Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Gujarat: Atrocities driving Dalits out of Sanand village

Dalits Media Watch

News Updates-06.12.12

Dalit GP member, 2 others attacked- IBN Live

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/dalit-gp-member-2-others-attacked/209230-60-115.html

Dalits seek ban on Made Snana- The Times Of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Dalits-seek-ban-on-Made-Snana/articleshow/10991323.cms

Gujarat: Atrocities driving Dalits out of Sanand village- DNA

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_gujarat-atrocities-driving-dalits-out-of-sanand-village_1620785

Give degrees to failed SC-STs: Med varsity- Hindustan Times

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/UttarPradesh/Give-degrees-to-failed-SC-STs-Med-varsity/Article1-778337.aspx

IBN Live

Dalit GP member, 2 others attacked

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/dalit-gp-member-2-others-attacked/209230-60-115.html


MYSORE: Tension gripped Kanagana Maradi village in Pandavapura taluk when upper caste youths attacked Dalits, injuring a Village Panchayat member and a few others, over a trivial issue on Sunday night. Injured Village Panchayat member Savithramma, youths Manoj and Prashanth have been admitted to the government hospital in Pandavapura.

Some upper caste youths picked up a quarrel when they noticed Dalits seated close to upper caste to watch a circus performed at the junction of the village. When a few Dalits raised objections for directing them to keep a distance from upper caste in public places, the upper caste men thrashed Dalits and chased them away.

The Kanagana Maradi village has 40 Dalit families, who worked as agriculture labourers. It is also said that upper caste people were unhappy as a few Dalit youths demanded entry into Akantheshwara temple funded by Muzari department. Meanwhile, additional police force has been deployed in the village to defuse tension and ensure protection to Dalit families.

Tahsildar Shivanand Murthy, DSP Kala Krishna, Circle Inspector Lakshme Gowda and others visited the village and held talks with both the factions. They have held one more round of talks and appealed to the villagers to bury their differences and lead a peaceful life.

The Times Of India

Dalits seek ban on Made Snana

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Dalits-seek-ban-on-Made-Snana/articleshow/10991323.cms

TNN | Dec 5, 2011, 02.01PM IST

MANGALORE: Leaders of various dalit organizations demanded a ban on Made Made Snana practiced at Kukke Sri Subrahmanya Temple during the 'shasti' festivities at the monthly meeting organised by DK district police with members of and representatives of SC/ST organizations here on Sunday. 

Terming the practice "inhuman", they demanded that the feelings of dalits be conveyed to the state government for necessary action.L Shekar of Dalit Hakkugalla Horata Samiti pointed that such customs were increasingly being used to subjugate dalits and they were foisted on them in the name of tradition. He was also critical of the district administration which backed down from its earlier decision of banning the ritual. 

Narayana Punchame, another dalit leader observed it was time for all concerned to create awareness and bring this practice to a halt. P Keshava, Dalit Sangharsh Samiti leader, sought action against policemen on duty for failing to prevent the assault on K S Shivaramu, president of Karnataka State Backward Classes Awareness Forum. 

Noting that the section of the temple's administrators had treated Nagesh and others accused of assaulting Shivaramu like heroes, Shekar demanded that police take action against Keshava Jogithaya, the chief priest of the temple for honouring the accused and offering them prasad. SP Labhu Ram who chaired the meeting said since the probe was on into the incident, points raised by the leaders would be looked into during the course of investigation. he said t hat only one complaint had been registered in connection with the assault and police had already.

DNA

Gujarat: Atrocities driving Dalits out of Sanand village

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_gujarat-atrocities-driving-dalits-out-of-sanand-village_1620785

Sanand, a taluka of Ahmedabad district, has been developing rapidly ever since Tata Motors set up its Nano plant here; it is now expected to emerge as the 'Detroit of India'. But one of its villages, Goraj, hides an ugly fact - ostracisation of a Dalit community.

The irony is that this discrimination is taking place barely 50 km from Ahmedabad where Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram (also known as Harijan Ashram) is located.

Unable to withstand 'harassment' by upper caste villagers, Dalits are moving out of Goraj. A local community leader, Pravin Makwana, said that, in the last few years, almost half the 35-40 Dalit families of the village have moved out.

They had sought help from the police to end their ostracisation but to no avail. The Dalit locality in Goraj is surrounded by people belonging to other castes who have allegedly often attacked them. Kalpesh Dabhi, a Dalit student studying for a BA degree in Gujarat College, told DNAthat he was attacked and beaten up by a group of people on October 4, 2011.

He said he and his friends were once walking on a road that passes through 'their' (read upper caste) locality. "They took offence to this and beat us up. We had to be taken to hospital. I decided to leave my village rather than face harassment every day," said Dabhi. A complaint about the incident was filed at the Sanand police station.

In the past few years, as many as six complaints (under the special law forbidding atrocities on Schedule Castes) have been filed by the Dalits of Goraj. Of these, two were filed on October 1, 2011 and October 4, 2011, respectively. The first complaint was filed after Dalit girls were allegedly teased by some upper caste boys. In the second incident, two Dalits were attacked while passing through an upper caste area. A counter-complaint was filed by the upper caste people of the area after the second incident.

When contacted, sarpanch of Goraj, Devu Thakor confirmed to DNA that Dalit families were indeed moving out of the village to escape harassment. However, talati-cum-mantri of Goraj, BG Gurjar, could not be contacted for his comments despite several attempts.Gautam Vankar, a peon at the BMW plant in Uttaria village near Shantipura, left Goraj to come and live in rented accommodation in Sanand town. Vankar, who is too scared to speak against the upper castes, is among the people who left the village recently.

Dahya Makwana (35), Ganga Makwana (50) and Khodabhai Dabhi are members of some of the families who have left Goraj in the last few years. Talking to DNA at his rented house in Sanand town, Vankar, who leaves for work at 8 am and returns by 10 pm every day, said he usually comes late from work and is too scared to go to Goraj out of fear of being attacked by members of the upper castes

Hindustan Times

Give degrees to failed SC-STs: Med varsity

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/UttarPradesh/Give-degrees-to-failed-SC-STs-Med-varsity/Article1-778337.aspx

The Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University in Lucknow has urged the Medical Council of India that graduation degrees be granted to SC and ST medical students, who have repeatedly failed to clear the final exams. A few of them have been trying since 1996.
Earlier, about 50 reserved category students blamed the university's teachers, alleging that they were deliberately giving SC-ST students poor marks.


The move comes only a few months before the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh where scheduled castes and scheduled tribes constitute 18% of the electorate. On Monday, a letter from the vice-chancellor of the university — India's first residential medical university, established in 1905 — Prof DK Gupta, to the MCI read: "As students have failed consecutively on several attempts, they be allowed to have a degree." He said a separate passing percentage should be fixed for students belonging to the reserved category, as they get selected with lower qualifying marks through medical entrance. Although state medical education minister Lalji Verma said, "I will comment only after going through the documents", Congress spokesperson Ram Kumar Bhargava said repeated failure of a section of students should be probed.

But Samajwadi Party leader Ambika Chaudhary said, "Once they (students from underprivileged sections) get an opportunity, they must be up to the mark to become doctors."



-- 
.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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