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Jyoti basu is dead

Dr.B.R.Ambedkar

Monday, June 24, 2013

[pmarc] Dalits Media Watch - News Update 24.06.13





Dalits Media Watch

NewsUpdates 24.06.13

 

Dalit woman raped in Haryana-The Times Of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Dalit-woman-raped-in-Haryana/articleshow/20729544.cms

'Don't be our fathers', a squeal for dalits-Deccan Chronicle

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130624/news-current-affairs/article/%E2%80%98don%E2%80%99t-be-our-fathers%E2%80%99-squeal-dalits

Family feud over land turns into caste row-The Times Of India

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Times_of_India/400x60/0

India: Desert dalits and holy cows-The New Zealand Herald

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10892533

Minor raped, murdered in Barmer-The Times Of India

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Times_of_India/400x60/0

Poll-bound UPA eyes another law, plans more bite for SC/ST Act-The Indian Express

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pollbound-upa-eyes-another-law-plans-more-bite-for-scst-act/1133007/

 

 

The Times Of India

Dalit woman raped in Haryana

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Dalit-woman-raped-in-Haryana/articleshow/20729544.cms

 

REWARI: A 25-year-old dalit woman was allegedly raped by a person for three years on the pretext of marrying her, police said on Sunday.

 

The woman, a divorcee and resident of Qutubpur colony here, in her complaint on Saturday alleged Jhajjar district native Vipin Kumar of raping her, they said.

 

Medical examination of the woman confirmed rape following which Vipin was arrested, police said.

 

According to the complaint, about three years back the woman went to Jhajjar to appear in an exam, where she met Vipin and developed a friendship with him.

 

On the pretext of marrying her, Vipin allegedly exploited the woman, police said.

 

Vipin got married to another woman on June 1, this year, they said.

 

On her complaint, a case under relevant sections of IPC and SC/ST Act was registered against Vipin, they said, adding the accused was produced in local court, which sent him to judicial custody.

 

The Times Of India

Family feud over land turns into caste row

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Times_of_India/400x60/0

 

DHARMAPURI: An FIR has been registered against 22 people of vanniyar caste after a dalit woman lodged a complaint with Bommidi police claiming that she was ex-communicated from the village when the villagers came to know that she was a dalit.

 

The complainant, S Sudha (23) of Parayapatti village near Bommidi in Dharmapuri district, had married G Suresh (27) of Veppamarathur village, a vanniyar April 21, 2010. "Both Sudha and Suresh were in love for many years and married without the consent of their parents. Later, Suresh's parents accepted Sudha as their daughter-in-law," police said. However, Suresh's father Gopal told his fellow villagers that Sudha too was a vanniyar. "When Gopal and his elder brother fell out over a property recently, the elder brother, in a bid to turn the villagers against Gopal, made it public that his brother's daughter-in-law was a dalit," AsraGarg, Dharmapuri SP told TOI. The villagers turned against Gopal's family, especially Sudha, and decided to ex-communicate the family from the village, Garg said. After the decision, villagers refused to allow Sudha to enter the village temple and shop keepers refused to sell groceries to the family, police sources said.

 

Later, Sudha lodged a complaint against village people. "Bommidi police raised an FIR against 22 vanniyars including Periasamy, the village head, Mariappan and MandiriGounder. They have been booked under section 147 (punishment for rioting), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (1)(punishment for criminal intimidation) and SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act. So far no arrest had been made. Action will be taken at the based on the investigation," Garg added.

 

Caste relations in the region have been on the edge ever since violence broke out in Natham Colony in Dharmapuri district over a vanniyar-dalit marriage. Polarisation among vanniyars and dalits has been on the rise after PMK, a predominantly vanniyar outfit, accuseddalit groups of targeting vanniyar girls with an eye on their property.

 

The Times Of India

Minor raped, murdered in Barmer

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Times_of_India/400x60/0

 

Jaisalmer: Tension prevailed at Samdadi village in Barmer on Saturday after a 10-year-old dalit girl was kidnapped, raped and murdered by some unidentified men. Her body, with throat slit by a sharp-edged weapon, was found in a hilly area near the town.

