Dalits Media Watch
NewsUpdates 16.06.13
Dalit moves NCSC against castiest remark allegedly by minority-The Times Of India
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Times_of_India/400x60/0
Casteist bias alleged in dalit teacher's eviction from school-The Times Of India
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Times_of_India/400x60/0
Waiting for a hundred dalit billionaires-The Economic Times
Tata Group to invest Rs 1 cr for 33% stake in Dalit enterprise-The Economic Times
"Uthapuram Dalit women are real heroes'' -The Hindu
Brinda Karat decries pendency of dalit atrocity cases-The Times Of India
Dalit moves NCSC against castiest remark allegedly by minority
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Times_of_India/400x60/0
AJPUR (ODISHA): Unable to get justice from the local police, a dalit man from Odisha'sJajpur district has moved the National Commission for Scheduled Caste (NCSC) seeking "justice".
MaheswarBhoi (55), in a letter to NCSC, said that though he was abused in filthy language and castiest remarks by two members of minority community, the police ignored his complaints.
Bhoi in his complaint said that he was cultivating a piece of land of ShaikZuman (landlord) located in Saroimouza as a Bhagachasi for the last couple of years. However, on May 9 when he objected ShaikFarastulla and ShaikSarafatullah of local Neulpur village of pulling down the boundary line, they abused him in filthy language.
"They also threatened to kill me if I opposed them further," Bhoi said in his complaint.
Bhoi said he brought the matter to the notice of the landlord and subsequently filed a written complaint against the accused persons at the local Dharmasala police station.
Dharmasala police neither registered a case in this connection nor took any action against the accused persons, Bhoi said adding that he moved the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Chandikhole and sought its intervention to get justice. The JMFC directed the Inspector-in-charge (IIC) of Dharmasala police station to register a case and take investigation.
Though the police registered a case basing on his complaint, it did not take any action against accused, Bhoi said: " the duo was roaming freely and threatening me with dire consequence."
"I have no other option but to approach the NCSC to get justice as police are showing indifference. Even after 36 days have passed since filing of my FIR no action has so far been taken in this regard."
When contacted, Jajpur SP Deepak Kumar said the matter had not not been brought to his notice.
The Times Of India
Casteist bias alleged in dalit teacher's eviction from school
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Times_of_India/400x60/0
TRICHY: A woman employee of a government-aided school in Trichy has accused the school administration of victimising her on casteist grounds by depriving her of the job. Even the education department in Trichy is accused of supporting the school in acting against the woman. Meanwhile, the school authorities are evading an inquiry ordered by the Trichy district collector after the poor woman's father filed a complaint against the high-handedness of the school officials.
S Meada, who was working as a secondary grade assistant at Holy Redeemer's Primary School at Palakkarai, has also complained that she was not paid salary despite working for two years since May 31, 2011. Though, Meada continued to work despite non-payment of salary, she was barred from entering the school on Monday, June 10, when the school re-opened after the summer holidays. Meada's father T Stephen Raj alleged that the school, which appointed her on a temporary basis, is now easing her out as she is a dalit. "My daughter is being victimised because she is the only dalit to enter the school as a teacher in a century," Stephen said. He also alleged that the education department in Trichy was hand-in-glove with the school management.
In fact, Meada had secured the job after obtaining an order issued by the top authority of the school management based in Chennai. The former correspondent of Holy Redeemers had even written to the Assistant Education Officer (AEO) on July 19, 2011 that "Selvi S Meada has been temporarily appointed from June 15, 2011 in place of P Lillimary who superannuated on May 31, 2011, and hence you are hereby requested to confirm her appointment."
Trouble started for Meada in Januray 2012, when the then AEO informed the school correspondent that the surplus vacancy of a teacher's post had been transferred to the director general's pool! An expert in school administration said this move was not in order as in such cases the employee should be posted to any other school run by the same group before the closure of that academic year. In fact, an RTI statement obtained by Stephen in February this year revealed that there was a vacancy available at St Philomena's Girls HSS run by the same school management in Trichy, but Meada was not posted there. Instead, an employee from the management's Chennai-based school was posted at St Philomena's school. "This transfer had been deliberately done by the school management to deprive Meada her once-in-a-life-time chance to work as a teacher," said her father, a disabled who could crawl only on his palms to the Trichy district collector's office to register the complaint.
