Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 28.07.15
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SC/ST atrocities Act to be made more stringent - The Times Of India
Woman Held for Chopping Fingers of Dalit Youth - The New Indian Express
Village Tense After Feud Between Students - The New Indian Express
Dalit museum will change the way they are treated: Expert - The Times Of India
Police file chargesheet against four in Moga incident - The Indian Express
SC/ST benefits available to Christians reconverting to Hinduism: Kerala HC-The Times Of India
TS not to fund SC/ST students under management quota - The Hindu
Kerala seen worst, even stir to cover breasts - Deccan Herald
What Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Masaan teach us about realities of caste - The Hindustan Times
A Dalit's story - Business Standard
http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/a-dalit-s-story-115072701482_1.html
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The Times Of India
SC/ST atrocities Act to be made more stringent
Subodh Ghildiyal,TNN | Jul 28, 2015, 05.13 AM IST
NEW DELHI: "Touching a Dalit or tribal woman in a sexual manner without consent" or "acts/gestures of sexual nature" against them would invite the stringent provisions of the Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act
POA).
The Centre has decided to amend the POA along the lines of UPA's ordinance, with the objective of strengthening the special law by including more crimes under the head of "atrocities".
In an important addition, the bill provides for presuming caste motive behind a crime and puts the onus on the accused to prove otherwise.
As the legislation is set to be taken in Lok Sabha, minister for social justice Thaawar Chand Gehlot told TOI, "There is no change in the bill that was tabled in Lok Sabha (in July 2014). There is no dilution."
The proposed amendments have been a source of political wrangling ever since the newly-elected BJP government tabled the bill to turn UPA's ordinance into law, but allowed it to lapse. Congress then accused BJP of trying to dilute the changes.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi recently wrote to PM Narendra Modi demanding the immediate passage of the bill.
While sexual assault is part of the existing law, the bill makes it stringent by including "intentional touching without consent" and "using words or gestures" under assault of women. It also includes actions under the outlawed Devadasi system.
According to experts, the additions under atrocities, by laying out new acts in specific terms, would curb the scope of misinterpretation by police or the accused.
"These actions are criminal in nature but the atrocities law provides for stronger provisions: there is more protection for victims and witnesses, and there is a bar on anticipatory bail," Dalit activist S Prasad said.
The POA states that any non-SC/ST public servant who neglects his duties on crime against Dalits would be punishable with a jail term of six months to one year. Now, the changes specify the official's duties as registering an FIR, reading out information given orally before taking the signature of the informant and providing a copy of the said complaint.
In place of POA provision that a sessions court be deemed a special court to try offences, the bill states that exclusive courts be established in districts to dispose of cases within two months while appeals in high courts should be disposed of in three months.
Also, it would be the duty of the state to provide protection to the victims and witnesses.
The New Indian Express
Woman Held for Chopping Fingers of Dalit Youth
By Express News Service Published: 28th July 2015 04:57 AM Last Updated: 28th July 2015 04:57 AM
MANGALURU: An upper caste woman was arrested on Monday in connection on charges of chopping the fingers of a dalit youth in Belthangady.
The arrested is Pushpalatha of Kataje in Neriya village. The main accused Gopal Gowda, husband of Pushpalatha, is absconding.
Belthangady police sources said the victim Sundar Malekudiya had objected to Gopal Gowda mowing grass on a piece of land in Neriya, claiming it belonged to him, on Sunday evening. A quarrel ensued that led to Gowda attacking Sundar with mower. As the machine was switched on, Sundar's fingers were chopped off. It is alleged that Pushpalatha and Gowda's sister Damayanthi threw chilli powder on Sundar and his family members during the incident.
The New Indian Express
Village Tense After Feud Between Students
By Karal Marx L Published: 28th July 2015 04:02 AM Last Updated: 28th July 2015 04:02 AM
VILLUPURAM: Tension prevailed in Rampakkam village near Valavanur on Monday following a caste feud between higher secondary school students belonging to two different communities. Police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse them.
According to Selvamani (33), a Dalit woman, the caste clashes have became common after the Rampakkam High School was upgraded to Higher Secondary School two years ago.
Recalling that the school had witnessed as many as three incidents of such clashes between students over the past two years, she said both Dalit and Caste Hindu students from surrounding villages study at the school.
The Dalit parents stopped sending their children to the school, located in a Caste Hindu locality, demanding a separate school near the locality where Dalits were the majority. In protest, some educated Dalit youth took classes for the students at Rampakkam Dalit colony.
On information, DEO Madhavan and Revenue officials assured Dalit parents of action and requested to end their protest.
