mayawati, the chief minister of India’s largest and most politically important state, Uttar Pradesh, is a Dalit and there is even talk of her one day becoming prime minister.
But here in Bangladesh, where90 per cent of the population is Muslim and just 8 per cent Hindu, the Dalits have a much lower public profile and no political power. And for all the discrimination they face, Dalit groups say the Bangladeshi authorities do not officially recognise that Dalits even exist. “They say there is no such thing as a Dalit,” says Ramu. “They say everybody is equal.”
The Dalits of Dhaka say their ancestors were brought to what is now Bangladesh from Hyderabad in southern India by the British Empire to perform manual work. The community’s first language remains not Bengali but Telugu, a southern Indian tongue and the name they sometimes use to describe themselves.
But after centuries of discrimination – of being refused access to jobs and education, of being forced to live in the most wretched neighbourhoods and of being told they cannot escape their fate – Bangladeshi’s Dalits are slowing gaining hope. Organisations have been working at a grass-roots level to educate Dalits and make them aware of their potential influence if they can work together.
“Dalit rights is a new idea in Bangladesh [even though] there are probably five million in the country,” says Zakir Hossain, who heads the Dhaka-based human rights group, Nagorik Uddyog. The group is funded by One World Action, one of the charities supported by The Independent’s Christmas Appeal, and its objectives are three-fold. “We want to increase awareness, we want the government to introduce reservations for Dalits in jobs and at universities and we want a law that ends discrimination.”
Ramu led The Independent on a tour of his Dalit neighbourhood. The PWD Sweeper Colony is next to a clinic which since the time of the British Empire has been called the Pongo hospital and there is not a lot of room. A maze of alleys divide the bamboo and metal-sheet homes. More than 400 people are squeezed here, extended families sharing a few rooms, six people crushed in a bed.
The homes are spotless and well-cared for, but the facilities are wretched. Running hose-pipes at the rear of the houses provide water that runs into a stinking, stagnant ditch. This is also the only toilet facility. There is no school, no clinic. “The main problem here is that there are insufficient houses,” says Aparo Pulatti, a community leader. “The big problem is that we are landless.”
Two years ago, without notice, the authorities evicted 20 Dalit families from a patch of land they had occupied for more than 60 years. They were told the government wanted it for development. The families were moved to the very northern edge of the city, next to an estuary.
The people have been literally marginalised, miles from their jobs. They live now in a few narrow streets of concrete homes provided by the government. The land adjoining their community is a makeshift brick factory, where women mix sand and burnt straw to fashion bricks that are “cooked” by stinking and choking fires. “We are in a very bad position here,” says Mehalaxmi Rissi, another community leader. “The conditions are not good. There is no fresh water. There is no security.”
Ramu works as a cleaner at the Pongo hospital. Such was the determination of his father that his son should be educated, that he sent him to a relative outside Dhaka, gave him a different family name and told him not to disclose his background. Even that was not enough for this smart young man to break through the spirit-crushing discrimination.
Source: Independent UK
Filed under: dalit atrocity | 1 Comment
The Prime Minister’s Office has ordered a freeze on hiring 91 reserved category faculty at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences despite a government panel mandating the recruitment drive.
The order from the PMO to the health ministry has sparked fears among faculty members of an outburst of fresh caste battles similar to those that engulfed AIIMS during 2006-07.
The health ministry has directed AIIMS to keep “in abeyance till further orders” a special recruitment drive for SC/ST and OBC posts, many of which have been lying vacant for the past 15 years. The Telegraph has a copy of the correspondence.
The PMO move comes a few months ahead of the general election where the UPA hopes to woo SC/ST and OBC votes. PMO officials did not respond to repeated attempts to elicit a reaction.
Sections of the faculty said they had approached the PMO, pointing out what they allege are irregularities in an advertisement AIIMS had issued on November 4, 2008, for the special recruitment drive.
“From our perspective, this (the freeze) is what was required,” said Binod Khaitan, the president of the AIIMS faculty association. The association was at the forefront of the anti-reservation agitation that raged when the UPA was in the process of introducing OBC quotas in higher education.
