Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 22.06.12
New turn in Bhagana case, FIR against dalit leader - The Times Of India
attack: cid official visits lakshmipeta - Deccan Chronicle
Govt apathy may deprive SC, ST students of college admissions - The Times Of India
Steep decline in asset poverty of Dalits, tribals - Business Standard
Census details show spread of mobiles, TVs, bank accounts, even in poverty-stricken states household power connections still a big lack
http://business-standard.com/india/news/steep-decline-in-asset-povertydalits-tribals/478164/
The Times Of India
New turn in Bhagana case, FIR against dalit leader
Bhaskar Mukherjee, TNN | Jun 22, 2012, 06.23AM IST
HISAR: Police on Wednesday lodged an FIR against dalit leader Virender Bagoriya and 20 associates for allegedly obstructing duty by government officials.
Bagoriya is leading dalits of Bhagana village, who had left the village last month, alleging social boycott by members of upper caste over a land dispute. They have been camping in front of district headquarters at Hisar since then.
However, the district collector has clamped prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC in the headquarters (mini-secretariat) area to maintain law and order.
The latest case has been registered against Bagoriya and others for allegedly blocking the entrance gate and road of civil hospital. According to a complaint by block development and panchayat officer, Mahender Singh Lakha, the incident occurred on Tuesday when they brought the body of a Bhagana resident dalit, Raj Kumar to the civil hospital. Kumar had reportedly died after consuming some poisonous substance on June 18.
Maintaining that investigation into the case is on, superintendent of police, Anil Dhawan said that Bagoriya and others were holding dangerous weapons with them at the time of the incident.
However, terming it a "fake" case, Bagoriya told TOI that he never visited the civil hospital for the past two months. "We will meet the inspector general of police to request him for a fair probe into the matter," he added.
Recently, police had booked 46 activists of Bahujan Samaj Party, including party's Hisar district president, Balraj Satrodia under sedition charges for protesting against chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Hisar on June 5.
However, the charges were later dropped after investigation by a deputy superintendent of police. Satrodia has also been leading the agitating dalits.
Meanwhile, Union minister for housing, urban poverty alleviation and culture, Kumari Selja has assured a delegation of dalits that a fair probe would be conducted into the latest case.
Deccan Chronicle
attack: cid official visits lakshmipeta
June 22, 2012
By DC Correspondent
CID inspector general N. Chandramouli visited Lakshmipeta in Vangara mandal of Srikakulam district on Thursday, where five Dalits were killed in attack. He interacted with members of the bereaved families. The CID team collected basic information on the time of the incident, place of occurrence and the kinds of weapons used in the attack. Mr Chandra-mouli told reporters that they would also collect details from revenue officials about why they had failed to prevent the incident and what action had been taken after the occurrence. The CID team specially interacted with police constable Ramarao who is an eyewitness of the incident. They also gathered information from the spouse of Lakshmipeta former sarpanch Chittiri Gangulu on the long-standing animosity between SCs and BCs in the village.
CID inspector general N. Chandramouli visited Lakshmipeta in Vangara mandal of Srikakulam district on Thursday, where five Dalits were killed in attack. He interacted with members of the bereaved families. The CID team collected basic information on the time of the incident, place of occurrence and the kinds of weapons used in the attack. Mr Chandra-mouli told reporters that they would also collect details from revenue officials about why they had failed to prevent the incident and what action had been taken after the occurrence. The CID team specially interacted with police constable Ramarao who is an eyewitness of the incident. They also gathered information from the spouse of Lakshmipeta former sarpanch Chittiri Gangulu on the long-standing animosity between SCs and BCs in the village.
The Times Of India
Govt apathy may deprive SC, ST students of college admissions
Ashish Roy, TNN | Jun 22, 2012, 03.49AM IST
NAGPUR: Thousands of students from SC, ST and OBC categories may not get admission in professional courses of their choice due to the shocking apathy of social welfare department. More than 10,000 students of Nagpur have not been issued caste validity certificates so far, even though the applications were submitted more than a year ago.
Pune-based Arun Unhare, ex-chairman of caste scrutiny and verification committee (CSVC), used to come here once or twice a month and sign a few files. Now, the computer system of social welfare office has crashed and has been non-functional since last three days.
Only two or three days are now left for submitting caste validity certificates for admissions to professional courses. Desperate parents and students thronged the social welfare office on Friday, trying their best to get the certificate. Since the computers were not working, the staff asked the parents to find their applications in the heap themselves and bring it to them for signature and stamp. This led to utter chaos followed by ruckus, leading to the officials panicking and informing the police.
