Fwd: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch -News Updates 20.04.10

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC <pmarc2008@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 9:25 PM
Subject: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch -News Updates 20.04.10
To: Dalits Media Watch <PMARC@dgroups.org>

Dalits Media Watch

News Updates 20.04.10

'Ambedkar was a pioneer of women's rights' - The Hindu

http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/20/stories/2010042060710400.htm

Remembered village, this - Deccan Herald

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/64709/remembered-village-this.html

Paswan for free education for SC, STs upto PG level - Zee news

http://www.zeenews.com/news620419.html

The Hindu

'Ambedkar was a pioneer of women's rights'

http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/20/stories/2010042060710400.htm

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: The Women's Reservation Bill should be passed first and its drawbacks, if any, should be looked into later, said B. Hanumaiah, Vice-Chancellor of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, during a lecture on B.R. Ambedkar's vision of women empowerment here on Monday.

The National Aerospace Laboratories' (NAL) Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) Employees Welfare Association had organised the lecture as a part of Ambedkar's 119 {+t} {+h} birth anniversary celebrations.

Prof. Hanumaiah said that the Hindu Code Bill of 1949, which was drafted by Ambedkar, was the first step towards women's empowerment, as it gave women the right to property. "Ambedkar had worked towards the breaking down of the barriers in the path of women's empowerment, but it is rarely acknowledged today," he said.

A.R. Upadhya, Director of NAL, said that women were the most repressed sections and their progress is important as they form a majority of the population.

Deccan Herald

Remembered village, this

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/64709/remembered-village-this.html

Dalits form the majority population in Benavara village, Amruthur hobli of Kunigal taluk. The Markonahalli dam might have changed the landscape of the region, but there are still families struggling to make ends meet, reports Janagere Venkataramaiah

The Holeyas, regarded as untouchables, often dwell outside the village. This unwritten rule is followed scrupulously in many villages across the State to this day. The exception to this rule is Benavara, belonging to Amruthur hobli of Kunigal taluk, where Dalits form the majority population.

The Dalit elders in the village look after their affairs in a fair manner, responsible for all the joys and sorrows of the community. Benavara, with its hundred houses, also has a couple of families each belonging to the upper caste Okkaligas and Akkasaligas (goldsmith). These families have settled in the village to tend to their lands situated close by. However, there is no oppression of the Dalits by the upper castes found in most villages!

The road from Amruthur is asphalted and in good condition. A government lower primary school takes care of the children's studies along with an anganwadi. The three or four borewells meet the drinking water needs of the people.

Then, there are ten temples in the village. Village deities Arivina Maramma, Pattaladamma, Bettada Thimmappa, Anjaneya, Channakeshava, Maramma, Eshwara, Varadarayaswamy and Doddamma-Chikkamma all dwell in these temples.

The pooja and other rituals for these deities are performed on rote by the five fishermen families of the neighbouring Benavara Koppal. The Lingayat priest of Hanchipur anoints Bettada Thimmappa. The Dalits look after Varadarayaswamy who migrated here, following a devotee of the village, though an idol is yet to be consecrated. Apart from the shrines to Doddamma-Chikkamma, the others are falling apart.

The population numbers 450, of whom there are only a handful of senior citizens while literates can be found in large numbers, some working in Bangalore, Mysore, Tumkur and other cities. Indeed, most of them are employed by the government, the most famous of them being the recently retired deputy conservator of forests B M T Rajeev.

Why only Dalits?

Benavara has had a school since pre-Independence and children of the surrounding villages also attended classes here. The maastikallu, three-four dried-up temple tanks (kalyanis) and other 'ruins' indicate that Benavara was once a big town, where people of all castes and professions resided. As such, the village has an interesting story on the absence of the upper castes. It goes thus: The village priest had two beautiful daughters, who were of marriageable age. But it was difficult to find grooms for them from the same caste. Some youths belonging to the upper castes ravished them and the two girls became pregnant.

A horrified priest then prepared a holy site ostensibly to conduct some rituals, after discussing the matter with the Patel of neighbouring Valagerepura. The priest built a stone tomb and asked the sisters to enter it to perform pooja and meditate. As soon as the girls began meditating, their father dragged a stone slab across and entombed them alive!

The priest then cursed the entire village and left Benavara. Soon, the upper caste people were beset with death and other problems. Fearing the priest's curse to be at work, they left the village with their families while the Dalits remained behind, saying they hadn't hurt the priest.

A while later, a few Dalit families came from Nagamangala to settle down in the village. The villages belonging to Amruthur hobli, including Benavara presented a barren landscape 50-60 years back. The construction of Markonahalli dam in the 1940s changed the luck of the farmers of the region.

Not everything is hunky-dory between Benavara and surrounding villages. When they were denied entry into the temples of the village deities, the Dalits built the Doddamma, Chikkamma temples.

But there is harmony within the village. Dalits are allowed entry into the headman's house as well. Says Puttaraju of the Akkasaligas, "Except for eating together, there is no discrimination amongst us and we live like brothers."

Though Dalits are in greater number, they are yet to succeed in a big way on the financial front. The Markonhahalli dam might have changed the luck of farmers of the region, but there are still families in the village which have five-six acre plots, and are struggling to make ends meet with agriculture.

Zee news

Paswan for free education for SC, STs upto PG level

http://www.zeenews.com/news620419.html

class=border-1-mrg-rb7-j v:shapes="_x0000_s1026">New Delhi: LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday demanded that the government should provide free and compulsory education to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students upto post-graduate level instead of till eighth standard as prescribed in the Right to Education Act.

"We welcome the new education policy of the government and the (Right to Education) Act which seeks to provide free and compulsory education to children in the age group of six to 14 years," Paswan said at a press meet organised by the National Dalit Front here.

class=border-1-mrg-rb7-j v:shapes="_x0000_s1027">"But we demand that SC and ST children be provided free and compulsory education from kindergarten to post-graduate level. They should be provided free food, free books and free clothes," he added.

He said that this should have been done for children belonging to all weaker and disadvantaged sections "but if it is not possible, at least free and compulsory education be provided to SC and ST students upto post-graduate level."

Paswan said there is opposition from various quarters with respect to the arrival of foreign universities in India but "our concern" is about students from SC, ST and weaker sections.

"We demand that 50 per cent seats be reserved in such foreign universities and also in Indian schools and colleges to provide free and compulsory education to students belonging to SC, ST communities and economically weaker sections," he said.

Government is set to introduce a bill in Parliament to allow entry and operation of foreign universities in India.

He said that these issues figured in the meeting of the National Dalit Front in which was attended by CPI leader D Raja and leaders from other political parties including Congress and BJP.

Paswan also announced that the Front will stage a demonstration near Parliament on August 13 to press their 11-point demand which will include reservation to SCs and STs in private sector jobs and higher judiciary, allocation of land to landless and immediate implementation of Bhuria Committee recommendations on tribals.

--
.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.