Thursday, May 5, 2011

Dalits Media Watch News updates 04.05.11

Dalits Media Watch

News updates 04.05.11

Mentally challenged Dalit raped - The Tribune

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110504/haryana.htm#7

Civil society submits wish list to Planning Commission - The Hindu

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1988691.ece

Dalits agitate for restoration of burial ground - The Hindu

http://www.hindu.com/2011/05/04/stories/2011050458680300.htm

Atrocities on Dalits in state on the rise: Verka - The Tribune

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110504/haryana.htm#2

Denying their due - Front Line

http://www.frontline.in/stories/20110520281010500.htm

The Tribune

Mentally challenged Dalit raped

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110504/haryana.htm#7

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, May 3

A 20-year-old mentally challenged girl was allegedly raped at Siwaha village in the district yesterday. The victim, a Dalit, was alone in her house as her family members had gone to the fields to harvest crops when the incident took place.

The police has registered a case against Sukhbir, a resident of the same village, on a charge of rape.

Sukhbir, taking advantage of the situation, entered the girl's house on some pretext and allegedly raped her. He is at large.

The girl was found unconscious when her parents returned from the fields. The girl, who reportedly cannot speak clearly, revealed the matter to her parents.

The parents lodged a complaint with the police, which got a medical examination of the victim done. The report has confirmed rape.

Meanwhile, in another incident related to crime against women, the police has registered a case of dowry harassment against four members of a family at Mohalkhera village in Narwana subdivision in the district. This follows directions issued by a court. The victim, Sushila, who had married Ashok in December 2003, had alleged that her in-laws, including her husband, had forced her to leave their house after harassing her for not bringing adequate dowry. Besides her husband, the police has booked her father-in law and mother-in-law in this connection.

The Hindu

Civil society submits wish list to Planning Commission

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1988691.ece

Aarti Dhar

Their report captures the urgent concerns of the most marginalised, neglected communities

Civil society groups have recommended that the Approach Paper to the 12th Five Year Plan provide access to essential entitlements and development opportunities for the marginalised and increase investments in public services such as health, education, skill development, training and infrastructure building.

Over 600 social activists, representing Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, people living with HIV, those with disability, the youth, the transgender population and the elderly, in a report "Approaching Equity: Civil Society Inputs for the Approach Paper – 12th Five Year Plan" have rejected the concept of gross domestic product growth alone as a goal of planning and suggested that a comprehensive real-time database on the marginalised and violence against the poor and vulnerable be created to enable more realistic and just planning.

Investments for the poor should be increased and programmes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana and the Swarn Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana should be strengthened along with the public distribution system, the report suggests.

While welcoming the efforts of the Planning Commission to make the planning process more responsive to the citizens concerns, Amitabh Behar, social activist, said here on Tuesday that the civil society groups had seized this opportunity to make the 12th Plan process more participatory and somewhat representative of the public opinion. The report captures the urgent concerns of the most marginalised and neglected communities. It had emerged from the wide consultations undertaken to identify and reflect on the insights and aspirations of the public, Mr. Behar said.

The report says that special steps need to be taken to make cheaper credit and other financial services available to the poor, who are at present largely unbanked, and calls for more transparency, accountability, and monitoring with establishment of mechanisms for people's participation.

Laws should be strictly followed, especially labour laws and protection laws for children, Dalits, Adivasis and other underprivileged classes. Justice should be ensured through proper rehabilitation and resettlement process for those voluntarily displaced, along with ensuring proper registration and enumeration of migrants, portability of their entitlements and security of their rights, the report says.

The civil society groups held 16 consultations across the country in which organisations representing major communities involved themselves in an unprecedented exercise of addressing all the 12 challenge areas listed out by the Planning Commission and sought that the Approach Paper not only address the key concerns of the different constituencies but also bring to the "forefront these excluded groups in planning."

The Hindu

Dalits agitate for restoration of burial ground

http://www.hindu.com/2011/05/04/stories/2011050458680300.htm

Staff Reporter

ONGOLE: Over 100 dalits laid a siege to the Prakasam Bhavan here on Tuesday, seeking restoration of their burial ground in Edugulapadu village near Thuravagunta on the town outskirts.

