Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 26.03.14
4 girls abducted from Hisar village,1 gang-raped- The Times Of India
In Western UP, its ‘HM’ versus ‘DM’- Business Line
JD(S) may settle for a Dalit nominee in Mysore- Deccan Herald
A crusade against human trafficking- The Hindu
Note: Please find attachment for HINDI DMW ( PDF)
The Times Of India
4 girls abducted from Hisar village,1 gang-raped
HISAR: Four girls of Bhagana village in Hisar were allegedly abducted and one of them, a dalit, was raped by five youths from the jat community in Bathinda district of Punjab. The victim and other three girls, who were also kidnapped by the accused, were left near Bathinda railway station after the alleged crime.
Police have registered a case of kidnapping, rape and criminal conspiracy against the accused. They have also been booked under Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act. Teams have been formed by the police to nab all the accused, out of which three were identified as Lalit Kumar, Sandeep and Sumit.
According to the FIR, the victim alleged that she and her other three friends were kidnapped on Monday night after they had come out of their homes to answer nature's call. She alleged that the accused took them to some place in Punjab in a car where she was violated.
Police spokesman Harish Bharadwaj said, "Police are conducting medical examination of other three girls to confirm if they had been raped too. Manhunt has been launched to arrest the accused."
Business Line
In Western UP, its ‘HM’ versus ‘DM’
Parties are forging unusual caste coalitions as campaigning gathers momentum
SAHARANPUR, MARCH 25:
While a Hindu-Muslim (HM) polarisation — courtesy the Muzaffarnagar riots — may seem a sure shot formula for boosting the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) electoral fortunes in western Uttar Pradesh, upsetting these calculations could be another phenomenon: what political observers here term ‘DM,’ or Dalit-Muslim consolidation.
The best example of where ‘DM’ is being played out is probably Saharanpur, where Muslims make up over six lakh of the constituency’s total 16-lakh electorate.
Both the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) have fielded Muslims here: the former Imran Masood and the latter his cousin, Shazan Masood.
The Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) candidate, on the other hand, is Jagdish Rana, a Rajput who happens to be the sitting MP. Despite Muslims being the largest community, the general feeling is that the real fight in Saharanpur is between Rana and the BJP’s Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma, a Brahmin.
Vote banks
While the BJP is obviously backing on the ‘HM’ factor and a Narendra Modi ‘wave,’ the BSP’s strategy is built around leveraging its five-lakh-odd Dalit ‘vote bank’ to attract Muslims.
The presence of some 80,000 voters from Jagdish Rana’s own community — and the BJP denying a ticket to Suresh Rana, a Rajput and MLA from neighbouring Thanabhawan implicated in the riots — only helps matters.
An ‘HM’ polarisation, under the circumstances, is seen as working more in the BSP’s favour, rather than the BJP’s.
The possibility of Muslims not being averse to voting for a BSP ‘Hindu’ candidate comes through conversations with members of the community. “We will vote for the party best placed to defeat BJP and Narendra Modi,” said Mohammad Rizwan, a local timber dealer.
Interestingly, many students at Darul Uloom — the famous Islamic seminary at Deoband here —Business Line informally interacted with, suggested the likelihood “of a Hindu winning this time,” without openly stating they would vote in that direction. The BSP fancies its chances similarly via the ‘DM’ factor in Bijnor, which has an estimated four lakh-plus Muslims, 2.5-3 lakh Dalits, 2-2.5 lakh Jats and one lakh Gujjars. Its candidate, Malook Nagar, is a Gujjar.
Both BSP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) are currently aggressively wooing Muslims. Their common pitch is that they are the ones with the maximum ‘base votes’ for Muslims to combine with and defeat the BJP.
Although the BJP has given the ticket to a Jat, Bhartendu Singh (also charged in the riots), the community by and large seem inclined towards the RLD, which has fielded actor Jaya Prada. The one loser from all this, ironically, is said to be the Samajwadi Party’s Muslim candidate Shahnawaz Rana, proprietor of the Hindi daily Shah Times. His father’s brother Kadir Rana is, incidentally, BSP’s candidate from Muzaffarnagar.
Block voting
The same game of getting Muslims to vote as a block is being played out in Meerut. BJP’s candidate there, Rajendra Agarwal, won in 2009 with a margin of just over 47,000 votes. BJP, then, had an alliance with the RLD.
This time, RLD has tied up with the Congress, which has given a ticket to yet another cine star, Nagma.
In a pure ‘HM’ polarisation fight, the BJP would be a winner since Muslims account for only a third of the electorate, and the BSP and SP candidates are both Muslims.
But in the event of Muslims voting tactically and not splitting their votes, anything is possible in a State where they are not numerically small either.
