Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 08.06.14
Marginalised groups face unequal access to public goods - The Hindu
Houses for dalits, BPL families a dream in Mandi - The Hindustan Times
Rape, guns and murder in India’s lawless state - The National
SC/ST beneficiaries get a ticket to ride in Mangalore - The Hindu
Divided Congress Struggles to Find a Common Ground - The Sunday Times
The Hindu
Marginalised groups face unequal access to public goods
Special Correspondent
‘The inaccessibility of decent work is not an arbitrary occurrence’
Dalits, tribals, Muslims, women and the differently abled continue to face unequal access to public goods such as education, decent work, housing and equal justice before the law, according to new data.
The India Exclusion Report 2013-14, researched and written by the Delhi-based Centre for Equity Studies, looks at the extent of exclusion of marginalised groups from access to public goods. The report, an advance copy of which was shared with The Hindu, finds that while Adivasis diverge from the national average most in terms of overall literacy (12.9 percentage points below the national average) and other education indicators, the current attendance rate for Muslim children is also nearly 5 percentage points below the national average.
In the housing sector, the extent of deprivations faced by marginalised communities is similar, the report finds. SCs and STs, and among them, female-headed SC and ST households, have lower quality housing on average as well as far worse access to household services such as toilets and drains. Moreover, both the housing and housing finance markets have been found to practise systematic segregation along religious, caste and sexual identity lines, the report finds.
In the labour market, “the inaccessibility of decent work is not an arbitrary occurrence, but is buried in traditions of caste, class, religion, and gender,” the report finds. Dalits and Adivasis are over-represented in agricultural and non-agricultural labour, especially on a casual basis, the report finds using National Sample Survey data. “Muslims with regular employment are mostly involved in inferior or low-end work, and as a result their job conditions are generally much worse than those of other regular workers, including of Dalits and Adivasis,” the report finds. Persons with disabilities are also particularly excluded from the labour market while women suffer from multiple disadvantages in the labour market.
Exclusion is not restricted to physical goods alone; one of the clearest indicators of the exclusionary nature of law and justice in India is the significant over-representation of marginalized groups such as Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims in the prison populations, particularly of under trial prisoners who are yet to be convicted of their alleged crime, the report says.
The Hindustan Times
Houses for dalits, BPL families a dream in Mandi
Roop Upadhyay, Hindustan Times MANDI, June 07, 2014
Besides lack of political will and several formalities for land acquisition, houses for dalits and below poverty line (BPL) people are still a dream for hundreds of families in the Mandi district.
The government has to build small houses or provide financial aid to financially weaker sections under the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojna (RGAY) and Jawaharlal Nehru Shahari Navinikaran Awas Yojna (JNSNAY). But, in some cases funds are not available, whereas the others are locked between political rivalry or fighting between councilors out to take credit of the scheme to convert it into the vote bank later on.
Under the JNSNAY, the total 208 houses would have been constructed in Sundernagar and 104 houses in Sarkaghat sub-division area, but after going through long paper formalities, Sundernagar Municipal Committee (MC) could construct only 65 houses in last two years.
Interestingly, rest of the 143 applicants could get first installment recently after waiting for more than two years.
In Mandi town area, the proposal for construction of houses for Dalit community under the RGAY is running in files from last two years. The issue of constructing houses for dalits and poor people got momentum when Mandi MC demolished a number of dalits houses on the name of unauthorised construction following Himachal high court orders two years ago. But there is little progress and the schemes are still running in files and the poor despite the assurance from chief minister Virbhadra Singh are waiting for the 'legal' shelter.
“The MC lacks staff and it is the biggest hurdle in implementation of the scheme and the crunch of finance discourages its staff who are not sure whether they will get salary next month. Moreover, the urban development department always delays the implementation of welfare schemes for local urban body's employees. The government considers local urban body's employees as second grade employees and never bothers to improve the situation,” said Kuldeep Thakur, state president of local urban bodies employees union.
