Monday, October 24, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Live report from Nuakhai rally of dalits in Nuapada, Odisha

 

Live report from Nuakhai rally of dalits in Nuapada, Odisha

Khuturam Sunani is reporting live from a Dalit rally in Nuapada
district of Odisha during the Nuakhai festival. More than 5000 dalits
are participating in the procession with their musical instruments. He
says though it is a cultural rally to show their tradition but it is
also a rally to assert their rights. For more Khuturam ji can be
reached at 09437657625

http://www.cgnetswara.org/index.php?id=8072

regards
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[ZESTCaste] Raped woman gets help from villagers but not from Police...

 

Raped woman gets help from villagers but not from Police...

Uttam Gautam is telling us about a Dalit woman who was raped by a
driver and she somehow escaped and saved herself. The villagers from
nearby took her to police and helped file a complaint. But police has
not helped her and have made her sign on a blank paper. A complaint to
SC/ST commission and Women's commission has not helped. Her family has
also now disowned her. For more Mr Gautam cane be reached at
09721813108

http://www.cgnetswara.org/index.php?id=8070

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[ZESTCaste] National panel seeks quota for dalits, OBCs in Lokpal

 

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-10-22/india/30310587_1_lokpal-dalits-parliamentary-panel

National panel seeks quota for dalits, OBCs in Lokpal
TNN Oct 22, 2011, 02.03AM IST

NEW DELHI: The National Commission for SCs made a strong pitch for
reservation for dalits, OBCs and minorities in the Lokpal set-up, a
demand in sync with concerns raised by activists.

Commission chairman P L Punia told the standing committee on law and
justice that reservation for marginalized classes was a must to ensure
justice for these segments in any anti-graft mechanism.

Sources said Punia, who appeared along with former government advisor
P S Krishnan, demanded that the proposed Lokpal should enlarge the
definition of corruption to include violation of safeguards for SCs
and OBCs and diversion of their welfare funds as malfeasance at par
with corruption as understood in general.

Punia said the Lokpal set-up should have reservation at all three
tiers - search committee, selection committee and Lokpal. He demanded
that SCs and OBCs should be represented in the search committee which
presently is proposed to include four judicial and four administrative
members besides the chair.

The dalit watchdog's stance is crucial, as it is a constitutional body
and a mandatory sounding board for decisions on dalit welfare. The
parliamentary panel and the government may find it difficult to ignore
NCSC's demand also because it echoes the call from activists and
intellectuals from these sections.

Punia said Lokpal was important for dalit interests. He said the
national panel that he heads has the power of civil court in a pending
issue but loses its clout after the inquiry and cannot get its
directions enforced. He said Lokpal would be a great help in securing
justice for dalits if their grievances were made part of the
definition of corruption.

Senior lawyer Rajiv Dhawan said the proposed Lokpal set-up was
unwieldy, arguing that the selection panel and the final tribunal
should not be large.

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[ZESTCaste] Will Meira Kumar be Congress' surprise choice?

 

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-10-22/news/30309793_1_dalits-prime-minister-meira-kumar

Will Meira Kumar be Congress' surprise choice?
IANS Oct 22, 2011, 10.53am IST

Does the Congress have an ace up its sleeve? If Mayawati's surmise is
to be believed, the Grand Old Party is planning to announce the
nomination of a Dalit prime minister just before next year's assembly
elections in Uttar Pradesh.

According to her, it can be either Meira Kumar or Sushil Kumar Shinde.
However, prima facie, the former appears to be a better choice. But,
whatever the relative merits, it is patent enough that any such
announcement will unnerve Mayawati more than anything else.

At one stroke, her principal adversary would have severely eroded her
only dependable base of support. If large sections of Dalits turn
away, there is nothing that can prop her up, not least because there
is little that she can show on the development front, other than
gradiose, extravagant projects.

How nervous she is about this supposedly captive vote bank of hers was
evident when she castigated Rahul Gandhi for spending time in Dalit
homes, alleging that he washed himself with a "special soap" on
returning to Delhi. That she could turn to whipping up the age-old
casteist sentiments despite her claims to be leading a rainbow
coalition showed that she banked on none other than the Dalits.