Deccan Herald
JD(S) may settle for a Dalit nominee in Mysore
Mysore, March 25, 2014, DHNS:
With just a day left for nomination to the Lok Sabha polls on Wednesday, Janata Dal (Secular) was still undecided on its candidate, for the Mysore-Kodagu constituency, till late Tuesday hours.
In a new and significant development, the name of a Dalit leader from the party is doing the rounds, after Chamundeshwari MLA G T Devegowda said a firm ‘no’ to contest.
Sources told Deccan Herald, JD(S) MLAs from Mysore district — S Chikkamadu (H D Kote), Sa Ra Mahesh (K R Nagar) and G T Devegowda — who rushed to Bangalore on Tuesday morning, held a day-long parleys with former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy.
If any inevitability arises, the leaders have decided to field either Subbaiah, a Dalit leader from K R Nagar or B Somasekhar, former minister and JD(U) leader from Malavalli, both places under Mandya Lok Sabha constituency.
The candidate may come along with the ‘B’ Form directly to the Deputy Commissioner’s office, here, on Wednesday, to file his nomination. Still, one cannot deny last minute changes, said a leader.
Timely move
Though the K R Nagar Assembly constituency comes under Mandya Lok Sabha segment post-delimitation, the leaders are of the opinion that it would be a timely move to field a candidate from the native of sitting MP and Congress nominee A H Vishwanath.
Another leader, on condition of anonymity, told this paper, that the party has also taken into account, its growing popularity among backward classes, especially after the elevation of former minister A Krishnappa, a Yadava, as State president of the party.
Besides, by fielding a Dalit, the JD(S) leaders feel, it will doubly benefit them. Vishwanath is a Kuruba by caste, while Prathapa Simha of the BJP is a Vokkaliga.
Of the total 16 lakh electorate in the Mysore-Kodagu LS constituency, Dalits also form a major chunk of voters.
The Hindu
A crusade against human trafficking
Stanly Kizhakeparambil Varghese and Parashuram Mynkanalli Lingegowda tell us why they risk their lives and liberty to fight against exploitation.
This year you are celebrating Odanadi’s 25th anniversary, why did you start the organisation?
Twenty-five years ago we were young journalists with masters degrees working for the Andolana Daily — a well-respected newspaper.
We were investigating the plight of horse carriage drivers from the Dalit caste - the lowest and most discriminated against caste in India.
While speaking to a group of drivers in the park, an unkempt lady interrupted us with taunts.
She accused us of using people’s plight to make a name for ourselves and advance our careers.
When she later told us her story — how she had been a child bride and was sold to a brothel by her husband, we were challenged to do more than just report what we had heard. We decided to fight for change and started Odanadi.
How widespread is the problem of human trafficking in India?
Recent reports indicate millions are involved and affected, and India is a source, destination and transit country for child trafficking.
About 7,000 sex workers cross over from Nepal into the country every year, and children from Bangladesh enter via West Bengal, lured by marriage or job offers.
In India, children from poor and rural communities, especially those with emotional, physical and learning difficulties, are particularly vulnerable to inter-country trafficking.
They are often kidnapped or bought from their families to be sold to brothels and into beggary or forced labour.
What sort of impact is Odanadi having?
When we first started it was common place for women and children to be openly abused in the streets - even by the police. But we challenged those practices and our work has resulted in a real change of attitudes.
Today we run a number of initiatives such as the Free a Girl campaign.
We also have 220 vigilance committees, created to prevent trafficking among at-risk rural communities - a strategy which has been widely adopted by the Indian government.
The focus is very much on raising awareness and changing the mindset of men towards gender equality, through training, education and sensitising the entire community.
The other important part of our work is our rescues, which we do in collaboration with the police and informants.
How do you help victims to rebuild their lives?
We have implemented a range of activities and services, including rehabilitation homes and a State-funded helpline for victims of violence. Through our internationally recognised rehabilitation programme, which involves counselling and daily psycho-social therapy, we empower and eventually reintegrate victims of trafficking into mainstream society.
We were also instrumental in the creation of a law which prohibits schools from using parental identity as an admission prerequisite.
The Trafficking in Persons report 2013 and Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking outline ambitious government strategies.
Do you think the international community is doing enough?
More needs to be done to co-ordinate efforts to prevent trafficking. One key issue for us is holding national governments to account in terms of their obligations under the UN convention on the rights of the child (CRC) and other human rights frameworks.
India, like many nations, is a signatory to these conventions, but implementation is poor, because of factors such as corruption, lack of capacity and expertise and cultural norms, attitudes and stigmas.
Inequalities and entrenched poverty inevitably leave certain communities vulnerable to being targeted by traffickers.© Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2014
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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