Scheduled Caste woman allegedly beaten up by BSF personnel in West Bengal – Merinews
http://www.merinews.com/article/scheduled-caste-woman-allegedly-beaten-up-by-bsf-personnel-in-west-bengal/15916359.shtml
No need to follow Reservation Rule while short-listing candidates for interview
http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/no-need-follow-reservation-rule-short-listing-candidates-interview/ – Daily Excelsior
In MP, people do not believe in inter-caste marriage – The Hindustan Times
http://www.hindustantimes.com/bhopal/in-mp-people-do-not-believe-in-inter-caste-marriage/story-5lhTGi5wh5Nm5WUqWTpoPP.html
250 manual scavengers and their family members empowered for self employment – Invest India
http://investinindia.com/news/250-manual-scavengers-and-their-family-members-empowered-self-employment
22 children go missing in Delhi everyday: RTI – Deccan Chronicle
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/crime/190516/22-children-go-missing-in-delhi-everyday-rti.html
Letters: ‘Toilet tourism’ – The Business Standard
http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/letters-toilet-tourism-116051901778_1.html
Why Dalit Matters: A Dalit-American Argument for the Inclusion of “Dalit” in California Textbooks – Round Table India
http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8613%3Awhy-dalit-matters-a-dalit-american-argument-for-the-inclusion-of-dalit-in-california-textbooks&catid=119&Itemid=132
Merinews
Scheduled Caste woman allegedly beaten up by BSF personnel in West Bengal
http://www.merinews.com/article/scheduled-caste-woman-allegedly-beaten-up-by-bsf-personnel-in-west-bengal/15916359.shtml
ANJAN KUMAR SAMAL
Renubala Barman is a destitute Scheduled Caste woman; estranged by her husband and living with her minor son and aged mother in great difficulties. She used to work on the fields of other people and often ferried cumin seeds from one side of the river to another. Every other day, she collected cow dung in her bamboo basket from adjoining villages and dries it in cake to use it as fuel.
The Border Security Force (BSF) at the area of occurrence are stationed at the bank of the river at the side of the village where the victim lives, and the border from this point is nearly 3.5-4 kilometers away. At the other side of the river, there are three Indian villages; Daribas, Jari Dhorola and Badurchuti with 5-6 thousand population. Everyday villagers allegedly face intense humiliation, subjugation and torture at the hand of the posted BSF personnel while crossing the river for all their practical requirements.
On 10 April 2016, Renubala Barman reached the above mentioned Kasem Ghat with her basket full of cow dung which she collected from adjoining villages at the other side of the river. At that time four BSF personnel were on duty at the mentioned BOP of Kasem Ghat; two of them were male and another two were women, as mentioned in the perpetrators list.
In Focus
While she reached at the spot, the four BSF personnel in first instance dropped the basket from her head and littered the cow dung on the earth. The victim asked why they littered cow dung which she collected in scorching sun.
The victim and BSF personnel were arguing over the issue and all of a sudden, four BSF personnel allegedly shoved her to earth by holding her neck and started beating her with their bamboo sticks. Due to one of the blows, the upper portion of her left hand became swollen and marks of the blows became apparent on her neck and back.
A local Panchayat member rescued her and she was brought to the Dinhata Sub Divisional Hospital at 2:30 p.m. on the same day. At the emergency ward of the said hospital, the Medical Officer on duty, Dr. Saswati Naskar examined her and she was admitted to the hospital till 12 April 2016.
It was reported that while the victim was admitted at the hospital, BSF officials in plain clothes entered and pressurized to bring her to the BSF Camp but it was not possible due to her injuries.
On 19 April 2016, the victim made a written complaint to the Superintendent of Police, Coochbehar but till date no action has been initiated. The victim is living under severe physical illness and mental agony.
Daily Excelsior
No need to follow Reservation Rule while short-listing candidates for interview
http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/no-need-follow-reservation-rule-short-listing-candidates-interview/
Posted on 20/05/2016 by Dailyexcelsior
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 19: Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Tashi Rabstan has held that while short-listing candidates for inviting them for interview, the rule of reservation is not required to be followed.
