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Kastendiscriminatie in het nieuws

mei 2006


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Onaanraakbaarheid meer gepraktiseerd (The Hindu, 26-5-2006)
Water onbereikbaar voor Dalits in Gaya (IBNLive.com, 25-5-2006)
Beating up of Dalits: PSHRC orders probe (Tribune India, 11-5-2006)
Wetgeving ter voorkoming van misdaden tegen Dalits schiet tekort (The Hindu, 11-5-2006)
Werkloze Dalit engineers eisen werk (NewIndPress.com, 3-5-2006)
Zachter gooien voor de quota jongens (Mumbai Mirror, 2-5-2006)
Overheid legt geen quotas op aan bedrijven (The Times of India, 2-5-2006)


The Hindu, 26-5-2006

Onaanraakbaarheid meer gepraktiseerd
Leden van de Dalit Partij DSS eisen een onderzoek naar de vermeende toename in de praktijk van onaanraakbaarheid. In een memorandum dat zij aan de overheid van de Indiase deelstaat Karnataka overhandigde, meldde zij een stijging in het aantal misdaden tegen Dalits. Ongelijkheid is nog aan de orde van de dag en standbeelden van dr Ambedkar, voorvechter van Dalit rechten, worden regelmatig besmeurd.
Cases of untouchability on the rise, says DSS

Samithi seeks action against those desecrating Ambedkar statue

BELGAUM: Members of the Dalit Sangarsha Samithi (DSS) district unit staged a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office here on Thursday demanding an inquiry into reports that untouchability was being practised in different parts of the district, and the increasing cases of atrocities on Dalits in the State.
The protesters from different parts of the district took out a procession through the main roads of the city and shouted slogans against untouchability and in favour of social justice. The samithi's State convener Raju M. Talwar and district convener Gajanan Gunjeri led the protesters.
They submitted a memorandum to the Government in which they said the atrocities on Dalits had increased. Inequality was also aggravating with each passing day and Dalits, minorities and the backward classes continued to be exploited, they added. Incidents of desecration of the statues of B.R. Ambedkar occurred frequently in different parts of the State, they said.
Demands:
  • Arrest those behind violence against Dalits at Yanagunti and Soudappanahalli
  • Close all liquor shops in Dalit colonies
  • Provide scholarships to Dalit students regularly
  • Though Dalit colonies lacked civic amenities, they were replete with liquor shops, the protesters said.
    The samithi submitted a list of eight demands to the Government, including the arrest of all those behind the violence against Dalits at Yanagunti and Soudappanahalli in Bangalore Rural district, adequate compensation to the affected families, arrest of those who desecrated the statue of Dr. Ambedkar at Bilagi in Bagalkot district and closure of all liquor shops in Dalit colonies.
    The other demands are providing scholarships to Dalit students regularly, ordering an inquiry by the CoD into the alleged irregularities in the Raibag Taluk Panchayat and taking up welfare schemes for workers in the powerloom sector.


    IBNLive.com, 25-5-2006

    Water onbereikbaar voor Dalits in Gaya
    In de Indiase deelstaat Bihar is water voor veel kastelozen een onbereikbaar goed. De Dalits uit het dorp Padri moeten drie kilometer lopen om water te halen. Er is een pomp in het buurdorp, maar die behoort toe aan de hogere kasten. Dalits mogen hier geen water halen.
    Dalits of Gaya untouched by water (door Piyush Pushpak)

    Gaya (Bihar): Kamla Devi is a Mushahar, one of the most backward castes in Bihar. She lost her mother recently - her mother died of thirst.
    "She was asking for water but we have to go really far to fetch it. By the time I went to get water, my mother had died," says Kamla Devi.
    For the dalits of Padri village in Gaya district of Bihar, water is a distant dream.
    It is more precious than gold and every drop has its worth for the villagers, but getting water here is not easy as these villagers are considered untouchables.
    There is water pump in the neighbouring village but the upper caste village keeps these dalits away from their water resources.
    The Mushahars are not just backward but untouchables too. There is only one well in this village but it no longer contains drinkable water.
    "The water in the well is infested with insects and is very dirty. How will we drink it when even the animals don’t touch it," says a resident of Padri, Mangia Devi.
    There aren’t any taps either in Padri. Villagers have to walk at least 3 km to get water.
    There's a hand pump in the neighbourhood, but it belongs to the upper castes - a forbidden territory for Mushahars.
    "The upper castes throw away our buckets whenever we go to fill water. We are untouchables and there is no arrangement of water for us here," says another resident of Padri, Siban Nao.
    "They consider us to be lower caste so they don’t let us take water form," says Meena Devi, Resident, Padri.
    Kamla has lost her mother, but she has no time to grief. Her immediate concern is about the long summer ahead and the even longer walks for a bucket of water.


    Tribune India, 11-5-2006

    Beating up of Dalits: PSHRC orders probe

    Amritsar, May 10
    The Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) directed the District Magistrate (DM) here to strictly comply with the case of atrocities against the Dalits by their employers in some villages here.
    Mr Tarsem Peter, president, Pendu Mazdoor Union, in a press release issued here today said the commission directed the DM to send a report on the matter before the next date of hearing on July 19.
    The PMU had alleged that persons belonging to Dalit families were beaten up upon refusing to work as bonded labourers.


