Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 14.07.15
90% of students expelled from IIT-Roorkee belong to reserved categories - The Economic Times
Mahadalits face social boycott in Bihar village - Zee News
http://zeenews.india.com/news/bihar/mahadalits-face-social-boycott-in-bihar-village_1629800.html
Two held for assaulting Dalit woman - The Hindu
Twelve men beat me up… I pretended to be unconscious: Dalit RTI activist - The New Indian Express
Facts, figures look fudged - The Hans India
http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/2015-07-14/Facts-figures-look-fudged-163292
Police books ex-mininister's son and 25 others - The Times Of India
Groups clash over draining water from flooded colony - The Times Of India
Census counts just 4% SC, ST families with a member in a govt job - The Indian Express
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The Economic Times
90% of students expelled from IIT-Roorkee belong to reserved categories
NEW DELHI: Almost 90 per cent of the students expelled from IIT-Roorkee for poor academic performance belong to the reserved category, ET has learnt from reliable sources.
According to the break-up with this reporter, out of the 73 expelled students, 31 are from the ST category, 23 from the SC category, four from the physically challenge quota, eight from the OBC quota and 7 from the general category. All 73 students were ousted for scoring less than 5 cumulative grade point average (CGPA) in the second semester.
ET could not independently verify the above figures with IIT-Roorkee director Pradipta Banerji and the institute's dean of academics. Both were unreachable for comment. However, another office bearer, who did not wish to be identified, confirmed that a majority of those ousted were, indeed, from the reserved categories.
"But please do not bring in the caste or class angle in this. We do not see our students that way. They were weak in academics and could not cope. That's all," the above professor added.
According to HRD Ministry officials, this lopsided break-up of the expelled students can be attributed to the relaxed admission criteria for those applying through the reserved categories.
"The cut-off marks for, say, a SC/ST applicant is much lower than the qualifying criterion for general students at the time of admission. Sometimes it's almost half of what we expect of the general students. It's obvious that the former will have trouble coping with the rest of the class," said an official, who did not wish to be identified.
According to a recent blog written by a professor of IIT Kanpur, the premier engineering schools, till a few decades ago, would only provide limited relaxation in admission criteria for reserved students. The remaining vacant seats were filled with applicants who had even lower marks, but they had to go through a one-year preparatory course.
"Those who came to IIT after this course were reasonably well prepared, and again they were able to compete with everyone else. The idea always was that we must have inclusive growth, and we must provide additional help to those who may have lacked some background coming into IIT system," Dheeraj Sanghi, a professor of computer science at IIT Kanpur, wrote in his blog on July 11.
About 15 years, when this issue was politicized and the preparatory course was seen as a conspiracy to keep the lower caste students behind, the IITs lowered the bar even further for reserved students to ensure few seats were left vacant and not too many applicants had to attend the preparatory course.
"The gap between the last unreserved student and the last reserved category student has become very large, and even with all the support that IITs provide, it is becoming increasingly difficult for students from disadvantaged sections to overcome their lack of academic preparedness," Sanghi added in his blog.
IIT Roorkee is firm on its decision regarding expulsion of students and the HRD Ministry has refused to intervene in the matter. Meanwhile, the affected students are now planning to move court against this decision.
Zee News
Mahadalits face social boycott in Bihar village
http://zeenews.india.com/news/bihar/mahadalits-face-social-boycott-in-bihar-village_1629800.html
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 14, 2015 - 11:28
Patna: The poorest of poor Mahadalits are facing a social boycott in their village in Biharafter one of them refused to remove a dead ox from an influential person's house, police said on Tuesday.
Nearly two dozen Mahadalits families of Pindsharif village in Shekhpura district have been boycotted which means they are not allowed to purchase from local shops and their children have been ousted from school.
The trouble started when Sitaram Ravidas, a Mahadalit, refused to remove and throw a dead ox from the house of Jitendra Choudhary, an influtential man in the village.
"It has angered some powerful people, who called a panchayat (meeting of the village) and ordered a social, economic and educational boycott of the Mahadalits," Sheikhpura Superintendent of Police Dheeraj Kumar said.
"I have ordered to take action against accused in the case because it is a serious matter," he said.
