From: Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC <pmarc2008@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 6:34 PM
Subject: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 07.03.10
To: Dalits Media Watch <PMARC@dgroups.org>
Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 07.03.10
No caste-based census in 2011: Govt - DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_no-caste-based-census-in-2011-govt_1356173
Migrants to Maharashtra after 1950 can't get reservation: HC - Zee News
http://www.zeenews.com/news609052.html
Dalits rally in Kendrapara alleging discrimination - Zee News
http://www.zeenews.com/news609309.html
Land Act did not help Dalits: critic - The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/07/stories/2010030752020300.htm
Rest of India proposes, UP disposes - The Times Of India
DNA
No caste-based census in 2011: Govt
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_no-caste-based-census-in-2011-govt_1356173
PTI
Sunday, March 7, 2010 11:14 IST
New Delhi: The government has decided not to include caste as one of the parameters in the 2011 census, a demand made by several regional parties. "Caste will not be included in the 2011 census," home secretary GK Pillai said.
Parties like PMK, RJD, JD(U) and a few others had demanded in the past inclusion of caste in the decennial census, especially the survey focusing on Other Backward Castes to buttress their demand for OBC reservation.
Besides, West Bengal's Left Front government is the lone state government to have made a representation to the Central government asking for a caste-based census.
Groups like OBC Employees' Welfare Association, Tamil Nadu, Most Backward Class Officers and Employees' Association, Patna, National Social Justice Forum (Haryana unit) and All India Other Backward Classes Employees in Indian Ordnance and Ordnance Equipment Factories Welfare Association, Tiruchirappalli had requested the home ministry for including caste as one of the parameters in 2011.
The office of the Registrar General of India that oversees the census exercise, comes under the home ministry.
Data on demographic and socio-economic parameters like age, sex, SC/ST status, literacy, religion, mother tongues/ languages known, economic activity status and migration are among the 15 parameters that would be collected as part of the 2011 Census.
Home ministry officials said there are "practical and logistical difficulties" in including caste in the Census exercise. "The idea of caste is not uniform across the country. Besides, how would an enumerator cross-check the claims of someone belonging to a particular caste," an official said.
The last caste-based Census was held in 1931, but there have been sporadic calls for one after the implementation of the Mandal Commission Report.
The PMK even had approached the Supreme Court last year with its demand. The apex court, however, turned down the plea saying it "could cause immense strife" and that "this is why it had not been done for the last 60 years".
Zee News
Migrants to Maharashtra after 1950 can't get reservation: HC
http://www.zeenews.com/news609052.html
Mumbai: In an important ruling, a full bench of the Bombay High Court has held that the persons who migrated to Maharashtra after 1950 cannot get the benefit of reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Due to difference of opinion between two benches of High Court as to how the Supreme Court's 1990 decision in 'Mari Chadrasshekhar Rao Vs. Dean of GS Medical College' should be interpreted, a three-member bench of Justice FI Rebello, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice JH Bhatia had been specially set up.
The High Court ruled last week that "a migrant belonging to a SC, not ordinarily resident as on 10.3.1950 in the area that now constitutes the State of Maharashtra and in the case of a case of ST, on 6.9.1950, would not be entitled to benefits of reservation Maharashtra."
"They and their progeny will continue to get the benefits of reservation in the State of origin," the court observed.
The court held that if this proposition wasn't accepted, then all persons living in erstwhile Bombay state (which existed prior to creation of Maharashtra in 1960), would get reservation benefits in Maharashtra, thought they might not be living in present geographical boundaries of Maharashtra in 1950, when various castes and tribes were notified as SC or ST.
Such a situation can arise because Bombay state comprised parts of present-day Karnataka and Gujarat too.
"This would increase the population of SCs and STs for Maharashtra, and would deny to the members of the STs ordinarily resident in Maharashtra," the High Court said.
"The benefits of reservation as they would have to share the same with ST from other States which formed the erstwhile State of Bombay as on 1-8-1950," the High Court noted, ruling that such an interpretation of Supreme Court judgement is not possible.
Zee News
Dalits rally in Kendrapara alleging discrimination
http://www.zeenews.com/news609309.html
Kendrapara: Alleging that they are being discriminated as second grade citizens by government agencies and upper-caste people, hundreds of dalits today rallied in front of Kendrapara district Collectorate here.
Alleging a reign of terror has been unleashed upon the dalits in certain areas of the district, Secretary, Republican Youth Front, Ashok Mallik said the offenders are influential and powerful upper caste people but the civil and police administration have done little.
class=border-1-mrg-rb7-j v:shapes="_x0000_s1027">
Mallik further charged that Dalit women were subjected to sexual assault at Rankala village last month when a mob torched their dwellings and besides making some arrests in the case of arson, "police turned a blind eye to the sexual assault case."
However, the District Collector Sisirkanta Panda denied the charges and claimed proper action was initiated against the offenders as per law
The Hindu
Land Act did not help Dalits: critic
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/07/stories/2010030752020300.htm
A Correspondent
KALPETTA: K. Venu, social critic, has said that the land reforms Act in Kerala did not help the marginalised sections of society, including the tribal people and the Dalits.
