Dalits Media Watch News Updates 25.10.13 Mob ‘attacks’ Dalit area, 13 injured- The Indian Express indianexpress/news/mob--attacks--dalit-area-13-injured/1186954/ Social boycott in Manvi taluk: Madiga Meesalathi Horata Samiti seeks DC’s intervention- The Hindu thehindu/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/social-boycott-in-manvi-taluk-madiga-meesalathi-horata-samiti-seeks-dcs-intervention/article5270737.ece At stake is the dignity of Dalit women- Hindustan Times hindustantimes/Comment/NamitaBhandare/At-stake-is-the-dignity-of-Dalit-women/Article1-1134063.aspx Day after Dalit leaders arrest, uneasy calm prevails in city- Hindustan Times hindustantimes/punjab/ludhiana/day-after-dalit-leaders-arrest-uneasy-calm-prevails-in-city/article1-1139705.aspx No normalcy yet in Dharmapuri- The New Indian Express newindianexpress/states/tamil_nadu/No-normalcy-yet-in-Dharmapuri/2013/10/25/article1854304.ece The Indian Express Mob ‘attacks’ Dalit area, 13 injured indianexpress/news/mob--attacks--dalit-area-13-injured/1186954/ A mob of over 60 men and women — all from the dominant Maratha caste — allegedly attacked the Dalit basti of Rajwada in Shevge Dang village, Nashik district, on Sunday, causing serious head injuries to 13 men. The police have arrested 11 men so far. According to the villagers, the attackers came in tractors, carrying sickles, knives, bricks and boulders. They alleged that their houses were damaged and photographs of B R Ambedkar were desecrated. According to reports, the fight ensued over a small accident, when a tempo owned by a person belonging to the Maratha caste rammed into a tree on October 15, injuring several persons travelling in it, including a 50-year-old Dalit woman Lata Bharit. My son went to Chandrakant Shinde, the driver, and asked for compensation. He was abused and sent back. Both parties approached the police and the issue was resolved amicably, said Lata. While the Dalit families assumed the situation was normal, the Maratha men had begun to conspire. They waited for most of the villagers to leave for their daily work, and then attacked, said investigating officer and SDPO R N Hazare. The police have registered an FIR for attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and dacoity under the IPC. The Hindu Social boycott in Manvi taluk: Madiga Meesalathi Horata Samiti seeks DC’s intervention thehindu/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/social-boycott-in-manvi-taluk-madiga-meesalathi-horata-samiti-seeks-dcs-intervention/article5270737.ece Ambanna Aroli, secretary, Madiga Meesalathi Horata Samiti (MRHS), has sought the the Deputy Commissioner’s intervention against the alleged social boycott of Dalits at Hirebadaradinni village in Manvi taluk of Raichur district. He told presspersons here on Thursday that a disabled Dalit youth was assaulted in the village recently when he questioned a barber who refused him a haircut. The incident created tension between two communities and Dalits had been socially boycotted by others. Tension Though the police were deployed in the village, the situation continued to be tense. “The Deputy Commissioner should visit the village and calm down the situation before it goes out of control,” Mr. Aroli said. He demanded that the police take action against those who imposed a social boycott on Dalits. “All those upper caste people who are involved in the case should be brought to book,” Mr. Aroli said. Action sought against those who boycotted Dalits Hindustan Times At stake is the dignity of Dalit women hindustantimes/Comment/NamitaBhandare/At-stake-is-the-dignity-of-Dalit-women/Article1-1134063.aspx The national conversation, dominated by temples, toilets, has no patience for stories of Dalit women who face humiliation daily. Given the measly media coverage, their stories cause no outrage. Complicit in this are the police, loath to file FIRs against politically connected and rich criminals. Away from the din of ‘dehati aurat’ and ‘escape velocity’, 45 Dalit women are talking about the daily humiliation that is their life. The women and, in some cases men who are deposing on their behalf, have come to Delhi from eight states across the country, and to them it doesn’t matter if it’s the Congress or the BJP or a regional party or some new-fangled alliance that is in power. For them the story never changes. From East Champaran, Bihar, not far from where Mahatma Gandhi launched satyagraha, a landless labourer tells of how his wife was beaten to death for asking for Rs. 400 that was due to her as daily wages. From district Dausa, Rajasthan an educated Dalit woman, an elected member of her village’s panchayat, tells of how she was not allowed to sit on a chair on a podium during a Republic Day function because ‘upper caste women in the audience were sitting on the ground’. From district Patna, Bihar, a husband talks of a squabble between two nine-year-old boys, one Dalit and the other upper caste, and its consequences when the family of the upper caste boy decides to ‘teach them a lesson’. They do this by stripping the mother and dragging her through the village. When the grandmother and younger daughter intervene, they are thrashed. The mother runs from house to house, naked, begging for help. Nobody comes forward; they are too frightened. Finally, the village sarpanch steps in and a bystander offers the woman her shawl. A first information report (FIR) is registered, but the accused get bail. “My