 

According to the police, the girl had left for the market to buy mobile recharge coupons on Friday morning, but she didn't return. The family members kept searching for the girl for a few hours, but when they could not find her anywhere they lodged a complaint with the police.

 

"However, someone spotted the bodies in the hills some 10 kilometres from the town and informed the police. A police team was immediately rushed to the spot and the body was found," said a police officer.

 

The family members alleged that her body was found in a naked condition and her throat was slit with a sharp-edged weapon. Police suspect that some men kidnapped her and then threw her body after murdering her somewhere else.

 

According to SDM ChanchalVerma, after murdering, the body was thrown in the hills. The police have formed separate teams to nab the culprits and instructions have been given to arrest the culprits at the earliest.

On getting information about the incident, hundreds of people gathered in the town demanding to arrest the culprits, shouted slogans and jammed the roads.

 

"We have registered an FIR for kidnap, rape and murder. Further investigation is on. We have got some clues about the identity of the culprits," said the officer.

 

 

The New Zealand Herald

India: Desert dalits and holy cows

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10892533

 

India's largest desert takes some taming. After an hour of hair-raising, bone-rattling dune bashing in a funky Mahindra Quadro 4WD vehicle based on an American jeep, I'm left with a lot less grunt than G.I Joe. There's a feeling of splendid isolation here. The rippled red sand dunes stretch away to infinity.

 

The great Thar Desert extends over much of Rajasthan, the land of princes, where Rajput warrior clans held sway for centuries under the protection of towering red forts and astute maharajahs. From the Manvar Desert Resort where I'm staying, dune safaris provide a great escape into the wilderness of sun baked sand, tangled thickets and steep escarpments. The owner, Moti Singh Rathore, has realised his dream in preserving the heritage and culture of this remote area.

 

The serious dune-raiding ends abruptly at a small desert compound with two thatched roof dwellings and a mud brick factory. I'm intrigued to find a cottage industry in such a remote location. A small olive-skinned Dalit woman is squatting in semi-darkness hand pumping leather bellows to feed air into a miniature furnace.

Once the iron is in a molten state she deftly places it on an anvil and hammers it into shape to form a knife blade.

 

I examine her handiwork, which includes sickle blades, axe heads and an ornate smoking pipe with copper wire wrapped around it in a decorative pattern. All the while the craft woman's head is heavily veiled due to my presence as an unknown male visitor.

 

Further on we come across a cluster of primitive "dhani" or village huts with thatched roofs and plastered walls. A small boy and girl are role-playing as goat herders, which will likely be their adult occupation, while mum watches on and dad builds a dry-stone wall. Granny shows me a fine gold-coloured serving bowl, which is her pride and joy. Nearby, family members till the soil, while an infant squats contentedly near the water jug in the centre of the field. A white Brahmin milking cow sprawls out languidly on the warm earth.

 

This humble peasant family are Dalits, the lowest caste whom Mahatma Gandhi called "God's people". I would like to have talked to them and learned more of the traditional way of life, which has changed little in centuries. However, they are reticent and appear to be overawed by foreigners.

The origins of the four Hindu castes can be traced back to the beginning of civilisation when people came to be recognised by their occupation. Brahmins were fair-skinned Aryans who took the roles of priest and teacher. Kshatriyas were warrior caste, and Vaishyas were the darker-skinned traders and menial workers. Shudras did cleaning and sanitation work and lived on the outskirts of society. Initially, the caste system was fluid but by 600AD it was decreed that birth irrevocably fixed one's status.

 

Today the Indian Constitution makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of caste, but with 80 per cent of the country's one billion people living the traditional village life, the system has a strong hold. The Dalits remain poor, living at the subsistence level of around $2.60 per day.

