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From: Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC <pmarc2008@gmail.com>
Date: Feb 19, 2010 11:17 AM
Subject: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 19.02.10
To: Dalits Media Watch <PMARC@dgroups.org>
Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 19.02.10
Barbershop, ironing cart for Dalits set up - Express Buzz
Dalit youth assaulted - Express Buzz
Dalit woman still waiting for justice a month after public humiliation - The Hindu
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0
Upper caste villagers assault Dalits - The Pioneer
http://www.dailypioneer.com/237160/Upper-caste-villagers-assault-Dalits.html
Acquisition of Dalits' land for Yamuna Expressway - The Pioneer
http://www.dailypioneer.com/237132/Acquisition-of-Dalits%E2%80%99-land-for-Yamuna-Expressway.html
DGP takes stern action against cops - The Pioneer
http://www.dailypioneer.com/237131/DGP-takes-stern-action-against-cops.html
Conviction rate under SC, ST Act low in State: National Commission - The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/19/stories/2010021958910100.htm
Dalits cry for care - The Tribune
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/400x60/0
Dalit woman's thrashing: NCW seeks report from UP govt - Zee News
http://www.zeenews.com/news605215.html
University students cook beef, have a feast! - Mangalorean.Com
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=169688
Smart cards recommended for SC/ST families - The Hindu
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0
Express Buzz
Barbershop, ironing cart for Dalits set up
Last Updated : 19 Feb 2010 08:00:21 AM IST
VIRUDHUNAGAR: District Collector Sigy Thomas Vaidyan, who assured the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court that she would take action to end the discrimination against Dalits by the washermen and barbers of Irunchirai village, near Thiruchuzhi in the district, has ended this form of untouchability.
Irunchirai was in the news last year when S Gurusamy of the village filed a petition before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court alleging that the Dalits of the village were subjected to various forms of ill treatment by caste Hindus.
He had said that barbers refused to cut their hair and washermen refused to iron their clothes, saying that they would be ostracised by the majority community if they performed these tasks for the Dalits.
On the directions of the Bench, a revenue officer and the Inspector General of Social Justice and Human Rights visited the village and conducted inquiries. While the IG reported that there was no discrimination against Dalits, the revenue officer had stated he had been told that 22 Dalit families were ostracised.
When these reports were filed, the court directed Vaidyan to visit the village. Vaidyan studied the situation and submitted a report.
She said that S Shanmugaraj of Ramanathapuram district had offered to serve all communities in the village, while M Muthumari, also of Ramanathapuram, had come to wash and iron the clothes of the Dalits as well as other communities. The Collector had provided the necessary equipment and facilities to the barber and the washerman with donations.
A barbershop and a washerman's cart were inaugurated in the village last week. The barbershop has been named as Thanthai Periyar Memorial Saloon and the ironing cart, the Thanthai Periyar Washermen's Cart.
Express Buzz
Dalit youth assaulted
Last Updated : 19 Feb 2010 07:58:19 AM IST
COIMBATORE: Even after enactment of Prevention of Atrocities Act two decade ago, Dalits continue to be targeted by the upper caste people on one pretext or the other. An Arunthathiyar youth was allegedly assaulted by a group of upper class men in the city's outskirts recently.
Speaking to Express, M Thangavel, State Convenor for Avinashi based NGO Vizhuthugal said P Karuppasamy was going to Mathipalayam in a bus when a person belonging to upper caste allegedly questioned the youth for sitting next to him. A few more caste Hindus joined him and started using abusive language.
Then Karuppasamy alighted the bus, they assaulted him. Later, he was treated at Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.
Though Perur police registered a case against five persons, no arrest has been made so far.
The Hindu
Dalit woman still waiting for justice a month after public humiliation
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0
Special Correspondent
| The victim says the police are yet to act against those who stripped her |
BANGALORE: Even a month after a 35-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly stripped, beaten up and paraded in the streets of a village in Chitradurga district, no action is said to have been taken against culprits. The victim, Bhagyamma, a farm labourer from Laxmisagar village in Chitradurga district, had come to Bangalore on Thursday to draw the attention of the Government through the media on her plight.
"No woman in our State should undergo the trauma which I underwent. This is my prayer to the God…", she remarked. "I may be a poor and illiterate woman. But I am also a human being and I too have the right to live with dignity like women from rich families," Ms. Bhagyamma, a mother of three children, told The Hindu wiping her tears as she recollected the traumatic episode.
The trouble started when a girl from the Nayak community (a landed community which belongs to Scheduled Tribes) reportedly eloped with a boy from Madiga community (a Scheduled Caste to which Bhagyamma belongs). Bhagyamma alleges that members from the girl's community barged into her house early on January 17 suspecting that she helped the girl to elope.