“If category wise candidates based on communal roster are short listed, it would be detrimental to the meritorious candidates belonging to the reserved categories”, the DB further said This significant judgment has been passed in a bunch of petitions in which petitioners submitted that respondent invited applications from eligible candidates vide Notification dated 30.12.2008 for direct recruitment against various gazetted services—Junior Scale of J&K Administrative Services, J&K Police Gazetted Services and J&K Accounts Gazetted Services, in accordance with SRO 387 dated 01.12.2008 read with SRO 393 and the J&K PSC (Conduct of Examinations) Rules, 2005.
The total number of vacancies advertised in the Notification were 398, of which 210 posts were to be filled for Junior Scale of J&K Administrative Services, 84 in Police Gazetted services and 104 in J&K Accounts Gazetted Services. The writ petitioners-appellants also submitted their applications and after scrutiny they were allowed to participate in the preliminary examination conducted by the J&K Public Service Commission on 23.05.2010 and 24.05.2010 in which 33449 candidates out of 39362 appeared.
The writ petitioners qualified the preliminary examination as per criteria laid down and were declared eligible to appear in the main examinations for selection to the advertised posts. The petitioners appeared in the main written examination, the result of which was declared on 30.09.2010. However, the writ petitioners-appellants were not in the short list.
As per the J&K Reservation Rules, 2005, the direct recruitment has to be made under Rule 4 of the Reservation Rules 2008 which states that 8% posts are to be filled from Scheduled Caste category, 10% from Scheduled Tribe category, 2% from weak and under privileged classes (Social Castes), 3% from residents of ALC, 20% from Residents of Backward Areas (RBA), 6% from ex-servicemen and 3% from physically challenged persons.
Accordingly, out of 398 posts, 225 posts were to be filled from Open Merit category and the rest to be filled from reserved categories, i.e. 80 posts from RBA category, 31 posts from SC category, 40 posts from ST category, 14 posts from ALC category and 8 posts from OSC category.
“It is evident that in the Open Merit category vacancies, candidates belonging to all categories irrespective of their categories, were accommodated purely on the basis of the marks secured by them. As per the select list furnished, 225 candidates were selected in Open Merit category and the last selected candidate in Open Merit category has secured 1128 marks in the final selection, except four candidates who were selected under Physically Handicapped category”, the DB observed.
In RBA category 80 candidates were selected and the 79th candidate has secured 1051 marks in the final selection i.e. Main written examination and viva voce and the 80th candidate selected was under Physically handicapped category. In Scheduled Caste category 31 candidates were selected and the last candidate selected has secured total 1001 marks in the Main written examination and viva voce test. Under the Scheduled Tribe category 40 candidates were selected and the last selected candidate selected under this category has secured 1006 total marks in the main written examination and viva voce test.
In the ALC category 14 candidates were selected and the last selected candidate has secured 1060 marks. Similarly in OSC category 8 candidates have been selected and the last selected candidate has secured 1094 marks in the final selection.
After hearing Senior Advocates PN Raina and MK Bhardwaj with Advocates Alok Bambroo and Vasu Dubey appearing for the petitioners/ appellants whereas Advocate General DC Raina appearing for the State, DB observed, “the facts and figures which were produced by the official respondents and having regard to the well accepted proposition of law that while short listing the candidates for viva voce, reservation rules need not to be followed”, adding “we are in perfect agreement with the order of the Single Judge. There is no merit to accept any of the contentions raised by the appellants”.
With these observations, Division Bench dismissed the LPAs.
The Hindustan Times
In MP, people do not believe in inter-caste marriage
http://www.hindustantimes.com/bhopal/in-mp-people-do-not-believe-in-inter-caste-marriage/story-5lhTGi5wh5Nm5WUqWTpoPP.html
Shruti Tomar, Hindustan Times, Bhopal
Updated: May 19, 2016 19:39 IST
In Madhya Pradesh inter-caste marriage is still a distant dream as people do not believe in getting married to persons from the other castes, a recent study has revealed.
The study by Delhi-based National Council of Applied Economic Research has revealed that 99% marriages in Madhya Pradesh are intra-caste, which is highest in India.
During the study, 99% of women who were asked “Is your husband’s family from the same caste as your family?” said yes, at a time when the state government has launched a scheme to encourage inter-caste marriages. The Scheduled castes welfare department launched a scheme called inter-caste marriage promotion scheme to eliminate untouchability in the state.
Tanvita Verma (name changed), a business executive said, “My parents motivated me to choose a career of my own choice. They never told me what to wear and what not to and they gave me freedom but when it comes to marrying a boy of my own choice they said ‘no’ without even trying to know about him because he belongs to another caste.”