 

I learn through my interpreter that this family typically eats millet bread for breakfast cooked in buttermilk with yoghurt. Lunch is a yoghurt curry cooked in goat's milk and dinner consists of vegetables such as desert beans, pulses plus a bowl of cassava. While their desert compound is surrounded by cows, goats, deer and a host of wild creatures, their religious beliefs preclude killing any animals. Bugs and beetles are carefully brushed off firewood and dried dung before it is laid on a fire.

 

Our dune safari moves on to another compound, which is a model of aesthetic and practical design. The buildings and courtyard are formed of well compacted cow dung and straw, so smooth that it has the appearance of concrete, complete with hairline expansion cracks.

 

Three lovely girls pose demurely for a photo and show me their sleeping, cooking and storage rooms, which appear comfortable and well provisioned. Dria, Khuhsbu and Raju are proud of their desert home and smile broadly each time I make a gesture of admiration for their facilities. Dria, the eldest, demonstrates her numeracy skills by counting in English from one to fourteen in a lilting, mellifluous voice. As I leave, a pure white cow approaches the girls seeking a little affection and they run towards it and embrace it warmly.

 

From the top of a high dune I look out over the vast expanse of the desert, which fades into a shimmering mirage on the horizon. Two camel handlers, Vhimsing Singh and Arjun Singh emerge from the sandy wastes and help me mount a gangly dromedary. A South African couple mount the second beast and the handlers lead us on foot along the prominent ridge.

 

For such an inhospitable place as the Thar Desert, I'm amazed at the abundance of animals and birds around us. Blackbuck antelopes with long spiralling horns and frisky chinkara gazelles appear in tight family herds. An ungainly nilgai or blue bull, the largest antelope, lumbers off in the distance. Egrets, herons, storks and cormorants feed in a rare waterhole while overhead, kestrels and goshawks soar on the thermals with malicious intent.

 

Thanks to the local Bishnoi people whose Jainist philosophy requires them to be 100 per cent pure ecologists, no creatures are hunted. As a result India has a great diversity of flora and fauna. It's the only country with both lions and tigers in the wild.


Travelling on to the city of Jodhpur, I reflect on the peaceful dhani dwellers of the desert and their docile, affectionate milking cows and contrast that scene with the bothersome bovines that stretch out on bustling city streets as if they own them.

 

How did this sacred cow syndrome originate. Unproductive traffic-blocking Brahman cattle seem to be the complete antithesis of a fast-developing economy with the promise of becoming a leading world power. It's already functional anarchy on India's roads and the humble cow compounds the chaos. Traffic stops for no one, only cows. The golden rule for pedestrians crossing roads here seems to be: look left, look right and then run for dear life.

 

In India all animals are sacred and Gau Mata or Mother Cow enjoys a special place in the Indian psyche. This originates from the first agriculture-based civilisation before the advent of money, where wealth was determined by the number of cows a family owned. The cow became legal tender, exchanged for goods and services, offered as dowry at weddings, handed over as tax and gifted to priests to gain karma and assure salvation.

The crux of the problem today appears to be the reluctance of owners to put a beast down once it ceases to produce milk. It's simply not politically correct to kill the poor creature so the only alternative is to abandon it on the streets.

 

Once let loose the cows are sure to thrive as the first roti (unleavened bread) cooked is left out for a cow to eat. City residents routinely feed local strays with a smorgasbord of delicacies to propitiate the gods. Lord Vishnu's eighth reincarnation was Lord Krishna, a pastoralist who played his flute to keep his cows happy.

 

With this exulted pedigree, I decide to accord a little more respect to the holy cow. Then as we negotiate the main square in Jodhpur I see an entire herd scattered over the intersection, blocking our path. My immediate reaction is to ask my driver to honk his horn continuously and nudge them (figuratively) out of the way.

 

But then I check myself think of Mother Cow and decide to wait patiently until a gap opens up. Am I being truly respectful I wonder? Or have I simply been cowed into submission?

 

FACT FILE

Getting There

Cathay Pacific has daily flights from Auckland to Delhi.

 

Getting Around

Adventure Worldorganises small group tours around Rajasthan in modern vehicles with local guides at each city to show you the sightseeing highlights such as palaces, forts, temples, gardens and produce markets. Carry a good supply of lower denomination currency (10, 20 and 50 rupees) as tipping is widely practised in India.