The announcement of a Dalit prime ministerial candidate will therefore
put her at a serious disadvantage if only because she can no longer
rouse the kind of ingrained animus among her core group of supporters
that she can against upper caste opponents.

But it isn't Mayawati alone who will be foxed. None of the other
parties will know how to react, for it is not easy to take up
political cudgels against someone who can be India's first Dalit prime
minister. The difficulty will be all the greater because Meira Kumar
will be fulfilling her father's ambition if she succeeds.

The highest position which her father Jagjivan Ram achieved in his
lifetime was to be the No.2 deputy prime minister after Charan Singh
in Morarji Desai's Janata Party government of 1977-79. Otherwise, he
never rose above the rank of a senior cabinet minister when in the
Congress despite his reputation as an able administrator.

Meira Kumar, of course, does not have her father's stature. In fact,
it is only as the Lok Sabha speaker that she seems to have come into
her own, creating a favourable impression about her dignity and an
aptitude for maintaining order in a generally unruly house. Her stint
in the Indian Foreign Service seems to have enhanced her sense of
decorum and restraint.

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[ZESTCaste] Youth killed over affair with dalit girl

 

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-10-23/india/30313103_1_dalit-girl-body-canal

Youth killed over affair with dalit girl
Bhaskar Mukherjee, TNN Oct 23, 2011, 12.41AM IST

JIND: A 27-year-old youth was killed and his body dumped in a canal
after his relationship with a dalit girl was found out. The body was
identified on Saturday.

The body of Krishan Nain, a resident of Amargarh village in Haryana's
Jind district, was found in Narwana-Adampur-Sarangpur canal on October
18.

Nain fell in love with the dalit girl after they met at a wedding two
years ago. He worked in a private firm at Narwana, about 30 km from
Jind. Recently, they had decided to marry, police said.

A panchayat was held after the girl's family learnt about their
relationship. The issue was resolved at the panchayat. The girl's
family had decided to move out of Amargarh village and settle down in
Narwana town. But, Nain continued to meet the girl.

"When Nain met the girl on October 17, her family members beat him
outside her house. Nain went missing after that and his mobile phone
was found to be switched off.

"The girl's relatives allegedly killed him and threw the body in the
canal the same night," Nain's brother Gurdev told police. Gurdev had
lodged a complaint at Narwana police station after which police
registered a murder case against more than a dozen people, including
the girl, her father Veer Bhan and brothers Pradeep and Sukhdeep, said
Satya Prakash, Narwana police station SHO.

No one has been arrested yet. "The autopsy report shows Nain was
strangled to death. Later, his hands and legs were tied and the body
was stuffed in a nylon bag and thrown into the canal," said Prakash.

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[ZESTCaste] 102-year-old Dalit woman wins polls in TN

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Chennai/102-year-old-Dalit-woman-wins-election-in-Tamil-Nadu/Article1-760808.aspx

102-year-old Dalit woman wins polls in TN
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
Chennai, October 23, 2011

Days after 100-year-old Fauja Singh of Indian-origin became the oldest
person to complete a marathon, a 102-year-old Dalit woman in Tamil
Nadu has put on another display of centenarian vigour, winning a local
body election.
Thadagathi was elected a ward member in Pudukulam panchayat
of Madurai district, around 450 km south of Chennai, on Friday.

A state election commission official said she was the oldest elected
member in the local bodies in the state.

"Revered as Maruthuvatchi (village doctor conversant with traditional
medicine), Thadagathi has excelled as a midwife, having had a hand in
the delivery of nearly 1,000 babies," said panchayat president P
Muthuramalingam.

On her political debut, Independent candidate Thadagathi beat two
contestants 70 years younger.

"Vote for me, I will not swindle you or government money," was
Thadagathi's door-to-door campaign theme in Pudukulam, where she
arrived as a 10-year-old child bride.

Her husband died when she was 75 and she has outlived eight of her 12
children. Her youngest son is 56.