Around 12 pm, a clash broke out between two sections of villagers. Later, Caste Hindus reportedly attacked a Dalit man at the Rampakkam bus stand. In retaliation, people from the Dalit community ransacked the houses of five caste Hindus.
Soon, a posse of around 200 policemen and striking force teams from Cuddalore rushed to the spot and dispersed the crowd after a lathicharge. Around 10 Caste Hindus and 10 Dalits, including the Rampakkam village president Selvi, sustained injuries.
Police said about 10 Dalits have been detained in connection with the ransacking of houses.
Meanwhile, the school has been closed till August 2.
Fearing police action, men from both communities fled their homes.
All these were a fallout of a clash that erupted last Thursday when some of the Caste Hindu students abused Dalit boys by writing their caste name on the blackboard. Also, they allegedly teased Dalit girls, said another source.
The Caste Hindu students allegedly brought some youth to attack their Dalit classmates. What followed was an clash with iron rods and beer bottles that had left two Dalit student seriously injured. They are currently undergoing treatment at the Mundiyambakkam GH.
The Times Of India
Dalit museum will change the way they are treated: Expert
TNN | Jul 28, 2015, 02.58 AM IST
MYSURU: There is a need for a dalit museum in the country on the lines of International Slavery Museum in Liverpool in Britain to bring about a change in the way dalits are treated, said PK Misra, president, Anthropological Association, Mysuru, on Monday.
Speaking at the inauguration of a two-day national seminar on Museum Movement in South India organized by Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS) at Regional Museum and National History (RMNH), he said, "The slavery museum is an amazing work and it was set up to describe how a human treated another. A museum on dalits must tell the story of the deprived class."
Misra also dwelt on the present condition of museums across the country. "Museums should be developed in such a way that the public should be able to connect with them," he added.
IGRMS director Sarith Kumar Chaudhary said, "IGRMS is a museum of museums and it connects with local people and is developed with the essence of the local community." A Sundara, a professor at Karnataka University, presented a paper on 'Museum movement into rural areas: its importance and necessities'.
The Indian Express
Police file chargesheet against four in Moga incident
Mother only 'prime' eyewitness, passengers say they saw or heard nothing.
Moga | Published:July 28, 2015 9:53 am
The police have submitted the chargesheet against four prime accused in the Moga 'molestation' and death case. On April 29, Arshpreet Kaur (13) died after she was allegedly molested and pushed off along with her mother from an Orbit bus that is co-owned by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
The chargesheet, submitted in the court of judicial magistrate Amit Kumar, mentions the victim's mother, Shinder Kaur, as the only prime eyewitness as other passengers – around six have been traced – have denied having seen "anything like molestation", said sources in the police.
Police have submitted challans against Ranjit Singh from Bathinda (driver), Sukhwinder Singh alias Pamma from Fazilka (conductor), Gurdeep Singh from Moga and Amar Raj from Bathinda, both helpers.
All four have been booked under Sections 302, 307, 354, 120-B, 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other sections of the SC/ST Act.
A total of 30 witnesses, including some other passengers, were named in the chargesheet but all expressed their unwillingness to be part of the high-profile case in any manner.
A horticulture officer, Tarsem Singh, who came forward on the second day of the incident, claimed that he "saw or heard nothing like molestation" on the bus.
The five other passengers, Vijay Kumar from Bathinda, Gagandeep Singh from Jalalabad, Paramjeet Singh from Bathinda and a couple, Jagtar Singh and Amarjeet Kaur, from village Rode, who were traced by the police almost a month after the incident, have claimed that "they were sleeping and never paid any heed to what was going on at the back seats" where the incident allegedly happened.
"All passengers have said they saw or heard nothing. Their final statement will be recorded in the court," said a senior Moga police official.
"The prime eye witness in the case is the mother. Other passengers are neither accepting nor denying the molestation incident. However, now the matter is sub judice and the court will decide. We have submitted the chargesheet within 90 days," said Moga SSP J S Khaira to The Indian Express.
The Times Of India
SC/ST benefits available to Christians reconverting to Hinduism: Kerala HC
Mahir Haneef,TNN | Jul 27, 2015, 09.45 PM IST
KOCHI: A member of a scheduled caste or tribe (SC/ST) who had converted to Christianity from Hinduism can claim the rights and benefits available to SC/ST members if he reconverts, the Kerala High Court has held.
The court's decision assumes much significance in the backdrop of 'Ghar Wapsi' reconversion campaign introduced by the Hindu right-wing group Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) last year. Earlier this month, VHP had claimed that it had reconverted over 33,000 persons and had 'prevented' over 48,000 conversions.