wife lives in the village, knowing that her tormentors are free, that nobody helped her and that they have all witnessed her shame. But what choice does she have?” asks the husband. In Gujarat’s Mehsana district, cooperatives won’t buy milk from women who own ‘Dalit’ cows. In Bihar, a young bride is beaten up by priests after being denied entry into a temple. And in Haryana the gang-rape of minor Dalit girls by upper caste men is now so routine that in some districts girls are being pulled out of school and kept home. Rural Dalit women face a double whammy: discriminated by caste as well as patriarchy; poor and illiterate; ignored by city-based feminists and non-government organisations; often singled out for rape by upper caste men as a way to ‘humiliate’ the entire community and keep it in its ‘place’. If they try to assert themselves by going to school or asking for wages or contesting panchayat elections, they become vulnerable to what Asha Kowtal of the All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM) calls ‘backlash violence’. The national conversation, dominated by temples, toilets, has no patience for these stories. Given measly column centimetres, if at all, in newspapers, they cause no outrage or candlelight processions. Complicit in this conspiracy of silence are the police, loath to file FIRs against politically connected and economically influential criminals. The legal system grinds along with notorious delays. Medical reports are botched up by compliant doctors. And victims of the worst crimes are liable to ‘compromise’ since they depend on the dominant castes for their livelihood. To come forward and fight a system so loaded against you requires incredible, boundless courage. Seated in the audience is a young girl. When we get talking she tells me she was raped last year in August by 12 upper-caste Jat men in village Dabra, Haryana. The police filed an FIR only after her father committed suicide. She tells me that four of the 12 were never arrested while another four have been acquitted. Still she fights on. A year after she was raped, the girl from Dabra is doing her BA, studying music, art and Sanskrit and says she wants to become a lawyer. “I am the first Dalit girl to fight against the upper castes in my village,” she says. “And I will fight for all the other girls so that this never happens again.” At stake is not financial compensation or vengeance but dignity. Hindustan Times Day after Dalit leaders arrest, uneasy calm prevails in city hindustantimes/punjab/ludhiana/day-after-dalit-leaders-arrest-uneasy-calm-prevails-in-city/article1-1139705.aspx A day after the police arrested Dalits protesting on Jalandhar Bypass, an uneasy calm prevailed in the city on Wednesday. Heavy police force was deployed to keep the situation under control various parts of the city, especially in Basti Jodhewal, Karabara Chowk and Salem Tabri. Dalit organisations had been protesting at Jalandhar Bypass Chowk since October 9. Fifteen of the protesters were on a hunger strike. The Dalit organisations were demanding quota in government jobs, exemption from toll tax, `1500 pension as old-age pension, and free medical services at government hospital. To intensify their stir, some of the protesters blocked traffic on Karabara Chowk on Wednesday for more than 4 hours and were rounded up by the police. Soon after, protesters who were not rounded up demanded the immediate release of the arrested persons. The crowd also went on a rampage spree and vandalised some vehicles, while the policemen remained mute spectators. The protesters were about pelt stones, but some people intervened to bring the situation under control. The police commissioner has imposed Section 144 in the city and now more than five persons cannot gather at a place. Meanwhile, the protesters who were arrested on Wednesday were produced in court on Thursday and remanded in 14-day judicial custody. Also, deputy commissioner Rajat Aggarwal and police commissioner Paramjit Singh Gill visited the spot and assured the protesters of arranging a meeting with higher authorities. After the assurance, the protesters lifted the traffic jam but continued to sit on the protest at Jalandhar Bypass Chowk. Though the protest was called off at 2 PM on Thursday, the police made several announcements through loudspeakers to pacify them. The New Indian Express No normalcy yet in Dharmapuri newindianexpress/states/tamil_nadu/No-normalcy-yet-in-Dharmapuri/2013/10/25/article1854304.ece Normalcy has not yet returned in Dharmapuri district, Special Government Pleader IS Inbadurai told the Madras High Court on Thursday. Justifying the prohibition order issued under Sec. 144 of the CrPC in July following violent ncidents and clashes between two caste groups and another order issued on September 5 this year consequent to the death of Dalit youth Ilavarasan, Inbadurai told Justice KK Sasidharan that normalcy had not returned in Dharmapuri district. The submission was in response to a writ petition from the Dharmapuri unit of the PMK challenging an order dated October 10 last of the Dharmapuri DSP, rejecting permission to the party to conduct a public meeting on the eve of the general elections to the Lok Sabha to be held in May 2014. No election schedule had also been announced, the SGP added. News Monitor by Girish Pant
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 10:14:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015