The agitators, including a large number of women, refused to leave the place and waited till late in the evening for return of District Collector Kantilal Dande who was away from the town, seeking his intervention to settle the matter.

They also submitted a memorandum to Superintendent of Police C.S.R.K.L.N.Raju seeking justice for them.

The community elder B. Abraham said "we have been using the land as burial ground since the days of our ancestors.

We were prevented from entering the burial ground by some people who claimed to have purchased the land on Monday.

We want the Collector to restore our burial ground to us''.

Taluka Circle Inspector M. Lakshman said the trouble started when a group of dalits who were prevented from performing funeral on Monday by those who had claimed to have purchased the land close to the Chennai-Kolkata highway.

"We intervened and paved the way for conduct of funeral'', he added.

Meanwhile, on a complaint from the one Madanmohan who had said to have purchased the land, the Madipadu police had registered a case against the group under IPC section 324(causing hurt with lethal weapons) read with IPC section 34(acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).

The Tribune

Atrocities on Dalits in state on the rise: Verka

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110504/haryana.htm#2

Sushil Manav, Tribune News Service

Sirsa, May 3

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes vice-chairman, Raj Kumar Verka, today expressed concern over increasing incidents of atrocities on Dalits in Haryana and said the maximum number of cases of violence against Scheduled Castes were coming from Haryana and Punjab.

He was here in connection with the murder of a Dalit, Mukh Ram, due to a panchayat-poll related rivalry at Bani village in this district on April 30. He met family members of the victim in the PWD Rest House here today.

Verka expressed displeasure at the failure of the district police to arrest the assailants of Mukh Ram and told SP Satinder Kumar Gupta to arrest the culprits within seven days.

Quoting recent observations of the Supreme Court, Verka said the district administration would be held liable if an incident of atrocities against Dalits occurred in any district and cases could be registered against the district authorities for dereliction of duty.

The SP informed the commission vice-chairman that four teams had been constituted to arrest the killers of Mukh Ram.

Verka handed over a cheque for Rs 50,000 to the victim's widow, Rajo Devi, from the District Welfare Department for the construction of a house.

Front Line

Denying their due

http://www.frontline.in/stories/20110520281010500.htm

JAYATI GHOSH

The denial of public resources that are mandated under the Special Component Plan for S.Cs amounts to a huge assault on their basic socio-economic rights.


THE arrest of Suresh Kalmadi on April 25 marked yet another scene in the prolonged drama surrounding the Commonwealth Games (CWG) held in Delhi in October 2010. Yet the general media focus on Kalmadi may have served to distract attention from the many other acts of omission and commission that mark the sordid history of that extravagantly planned and deeply flawed public show.

There are stories of funds diversion that have a bearing on issues that go beyond probity and corruption, however important those are. They also have direct and indirect effects on the conditions of existence of some of the most deprived and needy segments of the population. One particular story is that of the government of Delhi diverting as much as Rs.744 crore over three years to the CWG from funds that were especially earmarked for the Special Component Plans (SCPs) for the Scheduled Castes in Delhi.

In fact, this matter was raised in Parliament in August last year. At the time the Minister directly in charge of the government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, P. Chidambaram (the same one who has recently been busy commenting on the quality of administration in different State governments), was called to book on this account. He accepted that this was wrong and went on to promise that the entire amount would be returned in the Budget for the following year. However, the Delhi government's Budget for 2011-12 shows no such increase – in fact the amount allocated has increased by only around Rs.134 crore to a paltry total of Rs.355 crore.

The idea of SCPs for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes was mooted by the Planning Commission in recognition of the fact that standard expenditure practices have not ensured benefits to specially marginalised communities and localities. The amount to be allocated under the SCP for S.Cs in Delhi is 16.93 per cent of the total Plan expenditure (based on the share of S.C. population according to the 2001 Census). The SCP guidelines indicate that only those schemes that ensure direct benefits to individual families, groups and hamlets of S.C. people should be included under the SCP and that priority should be given to providing basic essential services such as primary education, health, safe drinking water, nutrition, housing, electrification, sanitation, drainage, and prevention of submergence of buildings. Expenditure on livelihood promotion schemes and education is also encouraged.

