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BM_discussion@googlegroups.com Today's topics: * Caste and faith first in companies, merit next - 1 messages, 1 author http://groups.google.com/group/BM_discussion/browse_thread/thread/ba9762e7dbca863c?hl=en ============================================================================== TOPIC: Caste and faith first in companies, merit next http://groups.google.com/group/BM_discussion/browse_thread/thread/ba9762e7dbca863c?hl=en ============================================================================== == 1 of 1 == Date: Sun, Oct 28 2007 9:23 pm From: "Abhijit K" http://www.ibnlive.com/news/caste-creed-first-in-companies-merit-next/51259-3.html This time some american folks tellng this.. so may be that sounds attention worthy :)) read the first news article below.. - abhijit minakshi ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 28 Oct 2007 12:15:22 -0000 Subject: [ZESTCaste] Digest Number 1395 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] There are 3 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Caste and faith first in companies, merit next From: Siddhartha Kumar 2. The soul food (Chandrabhan Prasad) From: Siddhartha Kumar 3. Employment bias mars private sector - Study From: Siddhartha Kumar Messages ________________________________________________________________________ 1. Caste and faith first in companies, merit next Posted by: "Siddhartha Kumar" [EMAIL PROTECTED] tellsiddhartha Date: Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:10 am ((PDT)) http://www.ibnlive.com/news/caste-creed-first-in-companies-merit-next/51259-3.html Caste and faith first in companies, merit next Sumit Pande CNN-IBN CASTE AWAY: A study has shown that upper-caste bias exists in India's booming private sector. New Delhi: Liberalisation and a free market economy have not changed traditional biases in companies. A study conducted by American and Indian scholars shows that there is a caste bias in the country's private sector with companies preferring to recruit upper-caste candidates even if they are less qualified. Two Princeton University researchers, who are studying discrimination in the new market economy, and Indian scholars like University Grants Chairperson Sukhdeo Thorat have found that even in the private sector merit is not always the guiding factor. The researchers responded to 548 job advertisements in over 66 weeks and sent about 4,800 applications were sent. The applicants were divided into three broad categories: those who had conspicuous upper-caste surname, those who had clear Dalit surnames and the third group comprised those who had Muslim names. Broadly, all three categories had similar professional qualifications. The results were shocking: For every 100 upper-caste candidates who received calls for interviews, only 67 Dalit and 33 Muslim candidates were called. Upper-caste candidates who were not well qualified got better responses than Dalit applicants with higher degrees. "Here as well as in the USA, problems of discrimination remain persistent and are necessary to deal with in terms of policy," says Princeton University Professor Katherine Newman. Professor B C Mungekar of the Planning Commission said, "There is a basic conflict of the ascriptive role of caste in Indian society, in an achievement-oriented, market-based economy, over a period of time, particularly after 1991." This has proved beyond a doubt that there is an upper-caste preference in the job market. The study comes at a time then the government has been trying to attempting to convince the private sector that there is a need for affirmative action. Messages in this topic (1) ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 2. The soul food (Chandrabhan Prasad) Posted by: "Siddhartha Kumar" [EMAIL PROTECTED] tellsiddhartha Date: Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:13 am ((PDT)) http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=prasad%2Fprasad230.txt&writer=prasad The soul food By Chandrabhan Prasad Arguably, New York is a museum of world cultures where people from all over the world can be seen exploring their dreams. New York also mirrors the American strength in embracing all cultures. Manhattan is a playground of American splendour. Within it lie two extremes, the Times Square, the living ecstasy on Earth, and Harlem, the Black locality. Harlem shows how ugly America's race-relations have been. There used to be a night club called Cotton Club where leading Black artists performed, but often, Black customers would not be allowed to enter. Such has been the appalling inheritance of America. Historically associated with poverty, crime and Black habitat, Harlem has been a laboratory of Black cultural renaissance. Rising from the deadweight of racism, the Black geniuses found expression in Harlem and morally pulverised the White arrogance. The Sylvia restaurant in Harlem or just Sylvia's, is a book of Black beauty and resolve and Whites' reluctant goodbye to desegregation. There was no