Fwd: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 04.04.10

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From: Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC <pmarc2008@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 8:28 PM
Subject: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 04.04.10
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Dalits Media Watch

News Updates 04.04.10

High Court orders pension to widow of Dalit panchayat president - The Hindu

http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/04/stories/2010040458640200.htm

Vidyapeeth boys rid Jhanu village of untouchability - Ahmadabad Mirror

http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/2010040420100404025206220f54a4ced/Vidyapeeth-boys-rid-Jhanu-village-of-untouchability.html

Sukhadeo Thorat & Nidhi Sadana Sabharwal: Coping with multiple gender disparities - Business Standard

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/sukhadeo-thoratnidhi-sadana-sabharwal-copingmultiple-gender-disparities/390681/

The Hindu

High Court orders pension to widow of Dalit panchayat president

http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/04/stories/2010040458640200.htm

Staff Reporter

MADURAI: The Madras High Court Bench here has directed the Tirunelveli Collector to take necessary steps to pay a monthly pension of Rs.1,000 to the widow of a Dalit panchayat president who was hacked to death allegedly by a group of caste Hindus of Nakkalamuthanpatti in Sankarankovil taluk on November 22, 2006.

Passing interim orders in a petition filed by a lawyer to transfer the murder case to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department, Justice M.M. Sundresh also directed the Collector to disburse a compensation of Rs.50,000 to the widow within eight weeks.

This was in addition to Rs.1.5 lakh already paid by the State Government.

The judge agreed with the petitioner's counsel P. Rathinam that it was mandatory for the Government under item No. 21 (1) of the schedule to Annexure-I of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995 to pay monthly pension to the family of a Dalit victim of atrocity. Similarly, the family should be given a one time relief amount of Rs. 2 lakh.

According to the petitioner, S. Vijayakumar, he was part of a fact finding team that visited the village immediately after the death of Jaggaiyan.

The team's investigations revealed that the murder had been committed due to animosity against the Dalits by a group of caste Hindus.

However, the police had filed a charge sheet against just two individuals and let the others go scot free.

Hence, he sought a direction to the Director General of Police to order further investigation into the case by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) attached to the CB-CID instead of proceeding ahead with the charge sheet filed by the Sankarankovil DSP.

He also prayed for appointing G. Parimalam, an advocate practising in Tirunelveli, as a Special Public Prosecutor to conduct the murder case.

Ahmadabad Mirror

Vidyapeeth boys rid Jhanu village of untouchability

http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/2010040420100404025206220f54a4ced/Vidyapeeth-boys-rid-Jhanu-village-of-untouchability.html

After years of discrimination, hair salons at the village have opened their doors to Vankars, Chunaras and Dalits

By Megha Bhatt

Posted On Sunday, April 04, 2010 at 02:52:06 AM

The Indian Constitution may have outlawed untouchability in 1950. But Jhanu village, located 18 kms from Ahmedabad, got rid of it only now, thanks to social work students of Gujarat Vidyapeeth.

The Vankars (weavers) and the Chunaras (house painters) were denied entry into the hair salons in Jhanu for decades. But Yogesh Pawar and Paresh Patel of Vidyapeeth brought into the village, winds of change. They convinced a member of the Vankar community to learn hair-cutting, and opened Sarva Dharma Sambhav Hair Art for the neglected communities. The salon was inaugurated on December 29, last year.

"We knew it was not a permanent solution to caste discrimination. But something had to be done. Why should any community be deprived of a hair salon? This is so weird, we thought," says Pawar adding, "When we told our head of the department Anandiben Patel about this problem, she gave us the idea of a special hair salon for the communities."

"When the boys threw the salon open to all communities, we were very happy. Nothing of this sort has ever been attempted in the village. We could see the change coming," says Anilbhai, a farmer. More than 80 per cent of the population at Jhanu village comprise Vankars, Chunaras and Dalits.

After the Sarva Dharma Sambhav salon was inaugurated, the vigilance committee paid a visit. They were clueless about the practice of untouchability at the village. Shocked, the vigilance team met the Chunaras and Vankars who told them none of the salons entertained them.

"They asked Kanbha police station to look into the matter. The cops called the barbers in the village for a meeting, but they did not turn up. It was only after they were summoned again, did they come. The policemen made them understand that caste discrimination was a thing of the past and that it was no more allowed.

The students organised a gram panchayat meeting where the sarpanch too urged the barbers to get rid of the wrong practice," says Patel.

Change is the most difficult part when it comes to cultivating a new habit. But then, nothing changes like change. Though the barbers shut their shops for five days after the gram panchayat meeting, they slowly and gradually began catering to all communities.

With the times

Today, all are welcome at the salons in the village. The Sarva Dharma Sambhav salon no longer operates. "We are in fact happy that salon we created for these communities has shut. One has to keep up with times, isn't it?" says a happy Pawar. Sarpanch Vishnu Patel agrees with him.

As for the villagers, they couldn't ask for more. "Now, we need not travel 12 kms and spend Rs 50 every month to get a hair-cut. The students have been apostles of change. After years of oppression, it is now that we feel like we are also human beings," says Dhanji Gohil, a daily-wagers.

