NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ON DALIT HUMAN RIGHTS 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 New January 11,2007 Molested dalit girl forced to flee village- Expressindia.com <http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=216997> http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=216997 Money Control PMO meet on dalit, tribal upliftment <http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/currentaffairs/ciiassocham/pmomeetingfordalittribalupliftment/market/stocks/article/260981> http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/currentaffairs/ciiassocham/pmomeetingfordalittribalupliftment/market/stocks/article/260981 Dalits of Bijapur call off protest - The Hindu <http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0> http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0 Educating the government- Business Standard http://www.business-standard.com/opinionanalysis/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu5&subLeft=1&autono=270990&tab=r Expressindia.com Molested dalit girl forced to flee village http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=216997 House demolished, father dead, daughter with mother threatens immolation to get justice Pune, January 10: Twenty-year-old reshma Baburao Patole, of the Matang community from Katewadi in Baramati taluka, was allegedly molested by two youth —Pramod Maruti Zagade (20), Nilesh Mohan Jamdar (22) — at Bhavaninagar bus stand in Indapur on July 11, 2006. When her mother lodged a complaint against them at Indapur police station, both mother and daughter were beaten up and threatened by the youth, their house was demolished on December 10 and they were forced to flee to another village where her father died of a heart attack on December 28. Reshma, who was in Pune on Wednesday, narrated the incidents since July 11, 2006. She was brought to Pune by Lahuji Shakti Sena state president Shankar Bhau Tadakhe. “Reshma and her mother have suffered in the last seven months with the police harassing them for no fault of theirs.They should have registered a complaint against the accused. Instead of protecting the Patoles, the police are hand-in-glove with the accused,” he alleged. “On July 11, both Zagade and Jamdar accosted, threatened and asked me to accompany them. They threatened to kill me if I did not obey. I told my mother about the incident and she lodged a complaint at Bhavaninagar police station,” said Reshma. Hours later, the youths, accompanied by goons arrived at their home in Deepnagar and beat them up till both of them fell unconscious, Reshma said. “I was threatened and asked to withdraw the case,” she added. They approached the Baramati police to lodge a complaint against the duo. “They refused on the grounds that the earlier complaint was filed under the jurisdiction of Bhavaninagar police station in Indapur taluka.” At Indapur police station, they were told to approach the Baramati police. “One of the constables at Indapur abused and drove us out,” said Reshma, adding that one of the youths was much feared and had an influential relative. The woes continued with policemen coming home and demanding custody of Reshma on the grounds that they had an arrest warrant in her name, said her mother Kamal. “They took six signatures on an affidavit and threatened my husband with dire consequences if we did not withdraw the case. Since then, we have been running from pillar to post for justice.” The threats increased with each passing day, added Reshma. “The goons come to our house frequently and threaten to kill my family members and me,” she said. On December 10, the goons demolished their house. Fearing for their lives, the Patoles, including Reshma, her mother and father, fled Katewadi. They are now staying with her brother Shashikant. “My father died of a heart attack there,” Reshma said. Fed up by the police inaction, the duo resorted to an indefinite fast at Indapur police station on December 12, which did not elicit any response. Rural SP Vishwas Nangre Patil said, “I have called the Patoles to my chamber and will sort out the matter. We will arrest the two youths involved in molesting the girl and all those found guilty in the case. A departmental inquiry will also be conducted against the constable against whom they have complained. However, the mother and daughter are demanding that a molestation case be lodged against him. We have been trying to solve the case since the last 15 days. Our additional SP visited them thrice but they want a case to be filed against the constable. It has become very easy to level allegations against the police after the Khairlanji incident.” The Patoles have threatened to fast at Shaniwarwada to seek the arrest of the accused, failing which they will immolate themselves on January 26. Money Control PMO meet on dalit, tribal upliftment <http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/currentaffairs/ciiassocham/pmomeetingfordalittribalupliftment/market/stocks/article/260981> http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/currentaffairs/ciiassocham/pmomeetingfordalittribalupliftment/market/stocks/article/260981 The Prime Minister's Office has called industry chambers for a meeting on Friday to discuss affirmative action for Dalits and Tribals. CNBC-TV18 reports that on the agenda is the provision of cheap education loans to help low-income students. At their national meeting in Chennai last year, industry chambers CII and Assocham, said no to reservations, but adopted an action plan to improve the skills of Dalit and Tribal students in response to the Prime Minister's affirmative action call. The meeting called by the Prime Minister's Office is to fast forward implementation of the plan and enhance its scale. The agenda of the meeting is to make professional educational loans available to these