Unlettered, RajniBansal was elected as sarpanch of the reserved Bachhama gram panchayat seat in 2010 when she was forced to contest. It's been more than three years but she has not attended the office.

The plight of the mother of five seems to have worsened because she does not even get the honorarium on time and the villagers have stopped employing her labourer husband. She is called to hoist the Tricolour because that's customary, probably the only time she gets any invitation.

Moved by her plight after reading a newspaper report, BJP MLA from HataUmadeviKhatik has decided to help her. "It's a poor, backward and undeveloped region. She does not know her job because she is uneducated,'' she said.

Chief executive officer of HataJanpadPanchayatAnandShukla said he had sent "a fact-finding team" to the remote village where access has been made difficult by rains. He claimed it was unlikely that the woman has taken to begging as the government was providing food grains at nominal rate to BPL and Antyodaya families.

A previous panchayat secretary had been removed because he allegedly made her put thumb impression on files. Since then development work in the panchayat has stopped. Shukla and Khatik hinted there were irregularities in the panchayat's accounts.

Executive director of SamarthanYogesh Kumar said mere reservation won't bring about women's empowerment. He said in Rajni's case, there was a need for reforms because seats are reserved in accordance with the SC/ST population in the entire block. These reserved seats are randomly chosen creating a situation when SCs or STs are in much less numbers in that particular seat leading to unwilling candidates getting elected.

Hindu Business Line

Call to promote Dalit entrepreneurship

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/states/vc-fund-to-support-sc-entrepreneurs/article4853094.ece

A venture capital fund, registered with the SEBI, has been floated to help promote entrepreneurship among Scheduled Castes and to facilitate establishment of units by such underprivileged entrepreneurs, according to Ravi Kumar Narra, president, Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, AP chapter.

He was speaking at one-day industrial motivation campaign organised here on Wednesday by the Confederation of Indian Industry, the DICCI, the AP Industries Department and the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC). He said the venture fund would have a corpus of Rs 500 crore and so far Rs 22 crore had been collected, with the SIDBI contributing Rs 10 crore.

"We will get contributions from various Government agencies and others and finance units by SC entrepreneurs. Till now, for various reasons, SCs have lagged behind in entrepreneurship and they could not overcome the disadvantages imposed on them. They have been content with only with getting Government jobs. The time has arrived for affirmative action to empower them to set up businesses. As in the USA, where a movement for black capitalism was launched in the 1960s, we should launch a movement for Dalit capitalism," he said.

He said the AP Government was in the forefront in extending incentives to SC entrepreneurs through various schemes but there was little awareness among the SCs and therefore such industrial motivational campaigns were being organised. He said applications would be taken from prospective Dalit entrepreneurs from different places in the State and finally the selected candidates would be given training in Hyderabad and they would be taken on field visits. Consultancy services would be provided to them to set up units. On a turnkey basis, finance and other things would be arranged.

Ravi Kumar said that, as suggested by Union Finance Minister Chidambaram, each branch of every nationalised bank should at least finance one unit set up by a SC entrepreneur and in that way at least there would be 5 lakh units.

T.K Chand, the Director (Commercial) of the Visakhapatnam steel plant, said his company would do everything possible for inclusive growth and to extend equitable opportunities to SC entrepreneurs. "We are setting up a network of rural dealers and we will give preference to SC applicants," he promised.

G. SambasivaRao, the chairman of the Visakhapatnam zone of the CII, joint collector Pravin Kumar and several others spoke on the same lines, stressing the need for affirmative action to help promote Dalit entrepreneurship.

The New Indian Express

Dalit boy hit, mom alleges inaction

http://newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/Dalit-boy-hit-mom-alleges-inaction/2013/06/27/article1654725.ece

A Dalit woman has complained to the Superintendent of Police that no action was initiated against the dominant caste youth who attacked her son while playing cricket.

In her petition to the Thanjavur SP, K Poomani of Vadachery village said her son Vimalkanth (23) was playing cricket in Vadaseri Government Higher secondary school playground on June 16 along with nine others from Ambedkarstreet when he was attacked by a group of youth from dominant caste, who were playing football there.