Thadagathi is still sprightly and even works in the fields of her
neighbour, lawyer S Muthuramalingam, and is at hand as a midwife when
required. "My first task is to see that there is peace in our village,
and then to make the village clean."


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[ZESTCaste] First time ever, communities shake hands past TN’s ‘untouchability wall’

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/First-time-ever--communities-shake-hands-past-TN-s--untouchability-wall-/864552/

First time ever, communities shake hands past TN's 'untouchability wall'
Gopu Mohan Posted online: Mon Oct 24 2011, 02:49 hrs
Chennai : Two decades after the infamous "untouchability wall" came up
in Uthapuram near Madurai, a influential backward community and Dalits
signed an agreement last week that may pave the way for a new
beginning in this village.

The Dalits will now get access to the Muthalamman temple in Uthapuram,
where they were not allowed so far, and the holy tree in its vicinity.
In keeping with another demand of theirs, land would soon be
identified and construction taken up of a bus shelter on the main
road.

In the severely casteist rural heartland of Tamil Nadu, the Dalits of
Uthapuram were not permitted to stand on the road to wait for a bus.
Instead, they had to wait in the inner streets and run to the main
road when they heard an approaching bus.

After the existence of the wall was brought to public and media
attention by the 'Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front' three
years ago, the then DMK government had reopened a road from the main
road to the Dalit hamlet, which the wall had blocked. A portion of the
wall was demolished on May 6, 2008, after the intervention of CPM and
human rights organisations.

However, fearing reprisals from the influential Pillaimars, the Dalits
never used the road connected them to the main road after the police
left.

The agreement signed on Thursday at the district police office was
made possible by the intervention of the district authorities,
especially the rural police headed by Superintendent Asra Garg, who
held a series of meetings with the elders of the two communities over
the past few weeks. "We involved their leaders not just from the
Uthapuram village but from the neighbouring region as well. We
impressed upon them the need to resolve outstanding issues," Garg told
The Indian Express.

Following the agreement, the cases against members of both the
communities related to clashes between them would be withdrawn.

While there had been major clashes between the Dalits and Pillaimars
in 1948 and 1964 as well, the 'caste wall' came up after one such
conflict in 1989.

Five people died in the 1989 clash, following which elders from 18
neighbouring villages met and decided that a wall be constructed to
physically separate the two communities. The wall came up right in the
middle of the Dalit hamlet, blocking their access to the main road.
Only a small pathway was left leading up to the Dalit area inside the
village.


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[ZESTCaste] Rajasthan school girl caned for refusing to give massages

 

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rajasthan-teachers-turn-dalit-schoolgirls-into-masseuses/1/157303.html

Sudhanshu Mishra Jaipur, October 24, 2011 | UPDATED 10:12 IST
Rajasthan school girl caned for refusing to give massages

The girls were forced to give massages.

They were not learning to be masseuses, but their teachers coerced
them to give massages - punishing them in the most brutal manner if
they refused.

This apparently took place at a state-run residential school for Dalit
girls in Rajasthan's Barmer district. Following complaints from the
hapless students, the district administration recently removed all the
teachers and the warden.

In fact it has been learnt that the girls in the upper primary
Kasturba Gandhi Residential School in Bayatu town - a special project
of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan - were subjected to such torture and
humiliation for quite some time.

Some time ago, it is said, when two girls raised their voice against
the ill-treatment they were expelled from the school.

But as the agony became unbearable for the students, over a dozen
students gathered courage and reported it to the district authorities
last week. One of them said in her complaint to the district
administration that when she refused the warden's demand for a
massage, she was stripped in the bathroom and caned.

Inquiries revealed that the students were not given proper food and
teachers had forced the girls to do their domestic work, Barmer
collector Bina Pradhan said.

But the collector said it couldn't be proven if warden Kavita
Chaudhary, sister of the headmistress Damyanti Chaudhary, had asked
for a massage and assaulted the girl when she refused. Kavita and all
the four teachers of the school were contract employees.

