Dalit woman gang-raped in Haryana
Last Updated: Thursday,
January 24, 2013, 19:47
Chandigarh: A Dalit
woman was allegedly gang-raped by five youth in Haryana's Gohana town, police
said on Thursday.
The victim was called by
a woman to her residence where she offered her 'prasad' laced with some
intoxicating substance yesterday, they said.
Later, she handed her
over to the accused in an unconscious condition and they took turns to rape
her. A case has been registered against the accused while the further probes
are on, police added. PTI
The
Hindustan times
Dalits ostracised for
singing bhajan
Shams UrRehman Alavi, Hindustan Times
Bhopal , January 24, 2013
A Dalit family has been ostracised in Madhya Pradesh’s
Betul district because one of them dared to sing a bhajan at a religious
programme in front of people from upper castes.
Tailor Rajesh Uvnare, 40, on Thursday said strongmen from the dominant upper castes asked him to cut short his devotional song and get off the dais at his village, Mathni, last month. “A group belonging to the upper castes then asked villagers to stop all contact with our family.”
Tailor Rajesh Uvnare, 40, on Thursday said strongmen from the dominant upper castes asked him to cut short his devotional song and get off the dais at his village, Mathni, last month. “A group belonging to the upper castes then asked villagers to stop all contact with our family.”
The family is not able to buy food in the village any more.
“Villagers have stopped talking to us and I have been jobless for more than a
month.”
Uvnare’s wife Usha said, “I sent my son for grains from the
local mill, but the staff refused to sell him any.”
The Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission has taken note
of the family’s plight in Betul, and issued notices to the district collector
and superintendent of police. “They have been asked to reply within a week,”
said a rights official.
The Hindu
Untouched by justice
Rate of atrocities against Dalits and
adivasis is frighteningly high even 65 years after independence “Every day,
four Dalit and adivasi women are raped while eleven Dalits and adivasis are
beaten up in the country. Further, every week, 13 Dalits and adivasis are
murdered, five Dalits and adivasi homes are set on fire and six Dalits and
adivasis are kidnapped.”
These statistics came up during a
national meeting convened by the Centre for Dalit Rights (CDR), a Jaipur-based
think tank along with the National Coalition for strengthening the Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Held just before the AICC chintan
shivir, the meeting demanded a national action plan to end untouchability
and manual scavenging.
The participants also proposed
amendments to the SC&ST (Prevention of atrocities) Act, 1989. In the
meeting, it was observed that in 2010, Rajasthan stood second in the list of
top ten “Dalit atrocities prone states”.
“We are anguished that even after 63
years of Constitution and 23 years of the SC&ST (PoA) Act 1989,
untouchability is rampant and manifests into various newly emerging forms of
atrocities against SCs and STs,” says Satish Kumar, Director, CDR.
According to data available with the
CDR, during the last 15 years (1995-2011), a total of only 5,58,103 cases of
atrocities (4,71,717 against SCs and 86,386 against STs) were registered in
police stations across the country.
During 2007 to 2009, there was a sharp
increase in the crime rates against SCs and STs by 10.6 per cent.
In 2009, against the national average
of 2.9 per cent, Rajasthan reported a 7.5 per cent rise in rate of crimes
against Dalits and tribals. In 2010, this figure stood at 7.4 per cent for
Rajasthan as against the national average of 2.8 per cent.
On the other hand, according to
National Crime Records Bureau data (all India) for 2007 to 2010, 67 per cent of
crimes against SCs and 81 per cent of crimes against STs were not registered
under the SC&ST (PoA) Act.
In 2010, only 11,682 out of 34,127
atrocity cases were registered under the Act. In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan,
over 95 per cent of the cases were not registered under the Act, but instead
were registered under IPC and other legal provisions, according to CDR.
In 2001, the trial pendency rate of
atrocity cases against SC/STs was 82.5 per cent. By 2010-end, Rajasthan had
86.6 per cent pending cases while many other states had more than 80 per cent
pending cases.
Further, the CDR claims the conviction
rate for SC/ST atrocity cases was abysmally low in many states, ranging from
0.5 per cent to 8 per cent, with Rajasthan recording a conviction rate of 4.8
per cent.
“While Rajasthan has the second
highest number of registered atrocity cases against SC/STs (1995-2009), and has
identified 17 districts as atrocity prone, it has not publicly declared even a
single district/area as such,” says Kumar.
“Even after 65 years of independence,
several concerns regarding the safety and equitability of Dalits and tribals
linger on, including non-registration of cases, inordinate delay in
investigation and trial leading to high rate of pendency, low conviction rate
among others,” says SDJM Prasad of the National Coalition.
Over the past three years, the
national coalition for strengthening the SC&ST (PoA) Act, comprising more
than 500 Dalit and human rights organisations, activists and experts from
various states, has critically reviewed the performance of the states and the
realization of the objectives of the Act and has come out with measures and
amendments required to further strengthen the Act.
“The coalition has submitted these
proposed amendments to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and other
bodies concerned,” says Dr Prasad.
The Hindu
Lawyers stage demonstration
All
Castes Protection Committee that opposes inter-caste marriages should be banned
Urging the Tamil Nadu Government to
release compensation to Dalit victims in Dharmapuri without delay, as directed
by the Madras High Court, Dalit lawyers practicing in Salem courts on Wednesday
staged a demonstration.
The Movement of Dalit Lawyers Against
Caste Hatred said that the All Castes Protection Committee that opposes
inter-caste marriages should be banned.
The lawyers said that the SC/ST
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 should be implemented in totality.