“My parents said our society is not broad-minded enough to accept the concept of inter-caste or inter-religion marriage. I am still trying to convince them but things are not in my favour till now,” she said.
Rights activists say that the government should not only concentrate on untouchability but also should come up with policies and schemes to end the caste barriers so that incidents of honour killing can be stopped.
“Three days ago in Gwalior, a minor girl was killed by her father and uncle, for marrying a person against their wishes. Such incidents can be avoided if we can change the mindset of people. Even, the government should come up with schemes and policies to end the caste barriers,” said Rolly Shivhare, a women rights activist.
Government officials, however, have a different opinion.
Principal secretary of the scheduled castes welfare department Ashok Shah said, “I won’t comment on the survey findings. But in Madhya Pradesh, most people believe in inter-caste marriages. Under the scheme, courageous couples are being awarded with cash awards of Rs 2 lakh and being felicitated.”
Traditional barriers
Activists say that the government should come up with policies and schemes to end the caste barriers so that incidents of honour killing can be stopped.
A minor girl was allegedly stabbed to death by her father and uncle on May 13 in a suspected case of honour killing in Gwalior.
A 17-year-old Brahmin girl Chetna Gautam and her 24-year-old Kshatriya lover Bhupat Singh Tomar were shot dead in Pavaiya village in Kothar area of Satna district on April 11 in a suspected case of honour killing.
According to the annual crime report published by National Crime Records Bureau, most honour killings in 2014 were reported from Madhya Pradesh (7), followed by Punjab (5) and Maharashtra (5).
Invest India
250 manual scavengers and their family members empowered for self employment
http://investinindia.com/news/250-manual-scavengers-and-their-family-members-empowered-self-employment
Under the ambitious scheme of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for rehabilitation of manual scavengers and their family members, Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot, Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment distributed course completion certificates, Driving Licenses and Employment Letters to the 250 successful trainees here today.
Training was given in various trades under self employment scheme for rehabilitation of manual scavengers. Most of the Commercial Motor Driving Trainees have been employed by various online cab services and NGOs. Financial Assistance for purchase of commercial vehicles has also been arranged in collaboration with Delhi SC, ST, OBC, Minorities, Physically Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (DSFDC).
Shri Gehlot also distributed loan sanction letters to the beneficiaries for E-rickshaw which have been financed through DSFDC. He said that his Ministry has trained 200 women for commercial motor driving skills along with self defense in Delhi alone. This unique initiative will meet the objective of social & economic empowerment of women by creating job/self employment opportunities for them.
The Minister also said that the self defense skills taught to the trainees will not only provide self confidence for the women drivers but also give a sense of security to the women passengers, particularly those who travel in odd hours.
Deccan Chronicle
22 children go missing in Delhi everyday: RTI
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/crime/190516/22-children-go-missing-in-delhi-everyday-rti.html
PTI
PublishedMay 19, 2016, 7:26 pm IST
The number of boys in the age group 0-12 years,
who went missing was much higher, as compared to girls.
New Delhi: Twenty-two children go missing in the national capital everyday with most of them being boys aged upto 12 years, according to an RTI reply.
“A whopping 7928 children went missing in 2015, an increase of almost 1500 children from the previous year. It means 22 children on an average went missing in Delhi every day last year,” Child Rights and You (CRY) said, citing an RTI reply from Delhi Police.
Eighteen children went missing everyday in 2014. The number of boys in the age group 0-12 years, who went missing was much higher, as compared to girls. However, girls formed the major chunk of children in the age group 12-18 years who went missing, the NGO said.
It noted with concern that the percentage of untraced children has risen steadily every year across all age groups. The district-wise data showed that Outer Delhi was the “most unsafe” with maximum number of children missing from the area. Almost half of the 1583 missing children in Outer Delhi remained untraced last year.
Children go missing due to a number of reasons including kidnapping, trafficking as well as cases of running away from home. A majority of these children belong to poor families, specially migrant families coming to Delhi for livelihood.
According to Union Home Ministry’s latest data, Delhi was among the top 4 states which account for 60 per cent of missing children in the country during 2010-14.
“Collaboration between government departments, monitoring bodies like child rights commissions and police is crucial in checking the crimes against children,” Regional Director of NGO CRY Soha Moitra said.
