Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 05.09.15
12-yr-old girl found hanging from tree, kin allege rape - The Times Of India
Marriage triggers violence in Dalit colony - The Hindu
Ex-student barges into classroom, applies vermilion on girl - Deccan Herald
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/499256/ex-student-barges-classroom-applies.html
Court directive to resolve row between communities - The Hindu
HC upholds ruling against quota benefits for migrant SC candidates - The Hindu
Dalit group wants farmer's name back on Sambhaji memorial board - The Times Of India
SC summons Labour Secy over unused funds - The Tribune
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/sc-summons-labour-secy-over-unused-funds/128915.html
Redesigning reservations: Why removing caste-based quotas is not the answer -Scroll.in
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The Times Of India
12-yr-old girl found hanging from tree, kin allege rape
Ishita Mishra,TNN | Sep 4, 2015, 04.14 PM IST
Agra: A 12-year-old Dalit girl was found hanging from a tree at Alipurkherda village in Mainpuri. Relatives say she was raped and murdered. The girl's relatives insisted that police call the district magistrate to the spot where the body was found, but policemen would not oblige. Villagers initially refused to hand the body over for post-mortem examination. The stand-off created tension. A huge posse of policemen were called in to stand guard. The minor girl had lost her father, and was living with her mother and grandparents at Alipurkherda. "She went out of the house last evening and never returned. We searched high and low, but there was no trace of her. Villagers told us she was hanging from a tree," said the girl's uncle, who found the body on Thursday morning. Police faced stiff resistance as they tried to bring the body down. "She was sexually assaulted and killed. We saw the blood oozing out when the body was brought down," a villager said. Policemen from nearby police stations were called in to stand guard as villagers initially refused to hand the body to police for post-mortem. SSP Mainpuri Uday Shankar Jaiswal reached the spot and pacified angry villagers. The SSP said the post-mortem had shown hanging as cause of death. He added that the girl had been scolded by her mother, and could have committed suicide. "The dog squad that was part of the investigations went straight to the girl's home from the crime spot, indicating that she did not go anywhere else," the SSP said. Relatives of the girl, however, claimed she could not have climbed such a tall tree to hang herself. "The tree is about 15 feet tall. How did the four-foot girl get so high and hang herself? The police is just shrugging off its responsibility by claiming she was not murdered," the girl's mother said.
The Hindu
Marriage triggers violence in Dalit colony
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
An inter-caste marriage by two consenting adults belonging to Huliwana village in Mandya taluk resulted in violence and stone-pelting, in which a few Dalits and policemen were injured on Thursday night.
What triggered the violence was the marriage of Santosh, from a Scheduled Caste community, with a girl of a different community. According to a source, the parents of the girl gave their consent to the marriage reluctantly, but barred her from visiting them and community leaders gave an undertaking to the police that they would not indulge in violence. However, some miscreants went ahead and damaged property in a Dalit colony.
During the power shutdown, the miscreants damaged two dozen houses of the Dalit community, vehicles were torched and a woman was attacked. About eight persons, apart from 15 policemen, were injured. Additional forces were rushed to the village and around 40 persons have been taken into custody by the Keregodu police, which has registered a case and are investigating. The affected families have been provided with food and other relief material. A peace meeting is slated to be held.
Deccan Herald
Ex-student barges into classroom, applies vermilion on girl
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/499256/ex-student-barges-classroom-applies.html
Bijnore (UP), Sep 5, 2015, (PTI)
A former student of a co-educational institute here barged into a classroom and applied vermilion on the forehead of a tenth class student in front of her classmates and teacher before fleeing the spot.
A case has been registered against Sonu Kumar (18) on the the complaint of the girl's parents and the principal of the inter-college, police said today.
S.O Kadrabad Satya Pal Singh said efforts were being made to nab the accused.
Sonu Kumar, a resident of Murliwala village, was a student of class XI but left the college last year after failing in the annual examination, Singh said.
According to police, Kumar was in relationship with the girl, who belongs to the Dalit community and is two years his junior. "Their relationship had ended due to caste difference," a police official said
On Friday, Kumar reached the inter-college with vermilion in his pocket and a rakhi in hand and entered the girl's classroom. "When the teacher tried to stop him, Kumar said he had come to get rakhi tied by his 'adopted sister' and instead applied sindoor (vermilion) on her forehead," the official said.
The Hindu
Court directive to resolve row between communities
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
The Madras High Court Bench here has directed Virudhunagar Collector to convene a meeting of Caste Hindus and Dalits of T. Veppankulam village in Kariapatti Taluk and resolve a dispute between them over utilising water drawn from a public bore well since one group insisted on using it for drinking and the other for irrigation.
