From: Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC <pmarc2008@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 8:13 PM
Subject: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 27.03.10
To: Dalits Media Watch <PMARC@dgroups.org>
Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 27.03.10
DMK wants more police in dalit areas - Express Buzz
Tribals, Dalits still at the bottom in most indicators - The Hindu
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/article306534.ece
Social networking sites have become caste wide - The Hindu
Express Buzz
DMK wants more police in dalit areas
Last Updated : 27 Mar 2010 08:20:57 AM IST
CHENNAI: The ruling DMK on Friday urged Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla to provide enough police personnel to 84 polling booths in Pennagaram constituency where the presence of Dalits are in large numbers so that the people of that community could exercise their franchise peacefully during the by-election scheduled for March 27.
In a representation to the CEC, the DMK said the constituency is caste sensitive and there had been instances in the past that Dalit voters were prevented from exercising their franchise by a section of caste Hindus of various villages using violent methods. The letters of Thagadur VCK district secretary Tamilselvan and DMK election wing secretary TM Selvaganapathi were attached with the representation.
The Hindu
Tribals, Dalits still at the bottom in most indicators
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/article306534.ece
Aarti Dhar
Indigenous groups and Dalits continue to be at the bottom in most indicators of well-being, the Muslims and the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) occupy the middle rung, while forward caste Hindus and other minority religions are at the top. The "Human Development in India: Challenges for a Society in Transition" survey has found this.
These patterns are seen in a variety of indicators, including household incomes, poverty rates, landownership and agricultural incomes, health, and education. The group positions are not immutable, and on some dimensions, there is a difference in rankings.
The Adivasis generally have slightly better health outcomes (reported short term morbidity and child mortality), particularly in the northeast where healthcare appears to be of a higher quality.
Similarly, when it comes to education, the Muslims are as disadvantaged as the Dalits and Adivasis, although their economic well-being is more at par with that of the OBCs, the survey suggests.
Two major aspects of these group disparities have been highlighted in the survey report. Firstly, much of this inequality seems to emerge from differential access to livelihoods. Salaried jobs pay far more than casual labour or farming, and these jobs elude the disadvantaged groups for many reasons, including living in rural areas and lower education. But regardless of the reason, more than three out of 10 forward caste and minority religion men have salaried jobs, compared with about two out of 10 Muslim, OBC and Dalit men, and even fewer Adivasi men.
Dalits and Adivasis are further disadvantaged as they either do not own land, or mainly low-productivity land. Not surprisingly, these income differences translate into differences in other indicators of human development.
Secondly, the report points out, future generations seem doomed to replicate these inequalities because of the continuing differences in education — both in quality and quantity. In spite of the long history of positive discrimination policies — reservation in college admission — social inequalities begin early in primary schools. Thus, affirmative action remedies are too little and too late by the time students reach the higher secondary level.
It further says that differences in well-being among social groups are long established, but a variety of contemporary forces have conspired to sustain and sometimes exacerbate these inequalities. Dalits have long laboured at the margins of a society that depends on that labour, but that has often excluded them. Although some Adivasis in the northeast fared better, other Adivasis living in extremely remote locations have been left out of the recent economic progress or forced to migrate, only to work as low paid labourers. In some cases, such as for the OBCs and the Muslims, historical disadvantages have been exacerbated by structural shifts. A decline in artisan incomes has affected the Muslims disproportionately, while agricultural stagnation has affected the OBCs.
The Hindu
Social networking sites have become caste wide
Mansi Choksi, TOI Crest, Mar 27, 2010, 09.42am IST
Social networking sites have become a fertile ground for groups based on ethnicity and caste.
When 3,000 members of an online community of scheduled castes were asked recently whether they felt they could match up to their upper-caste counterparts, one user admitted that his caste identity had been a "hurdle in life". Another user promptly replied with a prescription: "Ignorance is bliss." The conversation was then interrupted by a user who accused the two of being undeserving "beggars" who had cornered seats in schools, colleges and government offices. Soon, the thread was ablaze with hundreds of responses in a free-for-all mudslinging competition and a crash course in the choicest Hindi expletives.