Thakur said, “Encouragement, facilities, handsome salaries, security of employees convert into development, but here in the state it is just opposite, employees lack facilities at work places, less salaries, no security of health and family if met with an accident, excess work load due to lack of employees are the common feature of urban development agencies in the state and it is all depressing”.
Thakur said that the RGAY and the JNSNAY need single window system for clearance, and houses be completed in stipulated time.
The National
Rape, guns and murder in India’s lawless state
June 7, 2014 Updated: June 8, 2014 10:19:00
KATRA SADATGANJ, INDIA // The rape and lynching of two young girls in this Uttar Pradesh village late last month not only reignited nationwide outrage over sexual violence against women, it also brought into focus the extent of lawlessness in India’s most populous state.
Anger at the killing of the 12-year-old and 14-year-old cousins on May 27 was compounded by the initial refusal by the local police to take any action because of caste prejudice, as well as by a string of other rapes in the state that followed.
In the most recent case, a 15-year-old girl was found hanging from a treeon Tuesday in the village of Benipur. The victim’s father claimed that she was raped and killed by six men, who have since been taken into custody.
Attacks on women have been on the rise in Uttar Pradesh for several years, according the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Between 2007 and 2012, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the number of such crimes rose 12 per cent from 20,993 to 23,569. Last year, 126 rape cases were recorded in a one week alone.
The overall crime rate in Uttar Pradesh is also high. The state, home to roughly 16 per cent of India’s population, accounted for a third of all crimes reported in the country in 2011. Of the 3,718 shooting deaths recorded in India in 2012, 1,720 were in Uttar Pradesh, according to the crime records bureau.
According to a retired state police official, the actual statistics may be even higher because both the state’s government and police force have had an interest in not recording all crimes in order to keep figures low.
The current state government, headed by Akhilesh Yadav and his Samajwadi Party, is seen to have let law and order slip even further after taking power in March 2012. It does not help that 189 out of 403 legislators in the state assembly have criminal charges against them, including for rape and murder.
Since the NCRB has compiled crime figures only until the year Mr Yadav came to power, much of the criticism of his government is based on reports of crime in the media. But NCRB figures do show that the incidence of crimes in 2012 in Uttar Pradesh jumped 15 per cent over the average for the previous five years.
The single biggest breakdown of law and order under Mr Yadav’s government came last September, when 62 people died and more than 50,000 were displaced in rioting between the Muslim and Hindu Jat communities in the district of Muzaffarnagar.
Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, took aim at Mr Yadav’s record on crime while campaigning in the recent general election. “Has anybody thought about the law and order situation of the state?” Mr Modi said during a rally in February. “Women are scared of venturing out of their homes.”
Mr Yadav’s party has damaged itself further by reacting defensively to questions on crime. “The media only reports rapes in Uttar Pradesh,” he said on Tuesday. “If you just Google, you will see that rapes happen all over the world.”
In Katra Sadatganj, more stories have emerged about sexual attacks and other crimes going unregistered or uninvestigated as people from nearby flocked to the village hoping to find a ear for their complaints amid the scrum of media and police.
Wasim Khan, a farmer from the adjacent village of Vasauli, said that just last weekend, “a man watching over a field at night was shot dead. His body was found, but nothing was done. The police refused to even begin an investigation.”
Another woman, who withheld her name fearing police retaliation, said her 21-year-old son was shot dead in an argument with a fellow employee at a trucking company earlier this year. But because the company is owned by a legislator, the murderer was still at large.
“This kind of stuff just keeps happening,” Mr Khan said. “It’s only because of political reasons, because it suits politicians to play up this case, that the Katra Sadatganj murders are being talked about so much.”
Part of the problem is Uttar Pradesh’s anaemic police force. According to government figures, only 8,860 of the 49,290 posts of head constable, for example, are staffed at the moment. Uttar Pradesh has 74 policemen per 100,000 citizens, far below the national average of 130.