Passing orders on a writ petition filed by a Caste Hindu individual to prevent a Dalit couple from utilising the water for irrigation, Justices R. Sudhakar and V.M. Velumani said: "There appears to be a serious case of allegation of untouchability and difficulties faced by people belonging to Scheduled Caste in utilising the water… The underlying problem is that there is a deep distress between the two caste groups."
In his affidavit, the writ petitioner R. Sengai accused the Dalit couple V. Mayan and Malarkodi Mayan of illegally drawing water from the bore well to irrigate their fields and also that of adjacent landowners though the Block Development Officer had categorically stated, in reply to petitioner's application under the Right to Information Act, that the bore well was sunk to meet drinking water needs.
However, Mr. Mayan's counsel N. Sathish Babu told the court that the bore well had been sunk on five cents of land donated by his client on March 5, 2010, to the State government specifically for the purpose of sinking a bore well to irrigate the lands belonging to Dalits. He said that the Caste Hindus were jealous of the growth of Dalits and were bent upon preventing sources of irrigation.
The Hindu
HC upholds ruling against quota benefits for migrant SC candidates
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Reiterating the legal position that when a Scheduled Caste individual migrates from one State or Union Territory to another, he can only claim to belong to the community in relation to the State or Union Territory from which he has migrated, the Madras High Court on Friday upheld a single judge order on the issue.
Dismissing an appeal against a single judge order, which had rejected pleas to allow migrant SC candidates in Puducherry for reservation in institutions meant for the community, a Division Bench comprising Justices Satish Kumar Agnihotri and K.K. Sasidharan said the appellants had not produced any material to prove that the Puducherry government had framed a policy to extend the benefits in the field of education to the migrants.
Maintaining that the appellants were entitled to benefits of reservation only in the State from where they migrated, the Bench said, "There is no question of considering them as Scheduled Caste in relation to the Union Territory of Puducherry in view of their migration after the cut-off date."
"Even if the government of Puducherry wanted to extend other benefits to those who have migrated to the Union Territory from other States, it would be possible only by way of passing appropriate legislation as indicated in Marri Chandra Shekhar Rao (a similar case)," the Bench said, adding that no one could compel the government to initiate such legislation. A single judge earlier dismissing pleas by two students and an association, which sought to treat migrant SC candidates as resident SC candidates defined in the Constitution (Pondicherry) Scheduled Castes Order, 1964, to seek admission in professional courses in Puducherry.
"No question of considering them as SC in relation to Puducherry in view of their migration after cut-off date"
The Times Of India
Dalit group wants farmer's name back on Sambhaji memorial board
TNN | Sep 5, 2015, 05.12 AM IST
PUNE: A reference about Govind Gopal Mahar (Gaikwad), the dalit farmer who had made arrangements for the last rites of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj along with other villagers, has allegedly been wiped out from the notice board located near the memorial in Vadhu Budruk, Pune district.
On Thursday, while submitting a memorandum to the resident district collector, Suresh Jadhav, Buddhist Prerna Group demanded that Govind Gopal's name be restored on the notice board at the earliest.
Sambhaji Maharaj was the heir to the Maratha Empire after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. In 1689, he was captured by the Mughal force and Aurangzeb ordered his execution. The Mughal emperor had threatened to kill anyone who attempted to perform the last rites.
Kiran Shinde, president of the Buddhist Prerna Group, stated that a note, providing historical details about Sambhaji Maharaj, had been put up on a notice board near the memorial. Details included a reference to Govind Gopal, who belonged to the Mahar community and was one of three people to serve at the memorial.
"A particular sentence, which elaborates Govind Gopal's contribution, has been edited from the freshly painted board," Shinde mentioned in a memorandum submitted to Jadhav. Shinde further claims that the Dharmaveer Sambhaji Maharaj Smruti Samiti, which looks after the memorial, has neglected a smaller monument dedicated to Govind Gopal Gaikwad. "The name and the reference should be restored," Shinde told TOI. The group has also submitted other reference material related to Govind Gopal Gaikwad to Jadhav.
Somnath Bhandare, president of the samiti clarified that the notice board has not been put in place by a government agency. "Removal of the name has no relation with any community, religion or any person," he said.
The Tribune
SC summons Labour Secy over unused funds
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/sc-summons-labour-secy-over-unused-funds/128915.html
Rs 27,000 cr unutilized At least Rs 27,000 crore meant for the welfare of casual workers in the construction sector remains unutilised despite SC orders
Legal Correspondent New Delhi, September 4
The Supreme Court today directed the Union Labour Secretary to be present in the court on September 11 and explain as to why the huge sum of Rs 27,000 crore, meant for the welfare of casual workers in the construction sector, continued to remain unutilised despite the court's orders.
The Social Justice Bench comprising Justices MB Lokur and UU Lalit summoned the Secretary as the Centre failed to submit a plan of action for utilisation of the fund collected in the form of 1 per cent cess on the construction industry.
The Bench said it had made a remark earlier that going by the "casual attitude" of the Centre and the state governments it would be better if they stopped levying the cess. This observation was aimed at making the government get into action. But even such strong remarks had failed to have any impact on the authorities, it lamented.
The Bench had also noted that some of the states had misused the funds, instead of spending the money for providing health care to the workers' families and education to their children.
It had directed the Delhi government to return to the welfare fund of about Rs 2.7 crore utilised for publicity over the years. Today, the Delhi government sought a recall of this directive, but the Bench rejected the plea.
Scroll.in
Redesigning reservations: Why removing caste-based quotas is not the answer
Instead, India needs to exclude groups that are no longer backward.
Ajaz Ashraf · Today · 10:30 am
The fury of the Patidar movement in Gujarat has broadly elicited two types of responses. One, that reservation in government jobs and educational institutes should be based on economic criteria, not caste. And two, that the caste-based reservation should stay but the extant system should be rethought and redesigned to not only make it a more effective tool of social justice, but also ensure that those outside the reservation pool don't feel discriminated against.
The demand for reservation based exclusively on economic criteria arises from the popular confusion over its philosophy. Affirmative action, also known as positive discrimination, is not a tool for economic mobility, aiming to bump up individuals from a lower to higher class. Its goal is to create a level playing field, equipping individuals from disadvantaged groups to overcome their socially imposed disabilities to compete in a sharply unequal society.
These groups are disadvantaged not because they willingly shun, say, education, or are inherently less endowed to compete, or are plain foolish and lazy, precisely the arguments offered to justify the tirade against reservation. They are marginalised because they were located in the social system specifically designed to justify, and perpetuate, social inequality. They were pushed to the margins of society not out of their own volition, or failings, but under compulsion.
This social dynamic underlies racism, leading to the marginalisation of Blacks in the United States and South Africa. They were marginalised because the society imposed its discriminatory system on them.
The caste system
In India, the systemic discrimination against certain social groups was practised over centuries through the caste system, which was based on the idea of purity and pollution. Social groups were arranged in a hierarchy, dependent on their occupations measured, so to speak, on the scale of purity and pollution. Those at the top of the caste hierarchy were the Brahmins, deemed pure because they were allowed to read and interpret the scriptures and conduct religious rituals. At the bottom were the Shudras, or peasant castes.
Outside the four-fold Varna system (Kshatriyas and Vaishyas were the other two) were the 'untouchables', that is, those whose occupation was considered polluting, and who lived, quite literally, outside the village precinct. These occupations were hereditary, circumscribing for centuries both the choice and will of the individual born into a particular group. Social mobility was not of the individual, but of the group, achieved over decades, if not centuries.
Obviously, the impulse of modernity, industrialisation and urbanisation loosened the caste system considerably. Nevertheless, centuries of discrimination practised against social groups rendered their individuals incapable of competing on an equal footing with those who possessed what is called social, cultural and economic capital. The system also spawned a subculture which imbibed in the disadvantaged an acceptance of their fate, not the least because it was said to be divinely ordained.
In other words, the past inequalities arising from the caste system continued to replicate in the modern era, despite the Indian Constitution recognising the inherent equality of men and women. This is precisely why reservation is caste-based. It seeks to remove the backwardness arising from the discriminatory social system and to empower and instil confidence in them to compete in the open system.
This backwardness is of the group. It is not of the individual, arising from his or her economic position, which is subject to upward and downward mobility in their own lifespan or over two generations. The nature of this backwardness is social and educational, which may or may not have economic basis to it.
It is the twin features of social and educational backwardness which hobble individuals from competing in a modern, open society. To put it rather simplistically, an individual from an upper caste will have greater life chances than a lower caste person even though the two might be sharing the same economic position.
Reservation experience
Indeed, after nearly seven decades of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and over two decades for Other Backward Classes, these three social groups in 2011 together comprised just 23.2% of Group A services, considered the most prestigious, powerful and lucrative of government employment. Imagine what the representation of these three groups must have been in 1947, despite their constituting over 75% of India's population.
Reservation also seeks to make the middle class more socially heterogeneous, realising in real terms the idea of equality of all. Affirmative action is indeed bringing about this change in the Indian middle class, albeit gradually.