Inaugurating a seminar on "Tribal people, their land and politics" here on Saturday, Mr. Venu said that though the Act was able to eradicate feudalism to an extent and liberate many tenants from tenancy, the tribal people and the Dalits continued to face neglect in being granted land. The reason for this was that many of them were not tenants and hence did not come under the purview of the Act.
Mr. Venu said the successive governments did not take follow-up action after the implementation of the Act. They could have helped these marginalised people by finding surplus land and giving it to them, but nobody cared about the basic issues of the tribal people and the Dalits. The civil society and the governments became conscious of the rights of the tribal people only after the Muthanga agitation.
He alleged that the political parties did not make any positive attempts to solve the basic issues of the marginalised sections. Finding surplus land possessed by private people in a time-bound manner and distributing it among the tribal people were the only possible ways to solve the issue. He said the basic problems of the tribal people should be solved legally and the political parties should have a policy to solve the problems of such marginalised people.
'Untimely'
C.K. Janu, chairman, Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha, said the land agitations launched under the aegis of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was untimely. Using the government machinery, the party should find surplus land in the district and distribute it to the tribal people. P.V. Rajagopal, National Land Reforms Committee member and chairman, Ekatha Parishad, said the aspirations of the middle class were wrongly considered the aspirations of India. Cultural imperialism should not be imposed upon the tribal people. A new cultural paradigm should be developed and the middle class should press for the basic needs of the tribal people, he added.
C.K. Saseendran, CPI(M) district secretary, and M. Geethanandan, leader, Rashtriya Mahasabha, spoke. The seminar was organised by the Vartha Trust, a collective of journalists in the district.
The Times Of India
Rest of India proposes, UP disposes
Arvind Singh Bisht, TNN, Mar 7, 2010, 07.11am IST
LUCKNOW: The political spectrum dominated by pro-Mandal forces in UP is likely to undergo a change, once a determined Congress succeeds in pushing the Women's Reservation bill, slated to be taken up for vote in Parliament on Women's Day on March 8.
The Congress move has already caused disquiet in the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP). Though arch-rivals, the two parties are major players in their own respects in UP. Together, they represent the voice and aspirations of the masses by making a formidable tally of 314 -- BSP (227) and the SP (87) in 403 members Vidhan Sabha.
Ironically, the opposition to the Women's bill by these two Mandal outfits runs contrary to the history of UP. This is because UP can boast of having the first woman governor (Sarojini Naidu), and the first woman chief minister (Sucheta Kriplani) in the country. They decorated these Constitutional offices way back in '50s and '60s respectively when women virtually had no voice in the society. Even BSP supremo Mayawati, herself a woman and a Scheduled Caste, has risen to become chief minister for the fourth time of this politically most sensitive state, which is often regarded as the heart of India and a key to power at Delhi.
However, both the BSP and the SP have their reasons to oppose the proposed bill. As OBC champion and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav puts it: "The bill in its present form is nothing but a conspiracy against the Dalits and the Other Backward Classes (OBC)." Incidentally, BSP supremo Mayawati, too, demands vertical reservation given separately to women belonging to SC/ST, OBC and minorities.
Both parties are gearing up to oppose the bill. As SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said: "We will oppose this bill both inside and outside the Parliament." Similarly, BSP sources confide that the Centre would be exposed for its stance over the issue at a large party rally to be attended by workers from all over the country here on March 15.
The fear of these parties are not unfounded. Paradoxically, their voters are socially conservative. Reasons for this may vary. While Dalits, who are mainly landless labourers, are socially-disadvantaged groups; Yadavs, Jats and OBCs have a strong patriarchal set-up. In the backdrop of this, leaders of both the BSP and SP are apprehensive over the bill and see it against their social value system. They feel the bill in its present form would force them to fill mandatory 33% women quota mainly from those of upper castes.
An analogy can be drawn in this respect from the women representation in the Vidhan Sabha. In 2002, 32 women were elected. The SP had the highest numbers (16), followed by eight of BJP, six of BSP and two of Congress and one of RLD. Of 16 SP women members, 10 were from upper castes. In BSP their number was four out of total six. However, in 2007 Vidhan Sabha elections the number of women MLAs went down. They are in the order of: BSP (14), SP (6) BJP (5), Congress (1) and RLD (2). Incidentally, majority of women MLAs, both in BSP and the SP, are from upper castes.
In UP, the first Legislative Assembly had 13 women, this increased to 29 in 1957 and 30 in 1985. Their numbers reached a low of 10 in 1991, but rose to 14 in 1993. The assembly elections of 1996 saw only 19 women in the state legislature. The only silver lining is that of the panchayats polls in which women representatives are much more than their quota of 33%. But as these elections are influenced mainly by the government of the day, they are only a superficial parameter for women empowerment.
Systematically, anti-women biases and obstacles to women's entry have made our polity an almost exclusive all-male club. In popular perception, politics has become synonymous with greed, lust for power and criminality. Ironically, Mayawati, too, has failed to distinguish herself as advocate of women empowerment.
--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
..................................................................
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.
Visit web site | Reply to sender | Click here to unsubscribe
The email is intended only for the recipients. The owners of the Dgroups cannot be held responsible for the contents of the email message.
No comments:
Post a Comment