Dalits Media Watch News Updates 24.07.11

Dalits Media Watch

News Updates 24.07.11

Dalits separated by wall at colony - The Hindu

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article2266854.ece

Punjab: Atrocities against SCs; NCSC hits out- Zee News

http://zeenews.india.com/news/punjab/punjab-atrocities-against-scs-ncsc-hits-out_721491.html

A relentless crusader- The Hindu

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article2284501.ece

The Hindu

Dalits separated by wall at colony

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article2266854.ece

R. Ilangovan

The 20-metre-long and 10-feet-high brick wall was put up about 20 years ago

A 20-metre-long and 10-feet-high brick wall of near two decades old here separates 200 Dalit families from others.

The wall, called by them as the 'untouchable wall of Salem' is separating Raman colony where they, all Arunthathiyars, are living from VOC Nagar located on the other side of wall where many, a majority of them caste Hindus, are residing. The wall, running parallel to a drainage channel along Gandhi Mahan Street, has shut an easy access to main road on the other side.

The Dalits allege that the controversial wall was constructed some two decades back by a private person 'to prevent the overflowing drainage waters from the adjoining colony to enter into his land.'

"We are told that the wall was erected on both patta and porombok lands for which we need a resurvey," demand Dalit youths who have taken up the issue with support from Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).

They allege that their children have to take a circuitous route to reach the main road to go to schools.

"The sick and elderly are suffering the worst. It is constructed on poromboke land," said Pon Saravanan, urban secretary, DYFI. Many vouchsafe the same. As the sewage water gets stagnated, the entire area is stinking with scores of pigs roaming freely.

M. P. Kandasamy, a 70-year-old Dalit, said that the wall has been put up for about 20 years. "It should be demolished and a way for us must be opened," he insisted, while 40- year old Devakani said Salem Corporation had taken no steps so far to improve the colony's sanitary conditions. "We are boxed in with wall on one side and pools of sewers on other side," she claimed.

But those who are living in VOC Nagar on the other side of wall said they had purchased plots and constructed houses after spending their hard-earned money. "We are here to live peacefully in a good and hygienic environment and we are against any discrimination. We have not constructed the wall," said a resident.

A majority of them have moved in recently there.

Salem Tahsildar D. Kumaresan told The Hindu that he was asked to conduct an enquiry into the claims on the disputed wall.

"I will visit the spot tomorrow and after surveying it, I will submit a report. Many claimed that the wall could have been constructed on both private and porombok lands. I have called for land records and accordingly we will act," he said.

Zee News

Punjab: Atrocities against SCs; NCSC hits out

http://zeenews.india.com/news/punjab/punjab-atrocities-against-scs-ncsc-hits-out_721491.html

Last Updated: Friday, July 22, 2011, 21:25

Chandigarh: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) today hit out at the Punjab government for "rising" atrocities against Scheduled Caste people.

After a meeting with state government officials, NCSC Chairman PL Punia said atrocities against SCs in the state were on rise.

The cases of atrocities against SC families increased from 97 in 2009 to 118 in 2010, he said.

Punia said the state had not even held a meeting of the State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee to monitor atrocities against SCs in the last five years.

"The committee should hold a meeting every six months but the state government did not conduct such exercise during the last five years," he said.

Punia pointed out that SC families constitute 31 per cent of total population in Punjab as per the latest census.

He accused the state government of diverting funds meant for uplift of SCs out of the state annual plan. PTI

The Hindu

A relentless crusader

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article2284501.ece

Sudha Umashanker

Ruth Manorama started her work with the urban poor in her youth; there has been no turning back ever since. She is the powerful voice of Dalit women today.

Is it easy being a Dalit in India? And a woman at that? Have things changed for the better for the Dalits who constitute roughly 16.23 per cent of our population, since the Constitution of India "cast a special responsibility on the State to promote with special care the education, economic interest of the Scheduled Castes and promised to protect them from all forms of exploitation and social injustice (Article 46)"?

Ask Ruth Manorama, relentless crusader and rallying point for Dalit women, and she tells it like it is, without mincing words, in a no-holds barred conversation.

"Dalit women in India are the Dalits among Dalits and suffer from three-fold oppression — on account of gender as a result of patriarchy, caste 'the untouchable', and class — as they hail from the poorest and most marginalised communities. Eighty per cent of Scheduled Castes live in rural areas, are dependent on wage employment and have to contend with high rates of under employment which results in greater incidence of poverty," argues Manorama forcefully.