Vimalkanth was first admitted to Pattukkottai Government Hospital and then to Thanjavur Medical college hospital, she said. Though a FIR was registered in Papanadu police station, no action was taken, she alleged.

Vimalkanth said in his complaint that the Caste Hindu youth attacked him with a cricket bat and also abused him.

A case was registered under sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (1) and under section 3 (1)(X) of SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The Hindu

Cut-offs set to go up in all DU colleges

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

Last year it was 99.25 per cent and the year before that it was 100 per cent. Cut-offs in Delhi University seem to have reached the highest possible limit, but this year the competition to get into a good college might just get worse for the average student. With only a day left for Delhi University's colleges to declare their cut-offs, a slight tweaking of admission norms might force lesser-known colleges or colleges known for lower cut-offs to increase their cut-offs to the same level of the best colleges who, in turn, are not set to lower their cut-offs.

"We have to be very careful while declaring cut-offs, mostly because we have to admit every student who meets the cut-off. If we make the mistake of declaring slightly lower cut-offs, then we will have over-admissions and that is the biggest problem we can create for ourselves," said Hindu College principal Pradyum Kumar. His college declared the highest cut-offs last year.

"We have a sanctioned strength of 752 and in spite of all our cautions, we usually admit about 900 to 1,000 students. But, this is manageable," he added.

Cut-offs are usually declared taking into account the number of applications received and past experience. This year, students were allowed to indicate only his choice of subject and not the college while submitting the central university application form. Now according to the data given to the colleges, if the subject indicated is available in the college then it will be assumed that the student is interested in applying to that college, and the cut-offs will have to be declared on that assumption. The number of students applying for a college automatically goes up. Therefore, if a student with 99 per cent marks applies for a History (Honours) course, then every college offering History (Honours), even the off-campus colleges with substantially lower cut-offs, will have to assume that this student is interested in joining their college and declare their cut-offs accordingly.

Shri Ram College of Commerce, infamous for the 100 per cent cut-off it declared in 2011, came down slightly to humble 98.5 per cent for its coveted B.Com (Honours) course last year, but there is no hope of the college decreasing its cut-offs even more. "Some colleges take into account withdrawals, students who take admissions after their first list usually want to go to some other college after the second list and so withdraw their admissions from the college. However, we cannot take such factors into consideration because there are usually zero withdrawals and our admissions are full in the first list or second list," said SRCC principal P. C. Jain.

Ramjas College with a sanctioned strength of 1,339 was forced to over-admit students last year. "We took in about 2472 students," said Ramjas principal Rajendra Prasad, adding that this was in spite of going through precautions and setting a fairly high cut-off. "We do not have the option of taking interviews and rejecting students, we have to take in everyone who meets our cut-off," he added. Ramjas College had set 98 per cent for its B. Com (Honours) and 97.5 per cent for its Economics (Honours) course.

"This time we also have to declare different cut-offs for SC/ST and PWD, unlike the earlier years when these admissions were centralised," said Hans Raj College principal V. K. Kawatra.

Other worrying factors are the higher number of students scoring above 90 per cent in the CBSE boards and the number of applications to DU which have doubled since last year.

The Times Of India

Losses from caste clash pegged at Rs 75 crore

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

CHENNAI: The state government is likely to impose a penalty of Rs 75 crore on the PMK for damage caused to public property during the violence unleashed by its cadres across the state in April. Holding the party accountable for the extensive damage to government buses and buildings, the state has issued summons to PMK leaders, including its founder S Ramadoss, former Union minister AnbumaniRamadoss, G K Mani and others to appear before the revenue commissioner from July 1 for an inquiry.

Sources said a voluminous 1,000-page document was sent to PMK leader Ramadoss' residence in Thailapuram in Tindivanam. Various departments, including the transport and Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) had been taking stock of the damage caused to their assets during the PMK agitation in April in the wake of arrests of its leaders Ramadoss, Anbumani, Kaduvetti J Guru and others. More than 100 PMK leaders have been held under National Security Act and Goondas Act.

