Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 23.03.14
Plea for Fresh Enumeration of OBCs- The New Indian Express
Awareness a Pre-requisite for Any Positive Change- The New Indian Express
Brooms are for sweeping- Mid Day
Pithoragarh school molestation: Medical report of victims awaited- The Times Of India
Note : Please find attachment for HINDI DMW (PDF)
The New Indian Express
Plea for Fresh Enumeration of OBCs
Justice MN Rao, former chairman of the National Commission for Backward Classes, has urged the Union government to do a wholesome revision of the population of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the country to frame better policies for them.
Speaking at the inaugural of a three-day seminar on ‘The OBCs in India: exclusion, empowerment and modernisation’ at Osmania University hereon Saturday, he observed that globalisation had benefited the OBCs much and called for caste-based enumeration.
“The last comprehensive study on OBCs was undertaken during Mandalisation in 1980 and we have come a long way since then. It is the need of hour to have a new committee to look into the situation today,” he said.
“With the state withdrawing from the service sector and the concept of welfare-state almost defunct, the plight of OBCs has become worrisome. It is scandalous to include Jats in the OBC category because a substantial population of that community had enjoyed royal life. Though the NCBC rejected the proposal the Centre has gone ahead, depriving genuinely backward classes,” he alleged.
Dalit activist and academician Kancha Ilaiah observed that historically the Sudras did not establish an ideological identity for themselves. Thus, today, they lack institutional identity as the former is very important to attain the latter.
He said OBCs should rebel against the agenda propped up by Hinduism and embrace one proposed by Buddhism. “The OBCs should not look up to the Hindu gods like Brahma and Vishnu because all these so-called gods have killed people of lower castes. So how can an OBC person worship killer of his own community?” he asked.
The New Indian Express
Awareness a Pre-requisite for Any Positive Change
Of the six newspapers I peruse this morning, only one reports on the suicide of a Dalit student, son of an auto driver, in western UP. This boy was appearing for his Class X Board examination. Though Kapil Sibal had made Class X Board exams optional, most of the people would still like their wards to get a Board certificate. In UP, cheating is no longer an exception, it is a norm. Well-organised mafia gangs, in collaboration with education officers and school managements and principals, have made a big business of it. In this particular school, the principal demanded Rs 7,000 per examinee! This family paid `4,000 and the boy appeared for two papers. As they could not pay the remaining amount, permission to appear in the remaining papers was not granted. Humiliated, frustrated and despondent, the boy immolated himself. Reports also indicate that he informed his mother that the remaining money had to be paid even if he refuses to avail of the facility of copying. It was part of the package under which this special facility was provided by the school to its students.
Having spent over five decades in the field of education, one is inclined t0 believe every bit of this tragic case.
How helpless the common man is against organised crimes that have overtaken the education system. What was unimaginable 50 years ago is no longer an exception; it is the norm. Everyone in UP knows what happens in Board exams. These are times of money making for everyone except the students and parents. One could recall having personally met young students who passed Class XII examination of UP Board with very high marks but could not mention the name of even a single practical performed in the school science laboratory! In fact there may be no laboratory at all in many of the schools. Recall the much-hyped free distribution of laptops by the government of UP. One could be rest assured that most of the beneficiaries had not even touched a computer in their school days. Was it not possible to set up computer labs first, give students hand-on experience and then distribute the largesse? When short-term political considerations cloud the entire approach of the government, the worst sufferers are young persons and generations ahead. And UP is not the only state where such malpractices are allowed to flourish.
Out of the 220 million children in schools in the country, 80 million do not complete elementary education cycle of eight years. Obviously, UP’s contribution is the largest. Of those who stay during first five years, 60 per cent just cannot read their full name. There is no incentive for teachers to teach or students to learn as Sibal’s contribution of assured promotions during first eight years is playing havoc in government schools, particularly in rural areas. When these children appear in Classes X or XII, mafia is ready to provide them every facility to sail through! It would be just naïve to presume that district-level officers or those in higher positions or political bosses are not aware of the prevailing situation. Without their connivance, such large scale injustice, amounting to cruelty, just cannot be inflicted on thousands of young students for decades. The irony of the situation exposes the hypocrisy of the political class that always pretends to espouse the case of the weak, deprived, destitute and minorities. Children from these groups, most of them first generation learners, are the worst sufferers of unscrupulous practices that have eroded the credibility of the government school system.
One could be rest assured that even the tragic death of this young boy would not even cause a ripple in the education system of UP which has a population of 200 million. Social awareness, coupled by an honest and determined political ‘will’, is the pre-requisite for any positive change. And it is too Utopian an expectation.