“Why should SC, ST or OBC candidates alone be selected through a special recruitment drive?” Khaitan, also a dermatologist, asked.
But the PMO order appears at variance with its own action, earlier in the UPA’s tenure, of asking the University Grants Commission to conduct special recruitment drives to fill up the backlog of reserved faculty positions.
A government panel investigating AIIMS appointments since 1993, headed by Congress MP Karan Singh Yadav, had in its report in November 2007 confirmed suspicions of irregularities.
It had ordered the institute to hold special recruitment drives to fill up the backlog of vacant faculty positions reserved for SC/ST/OBC candidates before any recruitment to fresh vacancies — for general or reserved category posts.
“The special recruitment drive is a part of the government’s policy, and has to be followed,” Yadav said today.
The panel report made it “absolutely clear” that AIIMS must fill the backlog vacancies in the reserved category seats as a priority, he said. “But it appears that even 60 years after Independence, there are forces within the bureaucracy that may be uncomfortable with reservations,” said Yadav, the Lok Sabha MP from Alwar, Rajasthan.
A senior doctor associated with AIIMS said he was surprised that the PMO chose to block recruitments instead of seeking an alternative advertisement, if the original version was flawed.
The endemic faculty shortage at AIIMS has meant torturous workload for doctors, hurting the quality of health care delivery at India’s best-known hospital.
“A directive ordering that recruitment be kept in abeyance appears mischievous,” said the doctor who requested not to be named.
Soon after education minister Arjun Singh’s announcement of quotas for OBC students in higher education, AIIMS witnessed caste-based divisions within faculty and students that continue to simmer.
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Here He lays: Today 6th december
Pic01 : Here He rests
The man of action , the man of courage , the man who lead the civilisation, Dr B R Ambedkar is remembered today for his thoughts, spheeches and solidarity that constitutes a new nucleus of Enlightened society.
Pic01: The Ashes that seed peaceful Revolution
Pic03: Last Journey on 6th December 1956
Also no private TV news channel is covering the great congregation at the Chaitya Bhumi which has not given any importance to the fear factor caused by the terror attacks. Thousands of people have started gathering there since last night. The facilities seen there this year are really great to see.
On DD news, the news Reader called it “Chaitanya Bhumi”!!! It was at least good to see that DD News is making live coverage from Shivaji Park.
All the private news channels are busy increasing their TRP and spreading fear among the viewers. They are just bombarding the minds of viewers with information devoid of facts and people are generating opinions with this information. The worst is Aaj Tak channel which is busy covering the immoral acts done by some TV actor and not even mentioning the gathering of people at Shivaji Park.
The only way to be free from fear factor and stress is not tuning into any of the private news channels.
Filed under: Ambedkar life | 24 Comments
Recent terrorist attack by Muslim militia and growth of Bramhan militia activities ring bell and should set us thinking about what can be done to better the situation, which is polarising so fast with a potential to flare up the violence which will affect the common citizens. As the followers of Babasaheb, what should be done in this situation which leads to loss of life and create a human society which is full of suspicions and doubts. Most importantly the fear that is lurking in the hindsight of the citizens. If it goes on and on, we are heading towards a very disastrous situation. Bramhan militia and Muslim militia mutually reinforce themselves and make them strong, the mutually dance of consentisation of the identities will destroy democracy in this country and affect the history of constitutionalism which is so vital for us.
We have so much to offer to the situation positively. First of all I think we should concentrate on bringing together the Dalits found in all these religions and stress on humanism and peaceful societies. If we can attempt to bring together our people who are found in all these religions in majority, we can diffuse the forthcoming tense situation and save democracy. The media is depicting state apparatus in such a way that they are futile and not useful. There is no alternative, but to diffuse identities which leads to wrong views and create governmental apparatus and make them more effective to counter any slightest possibility of polarisation on religious lines. The Ambedkarite organisations must roll out their plans to help people (to start with our own people in other religions) to realise that great human life is in danger due to this political and religious plot. I wonder what Babasaheb would have done in such a situation to save human lives destroyed by foolish ideas and orthodox people. I also think he presents us a model to work with such situations as reflected in his very thoughtful books like, Thoughts on Pakistan and Who were Shudras?