A group of Mahadalits approached him on Monday and sought help and justice.
Kumar has asked the sub divisional police officer to investigate into the matter and submit a report soon.
IANS
The Hindu
Two held for assaulting Dalit woman
STAFF REPORTER
The police arrested two caste Hindu men employed as farm labourers on the charges of assaulting a Dalit woman, and grabbing her gold chain when she went to attend to nature's call on Sunday morning. It is learnt that Dalits of the locality used an agricultural land owned by Vijayakumar – a caste Hindu – for attending to nature's call.
The police said that Sasirekha and Tamilselvi went there on Saturday morning, when the employees of the farmland allegedly asked them not to enter the place as vegetables grown there were stolen by someone. On Sunday, their sister K. Rajeshwari (38) went there, when labourers N. Saminathan (39) of Erimedu near Perur, K. Prabhu (23) of Aathur in Dindigul, and Jambu allegedly attacked her.
It is said that the attackers hit her with a log, grabbed a gold chain weighing about 30 gm she was wearing, and her mobile phone. Rajeshwari has been admitted to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.
The police have arrested Saminathan and Prabhu. Vijayakumar and Jambu were said to be absconding.
They have been booked under sections 294B (using abusive language), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons or means), 354 (assault or criminal force to outrage the modesty of a woman) and 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 3(1)(r) and 3(2) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Ordinance Act 2014. Meanwhile, Rajeswari petitioned the District Collector on Monday seeking stringent action against the accused.
Saminathan's wife Mariya Chinnammal (32) has filed a complaint against Rajeshwari, and her sisters Sasirekha and Tamilselvi, and two others for assaulting her husband.
A case was registered against the Dalit women and their accomplices under sections 147 (rioting), 294B, 341 (wrongful restraint), 323, 447 (criminal trespassing), 506(i) (criminal intimidation) and 379 of the Indian Penal Code.
The New Indian Express
Twelve men beat me up… I pretended to be unconscious: Dalit RTI activist
As many as 12 men allegedly abducted Babu Ram Chauhan, beat him up, shaved his head, forced him to drink urine and left him for dead. Babu Ram said he has been working to expose illegal encroachment over massive tracts of land reserved for SCs and STs since 2008.
Written by Mahim Pratap Singh | Jaipur | Updated: July 14, 2015 5:38 am
A dalit RTI activist, who was assaulted by a few masked men in Jaisalmer last week, opened up to The Indian Express on Monday, recounting the torture he underwent for exposing massive land encroachment in the frontier district.
On Saturday, 12 men allegedly abducted Babu Ram Chauhan — a government school teacher posted in Ranau village — beat him up, shaved his head, forced him to drink urine and left him for dead. All for raising his voice against the land mafia. The state police has assured Babu Ram's family that the accused would be caught by late Monday.
"Nearly 12 masked men came in a jeep, abducted me and took me to a spot 50 km from Ranau. They stripped me and made me roll over in the hot desert sand that afternoon. After that they beat me up really bad. I suffered multiple fractures on both legs and one hand. The doctors here did surgeries on my legs. Now it is the turn of my fractured hand," the 36-year-old told The Indian Express over phone from a hospital in Deesa, Gujarat.
"I kept pleading the whole time. But after a point, I stopped screaming and pretended to be unconscious. Taking me for dead, they started making plans to dispose my body. Some wanted to burn me, while others wanted to chop my body into pieces. I was petrified hearing them plan…but God gave me the strength to stay quiet," he said.
The men then took him to a spot near the Indira Gandhi canal, but before they could dump him into the canal, some villagers spotted them and raised a cry, at which they fled, leaving him on the ground.
Babu Ram said he has been working to expose illegal encroachment over massive tracts of land reserved for SCs and STs since 2008.
But it was only recently that he realised the extent to which the land mafia could go in order to hush up things.
"For people in the desert, bloody battles over land are rare. After all, there's so much land here. But now I know, all of desert wouldn't be enough for these people," he said.