But SR Darapuri, a retired inspector general of the Uttar Pradesh police and now a human-rights activist in Lucknow, said other states also had vacant police posts. Police work is difficult and poorly paid, which does not make it a tempting career.
Mr Darapuri said the problem in Uttar Pradesh was compounded by the police’s reluctance to register complaints.
“Every chief minister here wants to keep the crime figures low, and this may be directly or indirectly communicated to the police,” he said. “The performance of police here is evaluated through statistics, so the police has an incentive to keep those statistics low.”
Further, no action is taken against police officers who refuse to register complaints, Mr Darapuri said. “The message goes out to criminals that they can do what they want and get away with it.”
The police force in Uttar Pradesh is also weakened by political and caste considerations, he said. In Katra Sadatganj, for instance, policemen belonging to the Yadav caste refused at first to register a complaint against the alleged murderers, who are also Yadavs.
“These things go in cycles,” Mr Khan said. “When the state was ruled by Mayawati [a politician of the Dalit caste], the police would go easy on crimes being committed by Dalits. Now, when the Samajwadi Party depends so much on the Yadav vote, the policemen are afraid of doing anything to the Yadavs.”
Some analysts have also linked the frequency of crimes against women to the state’s dismal economic situation.
The number of workers in agriculture, for instance, has dropped from 40.3 million in 2004-05 to 35.4 million in 2011-12. The manufacturing sector has slowed as well, and roughly 7.2 million youth across the state are unemployed, according to government statistics.
In his 2010 book Timepass, the Oxford development scholar Craig Jeffrey described the frustrations of young men in Uttar Pradesh waiting for employment.
“A type of hyper-masculine bravado characterised much of young men’s ostentatious hanging out,” Mr Jeffrey wrote. “Some ... referred to the importance of ... sexual harassment... A few Jats argued that teasing Dalit young women was an especially good means of passing time.”
The Hindu
SC/ST beneficiaries get a ticket to ride in Mangalore
Staff Correspondent
Twenty-six unemployed persons from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were given tourist taxis by the Tourism Department in the first phase of their scheme here on Saturday.
The scheme for 2013-14 will see a total of 46 cars being handed over.
The remaining 20 were in the process of getting the loans finalised, said Ajith Jithendranath, Assistant Director of Tourism Department.
Though 58 vehicles were sanctioned to the district, only 52 people had applied, he said. The scheme involved a Rs. 2 lakh subsidy and the rest was loan component at an interest of 12 per cent a year, he said. While the basic compact car cost Rs. 4.48 lakh, the applicant has the option of upgrading the vehicle to a sedan or a four-wheel drive by depositing a down payment of Rs. 25,000.
For Madhav B. (44), a daily-wage labourer from Sarve village in Puttur Taluk, the scheme gives him an opportunity to come out of poverty. “I’m expecting an income of about Rs. 20,000 a mont. Even if Rs. 5,000 goes for loan repayment, I will have enough for my family,” he said.
Similarly, Praveen M. (22) from Mulki, who had been attempting to operate a taxi since three years, said owning a car would have been “impossible” if not for the scheme.
The Sunday Times
Divided Congress Struggles to Find a Common Ground
By Santwana Bhattacharya
Congress President’s balmy approach is hardly matching the hectoring tone emanating from the Rahul camp.
NEW DELHI: ‘Struggle’ is the most commonly uttered word in Congress circles these days. ‘Struggle’ is what Rahul Gandhi wants to do on the streets of India, in long struggle ahead…I’m with you” is what Sonia Gandhi assured her ex-MPs.
“Acute struggle due to mismanagement” is what Congress leaders say they are facing in states, like Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and even Maharashtra. It is the same word, “daily struggle”, is what the small contingent of 44 Congress MPs in Lok Sabha say they are up against in Parliament.
The Congress is still a divided house, struggling to find a common ground. From how to take on the Modi Government in Parliament or outside, to how to revive the party in dire straits, the differences are sharp.