students on a public private partnership basis through refinance and a credit guarantee fund. CII and Assocham had offered to coach 10,000 dalit and tribal students for graduate courses across 10 universities in 2007, going up to 50,000 students by 2009. They had agreed to set up 10 centres to train 5,000 students for professonal entrance exams and institute 100 scholarships for premier educational institutes like IITs and IIMs. This plan was adopted on October 2 and some steps have been initiated. But there are those in the government, particualy Dalit Ministers like Ram Vilas Paswan and Meira Kumar, who feel the effort is inadequate. The ruling party would also want visible efforts from industry that would yield political dividend in the forthcoming UP assembly elections. This meeting is a step in that direction to impress upon industry the need for urgency. The Hindu Dalits of Bijapur call off protest <http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0> http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0 Staff Correspondent Regional Commissioner assures them of action on their demands in a month _____ The Dalits are on a dharna since 30 days They are demanding action against MLA and others _____ Belgaum: Representatives of Dalit organisations agreed to withdraw their 30-day-long dharna after a meeting between the representatives of Dalit organisations from Belgaum and Bijapur districts and district authorities of the latter here on Wednesday. Regional Commissioner Amita Prasad, who summoned Bijapur Deputy Commissioner Md. Mohsin and Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Ranjan to the meeting, assured to take action in a month on their 11-point demands. The Dalit members had staged dharna, which was subsequently converted into fast, demanding action against Shivanand S. Patil, MLA, representing Basvana Bagewadi in Bijapur district, his brother, Vijaykumar S. Patil, and their supporters for allegedly unleashing a reign of terror and atrocities on six members of a Dalit family in Kanbur village. Business Standard Educating the government http://www.business-standard.com/opinionanalysis/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu5&subLeft=1&autono=270990&tab=r New Delhi January 11, 2007 Pratham shook up the world of education in India with its path-breaking survey in 2005, and it has now released the 2006 report. The findings of this report are striking and important. In rural India, of 100 children in the age group 7-16, the survey finds that 71.3 go to a government school while 18.5 per cent go to a private school. The share of private schools has grown sharply—by around two percentage points—over the last one year. It is believed that the shift to private schools is driven by three kinds of reasons. First, government schools have low-quality teaching. Second, government schools are mostly not English medium. Third, Dalits and Muslims are often not welcome at government schools. Parents choose between free government schools, which are extremely well-funded, and expensive, under-funded private schools. It is important to notice that this is a survey of rural India, where a private “school” is often little more than a few benches under a tree. Government schools are backed by the state with massive expenditures. The fact that parents choose to pay money to send a child to a private school, when they have the option of paying nothing at a government school, speaks volumes for the failure of the government education system. At all ages, more boys are sent to private schools. In Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, UP, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Goa and Kerala, the fraction of children going to private schools exceeds 30 per cent. In other words, spending more on government schools might not be the best way for politicians to curry favour with voters. Pratham has also done important work on measuring what children actually learn, as opposed to the enrolment rates trumpeted by the government. The picture is downright dismal. Skills that ought to be found by the 2nd standard are often achieved only by the 8th standard. This raises serious questions about the UPA’s decision to impose an education cess and spend more on Sarva Shiksha Ahibyan. It is unjust for a government to impose taxes, and then spend only for government schools, giving citizens no choice about how their children should be educated. It would make much more sense for public expenditures to be placed under the control of parents: going to the school that parents choose, ideally with a performance-based payment linked to the test scores of the child. The education bureaucracy will not like this. The CPI(M) excels at converting government expenditures into party funding, by recruiting party cadre as school teachers. This tactic will not work if parents are empowered. What India needs most today is a policy which puts parents back at the centre of education policy. If reports such as this had been produced 50 years ago, and fed back into policy-making, India might not have faced mass illiteracy today, rooted as it is in badly designed public programmes like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The biggest weakness of the Pratham report is that it only covers rural India. India’s GDP is largely made in urban India, and the problems of urban India too are important. What children learn, and the role of private schools, are equally important in urban areas since they are after all the engines of growth. ARUN KHOTE National Media Secretary NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ON DALIT HUMAN RIGHTS (NCDHR) Add: 8/1, South Patel Nagar, NEW DELHI- 110008 ( INDIA) Mobile : 91# 9350183802 Ph & Fax- 91#11-25842249, 91#11-25842250 E Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website : www.dalits.org www.ncdhr.org