Despite several initiatives and legislation in place, both the central and state governments have “failed” to control trafficking and kidnapping of children, CRY claimed in its statement.
The Business Standard
Letters: ‘Toilet tourism’
http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/letters-toilet-tourism-116051901778_1.html
Y P Issa, Karnal
Business Standard | New Delhi May 19, 2016 Last Updated at 21:07 IST
With reference to the analysis of WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) programmes by Kanika Dutta in her article, “CSR beyond the sanitary truths” (May 19), toilet-building programmes under the umbrella of corporate social responsibility activities have a few more aspects.
First, companies are simply following in the footsteps of government departments: provide for infrastructure but no funds for maintenance or increasing the usage of assets.
Second, these non-perishable, physical assets are easy to be quantified, budgeted, monitored and audited. Third, these toilets provide photo ops to corporate honchos – pose with the rural folk in ethnic wear and before exotic backgrounds – which make for good display copies in the corridors of power as well as for in-house magazines and video clips as fillers for training programmes. Also, such activities offer the public relations departments of companies some work.
While travelling in rural areas one continues to come across ghost houses -abandoned or never occupied – that are located far away from the main villages. These houses were unimaginatively built under the Indira Awas Yojana for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families, who never shifted there.
In a similar way, the unused toilets could soon become part of “toilet tourism” in villages.
Round Table India
Why Dalit Matters: A Dalit-American Argument for the Inclusion of “Dalit” in California Textbooks
http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8613%3Awhy-dalit-matters-a-dalit-american-argument-for-the-inclusion-of-dalit-in-california-textbooks&catid=119&Itemid=132
Written by Suthamalli Ganga
Published on 18 May 2016
My name is Suthamalli Ganga and I am a proud Dalit American who has lived in the US for over seventeen years. Dalit is a term that is used for my people who were formerly known as Untouchable, but we see this word as an epithet and use Dalit instead, which refers to our struggle in the face of caste apartheid. I want to share my story to help those who want to know more about the erasure of Caste and Dalit that Thenmozhi Soundararajan wrote about in Erasing Caste.
When I moved to United States it was my hope that I could finally escape caste apartheid. All I wanted was to finally become a free man. That is why I was shocked by the statements of Hindu American Foundation and the Uberoi Foundation that Indians no longer practice caste. For my whole life has been shaped by being a Dalit and it continues to shape and influence my existence today.
It began when our family was forcibly displaced by poverty and caste discrimination from our village in Tamil Nadu. Because we were poor and Dalit, we ended up in Dharavi, one of the largest slums of Mumbai. There ‘lower’ castes had to remove their rubber slippers while crossing the streets where ‘upper’ caste people resided. We continually faced such indignities but we always met them with resistance. For example, my father was a key figure in Dharavi, organizing Dalit workers to fight for our basic right to keep our footwear on while crossing the unhygienic tar-lined streets.
Even though that was decades ago, and we’re now in 2016, Caste Apartheid still haunts us all over India.
The structure of Indian political power, administration and judiciary, is predominantly ‘upper’ caste. Dalits and ‘lower’ castes continue to be subjected to heinous crimes like rape, murder and caste discrimination in every sphere of life, with impunity. Such present day situations are a legacy of a 2,000 year-old caste system, which has religiously sanction in Hinduism’s holy scriptures. These scriptures include an entire book — the Manusmriti — devoted to a collection of caste laws that detail how to maintain the caste structure through systematic deprivation and injustice to ‘lower caste’ peoples.
As a result of these scriptures, Dalits like myself, were denied basic human rights. We were segregated and made to live outside the village limits in ghettos and prohibited from access to public resources like land and water. We were forced to work with dead carcasses, given menial jobs and treated like slaves.
Which is why it was a shock for me to read “Erasing Facts: What SAFG activists have really done to Hinduism and India in California textbooks‘ by Suhag A Shukla. Shukla, who is an executive director of the right-wing conservativeHindu American Foundation (HAF) and from an ‘upper’ caste. As a member of the South Asian Histories for All Coalition I was horrified by her article.
