Dalits Media Watch News Updates 20.01.11

Dalits Media Watch

News Updates 20.01.11

Going by data, SC & STs don't want a naukri - Indian Express

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/going-by-data-sc-&-sts-dont-want-a-naukri/739854/0

More funds sought for SC/ST welfare - The Hindu

http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/20/stories/2011012060880700.htm

Caste system being misused, says judge - The Hindu

http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/20/stories/2011012059440300.htm

Non-inclusion of Dalit MPs irks SCs - The Tribune

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110120/punjab.htm#7

Indian Express

Going by data, SC & STs don't want a naukri

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/going-by-data-sc-&-sts-dont-want-a-naukri/739854/0

Posted: Thu Jan 20 2011, 02:12 hrs New Delhi:

The Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) latest caste-based employment survey for its 8,250 members collectively employing 35 lakh persons throws up some disturbing numbers at the micro level. While scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SC & STs) comprise around 25% of the country's population, they comprise around 18-20% of the employees of CII Inc. While that's not too bad a performance, the numbers are disturbing for individual states like Maharashtra and Gujarat. While SC/ST comprise 19% of Maharashtra's population, they comprise just 5% of the employment of CII Inc in the state. In Gujarat, SC/ST are 22% of the population but just 9% of CII Inc's employment.

As a result, for the western and southern region, SC/ST form just 16% of the work force of CII Inc; the figure is 22% for the northern region and 24% for the eastern region.

So how does CII Inc, or the larger India Inc, get to increase the size of its SC/ST share or even OBC employee base? We decided to look at the database of employees at India's largest online job database, naukri.com, which has nearly 23 million users, or around 60% of the total online job applicants in the country. The findings are interesting.

Naukri offers job-seekers the option of giving their caste. This is important since some firms, such as those in CII Inc, could be looking specifically for resumes of different caste groups. Among those who submitted their castes, just 0.67% are STs, 3.7% SCs, and 13.5% OBCs. So, under 18% of naukri's database comprises SC/ST/OBCs while these groups account for around two-thirds of India's population. Naturally then, those looking for employees in these caste groups are going to have a problem finding enough of them.

Then there is the issue of the qualifications of job applicants and there is little CII Inc or others can do. If you assume a graduate degree is required for jobs other than those on the shop-floor, then what needs to be seen is the proportion of SC/ST/OBCs that have graduate degrees.

Data from NCAER's household survey (see table) shows that of all the graduates in the country, just 4.3% are ST, 10% SC and 35.5% OBC as compared to their share in the population of 8.2%, 16.7% and 41% respectively. So, if any industry or service unit is looking for graduation as the minimum qualification, the chances of finding SC/ST/OBC applicants are much lower than for finding these in upper caste candidates.

The Hindu

More funds sought for SC/ST welfare

http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/20/stories/2011012060880700.htm

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: Members of the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (N. Murthy's faction) have urged the Government to allocate 25 per cent funds in the budget for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, samiti State unit president N. Murthy said the funds allocated for the community should be used only for the welfare of Dalits through a single-window system just as Maharashtra Government is doing.

Mr. Murthy added that the State Government had not utilised the entire allocation made in the last two budgets for the development of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes communities.

Rally

In order to create awareness on these issues and pressure the Government to release adequate funds for the welfare of the SC/STs, the samiti will organise a rally on January 22 from Banappa Park to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa's residence on Kumara Krupa Road, he said.

A memorandum would be submitted to Mr. Yeddyurappa and Governor H.R. Bhardwaj after the rally, he added.

The Hindu

Caste system being misused, says judge

http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/20/stories/2011012059440300.htm

Staff Correspondent

'Politicians are using it for personal gain'

Chitradurga: The caste system, which actually helps bring about social harmony, is unfortunately being misused by some politicians and religious institutions to divide society for personal gain, said M.A. Shashikala, Principal District and Sessions Judge.

She was delivering a lecture on "Need for caste-based census" after inaugurating the district sociology forum at the Government Boys' Junior College here on Wednesday.

Stating that caste-based census was against the spirit of the Constitution, she, however, said, "Such a census is essential to understand the social and economic conditions of the people of different castes, which will in turn help policy-makers formulate welfare schemes. However, the information so obtained should not be used for political gain, which will only defeat the purpose of this exercise." Ms. Shashikala called upon the people not to look at society from the point of view of caste or creed but as one unit.

B.R. Shivakumar, president of the forum, said that the objective of the forum was to identify the difficult areas of study in the Sociology Department and make them easily perceptible to students.

H He said that those teaching sociology had a greater responsibility towards creating a healthy society.

Conceding that it had taken a long time and huge effort to constitute the forum comprising all the sociology lecturers of the district, he hoped that the initiative would help bring about change and improve the results of students in the annual examination.

The Tribune

Non-inclusion of Dalit MPs irks SCs 
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110120/punjab.htm#7

Sarbjit Dhaliwal. Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 19 Non-inclusion of any Dalit Congress MP in the Union Council of Ministers from the state has disappointed Scheduled Castes (SC).

There was optimism among the Congress-supporting SCs that either Mohinder Singh Kaypee, former president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, or Santosh Chaudhary would be inducted in the council, which was expanded today.

However, both were not considered for the job. In fact, three Scheduled Caste MPs were elected to the Lok Sabha on the Congress ticket from the state. They are: Mohinder Singh Kaypee, Sukhdev Singh Libra and Santosh Chaudhary. None of these have been inducted in the council. Punjab, having about 29 per cent SCs, figures among the states having highest percentage of such population.

"All the four ministers in the council from the state belonged to non-SC communities. They are Ambika Soni, Manohar Singh Gill, Preneet Kaur and Ashwani Kumar, who were inducted today," said a Congress leader expressing anguish against the party high command.

"In fact three of the ministers - Ambika, Gill and Ashwani - are from the Rajya Sabha. Only Preneet is from the Lok Sabha," he said, adding that not giving representation to direct elected representatives of the people would ultimately harm the party in rural areas.

Both Kaypee and Chaudhary hold a considerable political clout, especially in the Doaba area. "Had the Congress high command inducted any of them in the council, it would have benefited a lot in the state Assembly elections due to be held in February next year," said the Congress leader.

"The Dalit community has a clear domination in the Doaba region. Because of this community, it has remained a stronghold of the Congress for the past many decades. However, during the last Assembly elections, the Congress had performed poor in the Doaba region. All its senior leaders were defeated,"he said.

"In case, the Congress is keen to do well in the Doaba region this time, it would have to win back the support of Dalits. The induction of one of the Dalit MPs in the council would have been a step in the right direction," he added.

-- 
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
--
Palash Biswas
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