They raised slogans against Pattali
Makkal Katchi leader S. Ramadoss alleging that he was instrumental in
destroying caste amity. The hate speeches against Dalits should be stopped and
necessary legal action should be initiated against him.
They claimed that many innocent MBC
and BC leaders were misguided by his speeches.
“Such act, which is against our
Constitution, should be banned,” they said.
His action would create ill-will among
various caste groups, they said.
Demanding security for Dalits, the
State should take steps to promote inter-caste marriages.
They took out a rally in the city in
which Dalit activists and leaders of various political parties participated.
The Times Of India
Mumbai:
Dalit cultural protest
TNN | Jan 25, 2013, 02.20 AM IST
A Dalit group will organize a cultural protest programme at
Ambedkar Bhavan in Dadar.
The programme has been organized by Shahir Sambhaji Bhagat, a poet and political
activist who has been singing songs of change for 30 years now. Significantly,
Bhagat is also known for having mentored the much-persecuted Kabir Kala Manch in their early days.
Bhagat explains, "Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar gave us freedom of
expression through the constitution but over last few decades this fundamental
right is being read selectively. Dalits and other downtrodden have suffered in
particular."
The programme, which will include poetry, dance, skits and
songs from diverse genres is targeted at the youth. tnn"There will be no
speeches because most of the participants in the programme are young. Also, we
are eager to reach out to the youth and have made the programme keeping them in
mind," clarifies Bhagat.
As a parting thought Bhagat laughs and emphasises, "We
will also have rap and rock music."
The Times Of India
Free hand for EC to reserve, de-reserve SC, ST seats
NEW DELHI: The Cabinet
on Thursday approved an ordinance that would empower the Election
Commission (EC) to make changes such as reserving or de-reserving a
constituency meant for Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes without waiting for delimitation.
Sources said the Cabinet
approved a proposal from law ministry to bring in an ordinance that would allow
the EC to carry out corrective exercise without waiting for the next
delimitation drive. The Commission can mid-course throw open a constituency as
general category if there has been significant demographic change in the
constituency.
The need to bring in an
ordinance arose after the EC told the Supreme Court recently that it has no
powers to change the category of a constituency till the next delimitation
exercise.
The SC was hearing a matter
related to Uttar Pradesh where due to change in caste composition in a
constituency —the state government had shifted 10 castes from SC to ST category
— a demand was made to make it a reserved constituency for ST.
The shifting of 10
castes into ST fold had changed the composition of at least three assembly
constituencies, where ST population went up from 1 lakh to 6.5 lakh.
Now, the government can
immediately issue the ordinance and an approval of the two houses of Parliament
can be obtained in the next session.
Deccan
Herald
Of religions, castes and men:
Kancha Ilaiahm Ajay Navaria, Nirupama Dutt debate at Jaipur Literature Festival
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130125/news-current-affairs/article/religions-castes-and-men-kancha-ilaiahm-ajay-navaria-nirupama
PTI | 3 hours 5 min ago
Jaipur: Coming down heavily on the caste
structure in Hindu religion, author Kancha Ilaiah today advocated adopting the
Buddha’s ideology as a way to achieve secularism in the country, generating a
lively debate among the fellow panelists at the Jaipur Literature Festival
here.
Religious conversion, caste structure
within religions and position of dalits after conversion were the main talking
points of the session titled “God as a Political Philospoher: Dalit
Perspectives on Buddhism,” where Ilaiah engaged with author Ajay Navaria and
poet Nirupama Dutt.
“A dalit who converts to Christianity
can become a pastor or be an equal in the mosque or can touch the Guru Granth
Sahib. But he can do none of this in Hinduism. He cannot become anything,”
Ilaiah said.
“No dalit can become a priest in a
Hindu temple,” said the author of “Why I am not a Hindu” who also pointed out
that Buddhism has always advocated the ideas of equality, abolition of caste
structure, notion of justice and women’s rights.
However, fellow author and panelist
Ajay Navaria, whose collection of stories “Unclaimed Terrain” translated into
English has recently been published, disagreed over the issue of the benefits
accruing to dalits from conversion and the adoption of Buddhism as the main
religion.
“Conversion does not solve any
problem. In fact, there is a category in administration of a ‘New Buddhist’
where a person’s original caste is mentioned in brackets even after adopting
another religion,” he argued, questioning then the purpose of going through
conversion.
“I am not here to advocate Hinduism.
But the dalits can go into any religion but their identity is that of an
untouchable. They are not liberated even there,” Navaria said, adding, “Religion
cannot solve the problem.”
Furthering his argument, poet Nirupama
Dutt highlighted the problem of caste structures within religions.
Dutt, who hails from Punjab, drew
attention to the phenomenon of Gurudwaras being based on caste. “Today one can
find separate Gurudwaras for Sikh Jats, Kabir panthis and the tanners,” she
said.
“While Sikhism does not recognize
caste, just like in the case of Islam, the situation of the ground is very
different from the one visualised in scriptures,” added Dutt.
Drawing attention to the ground
realities in countries where religion forms the basis of law, Navaria said the
country would not become secular and discrimination-free just by adopting
Buddhism.
“I don’t like religion based systems
because they end liberty...no religion is detached from caste,” he added.
Even as the panelists disagreed on
various issues, they did agree on one thing – that the aim should be that of a
caste-free society.
“I don’t agree that caste cannot be
abolished or that equality cannot come to India,” Ilaiah said.
And while Navaria disagreed with him
on how to achieve this goal, he did outline his vision for India. “What I want
is neither a Ram Rajya or a Buddha Rajya, but in fact a Lok Rajya.”
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