"I have filed a lot of RTI applications to access land records etc. Using that information, I registered FIRs against several encroachers who work as mafia. I was lucky as the police and district administration moved fast on these cases," said Babu Ram. In the resulting action, nearly 40 murbas or 1,000 bighas of land were found to be illegally occupied, leading to largescale rejection of ownership claims, he says.
Meanwhile, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and state Congress president Sachin Pilot strongly condemned the incident. The assault on Babu Ram seems to be in line with the rising trend of atrocities against Dalits in Rajasthan, with the Dangawas caste violence — also borne out of feud over land reserved for SCs — being the most recent such case to hit national headlines. According to National Crime Records Bureau, Rajasthan tops the country when it comes to the rate of total cognizable crimes against Dalits.
In terms of incidents of crimes against SCs, it stands third — after Uttar Pradesh and Bihar — recording 6,475 crimes as per latest data.
The Hans India
Facts, figures look fudged
http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/2015-07-14/Facts-figures-look-fudged-163292
July 14,2015, 02.00 AM IST | | THE HANS INDIA
Three acre cultivable land to Dalits scheme
Hyderabad: The 'much hyped' flagship programme of Telangana Government -Three acre land distribution to landless Dalits and SCs is moving at a 'snail's pace' and there is lot of discrepancy in what the government claims and the performance at the ground level.
The scheme launched by Telangana Government on August 15, 2014, was the main focus for the annual action plan under SC Sub Plan (SCSP). The government in its budget speech for 2014-15 said that it had taken a path breaking policy decision to provide three acres of cultivable land to each landless SC family, develop the same with irrigation and provide the total cost of cultivation for first one year as a grant.
In the next phase, SC households holding less than 3 acres of land will be provided the balance extent of land. An amount of Rs 1000 crore has been proposed for this scheme. The Government is committed to provide Rs 50,000 crore over a five year period, it said.
In 2015-16 budget also the government said that district collectors have been authorised to purchase land suitable for cultivation at a cost ranging from Rs 2 lakh per acre to Rs 7 lakh per acre in all the districts of the State with exception of Hyderabad. It further said that till January 2015 end; a total of 1,132 acres of private and 270 acres of government land has been sanctioned covering 525 beneficiaries.
The government said efforts will be made to intensify the scheme of land purchase during the year for which a provision of Rs 1000 crore has been made. However, according to information given by B Jayaraj Vice Chairman and Managing Director Telangana SC Cooperative Development Corporation Ltd, in response to a RTI query by M Srinivas secretary Greater Hyderabad CPI (M) committee, the government has already sanctioned and released Rs 18,947.97 crore to the district collectors towards implementation of Land Purchase Scheme.
As on June 30 2015, a total of 2973.32 acres of which 269.34 acres is government land and 2703.38 acres of private land has been distributed to 1112 beneficiaries at a cost of Rs 111.16 crore. The highest number of beneficiaries – 270 (out of 1112) have been from the Chief minister's native district Medak , followed by Adilabad (230), Karimnagar (153), Nalgonda (139), Nizamabad (104), Warangal (93) , Mahbubnagar (79 ) and Khammam and Ranga Reddy districts occupied last position with 22 beneficiaries each.
Surprisingly, government did not identify even a single acre of government land in Khammam and Mahbubngar districts for the purpose. In Ranga Reddy district, only 2 acres of government land was acquired and given to the beneficiaries. The highest cost incurred for the purchase of land was in Medak district where the authorities spent Rs 20.39 crore. In Khammam district, only Rs 87.36 lakh was spent for the purpose.
The average cost of the one acre land in Warangal district was Rs 5.61 lakh which was the highest among other districts. In Ranga Reddy district, only Rs 2.75 lakh was paid for each acre. According to available data there are about 3 lakh landless SC families and if the government has to give three acres per family it would require about 9 lakh acres. Accordingly the scheme would cost Rs 50,000 crore.
The big question now is if the government had sanctioned Rs 18,947 crore as claimed by the VC and MD of Telangana SC Co-OP Development Corporation Ltd and if it has spent only Rs 111.16 crore then where has the balance money gone.
The Times Of India
Police books ex-mininister's son and 25 others
TNN | Jul 14, 2015, 06.34 AM IST
SALEM: The Omalur police have registered a case under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against DMK veteran and former minister Veerapandi S Arumugam's son Veerapandi A Raja alias Rajendran and 25 of his supporters in Salem district on Monday.