A grassroots person with her ear to the ground, Manorama is well aware that discrimination is indeed a regular and daily experience for Dalit women. "Less than equal wages at the workplace, being forced into dehumanising jobs like manual scavenging and garbage picking, pushed back by the gruelling cycle of generational poverty, landlessness and hunger, facing threats to their personal security and a lifelong cycle of indebtedness including religious prostitution and the Devadasi system, are the major hurdles. It is this linkage that makes Dalit women a vital and special concern for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the Human Rights Council."

Silent abuse

Yet another issue that deeply angers her is incidents of violence against Dalit women and the silence that surrounds this. "Studies have shown that rape against Dalits and tribals are among the highest. Structural violence like caste and communal violence are deep-rooted in our psyche. It is often used to suppress women. Violence against Dalit women in countering Maoist attacks, organised rape and sexual violence (she refers to the Uttarakhand State rape) wherein police suspected women to be informers, are all such inhuman acts."

Her work has not gone unnoticed at the global level. Manorama was awarded The Right Livelihood Award in 2006. Considered the alternative Nobel Prize and the world's premier award for personal courage and social transformation, it got her the recognition as the sub-continent's most effective organiser and advocate for Dalit women. She was also one among the thousand nominees for the 1,000 Peace women for Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Besides her focus on Dalit women, the urban poor and their problems also consume a great deal of Manorama's time.

As General Secretary of Women's Voice Karnataka, an organisation working for the rights of women of poorer sections, women living in the slums and working in the unorganised sector, she has never hesitated to take up their issues. During the 1980s and the 90s, she was in the forefront of mass struggles against eviction and Operation Demolition by the State Government of Karnataka and organised massive processions and fought legal cases on their behalf. She also enjoys the distinction of establishing the first trade union in the country in 1987 for domestic workers in Bengaluru and strived for inclusion in the Minimum Wages.

One among the numerous key offices Manorama holds is president of the National Alliance of Women. Pointing to the fact that it all begins at home, Manorama believes that the situation in some families is not a very happy one, with a level playing field still a distant dream.

"Many women do not enjoy autonomy. They are vulnerable and dependent on male partners who make all the decisions. Although it looks as if women are progressing on many fronts, in terms of power relations, it is still unequal. Our law application is unequal and our laws are patriarchal. Once women become widowed, they are left to their own defence. Property is taken away. This scenario extends to public life and politics."

If one is looking for solutions, Manorama spells out a blue-print for that.

"How do people gain power? It is political power that gives you social power and economic power. Women must get into politics in order to acquire power not for themselves but for a whole lot of people. It was thought that through the Constitution women will automatically get power and men will be out. The Panchayati Raj system, no matter however flawed, has its merits. Women make decisions and offer resistance. Democracy without women is no democracy. I am not talking of politics for making money. Our struggle is not for garnering wealth but for reclamation of the human spirit. Women have better brain capabilities and if it is put to use for national building, considering we have such bright women, imagine what can be achieved."

Manorama's vision for the future is to start a Political academy. She has already prepared the ground through specific capacity building exercises and has been instrumental in training around 300 women in the country to equip them for community action and leadership positions at the Panchayat, Zilla parishad and State level.

According to Manorama, what compounds the problems faced by Dalit women and hampers their progress is the fact that Government funds earmarked for Dalit welfare remain unutilised or are improperly utilised.

Manorama is the president of the National Federation of Dalit Women. She "grew up in a fairly progressive atmosphere with Christian values where you gave freely and treated people with respect." Theirs was an open house and her parents extended all kinds of support to visitors from helping to fill out job applications, money order forms and for a consultation on sundry matters. Her parents' lifestyle and dedication inspired Manorama, and the upbringing she received reminded her that whatever she did, she had to serve the poor.

Early days

Initially Manorama wanted to become a doctor or a collector. While in Chennai she worked in slum, squatter settlements and realised that working for the urban poor could be her vocation. At her father's suggestion she enrolled for a Masters in Social Work. Later she moved to villages, understood caste structures, land patterns and the problems of Dalits.

Right from the beginning of her foray into the social sector she set about organising oppressed people, getting them to claim their rights and become stake holders in development. "I grew up on that kind of pitch," she says.

Manorama closes with a pointer. "The situation of Dalits can't be changed by Dalits themselves. Dalits must lead and other progressive people must join in this struggle. As Indian citizens we have a role to play in transforming pains into power."

-- 
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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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.