Source: BC
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Though he was selected without any concession being made for his disability, the powers that be threw all fairness to the wind. Such a case occurred in an ‘educational’ institution, the NG Acharya and DK Marathe College of Arts and Science..
IN ALL societies, there is a conscious effort to give some advantage to those with financial, social or physical disabilities. Even people who do not really subscribe to this view, make an attempt to be politically correct and practice their discrimination without leaving a paper trail of any overt discrimination against the disadvantaged or dispossessed.
One would be skeptical about his story that though he was selected without any concession being made for his disability, the powers that be threw all fairness and decency to the wind. Such a case occurred in an ‘educational’ institution, the NG Acharya and DK Marathe College of Arts and Science.
Chandrakant Sasane, a young man of 31 belongs to the Scheduled Caste and is blind. He has done his MA in social work. Using Right To Information, he asked for documentary evidence from the college as well as the university, which would prove that though he was selected by the university without any concession being given for his physical disability, the college had been insensitive and brazen enough to refuse to appoint him to teach the ‘philosophy foundation course’!
The college has not replied, and one will have to take recourse to the penal provisions of RTI to teach them how to become law abiding. The information given by the Bombay University is devastating. A selection committee, where seven of the eight members were present cleared on September, 14, 2004, the unanimous selection Chandrakant Sasane for appointment as lecturer to teach Foundation Course in Philosophy. The post was reserved for SC/ST and six candidates had been interviewed.
The selection committee also included the principal and the head of department of the college. On September, 16, 2005 the University sent the recommendation to the college to appoint him.
The college did not issue the letter of appointment to Sasane, for reasons we do not know. Without assigning any reasons for this, the college asked the university for permission to again advertise for the post on April 19, 2005. On July 11, 2005 the university refused permission to the college to advertise for this post, since they had not appointed Sasane! It is unbelievable that a blind person would be treated so callously when paper evidence is available.
This is the story of a blind young man waiting for a job for about seventeen months now, in Chembur, Mumbai for which he was selected with no concession for his disability! This evidence was brought to public notice and will hopefully get Sasane his job.
The Right To Information will continue to expose misdeeds and common citizens everywhere will continue to seek accountability.
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On 29th Nov.2008, the workers of Shivsena , a Hindu political party in state, on the pretext of an old acrimony, instigated accused , Sandip Juneja, Kiran Kulkarni, Rahul Jadhave , Rakesh Jadhav , Suresh Wadari, with 10-12 others to attack the family of Sudhakar Wagh. They wounded the victims with swords and broke framed images of Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar and Buddha . They evenphysically molested the women of the family. This was going on for about half an hour. When the members of the family went to the police station to register the offence, the Police Inspector of Sarkarwada police station, Mr.Walunkar refused to book the complaint under atrocity act. But after being pressurized by a Dalit Newspaper ,they inadvertently filed the F.I.R. u/s 392 , 324 , 285 ,52 , 143 , 147 , 148, 323, 504 , 506 135 of I.P.C. and 3(1)(x) of P.O.A. and 7(1)(d) of P.C.R. However police did not arrest the culprits. And accused again attacked the victims.
This time they came up with swords , knives, hockey sticks . They attacked Atul Wagh who was sleeping on the terrace of the house . When they were about to throw him down the terrace after giving him thorough beating , his mother intervened . But she was threatened , overpowered and was sprinkled with kerosene . They were about to put fire to her when Sudhakar’s brother Gunvant came there . But he was also beaten up. All this brutal incident was going on till 1: 30 in late night . None of their neinghbourers came to rescue them since all the accused had deadly weapons. The accused left the victims in pool of blood and left the scene.
Soon the victims were admitted to Nashik Civil Hospital. People in the community are scared of further attacks. Police is trying to hide behind the scene!
Whom to ask for a help?
Pic01: Bitten by caste
Filed under: dalit atrocity | 2 Comments
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