Police said they registered the case and initiated investigation to probe the attack on two Adi Dravidars allegedly by Raja and his supporters.
Workers of the DMK east wing organized a public meeting on Sunday morning in Pagalpatty near Omalur. A few miscreants vandalised the stage where the meeting was supposed to be held. One of the organisers, Pisul Rahman lodged a complaint with the Omalur police on Sunday evening. The police also registered a case against DMK Central wing in-charge Panamarathupatty' R Rajendran and his 20 supporters. Tnn
Meanwhile on Sunday night, two people K Balaiyan, 24, and P Marimuthu, 26, residents of Adi Dravidar Colony in Boominaickenpatty were admitted to the government super specialty hospital. They alleged that Veerapandi Raja and his supporters attacked them in connection with the vandalising of the stage. The duo alleged that Raja abused them by referring to their caste name.
"We have registered and initiated the investigations. Further investigations are on," police said.
The Times Of India
Groups clash over draining water from flooded colony
TNN | Jul 14, 2015, 02.14 AM IST
GURGAON: Members of two different castes in a neighbourhood close to Rajiv Colony in old Gurgaon clashed over on Saturday, allegedly over draining out water from inundated areas.
Tension broke out when members of one group reportedly got violent and assaulted women of the other group for allegedly diverting the flow of rainwater towards their area. Nobody is reported to have been injured. Police said in order to prevent rainwater from flowing into their house, a family, reportedly from a lower caste, built a temporary wall of bricks around it. The wall apparently diverted the gushing rainwater towards the house of an upper caste family.
"When people from the upper caste community came and broke the wall, it led to a quarrel. A local woman confirmed that one of the accused had passed indecent and casteist comments about the women of the other caste," said Sadar police station SHO Vijay Kumar.
Even though cops reached the spot immediately, members of the lower caste community initially refused to give statements to them. But on Sunday, a 25-year-old filed a complaint against 12 men. "The accused had threatened us and molested women of our families," the complainant told police.
An FIR has been registered under sections 148 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) of the IPC, and 3/33 of the SC/ST Act, 1989, against all the accused.
The Indian Express
Census counts just 4% SC, ST families with a member in a govt job
North has the highest share among ST households with a government-salaried member, at 16 per cent.
Written by Mahim Pratap Singh | Jaipur | Updated: July 14, 2015 4:34 am
Only about 4 per cent each of rural Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste households have a member in a government job, according to the findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 released earlier this month.
Of the country's rural ST population of 1.96 crore households, 8.60 lakh — or 4.37% — are in government jobs, as compared to 3.96 per cent (13 lakh of 3.3 crore) among the SCs. The STs represent 11 per cent of the base rural population of 17.91 crore households, the SCs 18 per cent.
Zonewise, North has the highest share among ST households with a government-salaried member, at 16 per cent. North Zone comprises J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.
North is followed by the Union Territories at 14.97 per cent, the Northeast at 11 per cent, and West at 3.79 per cent. East has 2.80 per cent and South is at the bottom with 2.58 per cent. Surprisingly low in the list is Central Zone, which comprises states such as Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh with a substantial tribal population. In this zone, only 3.12 per cent ST households have someone in a government job.
Among the Scheduled Castes, the zone with the highest proportion of households with a government employee is the Union Territories, which comprise the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Dalits and tribals in Rajasthan's villages follow a trend in keeping with the national one, despite over six decades of caste-based reservations. Rajasthan's 17.99 lakh ST households account for 17.64 per cent of the state's 1.02 crore households, and its 18.91 lakh rural SC households 18.51 per cent. A total 79,516 rural ST households, or 4.41 per cent, have a member in a government job. Among rural SC households, the count is 74,408, for 3.93 per cent.
As a proportion of the entire rural population in the state, ST households with a member in a government job account for only 0.78 per cent, while such SC households account for 0.73 per cent. The fact that the STs have a slightly higher representation could be attributed to the large number of Meena (ST) households sending members to government jobs.
News monitored by Girish Pant & AJEET
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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