Suhag clearly minimizes the impact of the reality of the caste system as taught in California’s textbooks. She argues that caste ties to Hinduism cannot be proven. However, this is the very religion that explicitly sanctions the discrimination of Dalits like myself. Dalit Scholars have refuted these assertions by citing several primary sourced verses from the Hindu’s own Holy scriptures. But beyond their own texts, these arguments could only be made in the US as the general consensus in India is finally moving towards understanding the terrible scourge of caste apartheid. Especially after the recent high profile castes of Rohith Vemula, the honor killing of Shankar from the inter-caste couple of Shankar and Kaushalya, and the rapes of Dalit students like Jisha and Delta. It is clear we are at a tipping point of resistance and awareness to the culture of impunity related to caste.
From the Hindu American Foundation’s place of caste privilege, they can afford to be blind to caste crimes, discriminations and injustices. But for those of us who live the Dalit experience, both here and in India, it is not so easy to detach the Hindu religiosity from caste.
When I first arrived in America, I expected to have finally have a chance to be free from the shackles of caste. However, I was surprised at how casteist ‘upper’ caste Indian Hindus like Shukla were in America too. There are countless instances when ‘upper’ caste American Indians have distanced themselves from Dalits once their ‘lower’ caste identities were revealed. A friend I had known for five years suddenly cut his ties to me on finding out my ‘lower’ caste. I have experienced caste discrimination here in other ways too. For example, I have been invited to upper caste homes and then subtly reproached when I refused to pray to Hindu Gods. ‘Upper’ caste Hindu friends also began to avoid coming to theAmbedkar Association of North America stall at our local Indian independence celebration when they saw we had a picture of Dalit liberation leader Dr.Ambedkar. Finally, I have also felt deeply uncomfortable in conversations amongst social networks establishing who was Brahmin and who wasn’t. South Asian diasporic spaces that are predominantly Hindu are always been tricky for us to navigate.
The reality is that the majority of ‘upper’ caste Indians who immigrated to the United States, did so after India’s independence from the British in 1947. They were able to move only because of they were able to use their existing wealth, resources, and education to do so. All of those privileges were systematically denied to Dalits for centuries. But despite having arrived in the land of the American dream, and despite changing continents, most of them continue to keep their ‘upper’ caste worldview. And this prejudice plays out on a very small minority of Dalits and ‘lower caste’ peoples who have fought every odd to get out of the violence of caste structure and move to the United States in search of refuge in the American democracy.
As a Dalit-American father, it is one of my biggest regrets that my two children, who are raised in the United States, were not taught about the caste system at school. For Michigan’s curriculum did not have the same opportunity to teach caste and Dalit history that California textbooks offered. I would have liked for them to have had exposure to the structural violence of caste from more than just myself, family members and friends. I believe it would have given them a sense of pride to know that their ancestors were resistance fighters whose plight could enrage and whose fight they could celebrate!
This is why it is so offensive that Suhag disingenuously tries to find “solutions for Dalits in the Hindu religion” that has in fact oppressed us for so long. Our history goes beyond their hate-based Hindu fold , and I want my children to learn all of our history free of the framing of our oppressors.
The only thing worse than not teaching about caste and erasing the word Dalit is teaching a falsity!
Erasing Dalit erases my people’s resistance to the caste apartheid. It erases the powerful legacies of Ambedkar, Phule, and Periyar. It erases the possibility of who we are as community beyond the epithet that is “Untouchable”. All students who come to learn of Dalit liberatory movements have much to learn and grow from as our traditions center rationality, gender equity, and secularism. At this time more than ever this tradition is a powerful counterpoint to the Hindu fundamentalism in India and the US.
I believe strongly that students should be allowed to learn history as it happened. They should be taught the facts then left free to decide if the caste system was in fact a dehumanizing practice or not. The Hindu American Foundation and their allies must to be stopped from adding their casteist spin on history. If Shukla truly wants Dalits to be equals, then she should first acknowledge her own caste privilege, and HAF must stop its attempt to gloss over caste apartheid, it origins in hindu scripture, and allow Dalits and other religious and cultural communities to have autonomy in our histories. Anything less is a confirmation of their casteist, and fundamentalist conservative agenda and they will be stopped.
Period.
Suthamalli Ganga is an Information Technology Consultant, and lives in Michigan, USA. A Dalit American Activist, originally from Suthamalli, Tamil Nadu, grew up in the slums of Dharavi, Mumbai. He is a core member of South Asian History for All coalition, Dalit History Month Collective and Dr. Ambedkar Association of NA. During his free time he helps in cooking, cleaning his home, and yard. For more visit websites: http://www.aanausa.org http://www.dalithistory.com
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