Gulabrao Thakre, deputy director, higher and technical education, Nagpur, has made it clear that no relaxation would be given to any person for submitting caste certificates. "The social welfare department had sought three months but it has not been granted any time."
Several parents had also approached social welfare minister Shivajirao Moghe, who asked the law and judiciary department whether any relaxation was possible but was told the same thing.
So, unless a student belonging to reserved category has a caste validity certificate, s/he cannot claim any benefit meant for his category.
The government officers of the city are completely apathetic towards this problems. Three months ago, when a vacancy was created for the post of CSVC chairman, three officers were asked to take additional charge but all of them refused. Finally, Sanjay Singh Gautam, deputy commissioner (entertainment duty), agreed to take over.
Dr Gajanan Kurhadkar, president Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Sanrakshan Samiti, charged officials of social welfare department with colluding with private engineering and medical colleges. "If students belonging to reserved categories do not get caste validity certificates they will have to seek admission under open category. This will allow colleges to extract a hefty fee from them."
Steep decline in asset poverty of Dalits, tribals
Census details show spread of mobiles, TVs, bank accounts, even in poverty-stricken states household power connections still a big lack
http://business-standard.com/india/news/steep-decline-in-asset-povertydalits-tribals/478164/
BS Reporter / New Delhi Jun 22, 2012, 00:36 IST
The past decade has seen the weakest sections of the society make rapid gains in their material wellbeing, acquiring assets such as cell phones, televisions, two-wheelers and bank accounts, though almost half the population of scheduled castes and tribes (SC and ST) continue to live by the light of the humble kerosene lamp, much more than the national number of 31 per cent.
The latest data of Census 2011, released recently, shows the asset poverty of Dalits and tribals has declined substantially. In fact, the decline in the number of Dalits and tribals without any assets is comparable to the numbers nationally.
In 2001 , 42.6 per cent of SC were without any of the 13 assets specified in the houselisting survey of the Census. In 2011, this had come down to 22.6 per cent. Nationally, the percentage of households without any assets came down to 17.8 per cent from 34.5 per cent.
This means nearly 80 per cent of Dalits had one of the specified assets, which includes a bank account, radio, television, bicycle, car, telephone, mobile, computer and internet connectivity. While half the Dalit population has a bank account, 40 per cent have TV sets and another 51 per cent have telephone connectivity. In 2001, just 25 per cent had bank accounts, and 21 per cent had a television, while a phone connection was available with just 3.5 per cent.
The decline in asset poverty of Dalits has been striking in the erstwhile Bimaru states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. While 67.5 per cent of SC in Bihar had no assets in 2001, this has halved to 38.9 per cent now. In UP, where 26 per cent had no assets a decade earlier, the figure has come down to 15 per cent.
In Kerala, where the figure was 47 per cent a decade before, it is now 11 per cent. In Bengal, where 38 per cent had no assets earlier, it is 28.3 per cent.
Ownership of motorised vehicles has increased from 5.3 per cent to 11.9 per cent.
ST lot improves, too
In the three states of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, as well as in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, where the tribal population has been facing the brunt of the Naxal-state crossfire, asset poverty has declined.
About 37. 3 per cent of ST households all over the nation were found to be without any of the specified assets in the houselisting survey done as part of Census 2011. In Odisha, it was 37 per cent; in Chhattisgarh, 35 per cent; in Jharkhand, 27 per cent. In Maharashtra, which has a sizeable tribal population, households with no assets were 43 per cent.
However, 10 years before, ST households with no assets comprised 55 per cent of the community in Odisha, 49 per cent in Jharkhand, and 44 per cent in Chhattisgarh.
Today, 22 per cent of ST households own a television set, 33 per cent have landline phone connections or a cell phone, and 44 per cent have a bank account.
Electricity eludes
However, a majority of SC and ST still have no electricity. In Uttar Pradesh, 74 per cent of SC households depended on kerosene for light. In West Bengal, it is 56.4 per cent, in Odisha, 63 per cent. In Jharkhand, 60 per cent. Nationally, the dependence on kerosene as the sole source of light was only 31 per cent.
Census Commissioner C Chandramouli, who said the findings on asset poverty showed improvement in the lot of the SC and ST over 10 years, agreed that the lack of electricity and other basic amenities overshadow other gains. "That is the significance of the census. It tells you the gap between putting an electric post in a village and bringing electricity to a house,"' he said.
The fact that more than half the population of Dalits and Tribals rely on kerosene for light reveals the electric posts have not become electric connections, he said.
--
.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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