It was a petition filed by a father and daughter whose forefathers belonged to Hindu Cheramar community that was considered by the court. Those who approached the court were 46-year-old MA Chandraboss of Ramapuram in Kottayam and his 18-year-old daughter Alida. They were born as Christians as Chandraboss' father had converted to Christianity. In 2009, Chandraboss and his family reconverted to Hinduism by undergoing 'Shudhi Karma' under the auspices of Arya Samaj.
Chandraboss' daughter Alida appeared for the common entrance examination this year and sought admission in the SC/ST quota. However, her claim to SC/ST quota was rejected on the basis of an anthropological report by a state government agency named Kerala Institute for Research, Training and Development Studies (KIRTADS). An appeal filed before the government against this also came to be dismissed.
At the high court, their counsel G Krishnakumar argued that though they had converted to Christianity, they retained the essential character of the caste to which they belonged and suffered the disabilities and disadvantages of other members of their caste.
Opposing the claim, state government submitted that the petitioners, having born into Christianity and having lived as Christians till their reconversion, are to be treated as Christians and not as a scheduled caste member. It is a conversion of convenience, the government counsel argued.
Ruling in favour of the petitioners, justice K Vinod Chandran held, "The 2nd petitioners (Chandraboss' daughter) definitely was brought up in her father's house, may be as a Christian, but a Christian-Cheramar. There being generally no accepted caste discrimination in Christianity, the identity in the Cheramar community was essentially retained."
The court further said in the judgment, "It is to be noticed that Christianity, as it is generally understood, does not have any caste discrimination and the very fact that the 1st and 2nd petitioners (Chandraboss and his daughter) were all along issued with community certificates as belonging to Christian-Cheramar would indicate that they had their origin in the Hindu-Cheramar community. Considering the question of a Christian convert reconverted to Hinduism, this court in Ponnamma's case (Ponnamma vs Regional Director, 1983) held that the child of parents who (had) converted to Christianity at the time of the birth of the child, could always convert back to Hinduism and claim the rights of the caste of her forefathers once she converts back to Hinduism. The rights of a child born as a Christian, to Schedule Caste parents who converted to Christianity, to reconvert to Hinduism and claim the rights available to a Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe, was affirmed by the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court."
The Hindu
TS not to fund SC/ST students under management quota
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Government of Telangana will not be paying for management quota seats of SC and ST students who are admitted in medical and dental colleges under the Post Matric Scholarship (PMS) scheme starting academic year 2015-16.
GO MS No 14 to this effect was issued by the Scheduled Caste (SC) development department of the state government here on Monday. Earlier, the government till the academic year 2014-15 used to fund the education of students under B-category (or management seats which were filled through the convener quota). The decision to not cover these seats has come about because this year both B and C category seats are being filled by managements of colleges with a higher fee than the previous year.
Deccan Herald
Kerala seen worst, even stir to cover breasts
Kochi: Kerala is one of the most advanced states in the country in terms of human development indices such as health, education and social mobility. But, the achievements made by Kerala were a result of a series of struggles to shake off the vestiges of caste and feudal privileges in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The struggle for the right to cover their breasts by the women of lower castes, the struggle waged by Ayyankali for access to public roads, temple entry agitation, community eating by breaking caste barriers and reformist movement led by VT Bhattathiripad for the emancipation of women belonging to the Namboodiri community were some of the milestones in the march towards a democratic polity in Kerala.
The struggle for the right to cover breasts: The first decades of the nineteenth century was rocked by a series of uprisings by women belonging to lower castes in the erstwhile state of Travancore for the right to cover their breasts as well as for ending the obnoxious practice of breast tax. The upper caste members of the society reacted violently against the agitation leading to a series of clashes in many parts of Travancore. The struggles which erupted in many parts of Travancore ended in victory in July 1859 with the ruler finally issuing a proclamation granting the right to the women of lower castes to cover their breasts.
Ayyankali's struggle for the right to use public roads: Ayyankali, one of the greatest radical leaders of the Dalit community in Kerala, pioneered the struggle for the rights of the dalit community for access to public roads. Ayyankali defied the caste restrictions and drove a bullock cart through the public roads in Vengannoor near Thiruvananthapuram in 1893 creating a new sense of public space in Kerala. Ayyankali gathered a group of youngsters from his Pulaya community before embarking on his historic mission. The actions of Ayyankali led to a series of clashes between dalits and member of the upper castes in many parts of Thurivananthapuram and Kollam regions before the rulers granted dalits the right to walk through public roads.