Raising suspicion on the collusion of school authorities and the education authorities, both the school correspondent and the district education officer Jayakumar boycotted the inquiry scheduled for May 29. It was fixed by the PA general district collector JayashreeMuralidharan. Jayakumar, however, put the entire blame at the doors of the Holy Redeemer school saying that they should not have surrendered the post, and should not have appointed a Chennai-based teacher at their St Philomena's school. "Since it is a minority school, it is they who should have taken care of the appointments," Jayakumar reasoned.
Meanwhile, on May 1, the vicar general of Tiruchi diocese wrote to the Sr Provincial in Trichy saying, "The appointment of Meada was not approved by the department due to the inordinate delay (one year) of the correspondent in sending the proposal."
Commenting on the issue, Folencia Mary, the new correspondent of the school from this academic year told TOI on Friday that "We are not in any way against the teacher concerned. It is the DEO's office that has instructed us not to let the teacher sign the attendance register. We are ready to offer the teacher her due place if the government is ready to sanction the post in writing."
The Economic Times
Waiting for a hundred dalit billionaires
On June 6, a new venture capital fund was launched by the Dalit Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) to raise Rs 500 crore from investors for investment in companies run by dalits and tribals. Let goody-goody piece of affirmative action. The fund aims to provide investors with a commercial 25% pre-tax internal rate of return, comparable with the returns mutual funds aim to garner from top Sensex stocks.
A pipedream? No, it's a real possibility, despite risks. Corporate Social Responsibility norms mean that top business houses will go out of their way to get supplies from Dalit vendors. New government norms now reserve 4% of procurement from small and medium SC/ ST enterprises. This promises strident growth for dalit businesses. Once they take off, hopefully many will become big businesses without crutches.
This is a breathtaking change in a country that has long treated dalits and tribals as victims, to be given sundry subsidies and reservations. But economic reforms since 1991 have opened new economic spaces, into which some dalits have soared.
DICCI now has 3,000 millionaire dalit members. Over a thousand of these have turnovers exceeding Rs 100 crore. The richest, Rajesh Saraiya, runs Steel-Mont Pvt Ltd, based in Ukraine and spanning eight countries. His turnover exceeds Rs 2,000 crore, and he is the first dalit billionaire.
However, such success has not been easy. Dalit and tribal entrepreneurs find it difficult to get funding or mentoring. To make this easier, the DICCI SME Fund aims to raise money to provide equity, loans and technical advice to small and medium enterprises run by dalits and tribals. The aim is not to get donations from bleeding hearts for the needy. The minimum subscription for investors in the fund is one crore rupees! So, the fund is telling rich investors that they can become even richer by investing in companies run by dalits and tribals . This is a vision of shared equality among castes, not of trickle down. It is a vision of dalit entrepreneurs taking their place at the top of the pyramid, and offering to share their profits with investors from all the castes that historically dominated them.
MilindKamble, chairman of DICCI, is clear that dalits no longer want to be objects of pity: they want to be objects of envy. He sees capitalism as a revolutionary force that has finally blasted apart the caste system, and allowed dalits to rise. Adam Smith is the enemy of Manu, and hence the friend of dalits.
Historically, says Kamble, business was dominated by traditional occupational castes who did not let others come in or compete. The licence-permit raj of Nehru and Indira Gandhi was supposedly socialist, yet protected a few big business houses (who hogged all licences) from competition from below.
Economic reform and globalization after 1991 finally launched competition with a capital C. No longer could a Garg or Aggarwal afford to buy supplies only from fellow Gargs and Aggarwals: he had to look for the cheapest supplier, whatever his caste. Money became more important than caste. Thus did liberalisation and globalisation finally end the closed monopoly of commercial castes.
Competition forced the outsourcing of what was once produced entirely within a group of companies. Outsourcing gave new entrepreneurs a chance to compete. This chance was seized by the 3,000 dalit entrepreneurs who have made it big, and become members of DICCI.
The old socialist solution for caste oppression was affirmative action, through reservations and subsidies .Kamble says these certainly helped in providing education and status. But affirmative action is no more than a starting point.
He says the time has passed for dalits to be just job seekers. They must now become job givers. They have already achieved a substantial presence in the civil services and professions. They must now do so in business too. Dalits have become chief ministers and presidents . Why not captains of industry too?