Mid Day
Brooms are for sweeping
Every time I see politicians waving brooms, I shudder. Brooms are for sweeping away dirt. Waving them in the air only spreads the dirt. But then, who cares about these details anymore. As a symbol, broom reveals some very interesting aspects of culture, both in India and in the West.
The goddess who waves the broom or jhaadoo is called Shitala, the cool one, associated with various skin ailments like pox and measles. Often visualised as carrying a pot or basket in the other hand and riding an ass or donkey, she is appeased with offerings of curd and neem leaves whenever there is an epidemic. Shitala causes the disease when angry and takes the disease away when calmed down. Thus she is both: Jari-Mari (the hot one from the words jvara meaning fever and maru meaning desert) and Shitala (the cool one).
In India, the jhaadoo is also used for jhaadna, which is not just physical dusting but aura dusting, the removal of ‘nazar’ or other negative influences on ‘non-physical’ body. This is an occult belief, widely prevalent in India, not endorsed by scientists though. Mothers usually insist on jhaadna for their children. The broom used for this is often made using peacock feathers which has an ‘auspicious’ eye-like pattern. Broom made of horse-tail or yak-tail are also used for this purpose.
The yak-tail flywhisk or chamar is a kind of broom meant to sweep away the flies. But it is also symbolic of royal authority. The morchha, or broom made of peacock feathers is reserved for the vizier. That is why Ram, who is king, is associated with chamar while Krishna, who is not a king, is usually associated with morchha. Amongst Sikhs, the king of Punjab did not use the chamar and restricted its use only for the holy book, the Granth Saheb, signifying he is but a servant of God.
In the West, the broom is associated with witches from the 16th century onwards. She is visualised as a hag who flies through the air on her broom. These brooms were long sticks with faggots (bundles of sticks or grass) attached to one end. Some people believe that in medieval times housewives, while sweeping the floor of their houses, often rode astride on the broomstick to give themselves sexual pleasure; when caught, they were branded as witches. Over time, women who were dependent on their families came to be known as faggots, a pejorative term used to associate them with that which is needed to clean the house. It also perhaps referred to old women who made their living by collecting firewood and tying them into faggots.
Faggots or fag became slang in boarding schools for juniors who were expected to serve seniors like cleaning ladies and maids as part of college ragging ritual. In the 20th century, the word fag gradually came to be associated with effeminate men and now is a word used for gay men in the English-speaking world.
Witches of the West used the faggot of their broom to wipe away their traces after they had flown in the skies. In India, many Dalit communities were asked to carry brooms with them to wipe away their footprint when they walked on the road. It is one of the horrifying ironies of human history that people who wielded the broom to clean the streets of villages were themselves declared unclean and ‘untouchables’.
The author is Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group, and can be reached atdevdutt@devdutt.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
The Times Of India
Pithoragarh school molestation: Medical report of victims awaited
DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand police on Friday recorded statements of three of the several minor girls, who were allegedly being sexually assaulted by Chandra Singh Karki in the Himalayan Public School premises in Pithoragarh district. The girls were later taken to a government hospital in Pithoragarh for necessary medical examination, said police.
SP, Pithoragarh, Vijay Singh Karki told TOI that the girls' depositions were recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC in the presence of a local magistrate. "We are trying to convince parents of some other reported victims, to come forward and give their statements in connection to the case," Karki said.
Close of a dozen girls aged between six and ten were allegedly being sexually attacked by Karki for a long time. Some other such victims, said investigating officers, had left Karki's school in order to get rid of being exploited by him.
Earlier, while deposing before a team of sleuths from the Anti Human Trafficking wing of the state police, on Monday, close to six girls had confirmed that they were being sexually assaulted by Karki for a long time.
These depositions were vediographed and will be used as strong evidence to nail the accused, investigating cops, said.
Police sources said that an alleged paedophile Karki, may soon face one more probe about the shady finances of his school. Karki's school, which he founded in 1999, reportedly receives financial aid from some US based organisations, whose credentials are being doubted by the police. "Despite getting financial aid for the 'charitable residential school' for poor kids, the school management charges around Rs 50,000 per student annually," a police inspector in the investigation team, said, requesting anonymity.
Meanwhile on the fourth consecutive day in a police lock-up in Pithoragarh on Saturday, the 70-year-old Karki reportedly looked more 'remorseful' and continued to remain in recluse, said a police constable. "Along with the IPC section 376 (rape), we have also invoked the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Prevention of Attrocities against SC/ST Act in the case. Efforts are on to have watertight case against the accused," Karki said.
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/
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of “Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC”)
Pl visit on FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment