Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 01.06.14
We don't want money. We want justice: Family of Badaun gang-rape victims- DNA
Rape survivors battle for justice- The Times Of India
UP govt recommends CBI probe into Badaun gangrapes- The Hindu
Lack of toilets proves a serious threat to women’s safety- The Hindu
Village servant suspended- The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/
HIGH TIME ODISHA ADOPTED RURAL HOUSING POLICY- The Pioneer
NOTE : Please find attachment for DMW- HINDI (PDF)
DNA
We don't want money. We want justice: Family of Badaun gang-rape victims
Dalit sisters' family refuses Rs 5-lakh compensation; Under pressure, Akhilesh sacks chief secretary, recommends CBI inquiry; Rahul visits girls' families.
Buffeted by criticism from political opponents, social activists and the media over the rape and murder of two teenaged Dalit sisters in Budaun, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday sacked the state's chief secretary Javed Usmani. He has been replaced by Alok Ranjan, a 1978 batch IAS officer, the senior-most bureaucrat in the state after Usmani.
All five accused, including two police constables, have been arrested, with the two cops being terminated from service. But the incident is turning out to be political nightmare for the SP regime. The ruling party and the government cut a sorry figure on Saturday as Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi met the victims' family even as state ministers and SP leaders stayed away. Even Budaun MP Dharmendra Yadav, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's nephew, failed to visit his constituents.
"No amount of money can repay a woman's honour," Rahul told reporters after meeting the family. He also demanded a CBI inquiry into the case.
Akhilesh has declared that the state government would soon refer the matter to the CBI. The girls' kin refused the Rs 5 lakh compensation the state has announced. "We don't want money. We want justice. We want the rapists to be hanged," one of the girls' father said.
The political storm is likely to gain momentum when BSP chief Mayawati meets the grieving family on Sunday.
Even as she dubbed the SP regime as "jungle raj", her party leader Sudhindra Bhadoria called on Akhilesh to resign, and asked the Centre to impose president's rule in the state if he declines to do so. "The state of lawlessness has reached its climax. Removing the officers is not enough. He (Akhilesh) himself should step down as chief minister, as he is not able to run the administration."
Akhilesh's move to sack Usmani is being viewed as sudden and surprising considering the chief secretary is not directly connected with the unseemly incident in any manner. "It's a law and order problem, and if any top official had to be sacked, it should have been the Additional DG (law and order) or the DGP," said a senior bureaucrat.
Political analysts say Akhilesh has made the move with several other objectives in mind in view of the severe drubbing the SP got in the Lok Sabha election: He wants to establish himself as a decisive administrator to fob off the image of a puppet CM whose strings are pulled by his father or other senior SP leaders.
"Akhilesh wants to show that he means business. He is also giving out a clear message that he is not in a mood to appease Muslims anymore," says senior journalist Pradeep Kapoor. "This is also a way to demonstrate that law and order is his top priority and there is zero per cent tolerance on this count," he added.
Faced with the uphill task of shoring up his party's fortunes in the next state elections due in 2017, Akhilesh will perhaps have to indulge in more meaningful action than merely axing the top brass.
'Have you faced danger?'
Questioned by reporters over the rise in incidents of rape in Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday shot back at the journalist: "Aapko toh khatra nahin hua? (it's not as if you faced any danger?)." The chief minister's counter-question left mediapersons stunned.
Akhilesh was in Kanpur on personal work when reporters started grilling him over the alarming rise in rape cases in the state. There have been four rapes over the last three days in UP, beginning with the sexual assault and murder of two Dalit teenagers in Badaun, followed by the rape of another Dalit teenager in Azamgarh. On Friday, a fourth girl was raped in Sharawasti.
Last month, Akhilesh's father and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had said: "Ladkon se galti ho jaati hai. Kya rape case mein phansi di jayegi? (Boys make mistakes, but should they be hanged for it?)"
The Times Of India
Rape survivors battle for justice
NEW DELHI: The rape and murder of the two teenage girls in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district last Wednesday sent shockwaves across the country, and also threw into focus four rape survivors from Bhagana village in Hisar, Haryana, who have been protesting at Jantar Mantar in the national capital since April 16. Bhagana is some 170km from New Delhi.
The survivors, aged between 13 and 18 years, belong to the landless Dhanuk sub-caste, and worked for upper caste landowners. Villagers say the khap panchayat had imposed a social boycott against the caste group, forcing about 250 families to leave their homes and flee the village.