"A group of about 50 members dragged me and my husband Sukhanandappa (a farm labourer) out the house and started assaulting us. They stripped me in public. They caught hold of my hair and dragged me through the streets for about 300 metres to reach the village panchayat office," she said while recalling how some people even threw stones at her.
"I was beaten up terribly at the panchayat office. The mob threatened to douse petrol on me and burn me alive if I did not reveal the hideout of the boy and girl who had eloped. I never new anything about the young pair, but for the fact that I had met the girl (who is also a tailor) once to get clothes stitched for my daughter."
Ms. Bhagyamma alleged that the Bharamasagar police sub-inspector not only behaved rudely with her but also did not prevent others from beating and chiding her. "Instead of taking any action against the assaulters, I was taken to the police station and detained for a long time. I was released only towards the evening after the boy and girl came to the station and clarified that I had nothing to do with their eloping."
The episode never ended there as her two daughters and son are being insulted by others at school by referring to them as "children of stripped woman". "I have not come out of my house for the last one month as everybody starts ridiculing me when I step out of the house," she says and is keen to lead a new life by shifting out of the village. "What pains me is that more than 200 to 300 people who watched me being assaulted and stripped in pubic are scared even to testify the episode," she says and asserts that she would fight till the end for justice.
See ther media coverage on same issue:
Dalit woman stripped in Chitradurga - BSP to hold stir
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=169689
The Pioneer
Upper caste villagers assault Dalits
http://www.dailypioneer.com/237160/Upper-caste-villagers-assault-Dalits.html
PNS | Kendrapara
Tension erupted on Thursday afternoon at Karandiapatana Jenasahi village in Marshaghai block of the district after upper caste villagers assaulted Dalits by forcibly entering into their houses.
An altercation erupted between the two groups when Dalits opposed upper caste people digging earth from a gochar land for the purpose of construction of Hanuman temple in the village, said Inspector-in-Charge of Patkura police station Alok Roy.
The terror of the upper caste has gone to such an extent that as many as 23 Dalits sustained injuries, including five persons getting critically injured, after upper caste people assaulted Dalits with lathis, sharp weapons and by pelting bricks.
The upper caste people also ransacked as many as 33 houses of the Dalits by destroying household items after throwing them out of their homes, .more than a dozen cycles were also damaged and two goats were killed by the upper-caste people in the mayhem, alleged the injured Dalits.
A police team reached the spot and managed to control the tension. They shifted the injured to the District Headquarter Hospital. Meanwhile, a platoon of armed police personnel was deployed in the area to avert any untoward incident.
The Pioneer
Acquisition of Dalits' land for Yamuna Expressway
http://www.dailypioneer.com/237132/Acquisition-of-Dalits%E2%80%99-land-for-Yamuna-Expressway.html
Biswajeet Banerjee | Lucknow
Chief Minister Mayawati's own Dalit agenda was found crushed under the high expectation of Yamuna Expressway after reports came to the fore about Dalits being forcibly asked to hand over their lands to the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) for the sake of government's much-hyped project.
Reports claimed that Yamuna Expressway-Industrial Development Authority forcibly acquired land of 334 Dalit farmers to construct the eight-lane highway connecting Agra and Noida.
"The IDA has acquired 8,97,591 hectare of Dalit farmers' land and they were suitably compensated as per the government norms," a senior official in the Industries department told 'The Pioneer' here on Thursday.
Incidentally, Chief Minister Mayawati heads this department and knowledgeable source claimed that she was not aware of Dalits being deprived of their land. "Once the issue has come to light, an in-house inquiry has been ordered to know whether it was necessary for the IDA to acquire such a huge area of land that belonged to the deprived sections of society," an official in the Chief Minister's office said.
In fact, the land acquired by the IDA under the project was given to Dalits under different government schemes.
"Majority of them were gram sabha lands and their landuse was changed so that the owners could use it as agriculture land. This was purely done for the uplift of the deprived sections of society," the officials said.
The IDA explained that the decision to acquire land for the construction of Yamuna Expressway was taken in the 23rd board meeting of the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority. In view of extra land required for the project, the IDA spoke to the farmers, some of them Dalits, and struck a deal.
"The acquisition of land was mandatory for the success of the project," the IDA said and denied that Dalits were forcibly asked to hand over the land.
The 165-km long Yamuna Expressway is one of its kind freeway connecting Agra with Noida. Built under the PPP model, the government claimed that once opened to public, the expressway would connect New Delhi with Agra and would help in industrialisation of the state.