Either the party leaders or their lawyers can appear for the inquiry scheduled to begin on July 1, said an official. "We have received more than 150 complaints from several departments and individuals. They have lodged the complaint with sufficient evidence. After getting replies from the PMK leaders, we will come to a final conclusion," an official told TOI.

The revenue department began the assessment, taking the cue from chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who said in the assembly that her government will estimate the damage caused to public and private properties by PMK men and recover the damage from them under the Tamil Nadu Public Properties (damage and loss prevention) Act, 1992.

Officials said while 10 buses and two trucks were gutted, five buses were partially burnt by PMK functionaries and 25 Tasmac shops were burnt or ransacked by party cadres.

Around 800 government and private buses were damaged and 35 trees were burnt besides 150 trees being felled during the nearly month-long agitation, said officials. "Also, 150 people, including Tasmac, transport staff and public were injured and three people were killed during the agitation by PMK cadres," said an official. A senior PMK leader said his party was preparing a counter.

The Times Of India

Karnataka hospital hires human 'scavengers'

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

HUBLI: Even as the government of Karnataka is trying to put an end to manual scavenging in the state through tough laws, it's still prevalent in KIMS hospital here.

For the past two days, hospital authorities employed labourers to clean the sewage treatment plant (STP) set up last year to recycle waste water discharged from operation theatres, laboratory and other departments and staff quarters. But machines are not deployed to clean the tank. A few men without protective footwear have been cleaning it by hand. When contacted, KIMS officers declined to comment about it.

According to sources, the STP was set up last August to recycle used water. Since installation, it was not cleaned regularly, and authorities commenced cleaning it two days back using a few of its sanitary workers.

"A Bangalore-based company which set up the STP didn't finish the work completely within its stipulated period. Besides, the filtering unit had technical problems for two days which affected water filtering. As it was an emergency, we started cleaning it," said a KIMS officer, who didn't want to be named.

It was indeed shocking to see sanitary workers working in the 12-foot deep open septic tank without any safety measures.

There should be more awareness created about manual scavenging in urban areas. It's not good on the part of authorities to ill-treat human beings by forcing them to do manual scavenging.

The Times Of India

Petition seeks ban on Bharatirajaa's film

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

MADURAI: Seeking a ban on the screening of Tamil movie 'Annakodi' produced by Bharathiraja, a writ petition has been filed before the Madurai bench of the Madras high court.

The petition, filed by ThevarPasaraiIyakkam's president A K Ragupathy contended that since the film tells a love story between a thevar girl and a dalit boy, the same will create communal clash between two groups and thereby public order will be worsened.

The petitioner also stated that even though the contents of the film are against Section 5B (Principles for guidance in certifying films) of the Cinematograph Act, 1952, the Central Board of Film Certification certified the film and granted permission for the screening of the movie.

Section 5B read as follows: a film shall not be certified for public exhibition, if, in the opinion of the authority competent to grant the certificate, the film or any part of it is against the interests of (the sovereignty and integrity of India) the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, or involves defamation or contempt of court or is likely to incite the commission of any offence.

Seeking a ban on screening the movie in southern Tamil Nadu, a representation was sent to the concerned authorities on June 22. But, there was no action on their part, the petitioner said.

Hence, he filed the writ petition.

When it came up before Justice N Kirubakaran on Wednesday, the judge asked the petitioner's counsel R Maheswaran whether he had seen the movie. To this, the court was told no. Following it, the judge said that without seeing the movie, how can the petitioner presume that the movie will disturb communal balance?

The Statesman

HTD okays diversion of unutilised SC/ST funds

http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=462720&catid=36

NEW DELHI, 26 JUNE: The Ministry of Human Resource Development has allowed diversion of funds earmarked for SCs/STs/physically disabled/minorities education and North-east institutions to other student friendly schemes if not utilised in a given time-frame.

On the occasion of the release of UGC brochures by HRD minister Dr M MPallamRaju and UGC chairman today, the ministry has asked the UGC to devise new schemes so that the money meant for the purpose is utilised in full.

