Dalits Media Watch News Updates 24.11.13 Minor Dalit girl raped in Sonepat, 2 arrested- The Times Of India timesofindia.indiatimes/city/chandigarh/Minor-Dalit-girl-raped-in-Sonepat-2-arrested/articleshow/26273692.cms Stark inequality: Why political mobilisation on the basis of caste & class is likely to persist - The Economic Times economictimes.indiatimes/news/politics-and-nation/stark-inequality-why-political-mobilisation-on-the-basis-of-caste-class-is-likely-to-persist/articleshow/26278468.cms Plea to amend SC, ST Prevention of Atrocities Act- The Hindu thehindu/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/plea-to-amend-sc-st-prevention-of-atrocities-act/article5385417.ece The Times Of India Minor Dalit girl raped in Sonepat, 2 arrested timesofindia.indiatimes/city/chandigarh/Minor-Dalit-girl-raped-in-Sonepat-2-arrested/articleshow/26273692.cms CHANDIGARH: A 14-year-old Dalit girl from Sonepat district was allegedly kidnapped and raped by three while police arrested two in this connection. The victim, a class VIII student from a village in Sonepat, was allegedly kidnapped and raped by the trio three weeks back and the incident came to light when the girls father lodged a complaint with the police yesterday. Police arrested two main accused, aged 18 and 19, from Sonepat last evening. One more, a minor, is at large, and we will nab him soon, SSP Arun Nehra, adding, that both the accused, also from the Dalit community, were being questioned while the victim was produced before a Magistrate and her statement was recorded last evening. Asked if the accused had prepared a video film of the act and threatened the accused, Nehra said, Investigations are on and we will look into all allegations. The accused will be dealt with as per law. The incident, happened, three weeks back when the victim was returning home from school and was allegedly kidnapped by the three and raped. The trio had threatened the girl of dire consequences before dumping her on the roadside, the victims father alleged in his complaint. The Economic Times Stark inequality: Why political mobilisation on the basis of caste & class is likely to persist economictimes.indiatimes/news/politics-and-nation/stark-inequality-why-political-mobilisation-on-the-basis-of-caste-class-is-likely-to-persist/articleshow/26278468.cms Despite heavy political mobilization, inequality between Dalits, tribals, OBCs and the rest of the population is still stark, and has changed little in the past decade. As elections approach, with a series of state polls already underway and a general election next year, appeals by various parties for votes of the Dalit, tribal and other backward classes will only intensify. Ever since the Janata Party government set up the Mandal Commission in the late 70s to identify the socially or educationally backward - and even before - parties in both the north and the south have tapped these castes for votes. Historically less-welloff than upper castes despite being in the majority, they were ripe for political mobilization. Politicians and parties as diverse or as opposed to each other as Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Mulayam Singh Yadavs Samajwadi Party, Lalu Prasads Rashtriya Janata Dal and the DMK in Tamil Nadu have appealed to various combinations of these groups and sub-groups within them. And while campaigning on a development plank is often seen as being opposed to, or different from, campaigning on a caste plank, the fact remains that even chief ministers such as Bihars Nitish Kumar, seen as development oriented, have attempted to mobilize votes on a caste basis as well. In the south, since the 60s, parties like the DMK consciously positioned themselves as opposing the dominance of the upper castes in Tamil Nadu in jobs and education. States like Jharkhand were split off from Bihar, explicitly to provide a greater voice to the tribal population in the state. But how have these groups - Dalits, tribals and other backward classes (OBCs), which together make up 71% of the Indian population - fared in the past decade or so? ET took a look at data compiled in fiveyearly surveys of employment and consumption by the National Sample Survey Office to understand trends in consumption expenditure of Dalits, tribals and OBCs, both across the country and in individual states that are facing state elections now. However, rather than looking at absolute trends - to what extent has the consumption expenditure of the average Dalit household increased - we look at relative trends. What is the consumption of the average Dalit (or tribal or OBC) household as a percentage of the average households expenditure in the rest of the population? And how has that number changed since 1999-2000? The rest of the population here refers to households that are non-Dalit, non-tribal and non-OBC. Such households would cover not just upper caste Hindu households, for instance, but also Muslim households, which themselves have been historically worse off than the rest of the population on a number of social and developmental indicators. To that extent, the numbers in the charts alongside actually understate the extent of inequality since the benchmark itself includes a category of households that is economically backward. NOT MUCH CHANGE At the national level, the picture is one of little change. In rural India as of 1999-2000, tribal households were the worst-off, with a monthly household expenditure equivalent to about two-thirds of the average household in the rest of the population. In 2004-05, that percentage fell and then rose again in 2009-10 to about the level in 1999-2000. The picture changes little with Dalit households, despite the large-scale political mobilization of such voters in states like UP. The average Dalit household in a rural area too remained as well off relative to the norm (households in the rest of the population) in 2009-10, as was the case in 1999-2000. And despite the greater dynamism of urban