Kamble's vision draws on two sources—Ambedkar and black businesses in the US. Ambedkar clearly saw the potential of capitalism in breaking traditional caste and occupational shackles. This did not happen in his time. It has finally happened after the economic reforms of 1991.
The US once focused on affirmative action for blacks. But in the last two decades thousands of black millionaires — and some billionaires — have risen from lowly origins. Some have become CEOs of the biggest global companies — Citibank (Richard Parsons), American Express (Kenneth Chenault), Xerox (Ursula Burns), Mc-Donald's (Don Thompson), and Merck (Kenneth Frazier). That should be an inspiration for all dalits. May the DICCI SME Fund launch a hundred dalit billionaires.
The Economic Times
Tata Group to invest Rs 1 cr for 33% stake in Dalit enterprise
MUMBAI: Cyrus Mistry, chairman of the $100-billion Tata Group, is set to alter the very discourse on affirmative action in the private sector, by getting into a full-bodied manufacturing joint venture with an obscure company owned by a Dalit entrepreneur. The Tata Group has made an in-principle decision to pick up one-third equity in Delhi-based Chandan&Chandan Industries, a company incorporated to manufacture industrial helmets.
NandKishore Chandan, a Dalit entrepreneur, will hold the remaining two-thirds in the company. The investment was personally cleared by Mistry, say sources close to the deal. The Tatas are also exploring the possibility of floating a section 25 (not for profit) company under the Companies Act to channelise more investments into several other Dalit-owned enterprises. Tata group companies could pool monies into this special entity.
Confirming this, an executive from Tata Group's PR agency said Tata companies are coming together to help Dalit entrepreneurs trying to start businesses. "This is history in the making, and most importantly, a giant step in moving from patronage to partnership," says Chandra Bhan Prasad, commentator on Dalit issues and mentor, Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI).
Over the past few years, Cyrus' predecessor Ratan Tata and former director of Tata Sons, JJ Irani, have infused the conglomerate with a degree of enthusiasm and commitment to the Dalit cause. Apart from investing in Dalit enterprises, the Tata Affirmative Action Programme also works on employment, employability, and education programmes for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.
DICCI Chairman MilindKamble said the investments were the culmination of over eight months of negotiations steered by B Muthuraman, vice-chairman, Tata SteelBSE 3.01 %, and chair of the TAAP.
Clearly overawed, Chandan, an electrical engineering diploma holder and a veteran in plastics moulding, could only mumble homilies about being 'delighted and overwhelmed' by the prospect of working with the Tata group. The new venture, which is in the process of setting up its factory in Ghaziabad, has already received its first tranche of orders for over 50,000 helmets from a clutch of group companies including Tata Steel, Tata MotorsBSE 4.91 %, Tata Housing, and Tata Projects.
It is not yet clear how the investment from the Tatas would come about. Initially it was believed Tata Capital would be in the thick of it, but now, according to DICCI sources, there is talk about creation of a special purpose entity. This move by the Tata Group is indeed a shot in the arm for the concept of 'supplier diversity' within the affirmative action space.
Supplier diversity is the trend among large corporations to seek out, handhold, and buy products and services from entrepreneurs belonging to under-privileged and minority sections. It can be voluntary or mandated by the government. In the US, African American, women and other minority-owned companies have benefited a great deal by its proliferation.
The Tatas have added sheen to the concept by not only promising to buy but also investing in such companies. This is in keeping with Ratan Tata's take on social upliftment. He always underlined "the importance of facilitating integration through affirmative action programmes rather than just giving easy entitlements." He was among the few industrialists to express solidarity and visit the Mumbai DICCI Expo held in December 2011 along with Adi Godrej of the Godrej group and Farhad Forbes of the Pune-based Forbes Marshall group. A host of senior executives from the Tata group visited and held talks with Dalit entrepreneurs at the Expo.
Cyrus Mistry, on his part, at an in-house Affirmative Action Programme Assessors meet last year maintained 'the momentum should continue.' In fact, it was Cyrus who personally conveyed to MilindKamble his sanction for the project when he happened to bump into the latter at the 25th anniversary celebrations of Sebi in Mumbai recently.
