Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 07.07.12
Dalit woman president seeks police protection - Deccan Herald
Another controversy…defecating in open - The Pioneer
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhopal/78450-another-controversydefecating-in-open.html
SC, ST victims to get hefty compensation - Deccan Herald
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/hyderabad/sc-st-victims-get-hefty-compensation-122
Fighting against injustice - The Times Of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/Fighting-against-injustice/articleshow/14727460.cms
Deccan Herald
Dalit woman president seeks police protection
July 7, 2012 , DC
A dalit woman panchayat president in Theni has approached the DGP seeking protection from the vice-president and other subordinates, who belong to the dominant caste.
R. Selvi, 40, who has been admitted to the Theni GH, alleged that the panchayat members called her names, attacked her and humiliated her just because she sat on the president's chair.
Other panchayat members, including vice-president Ganesan and fourth ward member Nattandurai, prevented her from performing her duties and abused her using the name of her caste, she alleged.
"My husband Rasaiah and I worked in a stone quarry. I won in the 2011 panchayat elections and took charge as Tirumalapuram panchayat president. The members were unhappy and told me that I should stay at home as I belong to a lower class and should hand over all the duties to them," she said.
"However, I continued to work for the welfare of the people. I faced several problems and complained to the district administration," she said.
Selvi said that officials conducted an inquiry just as an eyewash and told her to cope with the situation. "The members told me that they would pass resolutions and I should sit quietly in the office. They attacked me and warned me that I should not sit in the office chair," she said.
A. Kathir, director of Evidence, a dalit rights NGO, said that he files at least 15 complaints on discrimination meted out dalits who work for panchayat administration every year.
Theni collector K. Palanisamy said that an FIR was registered based on Selvi's complaint. "We heard that panchayat members attacked her. We will investigate her complaint and take necessary action," he said.
The Pioneer
Another controversy…defecating in open
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhopal/78450-another-controversydefecating-in-open.html
Thursday, 05 July 2012 23:58
Zafar Alam Khan | Bhopal
Before the controversy over defecation in the open by a tribal woman could settle down, another controversy erupted in village Divadiya of Ichhawar tehsil in Sehore district, this time too for defecating in the open.
The incident came to the fore when over five dozen dalit families led by village sarpanch Lakhanlal Suryavanshi reached Ichhawar police station to lodge a complaint that women of their community had been stopped from defecating in the village. The villagers later handed over a memorandum to the district collector.
Talking to The Pioneer on phone, Suryavanshi said "some upper caste people of the village are ignoring (insulting) the dalits for long. They crossed all limits when they stopped the dalit women from defecating in the village."
Suryavanshi further said that on Tuesday two dalit women Jyoti Bai and Ram Sabha Bai were stopped and abused by an upper caste villager, Shadilal Verma. The women were told that if they defecated in the village, their hands and legs would be chopped off.
The women returned to their colony and narrated the incident to other community women. The women later reached Verma's to get his version. At this Verma got angry and drove them away.
The women narrated the story to their husbands who reached the Ichhawar police station but despite waiting for hours their complaint was not registered. They then reached the district headquarters, Sehore, where they lodged their complaint with the special police station and the Collectorate.
Deccan Herald
SC, ST victims to get hefty compensation
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/hyderabad/sc-st-victims-get-hefty-compensation-122
July 6, 2012
By C.R. Gowri Shanker , DC
SCs and STs will now be eligible for compensation for atrocities committed by extremists against them as the government has added four new categories apart from the existing 22 for cash relief and rehabilitation to SC, ST victims and their dependents.
Atrocities on SCs, STs committed by unidentified persons, extremists, those who die in police firing and also in political clashes and arson will now be eligible for compensation and rehabilitation. The compensation package has also been hiked by 150 per cent as per the direction of the central government and it will now range from Rs 40,000 to Rs 5 lakh depending on the severity of the case.
SC/ST attacks: 5,074 cases filed in state in 2010 In view of the state's decision to provide compensation for SCs and STs under four more categories, J. Raymond Peter, principal secretary, social welfare department, said, "The GoI has advised the state government to enhance relief and rehabilitation measures under various sections of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989."
AP ranks next only to Rajasthan and Uttar Prade-sh in the number of atrocities committed against SCs and STs. As many as 5,074 cases have been filed in the state as against 38,449 booked under the Act in the country in 2010. The conviction rate in AP, meanwhile, is 13 per cent from 2008-10, compared to the national average of 31 per cent.
As per the new compensation package, the kin of victi-ms (earning member) will get Rs 5 lakh each for 100 per cent incapacitation or murder with 75 per cent of the amount to be paid after the post-mortem and balance 25 per cent on conviction by a lower court. The amount will be Rs 2.5 lakh for non-earning members. For outraging the modes-ty of a woman, committing offences under the IPC punishable with imprisonment for a term of 10 years or more, the victim will get a compensation of Rs 1.20 lakh.
The Times Of India
Fighting against injustice
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/Fighting-against-injustice/articleshow/14727460.cms
Kevin Mendonsa, TNN | Jul 7, 2012, 05.05AM IST
MYSORE: This retired scientist's heart beats for the welfare of women and downtrodden. Her endeavor started in her college days.
Sixty-five-year-old E Rati Rao, a retired scientist from Central Food Training Research Institute, believes in empowering and liberating women, especially from the clutches of patriarchal society.
"Society is not all sensitive towards women and Dalits," she says.
Rao, took notice of the social problems in early 70s. "I took to fighting for a cause after meritorious science students were denied seats for postgraduation. I was beaten up and put behind bars for protesting but I never gave up fighting for justice," says Rao.
Along with like-minded friends, she formed Samata Vedike in 1978, a forum that does not believe in creating hierarchies and so there are no designations like that of a president or asecretary, everyone is treated equally. The forum creates awareness against exploitation of women and those who are denied of their social status. It fights for Dalit empowerment, against feudalism, dowry harassment and domestic %violence.
Whenever a woman lodges a complaint against domestic violence, society and police say: "Let it be, it's a private issue," she says, "But nobody understands how it affects an% individual."
Rao says their forum helped a Dalit woman, who had a site in the city and was being pressurized by influential persons to sell it.
"We helped her to build a house on the same property in just eight months. Members of the forum keep visiting the place to keep a check," she says.
She feels women organizations are growing stronger and they should join hands to stop violence against women.
Born in Talapady, Dakshina Kannada district in 1947, Rao is a Ph.D in 'Aerobiology of Aspergillus Flavours'. She is married to Dr V Laxminarayan, who is also an activist.
Rao now wants to take up the cause of rehabilitation of Korcha community in T Narasipura who are being dislocated from the land where they have been living for years.
--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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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.
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