Dalits Media Watch
NewsUpdates 05.07.13
Dharmapuri dalit boy who married Vanniyar girl found dead on railway tracks- The Times Of India
Mystery shrouds Tamil Nadu dalit youth's death- The Times Of India
Preserve dalit youth Ilavarasan's body: Madras HC- The Times Of India
Dalit youth death: Delhi activists to protest against casteism- The Times Of India
www.surfcanyon.com/search?f=acc&q=Dalit+youth+death:+Delhi+activists+to+protest+against+casteism
SC, ST students accuse HPS of intentionally failing them - The Hindu
Patna HC overturns order, acquits 9 in mass murder case - Zee News
The tale of the illusory road - The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/the-tale-of-the-illusory-road/article4881301.ece
State Council of Higher Education to Monitor the Funds to Educational Institutions of Higher Education- InvestinIndia
Score 17%, eligible for NITs- The Telegraph
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130705/jsp/nation/story_17083593.jsp#.UdZF4qx1PwA
NOTE : Please find attachment for Hindi News Updates (PDF)
The Times Of India
Dharmapuri dalit boy who married Vanniyar girl found dead on railway tracks
CHENNAI: A dalit boy, whose marriage to a Vanniyar girl triggered anti-dalit violence in three villages of Tamil
Nadu's Dharmapuri district in November last year, was found dead along a railway track in that town on
Thursday, a day after his wife said she would never go back to him and would stay with her mother.
Railway police said Ilavarasan was found along a track behind the government arts college in Dharmapuri.
News of the boy's death led to a tense situation in dalit areas in Naickenkottai, with many of them thronging the
Government Medical College hospital, where his body was taken.
Dharmapuri superintendent of police Asra Garg said raliway police are conducting an inquiry and that it was
too early to say if there any foul play. Police pickets have been posted in sensitive areas in Naickenkottai.
The girl Divya told reporters on Wednesday after appearing for a hearing in Madras high court that she has
been under tremendous pressure all along and was unable to forget her father who committed suicide after
her marriage. She also said she no longer wanted to live with her husband, but her mother.
The bench comprising Justice M Jayachandran and Justice M Sunderesh had reserved the orders for Friday.
Her mother had filed a habeas corpus petition to produce her before the Court and set her at liberty.
On July 1, Divya had told the court she would go with her mother "for the time being". She also said she had
no problems in the house of her husband or with her mother-in-law, but was haunted by incidents of her
father's death, who committed suicide after her marriage with Ilavarasan of Natham village.
Divya's mother too had opposed the marriage on October 14. Three villages of Dharmapuri district — Natham,
Kondamapatty and Annanagar — witnessed violence and about 296 huts belonging to dalits were torched on
November 7 after the girl's father committed suicide.
Several writ petitions were filed and the court ordered a probe into rehabilitation measures taken in dalit
colonies under the committee headed by IAS officer Vaski, which submitted a 5000-page report to the high
court.
The Times Of India
Mystery shrouds Tamil Nadu dalit youth's death
CHENNAI: Ilavarasan, the dalit youth who married a vanniyar woman Divya in November last year and braved
a caste backlash, was found dead along a railway track in Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu on Thursday. Police said
the body was found behind the government arts college and sent for post-mortem to the Dharmapuri
government hospital.
Quoting eyewitnesses, police said Ilavarasan had reached the spot around 12.30pm on a motorcycle, and sat
for a while near the railway track behind the college. They suspect he might have jumped in front of Kurla
Express, which passed by between 1pm and 1.30pm.
Dharmapuri SP Asra Garg said the railway police were conducting an inquiry and it was too early to say if there
was any foul play. Police pickets have been posted in sensitive areas in Naickenkottai in the district, from
where Ilavarasan hailed. Prohibitory orders have been clamped in Dharmapuri in view of the tense situation
prevailing there, Garg said.
"We have seized three letters from his bag. The letters were written by Divya (his wife) during 2011 and there
was no suicide note," another officer said.
Alleging that his son had been murdered, Ilavarasan's father T Elango told TOI, "He was very confident. He
was not a weak boy. He was telling us that he is going to Andhra Pradesh to work." Elango works at the
hospital where Ilavarasan's body was sent for post-mortem.