Panthibhojanam or Community feasting by Sahodran Ayyapan: Sahodaran Ayyappan, a great radical activist and thinker belonging to the Ezhava community, took the initiative to break the evil of caste barriers and for eating together by organising a panthibhojanam (community feast) in Cheari near Kochi in 1917. The feast, attended by over 200 persons including pulayas and members of the dalit community, enraged the conservatives of his own caste and they boycotted him. The support granted by Sree Narayana Guru helped Sahodran Ayyappan to overcome the objections raised by the conservative members of the Ezhava community.
Temple Entry agitation: The struggle for the right of lower caste people to walk through public roads in and around Hindu Temples and worship is another important milestone in the history of Kerala's social reforms. The Vaikkom and Guruvayoor Temple entry satyagrahas paved the way for the historic temple entry proclamation on November 12, 1936 in the state of Travancore.
Emancipation of Namboodiri women: During a time, when women in the Namboothiri community were suffering inequities and oppression within their families, social reformer V.T. Bhattathiripad led movements that challenged the socio-economic status quo in the Namboodiri Community. The initiative launched by VT invited the wrath of the orthodox sections of his community which had socially ostracized him for many years. But, the project launched by VT led to the emancipation of Namboodiri women that in turn helped to end obnoxious practices like Child Marriage and other evils prevailing in the community and ushered in progressive ideas such as widow remarriage and education amongst members of the community.
The Hindustan Times
What Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Masaan teach us about realities of caste
Abhishek Saha, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
|
Updated: Jul 28, 2015 08:09 IST
Paat na paya meetha paani/Or-chhor ki doori re...
This line from the song Mann Kasturi, of the recently released film Masaan, literary means that even the sweet water of the river cannot bridge the distance between its two sides. According to stand-up comedian Varun Grover, who co-wrote the film's script and lyrics, the intent behind the words was: "The Ganges can't fill the divides between castes and genders that we have created in our society."
One of the two intertwined stories of Neeraj Ghaywan's Masaan, which is set in Varanasi and won two awards at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival this year, is a love story between a low-caste boy from the Dom community, which oversees the burning of corpses, and an upper-caste girl.
Shaalu and Deepak's blossoming relationship is marred by the realisation that the girl's orthodox parents will vehemently oppose it. But Shaalu assures Deepak that she herself doesn't believe in such discriminations, and would be happy to marry him even if it needed them to elope.
Most of us are aware of the caste-based discriminations quite well, but, at times turn a blind eye to them. Marginalisation of lower caste people – often leading to socio-cultural exclusion and even violence – continues to be one of the most unfortunate evils of the Indian society.
Last May, a 21-year-old Dalit boy in Maharashtra's Shirdi town was killed because he had assigned a song on Ambedkar as the ringtone on his phone. Media reports said the assailants hit the boy with a beer bottle and kicked and punched him to death after he refused to switch off the song which praised Ambedkar's work for uplifting Dalits.
"The effect of caste on the ethics of the Hindus is simply deplorable," wrote Babasaheb Ambedkar in his famous essay Annihilation of Caste in 1936, adding, "Caste has killed public spirit. Caste has destroyed the sense of public charity." Ambedkar suggested in the essay that the "real remedy" for caste-based discrimination in India is the promotion of inter-caste marriage.
However, seldom does mainstream Hindi cinema capture this grim reality. Of course, there was Shyam Benegal's Ankur but it was way back in 1974, which is why contemporary films like Masaan are so relevant for portraying our society's woes realistically.
But the real surprise in this regard is Kabir Khan's blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan, starring Salman Khan, which tells the story of a pious Hindu man travelling to Pakistan to reunite a lost six-year-old mute girl with her parents. Woven into the primary storyline of the film, there are nuanced references to caste-based discriminations that are widespread in our society.
In Bajrangi Bhaijaan, while trying to identify the girl's community, the character portrayed by Salman, Bajrangi, says that her extremely fair complexion is an indication that she is a Brahmin. But after she exhibits her liking for meat, Bajrangi concedes that she must belong to a Kshatriya family, who are upper-castes but consume meat.
Needless to say, such references hold up a mirror to the society to see for itself the reflection of deep-seated, centuries-old prejudices.
A senior journalist with The Indian Express asked director Kabir Khan in an interview, "There are casteist lines about 'fair' Brahmins and 'meat-eating' Kshatriyas. Isn't that too stereotypical?" He replied: "Exactly the reason we placed it in the film. Caste is so steeped in our conscience that that is how we talk. That's the stereotype. Bajrangi voices what we all think."