way, thus, that I would miss visiting Sylvia's. I took time off from my university assignment and landed at the doorstep of my friend who lives in Manhattan. He took me to what is popularly known as "Sylvia's Soul Food". The restaurant has been visited by the world's best known faces like Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton and Magic Johnson, legendary basketball player. It has also been visited by soap opera deity Susan Victoria Lucci of All My Children fame and Academy Award winning actress Liza Minnelli of the Cabaret fame. Irrespective of their colour, people visiting New York make it a point to have at least one meal at Sylvia's. With a seating capacity of 450 people, over 4,000 customers visit Sylvia's every week. She opened the restaurant in 1962. The restaurant is owned and run by a Black. Looking back at her past, Sylvia is a goddess of inspiration. Born in February 2, 1926, her father died three days after her birth. Her grandfather was hanged wrongly on the charge of a grocery store robbery. Raised by her mother, Sylvia has seen both poverty and discrimination. Picking green beans, she worked at a farm to add to the family's income. "I didn't understand why people would not let me drink out of the same water fountain, but they would trust me to cook for them and to take care of their dearest things, their babies," Sylvia recalls in one of her interviews. She trained to become a beautician but became a waitress instead in New York. With a loan from her mother, she opened Sylvia's. The rest is history. Sylvia's Family Soul Food cookbook is as popular among the Blacks as among the Whites. She has now diversified into a host of beauty products. I consider myself lucky to have met Sylvia Woods, now 81, in person. A goddess of humility, she reminded me of the contributions made by her late husband Herbert Woods, and mother Julia. The elegant Van Woods now leads the revolution unleashed by Sylvia. "Ours is delicacy of America's south", says her charming daughter Bedelia. In other words, Sylvia's is not about Black food. "Of course there is an interest in the way Blacks cook their food", said a White customer after much prodding. After spending hours around the restaurant, I can feel that in the unstated White conscience, Sylvia's food is also about the Black flavour. My question now to all Indians is - what if a Dalit opened a restaurant in New Delhi? Will the caste-Hindus flock to a Dalit restaurant the way White's do to Sylvia's? Messages in this topic (1) ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 3. Employment bias mars private sector - Study Posted by: "Siddhartha Kumar" [EMAIL PROTECTED] tellsiddhartha Date: Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:14 am ((PDT)) http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070030855&ch=10/27/2007%208:13:00%20AM Employment bias mars private sector - Study Aradhana Sharma Saturday, October 27, 2007 (New Delhi) The private sectors' refrain that affirmative action is good enough may not stand now. Fresh studies have proved that there is discrimination in employment. It was subject of much dispute - many had been saying it, others contesting it. On Friday, a study was released by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies in collaboration with Princeton University. The study was conducted against 548 job advertisements with 4808 applicants over 66 weeks, across five metros. It reveals that in fact a person's caste and religion could be a hindrance in getting a job, despite equal qualification. Inequality in private sector The study says that a dalit had 60 per cent less chances of being called for an interview, and a Muslim had 30 per cent less, as against their higher caste peers. The wage earnings too were found to five to 20 per cent lower, between SC as compared to upper castes. And that is not all, one may also carry the baggage of family background, when being interviewed for a job. ''Here in India, it is a routine practice for employers to enquire about family background and use it as a means for screening. This is an anti-thesis to what one expects in a merit based system,'' Professor Katherine S Newman, Princeton University. The survey contradicts what employers have been claiming all this while that jobs are given purely on merit, a contradiction that needs to be addressed urgently. ''The result of the studies need to be taken seriously and we need an equal opportunities policy in the form of reservation in addition to what everyone is already doing,'' Professor Sukhdev Thorat, report author and UGC chairperson. Affirmative action, like skill and enterprise development, taken up by the private sector so far, may just not be enough, if employment opportinities in the country are to become inclusive. Messages in this topic (1) ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ -- Subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a BLANK email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yahoo! 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