On Wednesday, Divya, who had left Ilavarasan to stay with her mother, apparently following social pressure,
had told reporters in Chennai she had no plans to go back to him. The two had eloped and married against the
wishes of her family last year, prompting her father Nagarajan to commit suicide. This triggered a caste
uproar. Dalit houses were torched and the issue, which simmered for months, led to unrest in April in the wake
of a conference organised by the PMK.
On Wednesday, Divya told reporters at the Madras high court she was under tremendous pressure and was
unable to forget her father, who committed suicide after her marriage. She said she no longer wanted to live
with her husband and preferred to stay with her mother.
VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan demanded a judicial probe into Ilavarasan's death. He also urged the
government to provide protection to Divya and her family. "She had told the court earlier that she wished to
live with Ilavarasan, but changed her stand recently. What force pressured her to change her mind?" he
asked.
The CPM, too, expressed shock at the incident and demanded an inquiry.
The Times Of India
Preserve dalit youth Ilavarasan's body: Madras HC
CHENNAI: The star-crossed love affair and marriage between a dalit boy Ilavarasan and a non-dalit girl N
Divya, has spawned a multiplicity of litigation a day after the boy was found dead on railway tracks in
Dharmapuri district.
On Friday, while one bench directed the state government to preserve the boy's body and indicated that it
might order a second postmortem if necessary, another bench agreed to hear a different petition on the affair
and the death of Elavarasan at 2.15pm.
Yet another bench has been abjourned till July 19, a batch of PILs relating to payment of compensation and
punishment of collector and superintendent of police for further hearing.
In November 2012, the couple had eloped, antagonising their families and the caste-conscious villages in
Dharmapuri district. Unable to put up with societal pressure, the girl's father Natarajan committed suicide. His
death triggered a wave of violence and arson directed at dalit colonies and households.
The entire region of northern Tamil Nadu witnessed a long spell of violence. Meanwhile, Divya's mother filed a
habeas corpus petition in the Mdras high court seeking her daughter's production in court. While the case was
pending, the girl returned to her mother. In court also she said she wanted to go with her mother.
Earlier this week, by way of clarification, Divya told media that she would never go back to her husband. On
Thursday, Elavarasan's body was found on railway tracks in Dharmapuri district, igniting another round of
litigations.
On Friday morning, advocate R Vaigai mentioned the matter before the first bench headed by actng Chief
Justice RK Agrawal and wanted a hearing. After being directed to the bench incharge of HCP portfolio, she
then made a mention before the bench of Justice M Jaichandren and Justice M M Sundresh, seeking
protection for Divya. The bench agreed to hear the case at 2.15pm.
Elsewhere, another bench of Justice V Danapalan and Justice CT Selvam, heard a mention by advocate R
Sankarasubbu, who wanted a doctor of their choice to be present in the team conducting Elavarasan's
postmortem, reacting to which, public prosecutor Shanmugavelayutham said the postmortem had already
been conducted.
A team of doctors conducted the autopsy for four hours, he said. Sankarasubbu, however, objected to this and
said he had spoken to the Dharmapuri district superintendent of police and informed him about the fact that he
was going to take up the matter in the high court.
The SP, according to counsel, said the autopsy would be done at 11.30am. After the submissions, the judges
directed the authorities to preserve the body till Tuesday when they would hear the matter again. The judges
also said they must hand over the postmortem report and video graph to the victim's father.
Earlier in the morning, a bench of Justice R Banumathi and Justice TS Sivagnanam adjourned to July 19, a
pending batch of PILs which relate to the anti-dalit violence and arson and compensation package to victims.
The Times Of India
Dalit youth death: Delhi activists to protest against casteism
www.surfcanyon.com/search?f=acc&q=Dalit+youth+death:+Delhi+activists+to+protest+against+casteism
CHENNAI: Reacting to the death of Elavarasan, a dalit who was found dead on Thursday by the railway tracks
in Dharmapuri after a stormy marriage with a Vanniyar caste woman, activists in New Delhi are planning to
protest in front of the Tamil Nadu Bhavan.