The collector said the contract teachers and the warden were removed,
while the headmistress, who was on deputation, was sent back to her
parent department. New staff will be appointed as soon as the school
reopens after the Diwali vacation.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rajasthan-teachers-turn-dalit-schoolgirls-into-masseuses/1/157303.html

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[ZESTCaste] 'Witch' stripped, beaten in Balasore

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhubaneswar/Witch-stripped-beaten-in-Balasore/articleshow/10473324.cms

'Witch' stripped, beaten in Balasore
TNN | Oct 24, 2011, 01.00PM IST

BALASORE: Police on Sunday registered a case against some villagers of
Jharanaghati in Balasore district for allegedly stripping a Dalit
woman and beating her after accusing her of practising witchcraft.

Police said the residents of the tribal-dominated village, around 35
km from Balasore town, blamed Duli Hembram (40) for the recent death
of two fellow villagers. "The villagers believe that Duli practices
witchcraft and she was responsible for the recent deaths. Besides,
they claimed she has been creating disturbances in the village with
the help of one of her relatives whom the villagers believe is a
tantrik," said SDPO Siba Charan Mallick.

The villagers dragged the woman out of her house, stripped her in full
public view before thrashing her mercilessly even as she pleaded her
innocence.

Duli alleged that the residents performed a puja in the village and
thereafter they ostracized her before asking to leave the village.
Traumatized and harassed, the woman has left for her parental house at
Kaptipada in Mayurbhanj district along with her husband and children.

In her FIR, Duli claimed that though she went to lodge a complaint
with Berhampur police, the officer concerned didn't take the report.
She later met the SDPO who asked the officer-in-charge to register a
case and investigate the allegation.

"The local sarpanch had later convened a meeting to convince villagers
that Duli did not practise witchcraft. The villagers were pacified and
agreed not to harass the woman again. But as she woman didn't feel
secure to stay in the village, we advised her to go to her parental
house for a few days," the SDPO said. "We have registered a case and
efforts are on to nab the accused persons who have been identified in
the FIR," he added.

A few months ago, two women were confined in a room by their fellow
villagers in Nilagiri area on the suspicion that their husbands were
involved in practising black magic.

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[ZESTCaste] Bhatta Parsaul rape case: 'Contempt proceedings if no action'

 

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/bhatta-parsaul-rape-case-contempt-proceedings-if-no-action-143832

Bhatta Parsaul rape case: 'Contempt proceedings if no action'

NDTV Correspondent, Updated: October 24, 2011 13:01 IST

Lucknow: It pitched Mayawati against Rahul Gandhi and while the Uttar
Pradesh administration may have dragged its feet in registering cases
against policemen, alleged to have raped women in Bhatta and Parsaul
villages, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission has now
stepped in.

The chairman of the SC/ST Commission, PL Punia, has told NDTV that it
will initiate contempt proceedings unless the Uttar Pradesh Police
initiated immediate action on the Bhatta Parsaul rapes and registered
FIRs.

"If an FIR is not registered in the Bhatta Parsaul case, it means the
Uttar Pradesh government officials are indulging in contempt of court.
The commission has powers to initiate contempt proceedings. Although
the commission has never exercised these powers but it is willing to
do so if an FIR is not registered," Mr Punia said.

For almost six months their ordeal during the violent farmer-police
clashes in Bhatta Parsaul, which took place in May this year, went
largely unreported. But now women are speaking out and alleging cases
of rape against policemen, who cracked down on the protesters.

Says a rape victim, (name withheld). ''The day the firing happened
(May 7) police forcibly entered our homes. Some stood outside our
homes and some 3-4 policemen misbehaved with us. They forced
themselves upon us and raped us.'' Another victim adds, "The day the
firing began, the same evening police raped us. We went to the High
Court and tried to register a FIR, but they did not register our FIR
and now police keep coming back and threaten us.

One of the victims had filed a case of rape before the Station House
Officer (SHO) of the Dankaur Police Station, alleging rape by the
Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) jawans deployed in Bhatta-Parsaul.
However alleging police inaction they took the matter to court. A
lower court ruling ordering an FIR be registered was then challenged
by the state government. The matter was then taken up by Allahabad
High Court, who then slammed the state government for its refusal to
lodge an FIR.