What is worse, confused by the mixed signals, the Congress men and women are not sure who is formulating the bumpy future roadmap and where ‘they’ figure in it.
If senior leaders, like Kamal Nath, do not want to make it easy for the Modi-led NDA government in the lower house, the Rahul-inspired lot not-so-honed in parliamentary skills wants to put up a ‘‘constructive role” to underline that the Congress “is different and not a disruptive force”.
“We’ll instead focus on ‘sangharsh’—street struggle—you’ll find us among the people,” said Shashi Tharoor.
As a senior Congress MP said, “Who do we raise the ‘sangharsh’ slogan for?” With Rahul shying away from leading the party in the Lok Sabha and preferring the back-benches yet again, these questions are being asked quite loudly.
In fact, it is to ensure that disappointment with Rahul’s functioning do not erupt into large-scale dissident activities across states that Sonia Gandhi held out an olive branch to former MPs who lost. “I am confident you can overcome the hostile conditions with your determination and hard work. I am always there with you in this struggle,” she wrote to them, sharing the blame of defeat and acknowledging their hard fought elections.
The letter, highly placed sources in the party say, “is the first step” to increase the catchment area of free interaction with the party workers and leaders. Unlike ever before, Sonia may start using her AICC office, 24 Abkar Road, to meet and interact with a cross-section of party members and sympathisers in an attempt to get direct feedback and to reconnect. It will be open interactions rather than the behind-the-walls ones that take place at 10, Janpath, her official residence. To begin with, these outings at the party’s office by Sonia may be bi-monthly affairs, but may increase depending on the response.
But the Congress President’s balmy approach is hardly matching the blaming, hectoring tone emanating from the Rahul camp. The party’s young vice president despite protests has not shed a single member of his controversial election team who’s said to have had a big role in bringing the Congress down to double-digit. There are no signs of 12, Tuglaq Lane, Rahul’s house-cum-office, becoming anything other than “access by invitation only” zone.
Should the party make aggressive moves, form a pressure group in Parliament or chart a different course
Kamal Nath who’s in favour of an aggressive role and who’s known to have an equation with TMC leader West Bengal Mamata Banerjee—the mover behind the attempt to form an Opposition bloc excluding the Congress—is no longer in the lead role in the lower house. He has been somewhat sidelined.
The post instead has gone to another party veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, as a reward to a Dalit leader from Karnataka, a state that got the Congress maximum seats, nine, this election. It was Rahul’s idea, the thinking being Dalits in the northern India are no longer with the party, but in the south, they still are. But Kharge is not cut out for aggressive politics, a senior leader of the party explained.
The fault-lines at the top echelons of the party are such that there’s no decision on whether to fully align with JD-U in Bihar or continue its tentative liaison with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD. K C Tyagi, Nitish Kumar emissary, met a top leader of the Congress offering the party one of the three Rajya Sabha seats just to cement the ties in Bihar Assembly. Rahul wants to go with Kumar, but the Congress president does not want to dump her old-ally Lalu as yet.
As for the future roadmap, after the special session of Parliament is over, sources indicate “there may an overhaul at AICC”. But the manner in which Madhusudan Mistry, Rahul’s pointsman is going around interrogating senior leaders on the poll debacle, not many have hopes the reshuffle will achieve anything.
So upset are some of the senior leaders, like Ghulam Nabi Azad and A K Antony, that they do not want to lead the party in Rajya Sabha. Azad has been citing the coming J&K assembly polls later this year to avoid taking up the Leader of Opposition position in the Upper House, while Antony has formally declined.
Anand Sharma may become the alternative choice and while another move is afoot to get P Chidambaram into RS—the only place the grand old party still has an edge. But a lot depends whether Sonia or Rahul’s view prevail, converge or the differences continue.
News monitored by Girish Pant
PMARC
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of “Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC”)
Pl visit on FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/
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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.
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of “Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC”)
Pl visit on FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/
..............................
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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