Bhargavi Dilipkumar from Delhi Forum said groups like National Coalition for Strengthening PoA (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act, Delhi Solidarity Group, JNU ( Jawaharlal Nehru University) Students Union and All India
Students Association are planning to come together to protest against discrimination of Dalits.
Among the demands of the protesters would be to withdraw Section 144 from Natham Colony in Dharmapuri,
which witnessed mob violence last November after Elavarasan eloped with Divya.
The protesters would also demand implementation and advocacy of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and
guidance, counseling for couples married across castes and banning caste-based political parties. "On
November 23 last year, we had a mass rally where around 35,000 dalits and advasis turned up from all parts
of the country, including Tamil Nadu," said Bhargavi. "In the past 15 years, atrocities against dalits touched a
peak in 2012 across Tamil Nadu, with Villupuram, Virudhunagar, Dharmapuri and Theni topping the list," she
added.
Anil Tharayath, a member of Delhi Forum, said that while the logistics are still at the planning stage, the
protests are likely to take place early next week. "Caste is a reality across the country. The configurations are
just different," said Tharayath, adding that caste-based parties like PMK must be banned.
The Hindu
SC, ST students accuse HPS of intentionally failing them
Several students from SC/ST communities have alleged that the management of Hyderabad Public School,
Begumpet, was intentionally failing them in a few subjects thus scuttling their chances of promotion to higher
classes.
The students poured out their woes to Andhra Pradesh SC/ST Legislative Committee Chairman Labbi
Venkataswamy, when he visited the school to verify the records pertaining to admission process here on
Thursday. Students complained that the management had not promoted about 25 students from the two
communities to higher classes.
"It's really depressing. Even after writing re-exam, I was failed in two subjects. When my parents wanted to see
the exam paper they are not cooperating," rued a class IX student Neeraja.
She said her parents were trying to meet the management since June 6 to discuss the issue but in vain.
TC with pass marks
Parents claimed that the school authorities were promising to give transfer certificate (TC) with pass marks if
the students wished to join other schools.
"How can they give TC with pass marks when students failed in their subjects? It's nothing but a ploy to send
SC, ST children out of the school," Indira, mother of a student alleged.
She alleged that the management had promoted some students who secured single digit numbers in a few
subjects.
"We request the government to intervene and render justice to the students or else they will lose a precious
academic year," she said.
Mr. Venkataswamy promised to discuss the issue with the school authorities.
He also claimed to have found irregularities in admissions of SC/ST students as those from affluent families
were given preference over the poor from the same community.
A detailed report would be submitted to the Speaker in this regard shortly, Mr. Venkataswamy said.
Zee News
Patna HC overturns order, acquits 9 in mass murder case
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 03, 2013, 21:41
Patna: The Patna High Court on Wednesday overturned the order of life imprisonment to nine people in a 13 year-old mass murder case and acquitted them, citing lack of evidence.
A division bench comprising Justice V N Sinha and Justice A K Lal passed the order overturning the life terms awarded to the nine people for lack of evidence in the mass murder case of 34 dalits at Miapur village in Bihar's Aurangabad district 13 years ago.
The court also ordered their release if they were not wanted in any other case.
The division bench at the same time upheld the life term awarded to one accused named Avinash Chandra Sharma alias Avinash Chandra, who too was convictd by the Aurangabad court along with the nine others in the same case six years ago.
A total 34 dalits, including women and children, were massacred allegedly by Ranvir Sena activists at Miapur on June 16, 2000.
Aurangabad additional district judge Krishna Kant Dwivedi had found ten persons charged in the mass murder case guilty and had awarded them life terms.
PTI
The Hindu
The tale of the illusory road
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/the-tale-of-the-illusory-road/article4881301.ece
Rahi Gaikwad
A Dalit village in Bihar is facing upper caste landowners' ire for demanding a long-awaited road
A frustrating delay of 10 years in implementation of the State government's Sampark Sadak Yojana (connecting road scheme) compounded by routine caste hatred drove a group of villagers from the Maha Dalit quarters in a Bihar village to block a road there recently.