Thus, in 2013-2014, 46% of those who cleared the Union Public Service Commission examination and interview came through SC, ST and OBC reservations. Interestingly, out of the 2576 candidates who were recommended against reserved posts, 397 qualified in the general category as well – that is, their total marks were above the qualifying standard for those outside the reservation pool. Has reservation in educational institutes skilled the 397 to compete on an equal footing? Possibly.
Greater controversies
Nevertheless, reservation for the OBCs has triggered greater controversies than that for SCs and STs. One reason is that SCs and STs encountered discrimination that was far more severe in nature than what other groups were subjected to, and which, in many ways, persists even today.
Second, the OBCs, particularly those engaged in agriculture, did benefit from state policies such as the abolition of the zamindari system and Green Revolution, to dramatically improve their economic position. Can they still be socially and culturally backward, critics ask. Third, some non-upper caste groups, such as the Jats, who gained enormously post-Independence, feel aggrieved at having been left out of the reservation pool and vociferously demand economic-based reservation.
The economic argument
Yet, it must be pointed out that for classifying socially and educationally backward classes, that came to be known as the OBCs, the Mandal Commission developed 11 indicators or criteria, of which four were economic. There were four indicators for social and three for educational backwardness. However, economic indicators were given a weightage of one point each, as against three points each for social and two points each for educational criteria.
Perhaps the Mandal Commission had foreseen the backlash that could transpire if it did not include economic criteria, for it noted:
"Economic, in addition to social and education indicators, were considered important as they directly flowed from social and education backwardness. They also helped to highlight the fact that socially and educationally backward classes were economically backward also."
Take two of the four economic indicators the Mandal Commission developed. The Commission sought to identify "caste/classes where the average value of family assets is at least 25 per cent below the state average" and "where the number of families living in kuccha houses is at least 25 per cent above the state average." Unless it is held the Commission's survey was poorly conducted or biased, the Mandal list of the OBCs did have an element of economic criteria built into it.
In addition, the concept of creamy layer was introduced for OBC reservation to ensure the wealthier among them did not corner the benefits of affirmative action. In 1993, it was determined that children of parents having an annual income of Rs one lakh would not qualify for reservation benefits. The income-criterion of creamy layer was subsequently revised upwards over the years, and is now currently pegged at Rs six lakh a year.
From the perspective of poverty prevailing in India, Rs 6 lakh a year or Rs 50,000 a month might appear substantially high. But there is also the counter-argument that a very low income cut-off for defining creamy layer might lead to not enough OBC students having adequate education, given its rising cost, competing for government jobs and seats in educational institutes reserved for them. (The creamy layer doesn't operate in SC and ST reservation, which has enabled, perhaps unjustifiably, for even children of second-generation government officials to enjoy its benefits).
Periodic surveys
The belief that the still-too-high creamy layer income enables the relatively rich to corner the benefits of reservation underscores the need for designing OBC reservation to fulfil better the goals of affirmative action. It should be noted that the Mandal Commission conducted its survey 35 years ago. It is possible that its data on socially and educationally backward classes may have become out-dated, with some of them no longer in need of affirmative action.
But therein lies the problem – reservation is looked upon as a benefit which, once granted, cannot be relinquished. The philosophy of affirmative action demands carrying out periodic socio-economic surveys to weed out social groups from OBC category, for ensuring the benefits of reservation percolate to the more depressed groups. Such periodic surveys will also enable policy-makers to gauge whether or not affirmative action has removed or diminished the discriminatory nature of social structures.
However, the reverse is happening – there is a veritable race to claim backwardness among social groups, regardless of their social advancement and relative economic prosperity. The demand for reservation by the Patels and Marathas is an apt example of this trend, as is the clamour among the Jats to be included in the Central OBC list.
Undoubtedly, their entry into the OBC reservation pool will be inimical to the interests of groups which require affirmative action more than them. But it is also true that one of the reasons for their disquiet, as also that of the upper castes, is their belief that reservation is bound to exist in perpetuity Some upper castes believe they are being victimised for the "sins" of their forefathers. No wonder, reservation continues to trigger social upheaval, particularly as job opportunities diminish, competition becomes stiffer, and aspirations of people soar.
This is precisely the reason why India needs a third Backward Commission – the Mandal Commission was second – not to remove caste-based reservation, but to exclude groups no longer backward and make the instrument of affirmative action sensitive to the larger social good. Some sense about the state of backwardness among social groups could also be had through the release of caste data generated by the 2013 socio-economic caste census. But to redesign reservation requires a sense of daring and sagacity, the two attributes not seen in the political class.
Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist from Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, published by HarperCollins, is available in bookstores.
News monitored by AMRESH & AJEET
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.