It will come into force in the current financial year itself. The UGC also announced that Chairs will be established in honour of Indian Nobel Laureates Rabindranath Tagore, C V Raman, Hargobind Khorana, Mother Teresa, Subramanyam Chandrasekhar, Amartya Sen and Venkataraman Ramakrishnan. It is a unique scheme which seeks to inspire youth to take up research under the guidance of the best minds in the world.

Zee News

Don't misuse law against Dalit performers: HRW

http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/don-t-misuse-law-against-dalit-performers-hrw_857911.html

New York: Indian authorities should conduct an independent review of apparent politically motivated terrorism charges filed against performers in a Dalit cultural group, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

Members of Kabir Kala Manch, charged in 2011 under counterterrorism laws, remain subject to prosecution for their alleged support of Maoist militants.

One of them, eight months pregnant, was denied bail and must wait until Thursday for an appeals decision on her bail application.

Indian courts have repeatedly ruled that ideological sympathy should not be interpreted as active membership in a banned organization.

"The Indian authorities should not conflate shared sympathy for concerns about oppression and social inequity expressed by the Maoists with criminal complicity in violence," said MeenakshiGanguly of Human Rights Watch.

"The government should ensure that peaceful activists can speak out without fear of terrorism charges."

The New Indian Express

Classmates attack Dalit boy in school

http://newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/Classmates-attack-Dalit-boy-in-school/2013/06/27/article1654743.ece

Barely 20 days after the footwear on head punishment for a 12-year-old Dalit student; another harassment incident was reported in the district on Tuesday in which a class XII boy belonging to a SC community was abused and attacked by a group of caste Hindu students.

Sources said that (name changed) Raja (17) son of Sarkkarai, attached with Dalit community, AndipattiPudhur in Tiruvadavur, was a student of class XII in government higher secondary school in Tiruvadavur.

Police said during a game session in the class, an altercation broke out between two groups of students. A group of five caste Hindu students attacked Raja and abused him using his caste name. Raja, who was injured in the attack, was admitted to the GRH, police said. Based on a complaint from Raja, police registered a case and arrested three caste Hindu students. Two more students are on the run.

The Statesman

Centre mulling law to prevent diversion of SC/ST funds: Selja

http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=462830&catid=36

NEW DELHI, 27 JUNE: Expressing serious concern over diversion of funds meant for welfare of SCs and STs, Union social justice and empowerment minister Kumari Selja today said the Centre is considering a law to check it.

She said her ministry is working to ensure that huge funds meant for the impoverished communities are spent on their development and not for other purposes.

"I have written to all states in this regard. We will push for a law as well. A committee is working on it," she said here, addressing a National Workshop on Awareness of Rights and Upliftment of Women Safai Karmcharis.

She claimed that protests against the proposed law have already started, but the government is determined to push it through.

MsSelja accepted that there is some justification to criticisms against government making one law after another, when the need is to bring about a change in social mindset for positive changes to happen.

"Making a law is necessary for protection of vulnerable communities," she said.

Terming manual scavenging a blot on the country, MsSelja said it remains in practice despite being declared illegal years ago.

"We do not know about the exact number of people involved in manual scavenging as states often suppress real numbers. But different organisations inform us about its prevalence which is shocking," she said, noting that women make an overwhelming majority of sanitary staff.

She said her ministry will carry out a comprehensive survey to identify the people involved in manual scavenging, and will rehabilitate them.

MsSelja said social discrimination against sanitary employees has become a common practice and certain castes continued to be identified with the profession, which was no good for society.

She said contractual system of cleanliness in government and private sectors was not working, and employees were being exploited and paid poorly by contractors.

"Government should not leave its responsibility," she said.

Railways, the minister said, had finally admitted to the practice of manual scavenging after years of denial and it should be employing mechanised cleaning system.

National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairman PL Punia said close to 80 per cent of the sanitary staff were women, and it subjected them to various kinds of discrimination.

"The government should come out with special schemes for them," he demanded.

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.