areas in terms of income and job growth, Dalits in urban India were relatively worse off - their income relative to that of the benchmark urban household was 61% in 1999-2000 and 59% in 2009-10. The results are similar for OBC households as well (see How caste groups...). And again, while all these categories of households would have seen improvement in well-being in absolute terms, they have not been able to catch up with the overall benchmark in either rural or urban areas. But how are these households distributed across different income levels? The chart (see Household Monthly...) divides the entire population into 10 income classes, each with 10% of households, and looks at the number of SC, ST or OBC households in those classes, in comparison with the benchmark. So while the norm is that the lowest band of the distribution should have 10% of all households, around 18% of the overall tribal population is concentrated within this band, and 13% of the Dalit population. In sharp contrast, there are just around 5% of non-Dalit, non-tribal and non-OBC households in that income band. At the top of the income distribution, on the other hand, it is precisely this group of households that dominate. And nationally it is the middle class that has a relatively equal mix of households from all groups of the population. DIFFERENCES ACROSS STATE .. The overall national picture of stasis, however, masks differences in trends in individual states. In Delhi, for instance, which goes to polls on December 4, inequality between Dalit households and the rest of the population barely changed between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, but improved by about 13 percentage points between 2004-05 and 2009-10. On the flip side though, Delhi is also a state with sharp inequalities. Despite being one of the fastest-growing states in the country in the past few years, inequality between Dalit households and the rest of the population is only a little better than the national average as of 2009-10. Inequality between OBC households and the norm is actually worse than the national average. In 2008, an important plank of the overall vote for the Congress was among Dalit voters. But even then there were warning signs for the Congress, with exit polls conducted by Lokniti-CSDS pointing to a defection of such groups away from the Congress, towards the BJP and importantly towards the Bahujan Samaj Party as well. Indeed while much of the excitement around the Delhi elections is around the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), there is relatively little notice of the BSP which, in 2008, gained votes not only from the Dalit community in Delhi, but other social groups as well, including OBCs and Muslims. Switching the perspective from caste to class, its interesting to note that in the last elections in 2008, the Congress had marginal gains among upper-class voters while losing middle- and lower-class votes to rivals. The problem for the Congress this time around is two-fold: it continues to face a strong challenger among poor and middle-class voters from the BSP. At the same time, it faces the threat of losing upper-class voters to AAP and the BJP over issues such as corruption. In the case of Rajasthan, Dalit and OBC households have actually become worse off than the rest of the population in urban areas. In rural areas of the state, OBCs have done better during 1999-2000, but Dalits have done worse off. This is a challenge for the Congress in the state because in 2008 Dalit voters formed an important plank of support for it, without which it would not have been so successful last time round. Lack of data on consumption expenditure for religious groups means that its difficult to understand shifts in the status of Muslim households in the last 10 years. However, data on education levels for individuals in NSS surveys shows that while the Muslim population is better off than Dalits or tribals in terms of literacy rates, they gradually become worse off in terms of higher educational qualifications beyond the secondary and higher secondary level. For instance, roughly 3.4% of the Muslims across the country are graduates, broadly the same as that for Dalits, but higher than that of tribals (2.6%) and lower than that of OBCs in general (5.4%). The national average is 7.3%. Given the persisting social and religious divides, mobilization on the basis of these divides is unlikely to go away anytime soon. The Hindu Plea to amend SC, ST Prevention of Atrocities Act thehindu/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/plea-to-amend-sc-st-prevention-of-atrocities-act/article5385417.ece The Anaithu Samathuya Periyakkam consultative meeting, convened by the Pattali Makkal Katchi State president G.K. Mani, here on Saturday urged the Union Government to amend SC, ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. A resolution passed at the meeting said that the SC, ST Prevention of Atrocities Act was being used by the vested interests to take personal revenge. Over 15,000 thousand cases were registered under the SC, ST Prevention of Atrocities Act between 2008 and 2012. It was found that of these 98 per cent of the cases were found to be false. The resolution also mentioned that even the Supreme Court held that the Act was misused. Another resolution demanded the government to bring an Act that the parents nod was mandatory for the marriage of a girl child. The meeting also resolved to meet the President to press their demand for amendment in the Act. Another resolution urged the government to ply special buses exclusively for women in all the districts. G.K. Nagarajan, State coordinator, Kongu Vellala Goundar Peravai, among others participated. A meeting of all community leaders would be held in Hosur and Denkanikottai on Sunday, sources here said. News Monitor by Girish Pant
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 07:11:12 +0000
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