NCDHR is an Advocacy Platform committed for Dalit Human Rights at the Grass root, National and International levels. Dalits In News aims at sensitizing Civil societies, HR Mechanisms and providing updates of HR violations on Dalits for their Intervention. NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ON DALIT HUMAN RIGHTS NCDHR Dalits In News Saturday, August 12, 2006 India e News. Com Rights body seeks report on Dalit woman's death http://indiaenews.com/2006-08/18244-rights-seeks-report-dalit-womans.htm Saturday, August 12th, 2006 Patna - The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought a detailed report on the death of a Dalit woman who reportedly died of thirst in a Bihar village this summer. Dukhani Devi, in her mid 60s, died at Manjhi Tola in Pandri village of the state's Gaya district, about 100 km from Patna, in May. Her son Rajendra Manjhi and villagers allege that she died due to extreme thirst. However, the local administration and the state government denied this and termed it as death due to old-age illness. The NHRC directed the district administration to submit a detailed report about the cause of Dukhani's death after an Orissa-based organisation filed a complaint. 'The NHRC has given four weeks time to submit the report,' said a district official Saturday. A team of district officials visited Manjhi Tola Friday to inquire about the case. Manjhi tola is a cluster of around 40 huts of the poor Musahar community. According to Rajendra, a cycle-rickshaw puller at Gaya town, his mother Dukhani lived alone in their house. He said Dukhani was forced to go without water this summer after the only hand pump in the village went dry. The water in the village well, he said, was not fit for consumption and villagers had to travel far in search of water. Dukhani had to go without water as she has difficulty in walking. Rajendra added that there was nobody in the house who could fetch her a glass of water and neighbours ignored her, as water is considered too precious to share in this drought-prone area. CNN-IBN Indian media caught in a caste warp Aasim Khan http://www.ibnlive.com/news/indian-media-caught-in-a-caste-warp/12213-3-1.ht ml New Delhi: Journalism is called the fourth pillar of democracy and media has always raised a vociferous debate on the caste cauldron in society. But has the Fourth Estate itself ignored the principles of democracy in their institutions? According to a survey conducted across the newsrooms of top newspapers and television news networks by Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), it's the upper caste that makes the key editorial decisions for the rest of the country. The survey covered over 300 top editors working in 40 television and print news networks, and profiled them in terms of age, religion, caste/community and gender. It reveals that Hindu upper caste men, who constitute just eight per cent of the total population of India, hold over 70 per cent of the key posts across newsrooms in the country. The so-called twice born Hindu castes dominate 85 per cent key posts despite constituting just 16 per cent of the total population, while the intermediary castes a represent meagre three per cent. The Hindu Other Backward Class groups, who are 34 per cent of the total population, have a share of just four per cent in the Indian newsrooms. Muslims, who constitute about 13 per cent of the population, control just four per cent top posts while Christians and Sikhs have a slightly better representation. But the worst scenario emerges in the case of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). Despite constituting around 24 per cent of the total population, their representation in key decision making across the news spectrum amounts to zilch. That means there is not a single SC or ST person taking a call on editorial policies in country's news arena. But don't we hear journalists breaking "hard" news stories irrespective of their profiles? "Some of the best stories on riots against Muslims were done by Hindus, on women's oppression by men and so on. We just want to put this information in the public domain so that there's better awareness of the diversity profile of the newsmakers," Senior Fellow CSDS Yogendra Yadav says. While the caste divide might be news for outsiders, the veteran newsmen have always known the inside story. "Not that a newsroom should represent India's population trend, the fact that you have no Dalit or Scheduled Tribe person is a shocking omission," Deputy Editor The Hindu Siddharth Vardrarajan says. So whose news is it anyway? A media that triggers heated debate about the reservation row is in itself divided along caste lines. Looks like it's time to raise the debate within. 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