The Pioneer
DGP takes stern action against cops
http://www.dailypioneer.com/237131/DGP-takes-stern-action-against-cops.html
Pioneer News Service | Lucknow
With his directives on upholding human rights in police stations finding few takers, DGP Karamveer Singh finally ordered the dismissal of four cops, allegedly responsible for the death of two youths in their custody at Allahabad recently. Besides, the Inspector of Musafir khana police station in Sultanpur, who was caught in camera beating up a woman suspect for extracting a confession, was also terminated from services.
In Allahabad, two suspects - Sanjay Nishad and Ashok Kumar Nishad were brought to the Ghurpur police station in Allahabad and reportedly tortured after which they died.
The police brass initially produced a long list of criminal records of the deceased trying to justify their position on the issue.
But since the deceased happened to be Dalits, an FIR was lodged against SO of Ghurpur, Vinod Kumar Dubey, sub-inspector, Vivekanand Tewari and nine constables, Anil Singh, Hari Prakash Rai, Surendra Dubey, Devendra Singh, Harendranath Singh, Shailendra Bhadhur Singh and Ashok Kumar Yadav and a murder case was also registsred against themHowever in the subsequent probe, the SO alongwith two constables Anil Singh and Hari Prakash Rai were found to be prime facie guilty and orders were given for their termination from services.
Meanwhile, the Inspector of Musafirkhana police station in Sultanpur Kailash Nath Dwivedi was also terminated after he was caught by an electronic media camera on Wednesday, beating up a woman suspect while coercing her admit to killing her husband.
The cop had produced the woman before media persons and asked her to confess the crime. But when she refused and revealed that she was tortured by the SHO into owning up the crime, Dwivedi lost his cool. Without caring for the mediamen, he brutally assaulted the woman. Surprisingly, no action was taken against two women cops, who remained mute spectators to the excesses of their boss.
Police excesses also came to the fore in Kaushambhi, when CO Manjhanpur, Susheel Kumar and some cops dragged out two undertrials Vinod Kumar and Saddam and injured them at the Collectrate lock-up.
When kin of victims objected, the DySP took the victims to a hospital and got a medical report doctored which said that no injury were caused to them.
The top cops initially tried to save the erring officers, but when the lawyers and journalists took up the matter with the DM, they registered a case against the cops. However no action was taken against them and all out efforts were made to give them a clean chit.
The Hindu
Conviction rate under SC, ST Act low in State: National Commission
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/19/stories/2010021958910100.htm
Special Correspondent
CHENNAI: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Thursday criticised the Tamil Nadu government for high pendency of cases and low conviction rate under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.
Vice-Chairman of the Commission N.M. Kamble, who along with Member of the Commission Mahendra Boddh, conducted a State-level review meeting with Adi-Dravidar Welfare Minister Tamilarasi and senior officials of the government, pulled up the police department for not completing investigation within the stipulated timeframe in many cases.
He told reporters that that in the absence of details on the grounds under which acquittal was done, the panel was in no position to say who was at fault. Mr. Boddh gave year-wise break-up of the pending cases, disposal of cases and conviction.
Mr. Kamble, former Congress Rajya Sabha MP and Maharashtra Minister, said the administration did not provide the Commission information, district-wise and ward-wise, on various welfare schemes for the SCs. No details on the representation of SCs in important departments such as police and education were furnished. There was no liaison officer, whose rank was not less than deputy secretary, to act as the link between the government and SC government employees.
He also found fault with the government in respect of not retrieving from other communities lands assigned to the SCs. There were nearly 8,000 such cases. Pointing out that other States provided district-wise information on various parameters, he said Chief Secretary [K.S. Sripathi] had assured the panel of furnishing the requisite information within a month. Asked which State was doing good work in the Commission's assessment, the Vice-Chairman replied that no State was performing up to the satisfaction of the panel.
Asked for the reaction to the State government's initiative of providing three per cent reservation to Arunthathiars within the overall quota of SCs, Mr. Kamble described it as "unconstitutional."
The Tribune
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/400x60/0
Jangveer Singh, Tribune News Service
Banur, February 18
The constituency may have been a VIP one for long, but for the predominant Dalits settled here life is a constant struggle with high land costs and commercialisation making space for dwelling harder to come by. They also claim they are yet to get full benefit of the old age pension scheme and also find it difficult to renew their yellow cards, which qualifies them for subsidised flour and pulses.
A visit to various villages in the district gives an idea of how Dalits continue to be marginalised as far as getting their dues are concerned. Even though there is reservation for them in panchayats, they do not carry much weight. Even Dalit sarpanches are often accused of being pro-farmer in many cases.