NK Chandan started his career as a shop floor employee in 1990 and by 2001, on the strength of the considerable expertise he had acquired, was inducted as a partner in the plastic moulding company he worked for. The company did well by manufacturing plastic spares for photo copying machines. In 2012 he bought out the partners, acquired the plant spread over 1200 sqmetres in Ghaziabad for Rs 1.82 crore, and also renamed the company. "Except for my house, I sold off all my assets and scraped out all my savings to start afresh," says Chandan. He wanted to get into manufacture of urea bags as the volume demand was high, though margins were low. It then struck him that industrial helmets would be a safer bet.
The Hindu
"Uthapuram Dalit women are real heroes''
The brave Dalit women of Uthapuram are the real heroes who have fought a valiant battle. They have showed the world that if the oppressed and exploited along with the Left and pro-democratic forces stood up, they could beat any form of discrimination, said Communist Party of India (Marxist) PolitBuro member Brinda Karat.
She was delivering a special address at a function held here on Saturday to honour the advocates and social activists who fought for social justice in Uthapuram village near Madurai where portion of a long wall that separated Dalits from caste Hindu locality was razed to enable access to the common pathway of Dalits.
Ms. Karat said that radical social change would happen only when annihilation of deep-rooted caste prejudices and discriminatory practices against Dalits was undertaken.
The National Crime Records Bureau shows that in 2012, there were 33,655 cases of atrocities perpetrated on Dalits. This gives us an idea that on an average, every day 93 members of the Dalit community were victims of one form of atrocity or the other. It is a shame that even after 66 years of Independence such a situation exists in the country, she remarked.
The NCRB data suggests that 1,10,000 cases of atrocities are pending in courts, but only 3.6 per cent have ended in conviction. Among the 35,655 cases sent to court, conviction in cases of atrocities on Dalits was a mere 23 per cent and in 77 per cent of the cases, the perpetrators go scot-free. "It is a shame on the judiciary system and on the process of legal justice," she said.
"When the wall was demolished in Uthapuram, it was not just brick and mortar. The wall represented the edifice of discrimination and denial of minimal human dignity." Earlier denied rights like worshipping rights and access to common property resources have been won after a long struggle.
Still there were unfinished tasks like proper access to the common pathway that was created after the demolition of the wall. The Madras High Court ordered that full compensation be given to each and every family that was affected in the police excesses. The order further said that district monitoring committees should be vigilant in maintaining peace and it is our duty to mount pressure on the monitoring committee to implement the court order fully, Ms. Karat pointed out.
The 92- year-old veteran Marxist leader, R. Umanath, was present at the function in which a lot of Dalit women participated.
Third front
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the event, Ms. Karat said the Left parties did not see the emergence of a Third Front before the elections. Each party has its own agenda and in the case of Left, alternative policies are important as the current policies are disastrous to people.
She said that the Left parties were in good coordination with each other and were working for alternative policies.
Answering a question whether they would support the DMK for RajyaSabha seat, she replied, "There is absolutely no question of such support."
The Times Of India
Brinda Karat decries pendency of dalit atrocity cases
MADURAI: CPM politburo member Brinda Karat said that about 1.1 lakh cases of atrocities against dalits have been pending in various courts across the country.
Speaking at meeting in Madurai on Saturday to felicitate advocates who fought in the courts for rights of dalits of Uthapuram village, Karat said that according to the National Crime Records Bureau some of the cases have been pending for several years. Reeling out statistics, Karat said that on an average 32,600 odd cases of atrocities against dalits are booked across the country which means every day roughly 93 dalits are affected. "In 2012 alone, more than 45,000 cases of atrocities against dalits have been booked across the country. However, most of these cases remain pending without any progress. Only 23 people who were accused in these cases were convicted in the whole year,'' she said. At thes national level, only a meagre 3.6% of the cases against dalits see their logical end and the perpetrators are punished, she said.
She lauded the advocates for their role in Uthapuram incident and said that without the advocates, the atrocities against dalits of the Uthapuram could have continued.
Karat pointed out that the court has ordered distribution of relief to affected dalits of Uthapuram, but the distribution is yet to be completed.
Advocates U Nirmalarani, R Rajkumar, D JAyakumar, P Selvaraj and P Rajan were felicitated at the event. Villagers of Uthapuram who were present at the function said that when they were harassed by the non- dalits of the village, several advocates they had approached refused to appear for them in the court. But the five took up the case and won it. They also refused to take their fee from the villagers in a goodwill gesture.
News Monitor by Girish Pant
--
.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.
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