Business Standard

Sukhadeo Thorat & Nidhi Sadana Sabharwal:

Coping with multiple gender disparities

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/sukhadeo-thoratnidhi-sadana-sabharwal-copingmultiple-gender-disparities/390681/

Excluded women are not like the rest - they suffer a triple disadvantage

Sukhadeo Thorat & Nidhi Sadana Sabharwal / April 04, 2010, 0:07 IST

Recent events provide an opportunity to renew our commitment to reduce the gender gap in human development and compel us to reflect on a strategy for women's empowerment. A comprehensive gender policy has yielded visible improvements in schools, higher education enrolment and space in local governance. We can also clearly see multiple voices emerging on gender issue particularly since the early 1990s. These voices are closely linked to the uneven gains of progress recorded by various groups. "Women" in India are is a homogeneous category — it is marked with differences in attainment and poor performance particularly in the case of women belonging to certain categories such as scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST) and Muslims. The visible variation in human development and causes thereof among the women of different social belonging have induced increased demand for group-specific gender policies. The emergence of articulated voices from Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim women is an indication of these demands.

Disaggregate analysis provides some insight into the nature of gender disparities across social groups. According to the 2001 Census, SCs, STs, other backward classes (OBCs) and Muslims account close to about three-fourths of our population. Half of them are women. Most SC/ST women lack access to income-earning assets and depend mainly on wage labour. In 2000, only 21 per cent of SC women were cultivators as compared to 45 per cent of non-SC/ST women — this indicated that access to agricultural land was not equal within the category of women. The result? About half of SC workers and 39 per cent of ST women worked as agricultural wage labour in rural areas as compared to 17 per cent for non-SC/ST. Further, a large number of SC women are engaged in so-called unclean and polluting occupations, such as scavenging.

Literacy rates also point to differences. In 2001, 41 per cent of SC women and 35 per cent of women in rural areas were literate as compared to 58 per cent for non-SC/ST women. Limited education reduces employability and, consequently, unemployment rates are higher. Unemployment based on current daily status in 2004-05 was 12.36 per cent for SC, compared with 9 per cent for OBC and other women.

This combination of high incidence of wage labour, low educational attainment and high unemployment results in a high degree of deprivation and poverty among SC/ST women. According to the 2005-06 National Family and Health Survey, about 68.5 per cent of ST and 58.3 per cent of SC women suffered from anaemia compared to 51.3 per cent of non-SC/ST women. Malnutrition of the mother impacts the health of children. About 21 per cent of SC and 26 per cent of ST children under the age of four suffered from malnutrition compared to 13.80 per cent of other's children. Nearly 72 per cent of SC children suffer from anaemia, compared to 63.8 per cent those for others. High levels of malnutrition among the SC/ST result in higher morbidity and mortality. In 2005-06, the infant mortality rates for SC and ST were 66.4 and 62 per thousand live births, respectively. This is much higher than the 49 for other categories of women.

Data for Muslim women also reveals little access to quality employment and education and higher deprivations when compared to other religious groups. Nearly half of the employed Muslim women were self-employed, and their share was much less in regular salaried jobs. Given the constraints of the regular salaried market, self-employed business serves as last resort or a residual sector for Muslim women. The proportion of non-literate females was higher compared with other religions in rural and urban areas, and the gap is even more acute at higher levels of education. As a result, in 2000, the proportion of persons in the three lowest monthly per capita consumption classes (less than Rs 300) was highest for Muslim women in rural and urban areas.

This evidence indicates that there are similarities and differences in the problems faced by women belonging to SC, ST, Muslim and rest of the categories. These women suffer subordination resulting from patriarchy within the family, at places of work and in society. Like their poor counterparts in other female groups, they also suffer from lack of access to income earning assets, education and resultant high poverty. However, SC, ST and Muslim women differ form rest of the women in so far as their performance with regard to human development indicators is lower compared to other women. This heightened deprivation can be attributed to social exclusion. Social exclusion and discrimination of these groups results from their cultural identity, which the rest of women do not face. It is this exclusion-induced deprivation that differentiates excluded women from the rest. Lower caste women continue to face discrimination and many have also become the victim of social and religious practices such as the devdasi custom, resulting in sexual exploitation in the name of religion. While studies on Muslim women are limited, there is selective evidence of discrimination in some spheres. Tribals suffer from physical and social isolation and neglect.

Thus excluded women are not "just like" the rest of the women. They are also disadvantaged by who they are. They suffer from social exclusion which deprives them of choices and opportunities to escape from poverty and denies them a voice to claim their rights. There is a close interface between patriarchy and social exclusion which reinforce each other. The women from discriminated groups suffer from triple deprivation —– gender, poverty and social exclusion. Therefore, the problem requires a dual solution. First, the policies against gender discrimination and poverty for all women and second, complimentary policy measure against social exclusion and discrimination for women who belong to excluded groups.

This would indeed demand group-specific gender policies, in addition to the general policy of women's empowerment, to address the voices of women from excluded groups.

Sukhadeo Thorat is the chairman, University Grants Commission and professor of economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Nidhi Sadana Sabharwal is the principal research fellow — gender and social exclusion, at the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies

--
.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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