Social networking sites Orkut and Facebook have become a fertile ground for scores of groups based on ethnicity and caste. Key in the word 'caste' into either site, or indeed others, and up pops a cascading list of virtual caste colonies, some of which aim to unite members and some which spew venom. Orkut has thousands of these communities — for instance, 'Brahmins Culture and Tradition' , 'I Hate Intercaste Marriage' and 'The Great Maratha' — which have hundreds of members.
Interestingly, participants of these groups are increasing rather than dying down. A study by Sunil Gangavane and Urvi Shah, researchers at PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research) found that 32 random Orkut communities based on caste showed an increase of nearly 30,000 members in just three months. Gangavane and Shah, who joined these communities to keep tabs on them, primarily wanted to document the involvement of middleclass youth and their understanding of caste identity in these spaces.
Gangavane says that most members of castebased groups are highly educated: "Very few are only graduates — they are mostly engineers, MBAs, post-graduates and doctors." Another finding is that most are from metropolises like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore. "Social networking sites have the power to reproduce stifled opinions on taboo topics. People discuss things here that they can't face-to-face," he says.
But social media expert Gaurav Mishra, who is the CEO of online marketing firm 2020 Social, argues that it's not the anonymity that comes with a virtual profile which is breeding online caste communities. "The phenomenon is only a reflection of the fact that caste is an important part of identity for many urban Indians," he says. "Identity is more persistent and real in the virtual space. You are connected to friends, they can see what you are up to. There is nothing unique about it and it is not more or less pronounced in the virtual space. The dysfunctionality exists in the real world, and that is being reflected."
While Facebook has fewer caste-based groups, friend requests from people who identify one's caste through their name is not a rarity. Most groups are updated almost every minute, and some of them spew so much venom that scraps are reported and subsequently deleted. Hearteningly, there are also communities against casteism, but, again, sometimes these too are prey to casteism. In one community called 'We hate caste feeling' , for instance, a member posted a discussion asking how many members were from the upper castes.
Another finding of the PUKAR research is that there are many more upper-caste groups, with many more members. Mishra believes that the low number of Dalit communities says something about Indian society. "Higher, more powerful castes like Brahmins, Rajputs and Yadavs tend to have more money and better access to the internet. Old disparities are further accentuated by the net," he says. "Not that the Dalit community isn't active on the net — it is. But most of the sites have been started by NRI Dalits."
The caste polarisation on social networking sites is also being used by several political parties. "Politically influenced communities like RSS, BSP, MNS and Shiv Sena are the most updated ones," says Gangavane.
According to social scientist Shiv Vishwanathan, who is also a senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, caste is not an old-fashioned system. "It has adapted to politics, diaspora and technology too. Social networking sites are only newer platforms ," he says. "The fact that people are still discussing their gotra means it's important to them and they want to discuss it in a group they feel they can trust and in an environment in which they are sure they won't be laughed at. Social networking sites provide just that."
JAATI GUPSHUP
In the 'modern Yadav girls and boys' Orkut community (7,924 members), members are asked whether they think Yadav girls are 'masoom' (innocent), flirtatious, stylish or 'dramebaaz' (dramaqueens) and whether Yadav boys have attitude, are handsome or hot. In the 'Brahmin Culture and Tradition' community (8,453), members are asked to name great Brahmins in history. Responses include Parshuram (the Brahmin god who cleansed the world thrice), Chanakya (advisor to Chandragupta) and the Marathi Peshwas. In the 'I hate caste feeling' community (42,891), members discuss what they have lost because of the caste system. Responses include "love of life", "frndship" , mental peace and "seat in good college" In 'Dalits' (858), members take a poll on what they think of "Mayawati joining hands with Brahmins in UP".
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.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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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.
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