The displaced villagers say atrocities against them began over a 280-acre piece of common village land two years ago, which the Jats tried to usurp with the help of local authorities and the khap.
According to the rape survivors, on March 23, they went to a field to relieve themselves in the evening, a routine the families follow in the absence of toilets in their homes.
Five Jat men drugged them and forced them into a car. The girls were found the next day at Bathinda railway station in Punjab, some 160 km from their village.
The youngest survivor, a 13-year-old, says she remembers a strong-smelling handkerchief being thrust on her face. Her next memory of that time is waking at the station with bruises and torn clothes. She says she also recalls the weight of the bodies of the men, on her.
The four sit silently with their parents and members of their caste group, hiding their faces with scarves.
Father of one of the survivors said he worked with his entire family of four in the farm belonging to the village sarpanch, for a sum of Rs 50,000 a year.
On March 23, when the girls did not return till late evening, a frantic search began. Villagers approached the sarpanch, who assured them that the girls would soon be found. The next morning, villagers said, the sarpanch, with two of his relatives, drove them to Batinda in Punjab.
"He told us to stay in the car. The three of them went into the station. Half an hour later, they emerged with the girls, who were in shock, hiding their faces. Later, the girls told us that he had threatened them and told them not to reveal anything to anyone. But the girls named all the accused. Next morning we went the police station and filed an FIR. The girls were sent to the hospital for tests, they were made to wait for 8-9 hours," the father said.
In 2012, the khap panchayat had called for a social boycott of 130 Dalit families at Bhagana village, over the land dispute. Following the rape of the girls in March, 90 more families have fled the village.
"Rape is a weapon for revenge, suppression and humiliation against the lower caste. The police and administration belong to Jats in Haryana. We are treated like cattle," said Jagdish Kajla, a member of the Bhagana Kand Sangharsh Samiti, which is spearheading the fight for justice to the four girls.
In last two months, the villagers have made representations to the Haryana CM, Bhupinder Hooda, National Human Rights Commission, the National Commission for Women and the SC/ST Commission, but have got no reprieve.
Five people have been arrested so far in this case.
Protestors demand that an FIR be lodged against the sarpanch and his relatives, and compensation be granted to the victims and their families, to enable the rehabilitation of Dalit families.
Virender Singh Baghodia of the Bhagana Kand Sangharsh Samiti said, "The Jat sarpanch knew about the gang rape, but the police is scared to touch Jats. For us, the government and the khap are just the same."
The Hindu
UP govt recommends CBI probe into Badaun gangrapes
Under attack from Opposition parties, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday decided to recommend a CBI probe into the gangrape and murder of two dalit sisters in Badaun.
“The Chief Minister has decided to recommend a CBI probe into Badaun incident as demanded by family members of the victims,” an official release said here.
“The formalities in this regard will be completed soon,” it added.
The family of two murdered teenage girls had demanded a CBI probe into the incident saying they had no faith in local police which was “hand in glove” with the accused.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who visited the village of the two dalit sisters on Saturday, also supported the family’s demand for a CBI probe.
A team of National Commission for Women (NCW) had also faulted the local police.
The Chief Minister had on Friday ordered constitution of a fast track court to ensure justice to the victims’ family and announced a compensation of Rs five lakh each to them.
BSP supremo Mayawati too had pressed for a CBI probe in the matter while demanding of imposition of President’s rule in the State over alleged failure of the Samajwadi Party Government to maintain law and order.
Union Women and Child Welfare Minister Maneka Gandhi had on Fridaysaid that if the family members of the girls wanted, she would recommend a CBI probe into the incident.
The two teenage dalit sisters, who were cousins aged 14 and 15 years, were allegedly gangraped and murderd with their bodies found hanging from a mango tree in Katra village.
The girls went missing on May 27 and their bodies were found hanging on May 28.
All the five named in the FIR including constables Sarvesh Yadav, Chhatrapal Yadav and three brothers Pappu Yadav, Awadhesh Yadav and Urvesh Yadav have been arrested. The FIR was registered against seven including two unnamed.
While services of Sarvesh and Chhatrapal have been terminated, sub—inspector Ram Vilas Yadav had been suspended.
The Hindu
Lack of toilets proves a serious threat to women’s safety
The acute shortage of toilets across the country has come to the fore again with the gang-rape and murder of two teenage Dalit girls in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh who went missing on the night of May 27th after they went to relieve themselves in the open because they did not have access to a toilet at home.
The lack of toilets impacts the safety of women and this had been highlighted by Amnesty International (India) when it had noted that “besides being a health hazard the lack of adequate sanitation facilities across India also poses a serious threat to the safety of women and girls forced to practice open defecation, making them more vulnerable to violence.”
The lack of adequate toilet facilities had earlier been termed a major health hazard by the World Health Organisation (WHO) while the World Bank had identified it as one of the major contributors to malnutrition in India.
More than 600 million people – over half of India’s population – defecate in the open, noted a World Bank report, worse not one State in the country is free of Open Defecation (OD), it had said.
While the WHO has estimated that at any given moment, half of the developing world’s populace suffer from diseases associated with contaminated water and bad sanitation, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak of non government organisation Sulabh International, who has long worked on the subject, believes the situation is far worse in India. “The Central Government claims that currently there is a shortfall of 43 per cent toilet access to general public. However, the truth is that only 30 per cent of the Indian population have access to safe and clean toilets,” he said.
Adding that the lack of toilets poses a serious health hazard, he added: “States including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh are among the worst offenders, though there is no State – including the Capital – where everyone has access to toilets.”’
The 2011 Census of India provides some startling results: Nearly 12 per cent of urban households resort to OD and another 8 per cent use public or shared toilet facilities. The situation is far worse in smaller cities (population below 100,000), with OD rates around 22 per cent.
Though significantly less prevalent than in rural India, OD in urban settings poses more serious challenges.
With higher population densities and lack of safe spaces, OD affords little dignity and poses grave security risks for women.
Meanwhile, a World Bank working paper released earlier found that children exposed to more faecal germs don’t grow as tall as children with less exposure. Studies have shown physical height is an important economic variable reflecting health and human capital.
The Hindu
Village servant suspended
http://www.thehindu.com/
Chinnaiah, a village servant of Kambalakunta in Penagalur, who went round making an announcement, allegedly asking Dalits not to come to fetch water as they did not vote for TDP, was placed under suspension. He was suspended on the directions of the District Collector.
The Pioneer
HIGH TIME ODISHA ADOPTED RURAL HOUSING POLICY
http://www.dailypioneer.com/
Saturday, 31 May 2014 | MANAS JENA | in Bhubaneswar
Home is an integral part of life and determinant of standard of living and progress of society. Rural Odisha witnesses a very poor standard of habitation and lack of proper housing for lakhs of poor people who are dreaming of a house of their own to live with dignity.
Socio-cultural barriers, landlessness and lack of credit for housing are some of the major reasons which deprive rural poor of well-furnished houses. The rural poor face both man-made and natural disasters like flood, cyclone, earthquake, elephant menace, fire, caste and ethnic violence, riot and migration which are major cause of destruction of habitations.
During last 50 years, a number of projects have come up in rural, coastal and forest areas such as industry, mining, dam, conservation projects, ports, railway, highway and urban expansion. These projects have been evicting people without proper habitations.
It has been extremely difficult for the rural poor to relocate themselves in new habitations without adequate housing facility. Our socio-economic system has pushed many people to live without basic amenities for life and just using the available open space as habitations. Lack of adequate shelter for a dignified life perpetuates poverty, diseases, social tension and indiscipline in public life.
Historically, rural habitations in Odisha are built up in most unplanned way and not being developed with basic minimum facilities.
Many of the habitations are not being recorded as revenue village, without linking roads, drinking water, sanitary facility, drainage lines, garbage pits, electricity, play grounds, space for socio cultural activities, burial ground, parks, village forests and water bodies.
In multi-caste habitations, the commons are under traditional hegemonic control of dominant castes. In many villages, the dominant people occupy the road for private use and block one part of the road with same kind of activities.
The village commons are illegally occupied and included in private plots. Vested interest people gang up and use political power to defend their private interest. Public spaces are being occupied in the name of socio-religious activities and causing inconvenience to local public.
International human rights law recognises the right to adequate housing as human rights. The Constitution of India Article 19(1e) and 21 say about housing as integral part of right to life but there is no enabling law to realise this right.
The Central Government has drafted the National Rural Housing and Habitation policy and many States have started responding to the issues of rural housing. The right to housing also includes protection against forced evictions and arbitrary destruction and demolition of one’s home, free from arbitrary interference with one’s home, privacy and family; and right to choose one’s residence, to determine where to live and freedom of movement.
Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) is the most popular independent rural housing scheme for the poor. It was started in 1996 with Budget sharing of Centre and State in a ratio of 75:25.
It has been providing houses in rural areas to the poorest of the poor and most vulnerable sections in villages which includes families of BPL, SC, ST, minority, PTG, manual scavengers, bonded labourers, PWD, transgender and women headed family, women in difficult circumstances, widow, divorced or deserted, women victim of atrocities, widows and next of kin of members of defence, paramilitary, police force killed in action.
Odisha has got allocation of 1.6 lakh houses for 2014-15 for beneficiaries of ST, SC, minority, PWD and others. In February 2013, the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) issued a circular to all States to allocate Rs70,000 for construction of house, Rs20,000 for purchasing homestead sites and Rs9,000 for construction of toilet under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan to each beneficiary of IAY.
Odisha has very poor implementation of IAY in comparison to States like Kerala, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and AP where the State Government plays a very proactive role.
The convergence of IAY with drinking water, total sanitary campaign, toilet under Nirmal Bharat Yojana, electrification under Rajiv Gandhi rural electrification programme and dairy and poultry and kitchen garden under different IGP schemes has been done by many States which Odisha should follow.
It is also important that while allocating homestead site, the revenue officials should consult the community and allocate land in a single patch so that a habitation of socio-economically homogenous groups can be built up with community and livelihood infrastructural facilities.
The Odisha Government has no additional support to IAY beneficiaries. Many of the prospective beneficiaries are unable to avail the schemes because they are homestead landless but the State Government has made no effort to provide homestead land to the landless.
Even the State has not availed the grant to purchase homestead site for IAY beneficiaries given by the MRD since 2009 when about 11 States excluding Odisha have received Rs348 crore during 2009-2011 to purchase seven lakh homestead sites.
Access to finance is important for rural housing but it has been observed that non availability of credit for housing is a major problem in rural area. People are forced to take loan from local money lenders with very higher rate of interest to build house.
National Housing Bank (NHB), NABARD, and Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) are involved in rural housing and NHB is the apex financial institution for housing in the country.
Many State Governments have promoted rural housing schemes such as Kaliagar housing schemes in Tamil Nadu, EMS housing in Kerala, Indiraamma in AP, Sardar Patel, Ambedker, Dinadayal Awas Yojana in Gujarat, Birsa Munda and Sidhukanhu Awas Yojana in Jharkhand, Basav Vasati Yojana in Karnataka, and Rajiv Awas Yoyana in Himanchal Pradesh.
‘Mo Kudia’ housing scheme started by the Government of Odisha in 2009 is mostly for vulnerable groups who are not featured in BPL but otherwise genuinely poor. It works as a programme by the State to attend the left out in IAY. But the State has no rural housing scheme for different category of economic groups in rural area.
The Odisha co-operative housing and corporation Ltd is more urban focused. The Odisha rural housing and development cooperation (ORHDC) has existence since 1994 but it is not effective in comparison to other State housing schemes.
Odisha should have a rural housing policy and plan to involve banks along with housing finance institutions integrating with rural housing schemes for economically weaker section of people in rural areas along with habitation development.
The rural poor are facing bureaucratic hurdles and corruption in getting sanction order for IAY and for each installment they have to visit the officials.
Many genuine beneficiaries are not being enlisted because of local influence of ruling party leaders in Palisabha and Panchayats. Large majority of rural homeless poor are illiterate and from socially marginalised groups with very restricted access to Panchayat office and other Government offices and banks.
The non-availability of building materials is always a problem due to restriction in collection and monopoly of local contractors. The people in remote forest and hilly areas, river in lands without all weather communicating roads are facing problem of transportation of building materials. There are also areas vulnerable to natural disaster and in close proximity of highway and railway line which need special attention.
The Panchayat Raj Institutions should have active involvement in habitation planning and a major role in selection of beneficiaries under different housing schemes. The local banks, cooperatives, Tehsil office and blocks can be integrated for land, credit an infrastructural development for housing and habitation development. There must be habitation and housing planning unit with blocks and panchayats to rebuild rural areas, villages and making that habitable and inclusive for all.
(The writer is a rights activist, who can be contacted atojaabbsr@gmail.com)
News Monitor by Girish Pant
.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/
..............................
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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