The village of Daulatpurchandi is located off the Hajipur-Lalganj main road in the tourist district of Vaishali. Resident of its Maha Dalit tola (quarters) took to the road last week in a bid to make the administration hear of their plight. The Maha Dalit quarter has around 500 houses of the Chamar community.
"The process of building the connecting road started 10 years ago, but it has still not being built. Even the land acquisition has been done," said Ramprasad Ram of Daulatpurchandi.
Without the connecting road, the villagers, who are largely farm labourers, have to pass through the fields of the upper caste landowners. They thus become the target of trenchant caste hatred and abuses.
In fact, incensed over the Dalits' demands for a pathway, upper caste villagers arrived at the Dalit quarters with a JCB at night and dug a deep, long tunnel-like ditch right outside their homes, thus effectively hampering their movement out of the locality.
"The zamindars came at night. When we asked them why they were digging, they threatened to shoot us. They said how we could stop them from digging on their own land," said Rajeshwar Ram.
To make matters worse for the residents, Daulatpurchandi is flanked by two villages dominated by upper castes. "The previous night, the neighbouring village cut off the power connection to these quarters. They snapped the wire of the transformer that supplied power to this tola," said Sudisht Ram.
"My patience has run out. Without a connecting road, it's so difficult to even go to the shop," said Gena, a farm labourer.
The administration conceded to a delay in implementing the scheme. "The process started in 2003, but for various reasons, the scheme never saw the light of the day," said Jitendra Srivastava, Vaishali's District Magistrate.
"The government has acquired land four months ago and funds have also been allocated. Only the area has to be demarcated on the ground. The issue will get sorted out by July 8," Mr. Srivastava added.
The administration has filled the ditch, but there is no telling what other pitfalls lie ahead for the Dalits of Daulatpurchandi.
InvestinIndia
State Council of Higher Education to Monitor the Funds to
Educational Institutions of Higher Education
The country will substantially increase the number of students in higher education in next seven years. The
presentation made by the HRD Ministry to the Consultatative Committee expressed that Rashtriya Uchchatar
Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) will increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) from 18% to 30%. The scheme
estimated to cost Rs.99000 crore will include other existing schemes in the sector. The highlight of the
scheme will be that central funding from the Ministry and UGC to institution will be through the State Council of
Higher Education as against the direct funding by the Centre and UGC to educational institutions of higher
education. Moreover, the funding by the Centre will be upto 90% and it will be available to even private
institutions based on certain norms.
The scheme emphasizes to promote reforms in the State Higher Education System by creating a facilitating
institutional structure for planning and monitoring at the state level. It will help to promote autonomy in state
universities and include governance in the institutions. One of the goals of RUSA will be to ensure academic
examination reforms in the higher education institutions and enable conversion of some of the universities into
research universities at par with the best in the world.
The project will be implemented through HRD Ministry as a centrally sponsored scheme with matching
contribution from the State government and Union Territories. It is proposed to set eligibility criteria for states
to achieve a high and sustained impact of the project through monitoring and evaluation. The primary
responsibility of the monitoring will lie with the institution themselves. The State Government and the Centre
through The Project Appraisal Board will monitor the project annually. The main component of the programme
is to set up New Universities and Upgrade the existing autonomous colleges to universities. The other attempt
will be to convert colleges to Cluster Universities and set up new Model Colleges. The strategy will also
include converting existing Degree colleges to Model Colleges.
The HRD Minister Dr. M. M. Pallam Raju said collective effort should be made to raise standard of higher
education and increase employability. He also wanted research be given more priority in the context of higher
education. Pointing to various legislation relating to HRD pending in parliament, Dr. Raju hoped that some of
them will get parliamentary nod in the mansoon session.
Other related points that came up for discussion were expanding the institutional base by creating
additional capacity in existing institutions and establishing new institutions in order to achieve
enrolment targets; correcting regional imbalances in access to higher education by facilitating access
to high quality institutions in urban and semi-urban areas creating opportunities for students from
rural areas to get better access to better quality institutions; and improving equity in higher education
by providing adequate opportunities of higher education to SC/STs and socially and educationally
backward classes.