 

Manvar Desert Resort

This attractive cluster of 21 cottages in rustic, rough-hewn sandstone is on the Jodhpur-Jaisalmer Highway to Rajasthan. It's an ideal holiday base under leafy shade trees with alfresco dining that captures the wonderful quietude of the desert. The resort offers a luxury tent camp experience out in into desert with a moonlight feast, Rajasthani folk singing and a sunrise camel ride. (Between October and March)

 

Deccan Chronicle

'Don't be our fathers', a squeal for dalits

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130624/news-current-affairs/article/%E2%80%98don%E2%80%99t-be-our-fathers%E2%80%99-squeal-dalits

 

Thiruvananthapuram: A new documentary 'Don't be Our Fathers' critically evaluates how the caste equation is subtly used against Dalits in villages in the communist heartland of Kannur. The documentary directed by Rupesh Kumar is a visual representation of Peringeel, a Dalit pocket in Kannur.

 

It narrates how the mainstream including communists adopt a patronizing attitude towards Dalits. The documentary highlights the use of the word 'colony' to denote Dalit settlements and insisted of a more polite 'Dalit Land'.

 

SreejithPaithelen, a journalist seen speaking during the initial part of the documentary argues that caste discrimination today is not as perceptible or as not direct as it was in the past. Today, somebody from an upper caste may befriend you in the most endearing way. But he will always remind you that the wellbeing Dalits enjoy today is all because the upper castes fought for their cause.

 

ShyamKrishan, a youth from Peringeel who figures in the film makes it clear that Dalits are always under the radar. "They are always being watched… to know where they go and with whom they interact", Shyam said.

 

The documentary was a strong assertion of Dalit politics negating such patronizing attitudes, Rupesh Kumar said. Rupesh has also directed Love Stories in Blackletters which deals with caste politics and Dalit issues in inter-caste marriages, Sabitha: A woman and a Day, which takes one on a journey through the life of a tribal woman in Wayanad and also the documentary, By the Side of a River. He has also to his credit a short film Crime and Punishment.

 

 

The Indian Express

Poll-bound UPA eyes another law, plans more bite for SC/ST Act

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pollbound-upa-eyes-another-law-plans-more-bite-for-scst-act/1133007/

 

With polls around the corner, the UPA government is eyeing another populist legislation — amendments to the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, to reinforce its Dalit and tribal vote bank.

 

Last March, the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment had circulated a draft Cabinet note bringing in more offences and preventive measures under the Act, and promising speedy trial with enhanced punishment. "Amendments would deliver members of SCs and STs a greater deal of justice and will also be an enhanced deterrent to the offenders," said the draft.

 

As per the 2011 Census, Scheduled Castes (SCs) form 16.2 per cent of India's population and Scheduled Tribes (STs) 8.2 per cent. But in rural areas, the main vote bank of the Congress, they constitute 68 per cent of the population.

 

Sources said the ministry's intent was to introduce the amendment Bill in the post-recess Budget Session (that started on April 22) but it was thwarted by the Opposition's continued boycott. Now it would be introduced in the Monsoon Session, they said.

 

The crucial change concerns the requirement to establish that the offence was committed with the foreknowledge that the victim was a member of an SC or ST. It is one of the gravest shortcomings in the current law, prejudicing the actions of the authorities.

 

"There are numerous cases of police refusing to register complaints unless the complainant can establish that the identity of the victim was in fact the ground for committing the offence," noted the draft proposal. Victims were asked to produce caste certificates, and even if a case was registered and prosecuted, failure to prove caste identity formed the basis for acquittal, it noted.

 

The amendment therefore proposes: "Wherever the accused's knowledge of the victim's caste or tribal identity is required to be established... and it is shown that the accused was acquainted with the victim or his family, the court shall presume that the accused was aware of the caste or tribal identity of the victim unless proved otherwise."

 

News Monitor by Girish Pant

 

 


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