As it happens, the Delhi government has already been systematically underspending on this crucial category. Instead of the required 16.93 per cent, it has spent on average less than 1.6 per cent in the period 2008-09 to 2010-11 – or around one-tenth of the required spending. This amounts to a cumulative denial of nearly Rs.5,000 crore in these three years. The current year is no better: not only is there no indication of any effort to put back the amount it had siphoned off earlier, as promised last year, but the allocation is still less than 3 per cent of the Plan spending, with a shortfall of nearly Rs.2,000 crore.

Why does all this matter? It matters because this is not just a story about state priorities and expenditure allocations. It amounts to the regular and continuing denial of the basic rights of many citizens who also happen to be Dalit residents of Delhi. Many official and unofficial surveys have found that the bulk of the S.C. population in Delhi is living in extremely precarious, unhealthy and poor conditions that are much worse than those of the general population. There is also evidence of significant discrimination against them in terms of access to infrastructure and basic services.

Delhi is regularly presented by national policymakers as the example of a shining and newly prosperous India. Indeed, in the now-common distinction between "the two Indias" – one rich and emerging if not already emerged, the other still poor and backward – Delhi is typically seen as the archetype of the former. And if one goes by the many newly built flyovers and shiny malls filled with happy consumers, it is easy to be impressed in this way.

But Delhi encapsulates India. It probably contains as much disparity as the country as a whole, with extreme poverty and destitution coexisting with the most extreme expressions of affluence. In the narrow bylanes of resettlement colonies or the chaotic congestion of jhuggi encroachments, very different income and consumption standards prevail. It is not just income but even access to the most essential goods and services that is lacking among such populations.

Because several of these are treated as "unauthorised" colonies, quite often human security is also under threat, not just because of petty criminals and gangs but because of the periodic enforcement drives of the state. A sudden and unannounced demolition drive in late March this year that dispossessed more than 800 families living in jhuggis in Gayatri Colony near Patel Nagar exemplifies this tendency. Even when the heavy hand of the state does not actually destroy the homes and livelihood of such people, the need to placate and bribe agents of the state at various levels creates huge insecurity.

For those familiar with the intertwining of social and economic discrimination in India, it should come as no surprise to learn that Dalits are predominant among such poor people. For example, the Mission Convergence Survey of the government of Delhi found that more than 90 per cent of S.Cs in Delhi were living in jhuggi clusters, resettlement colonies, unauthorised localities and construction sites – not exactly what could be called ideal housing. There were also a significant number of homeless Dalits living next to garbage-dumping sites.

A recent survey of conditions of S.C. families in Delhi conducted by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights finds even more appalling conditions in a wide range of areas, and poor access to basic needs. The poor condition of infrastructure and civic amenities endured by most of the sample of 2,400 families is particularly noteworthy. All the S.C. settlements were found to have narrow and dingy streets, poor drainage with overflowing sewage and associated stench and swampy conditions, creating many health hazards. Garbage heaps abounded with little or no public collection facilities.

Sanitary conditions are especially dreadful. Nearly a quarter of the survey respondents used open toilets, but it should be noted that this may be healthier for them than using public toilets (19 per cent), which were inevitably found to be stinking and without adequate water and flushing facilities. The issue of minimally adequate sanitation also has a major gender dimension: women and girls face great reproductive health risks as well as threats to their physical security, especially when they are forced to go long distances in search for privacy for such needs.

Many more examples and statistics relating to the appalling conditions of the majority of Dalit families in Delhi could be mentioned: forced to access only very poorly funded and often discriminatory public education and health care services, insecure livelihood and limited employment opportunities, and so on. But that is really not necessary because the main point is that a lot needs to be done and that there are many ways in which public money could usefully be spent to improve their conditions.

So the denial of public resources that are mandated under the SCP for S.Cs amounts to a huge assault on their basic socio-economic rights, as it forces them to continue to live in squalor and degradation. This major crime of omission has to be rectified immediately, but this will only happen if the government actually finds itself to be accountable in this matter. And for that, many more public voices need to be raised.



-- 
.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. 


--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/

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