Masaan and Bajrangi Bhaijaan have also come at a time when political pressure on the Narendra Modi-led NDA government to release detailed Caste Census data of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2001 is mounting, and the Bharatiya Janata Party's rivals and critics have attributed a political motive behind the delay. They have claimed that relevant caste data will help develop specific schemes to "uplift those who have been maltreated and suppressed in the name of caste."
Perhaps it is too naive for us to think that a film can unshackle us from the prejudices of the centuries-old caste system that sit so deeply in our conscience. "Films cannot change society. They never have. Show me a film that changed society or brought about any change," Oscar-winning filmmaker Satyajit Ray had rightly said in an interview with the Cineaste magazine in the 1980s.
However, what films like Masaan and Bajrangi Bhaijaan can definitely do is showcase the reality in a brave, unflinching manner. And may be in doing so, hammer into our minds the fact that we do harbour prejudices against people who we think are different from us and nudge us to question our beliefs.
Hopefully, more such films will be made and they will one day bridge the gaps that Ganges' sweet water cannot.
Business Standard
A Dalit's story
http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/a-dalit-s-story-115072701482_1.html
Ms Gokhale, it may not shock readers today but it will certainly burn through their skins by the time they are done reading the 299 pages of the book
July 27, 2015 Last Updated at 21:25 IST
"I have tried best to forget my past. But the past is stubborn, it will not be erased easily. Many Dalits may see what I am doing here as someone picking through a pile of garbage. A scavenger's account of life. But he who does not know his past cannot direct his future."
Daya Pawar wrote this in 1978 in Baluta, the first autobiography by a Dalit, in Marathi. With this English translation, Jerry Pinto has done us all a favour.
In the preface to Mr Pinto's translation of the book, Shanta Gokhale, the famous writer and translator of works, wonders whether today's readers will feel the same sense of shock that she did on the first reading of Baluta years ago. Ms Gokhale, it may not shock readers today but it will certainly burn through their skins by the time they are done reading the 299 pages of the book.
The book is set in the slums of Mumbai of the 1940s and 1950s and in a Maharwara in rural Maharashtra. The Maharwara was the area designated for the Mahars - a Dalit community to which Pawar belonged - to live away from the main village in order not to pollute it.
Baluta takes you to places all non-Dalit Indians must visit even today - the secluded corners where Dalit inhabitations persist in rural India and the decrepit urban slums of the cities where the poor and the excluded communities of the country mostly live. Don't be mistaken, they exist even today.
This is not a book in which the author unleashes his rage and explodes reality like a bomb in the reader's face. Pawar deploys narrative tools that are simple and yet permit a complex reflection on his life. The essence and physical reality of his existence injects itself slowly into the heart and mind of the reader like a toxic chemical.
When you read Baluta, the words help you walk the lanes of his memory and of the chawls in which he grew up. His phrases draw you in to the corner of his village reserved for Mahars. You feel his anguish build as he grows up and learns of the dark shadows of untouchability and the economic lockdown it imposes on the lives of his people. You feel his exhilaration at finding the little joys that he is able to steal from the squalor that defines the lives of Mahars. You are amazed by the candour he shows in narrating the anecdotes that illustrate the changes in his life and sketch the lives of others around him.
But as Pawar makes you walk the grimy memory lanes of his life the systematic and deep social injustices you see strewn across his path the essence of his existence seep in to your thoughts. Pawar does not play the victim, as Pinto rightly points out. He does not speak for his community and he does not use rhetoric. He reflects upon his life, the lives and ways of the people and the communities around him and he can be as scathing and as deeply introspective of himself as he is about others.
Fascinatingly, the autobiography also takes you through the patches in Pawar's heart and life when he is conscious of the changes education and the love for written words brings to his life. The act of learning distances him from lives of others even as it provides him the tools to reflect upon his and their lives.
Mr Pinto explains that baluta, the word Pawar chose to name his autobiography, refers to the practice once prevalent in villages of Maharashtra that forced the Mahar community to work as bonded labour. It refers to the "lowly" jobs and duties Mahar's and some other communities were forced to do for the village without payment. They got a share in the village's produce instead and that was called baluta. Pawar writes about how the Mahars never looked upon baluta as alms but as their right. Obviously, other "higher-castes" did not think so. Pawar does not explicitly call it bonded labour. But his craft of story-telling is so perfect, you cannot escape the unstated truth. You cannot escape the reality of Dalit oppression reflected in Baluta. Thank you, Jerry Pinto, for capturing it so richly in the translation.
News monitored by Girish Pant & AJEET
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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