Justice SC Agarwal of the Allahabad High Court had said the state
government had no business to challenge the lower court's decision
ordering the police to register an FIR on the complaint of the victim.
The state government has so far denied the rape cases.

Despite the government's denials, the Bhatta issue is not likely to go
away anytime soon and could play a major factor in the run-up to UP
elections next year. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi first raised the
issue during a visit to the twin villages of Bhatta and Parsaul. He
claimed that locals told him that the police had raped women.

The tension between the police and the villagers stems from large
protests by farmers who want the government to return the land that
had been acquired for them for public projects. The farmers allege
that the land they had surrendered had been passed onto commercial
real estate developers and the government was making a profit. As
protests broke out, police allegedly opened fire. Four people were
killed, including two policemen.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/bhatta-parsaul-rape-case-contempt-proceedings-if-no-action-143832&cp

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[ZESTCaste] Lokpal: SC Commission wants definition of corruption expanded

http://www.firstpost.com/fwire/lokpal-sc-commission-wants-definition-of-corruption-expanded-115761.html

Lokpal: SC Commission wants definition of corruption expanded

Oct 24, 2011

New Delhi: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has suggested
expanding the definition of the term corruption in the proposed Lokpal
Bill by including issues like non utilisation and diversion of funds
from schemes meant for the welfare of STs and SCs.

It has also suggested that no judge or the Chief Justice should be
eligible for appointment in Lokpal panel if he has "passed adverse
judgement on important dalit issues".

In a communication sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law
and Justice and Personnel scrutinising the Lokpal Bill, the Commission
is learnt to have said issues like non earmarking of funds under
Scheduled Caste sub plan and tribal sub plan in proportion to
respective population should also fall under the definition of
corruption.

SC Commission has said that members of Lokpal must be free from caste
bias. Reuters

The decision to suggest broadening the definition of graft was taken
at a meeting of the full Commission held recently.

"Non formulation of schemes exclusively for the benefit of SC, ST; non
utilisation of funds; diversion of these funds for schemes other than
welfare of SC/ST, deprivation of rights and safeguards provided in the
Constitution and other laws passed by Parliament and state Assemblies
and official orders and notifications" be brought ambit under the
definition of corruption, the Commission has told the Standing
Committee.

It has also suggested that in the prescribed qualifications, a
provision should be added that Lokpal or its members "must be free
from caste bias".

Commission Chairman PL Punia had recently appeared before the
Parliamentary panel.

PTI


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[ZESTCaste] Dalits ousted from village in Balangir

 

http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3945:dalits-ousted-from-village-in-balangir&catid=1:current-news&Itemid=103

Dalits ousted from village in Balangir
Wednesday, 19 October 2011 21:57

BHUBANESWAR: At least 15 dalit families were allegedly thrown out of
their homes from a village in Khaprakhol block of Balangir district,
around 400 km from here, by upper caste families. Eighteen days after
the September 30 incident, the dalits are still taking shelter with
their relatives and are unable to return to their houses, a dalit
outfit said on Tuesday.

Om Prakash Kumbhar, president of Lakshe Ghara Ganda Samaj Samiti, said
the upper caste families attacked the Ganda (a scheduled caste)
families in Ambabahal village, ransacked their houses and forced them
to leave, suspecting them of indulging in theft, the allegation of
which was found to be false by police.

Kumbhar, who led a fact-finding team of the samiti to the village
recently, said a pregnant woman delivered stillborn twins while
fleeing the village. The woman, Savitri Deep, and her husband Santosh
are now taking shelter in a make-shift tent at a weekly haat, around
10 km away from their village.

The village had about 30 dalit families, who were staying in two
localities. Sources said the village has witnessed a series of thefts
in the past few months. The villagers had discovered two dalit youths
moving in the area in a suspicious manner and presumed that they were
involved in the thefts. "Police later found the two innocent," Kumbhar
said.

Police said a case was registered against the alleged culprits under
SC/ST Atrocities Act. Further investigations are on, they said.

[Courtesy: The Times of India, October 19, 2011]

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