Nirmal Singh, a Dalit panch of Mukandpur village, says in many cases the work of Dalits was not done because the required quorum was not achieved. He said they were yet to get plots from shamlat land even though there was a provision for the same.
Shiv Ram, sarpanch of Mukandpur village, said there were issues of rivalries among Dalit groups themselves that sometimes led to lop-sided development. Claiming that he was proceeding in the right manner, he said he was ready to carve out five marla plots for the needy Dalit families in case of a consensus.
Congress Economic Cell chairman RR Bhardwaj, who has conducted an economic survey of the Dalits in this constituency and is now working on a state level survey, said housing had become a serious problem for Dalit families with land becoming increasingly scarce.
Bhardwaj said two bedroom houses could be made for them on the shamlat land by taking seed money from the beneficiaries in the form of labour. He said a rural development authority could be instituted in Punjab on the pattern of the one constituted in Haryana.
Zee News
Dalit woman's thrashing: NCW seeks report from UP govt
http://www.zeenews.com/news605215.html
New Delhi: Anguished over an incident of police brutality on a Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh, the National Commission for Women has sought a report in the matter from the state government and the police force.
"This act of punishment by way of beating up of an accused obviously defeats the very purpose of the universally accepted principle of innocence of every accused before being convicted by a court of law," NCW Chairperson Girija Vyas said.
The incident occurred yesterday in Manyari village in Aliganj area of Sultanpur after a man named Deepak Kumar was found strangulated following which his mother lodged an FIR and the police started looking for his wife Sangeeta.
His wife was rounded up after some time and she allegedly confessed to the crime, Superintendent of Police, Sultanpur, Satyendra Veer Singh said. Despite the confession, the Inspector Kailash Nath Dubey beat her up.
After the incident came to light, authorities suspended the concerned police officer.
Vyas said the act of "taking up the role of judiciary in deciding the guilt followed by punishment by way of beating" should have prompted severe reprimand and relevant provisions of IPC should have been invoked against the officer.
She also wanted to know why no criminal case has been registered against the concerned police officer.
The NCW has sought a report in this matter, along with information on action taken by police so far. The Commission has also urged the state government to take appropriate steps to ensure security and safety of women. -PTI
Mangalorean.Com
University students cook beef, have a feast!
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=169688
BANGALORE Feb 19: Bangalore University students were in the mood for a feast. Only this one was for a cause: to protest the proposed amendment to the Cow Slaughter Bill.
Scores of students assembled in front of the college hostel, lit up a fire, cooked beef and had a mass feast, all in protest. After this, students marched to the Vice-Chancellors office where they submitted a memorandum opposing the Bill.
The memorandum listed social and nutritional ramifications of such a legislation and how it is discriminatory in nature towards Dalits and members of minority communities, a student said.
The memorandum, addressed to the Governor, will be handed over by the Vice-Chancellor. Students said that although this protest was not held by any political party, several other protests were planned.
Vice-Chancellor N. Prabhu Dev said that the protest was peaceful.
Beef mela
The Republican Party of Indias (RPI) State unit is organising a Beef Mela in front of Town Hall in the city on February 23.
Beef samosas, beef rolls and beef biryani will be served to the people in front of the Town Hall, said RPI State unit president M. Venkataswami before declaring that the State Government could not take away the food rights of Dalits by enacting the proposed Bill.
Meanwhile, the CPI(M) will be holding a demonstration at Freedom Park or Banappa Park on February 25, the opening day of the Legislature session.
The Hindu
Smart cards recommended for SC/ST families
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0
Staff Correspondent
'Set up post-matric hostels in all taluk headquarters'
Establishing police stations in all municipal and town panchayat limits suggested
Raichur: Chairman of the Karnataka State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Nehru C. Olekar said that the commission has submitted a proposal to the State Government recommending it to issue smart cards to SC/ST families so that they can avail themselves of benefits under various development schemes.
Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Mr. Olekar said that the Government had implemented several schemes for the welfare of people belonging to SC/ST communities. But the benefits of such schemes had not reached the targeted people, except for a few influential ones. Such anomalies could be eliminated by issuing smart cards.
Mr. Olekar said that the commission, in its interim report submitted to the Government in December last, urged the Government to reserve 27 per cent of the State budget to improve basic facilities for SC/ST families and extend financial assistance to the poor among these sections.
Urged
He said that the commission had urged the Government to take action to simplify the procedure while extending financial assistance from nationalised banks. It also requested that post-matric hostels be established in all taluk headquarters in the State to encourage SC/ST students to pursue studies after completing SSLC. It also suggested that the Government set up police stations in all municipal and town panchayat limits to check atrocities on people belonging to these sections.
.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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