The members present from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha include : Sh. Jagda Nand Singh, Dr. Nirmal
Khatri, Shri G.R.N.R Dudhgaonkar, Dr. M. Thambi Durai, Smt. Rama Devi, Shri Lalji Tandon, Shri Sucharu
Ranjan Haldar, Dr. Ram Prakash, Sh. Ishwar singh, Sh. Mohamad Shafi, Dr. Prabhakar Kore, Sh. G.N.
Ratanpuri, Sh. Javed Akhtar, Sh. Ram Vilas Paswan and Sh. Basawaraj Patil. Special invitee were Dr. Tarun
Mandal and Sh. Avinash Pandey.
The Telegraph
Score 17%, eligible for NITs
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130705/jsp/nation/story_17083593.jsp#.UdZF4qx1PwA
New Delhi, July 4: Some of India's future engineers who are eligible to
seek admission to the National Institutes of Technology have scored as low
as 17 per cent in the common engineering entrance exam that gave
weightage to Class XII board marks.
Technical education experts said the low eligibility cut-off could be a
reflection of the extreme rigour of the exam, which has replaced the All
India Engineering Entrance Examination, as well as "poor learning
outcome" among students from across the country.
The Central Board of Secondary Education, which conducted the Joint
Entrance Examination (Main), has fixed the cut-off at 17.2 per cent for
general category candidates, 16.38 per cent for students from the Other Backward Classes and 8.88 per cent
for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates.
The final score is calculated by giving a 60 per cent weightage to a candidate's JEE Main marks and 40 per
cent weightage to his or her board marks. The latter are normalised through a percentile-based calculation to
get around the problem of wide variations in evaluation among school boards.
Till last year, the eligibility criterion was 60 per cent marks in the board exam for general category and OBC
students. For Dalit and tribal candidates, it was 50 per cent.
An individual's percentile is calculated by dividing the number of examinees below him or her by the total
number of candidates. The result is then multiplied by 100.
A senior CBSE official said the low cut-off was not a new trend. "Every year, the cut-off is low because we
have to select a large pool of students. For example, the cut-off for last year was 48 out of 360 (the full marks)
for general category students," the official said.
The NITs account for some 25,000 seats, while around 500 engineering colleges in the states and Union
territories depend on the JEE Main combined merit list for admitting students.
The JEE Main is the first of the two-tier exam that all aspiring engineers need to clear. Only the top 1.5 lakh
candidates from the JEE Main are allowed to take the JEE Advanced for entering the IITs.
The CBSE official said some 4.5 lakh students had been selected through the JEE Main this year. The final
score of the topper, Maloo Chandra Ashok, was 329.6.
Ritesh Goyal from Bhatinda has ranked second with 329 marks. N.S. Rameshan from Puducherry has come
third with 326.
While the topper, Ashok, is from the Maharashtra board, the other two are from the CBSE.
"Being eligible does not mean that a student will necessarily get a seat in an institution. It only means that the
student is eligible to study engineering provided he or she gets a seat," the official added.
A member of the IIT Bombay faculty said the low cut-off suggested a poor learning outcome among students.
"The topper has secured over 91 per cent in the final score which suggests that students can score fairly well if
they are competent. The cut-off of 17 per cent is too low," he said.
IIT Delhi professor Sanjiv Sanghi said the CBSE had fixed such a low cut-off to ensure a large pool of
candidates.
"There were 12 lakh candidates. The CBSE has gone by the logic of its requirement of students. It does not
reflect on low standard of selection. Those declared eligible are the top 40 per cent scorers," Sanghi said.
The JEE Advanced cut-off for admission to the IITs is higher. The cut-off for the general category in the
exam, conducted by the top tech schools, is 43.3 per cent, while that for OBCs is 31.38 per cent. For
SC/STs, the cut-off is 17.5 per cent.
Many students have complained to the CBSE about discrepancies in the final results of the JEE Main because
of the weightage given to board marks, officials said. Some of these students, who scored well in the JEE
Main written test, have found themselves way down on the list of eligible candidates after the final score was
tallied.
The CBSE official said at least 50 of the top 100 scorers in the JEE Main had failed to find a place among the
top 100 in the final list of eligible candidates.
News Monitor by Girish Pant
--
.Arun Khote
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.
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