** * * * Jharkhand.News * <http://jharkhand.org.in/>
* Somnath,New York,says:I think reservation has created more Divison than unification of the country as a whole. Running the government on Divide and Rule like Britishers made India still 60 Yrs behind. Dont really know how long will it take for us to learn? Probably another 100 Yrs. Social justice should be on financial ground not caste and religion. Country needs to promote only Merit based system. Can child be Dalit, if father is not? * ** The social justice ministry wants Dalit status for a child born to a non-SC father and a Dalit mother, despite the law ministry terming the move illegal on technical grounds. The social justice ministry is looking to overturn an apex court order which had ruled that a child of a non-SC father would be ineligible for SC status because, by convention, caste is inherited from the father. The ministry, however, feels that the principle making the father the sole determinant of a child's caste status militates against the idea of "gender equality". In the process, it has chosen to ignore objections from key ministries against the idea and its implications, as well as the proposal's technical soundness. The law ministry has observed that the proposal seeks to include children of inter-caste Dalit marriages in the notification issued under Article 341 (2) of the Constitution, even though its mandate was inclusion or exclusion of a community in the list of caste, race or tribe. "As such, it appears the proposal is not in the spirit of the provisions of Article 341 of the Constitution," the opinion from the department of legal affairs said. The social justice ministry, however, has rejected this view, saying the proposal only looks to widen the scope of the Constitution's provisions about Scheduled Castes under Article 341 (1), which has a precedent in the inclusion of Sikhs and Buddhists in the Scheduled Caste list. The proposal has also invited strong opposition from National Commission for Scheduled Castes, which has expressed apprehension that granting of SC status to a child born to a non-Dalit father would be prone to misuse by general ** ** ** timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Can_child_be_Dalit_if_father_is_not/articleshow/2912383.cms ** ** ** Dalit woman branded witch in Bihar, beaten up A middle-aged Dalit woman was brutally thrashed and her hair cut off for allegedly practising witchcraft in a Bihar village, barely 20 km from the state capital, Patna, the police said Friday. The police lodged a first information report and arrested six people, including prime accused Ramayodhya Rai. The woman, Lalpari, in her 40s, is a resident of Naubatpur village near Patna. The police said the people suspected she practised witchcraft in the neighbouring Adalchak-Dumaria village, near Maner in the outskirts of Patna. "She was first tied to a palm tree with a rope, then thrashed and her hair was cut off and burnt in front of a crowd of villagers Thursday," a senior police officer said. The incident created an uproar in the state assembly Friday and an opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal legislator and a minister in the erstwhile Rabri Devi government, Shyam Razak alleged that women were not safe under the present regime. "Women were being tortured by feudal forces," Razak said while his party members raised anti-government slogans. The opposition demanded stern action against the guilty. The police said Lalpari had gone to Adalchak-Dumaria village Thursday to treat a woman, Manorama Rai, who suffers from a mental illness. As Manorama's condition deteriorated, her husband Ramayodhya Rai lost his temper and accused Lalpari of practising sorcery and inflicting harm on his wife. He got together some of his friends from the village and paraded Lalpari through the streets. The men tied her to a palm tree, cut off her hair and smeared her head with limestone paste. Lalpari, however, refuted the charge of practising witchcraft and said she was a healer. When the police were informed about the incident, they rushed to the village and rescued the woman. March 28 (IANS) ** * Jharkhand-Love.blogspot.com <http://www.jharkhand-love.blogspot.com/> * **