    The Hindu, 11-5-2006

    Wetgeving ter voorkoming van misdaden tegen Dalits schiet tekort
    De implementatie van de wetgeving die Dalits moet beschermen wordt nauwelijks gecontroleerd. Dalit organisaties hebben daarom een voorstel ingediend bij het committee dat de Politie Wet van 1861 aan het herzien is. Onder de aanbevelingen is het instellen van een onafhankelijke dienst, waarin ook dalits zijn vertegenwoordigd, die onderzoek zal doen naar klachten over de politie. Bovendien willen de organisaties dat agenten die de Scheduled Castes Act niet gebruiken, daar ook daadwerkelijk voor worden gestraft.
    Justice for Dalits still a dream (door Siddharth Narrain)

    Implementation of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act under fire.

    In February this year, Dalits in Mahmadpur — a small village near Kunjpura in Karnal district, Haryana — were attacked by members of the land-owning Rode community. Over 30 Dalits were seriously injured. The immediate provocation for the incident was a procession the Dalits were planning on the occasion of Ravidas Jayanthi. The police, on the advice of the village sarpanch (who belongs to the Rode community), refused to allow the procession to be taken past the "upper caste" area in the village. When the Dalits attempted to take out their procession, the police stopped them. The next day, in blatant violation of the law, the sarpanch allegedly instigated upper caste youth to attack the Dalits with hatchets and sickles by making announcements on a loudspeaker from the local temple. The attackers did not spare even women and children.
    Tension between Dalits and the dominant castes in Mahmadpur had been simmering for a while. The Dalits had not supported the sarpanch during the panchayat elections, leading to resentment among his supporters. The sarpanch had cancelled a grant of land for a Ravidas ashram in the

    A Dalit victim of the attack in Mahmadpur
    village made by his predecessor, and filed a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the decision. Added to this, a Brahmin girl from the village had eloped with a Dalit boy around four months before the incident. They got married recently.
    The events that followed the February incident were shocking. Instead of arresting those who attacked the Dalits, the police arrested 15 Dalits on false charges ranging from "dacoity" to "attempt to murder." Instead of framing charges against the sarpanch for allegedly instigating the violence, the police tried to pressure the injured Dalits into forming a 10-member "peace committee," with equal representation from both communities, and suggested that they reach a settlement.
    Only after sustained pressure from Dalit rights groups, and political parties such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bahujan Samaj Party, did the police press charges against the sarpanch. He was finally arrested, weeks after the incident, and is now out on bail. Under sustained pressure, the police arrested eight other persons responsible for the attack. According to Sibash Kaviraj, Superintendent of Police, Karnal, the reason the sarpanch was not arrested earlier was to allow him to take part in the proceedings of the "peace committee."
    The incident in Mahmadpur — a little over an hour's drive from Delhi — and its aftermath reflect a larger problem of the failure of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. It was enacted in 1989 specifically to act as a deterrent against physical, caste-based violence.
    The Act widened the scope of criminal liability and included several acts of commission and omission not covered by the existing Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955. It provided for administrative measures for enforcement of the Act by making provisions for the establishment of Special Courts, and for the appointment of Special Public Prosecutors to conduct trials of offences under the Act. Special Courts have been given enormous powers, including the power to extern potential offenders from scheduled areas and tribal areas, and to attach the property of persons accused under the Act. Public officials who do not perform the duties prescribed under the Act can be punished with a jail term extending up to a year.
    In a damning reflection of the non-implementation of this law, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its Report on the Prevention of Atrocities on Scheduled Castes released in 2002, had said there was "virtually no monitoring of the implementation of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act at any level." It had pointed out that Vigilance and Monitoring Committees, as prescribed under the Act, had not been constituted and where such Committees existed they hardly functioned. The quality of prosecution was poor because the functionaries entrusted with the work lacked both competence and motivation, it said.
    The report also quoted a study of 11 atrocity-prone districts of Gujarat that found that 36 per cent of atrocities cases were not registered under the Atrocities Act. In 84 per cent of the cases where the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was applied, cases were registered under the wrong provisions to conceal the violent nature of the incidents. Charge sheets were framed in only 53 per cent of the cases registered under the Act, and over 22 per cent of cases registered were closed after investigation. According to these figures, over 92 per cent of the cases ended in acquittal.
    Concerned about the inability of the criminal justice system to deal with caste-based violence, Dalit rights organisations have submitted a set of suggestions to the Police Act Drafting Committee currently framing a draft Police Act to replace the existing 1861 Act. These recommendations include the constitution of an independent body, comprising members of marginalised communities including Dalits, to look into complaints against the police.
    They have suggested that the track record of police officers in implementing laws such as the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act be taken into account in evaluating their performance. Police officers found guilty of not implementing the Act should be punished as prescribed in it.
    Besides these reforms, what is needed is better monitoring of the institutions created under the Act to correct the gross under-utilisation of the law. Recently, the Supreme Court issued notice to Central and State Governments on a petition filed by the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, Sakshi-Human Rights Watch, and the Centre for Dalit Rights, asking for directions to ensure that they appoint nodal officers and set up Protection Cells as envisaged under the Act.
    These are measures that the Centre and the States must implement urgently. For those at the receiving end of caste-based violence, what is at stake is not merely a temporary remedy, but the credibility of the legal system's ability to deliver justice.


    NewIndPress.com, 3-5-2006

    Werkloze Dalit engineers eisen werk
    In de staat Karnataka is het actiecomité van werkloze Dalit engineers in hongerstaking gegaan. Zij hopen daarmee de overheid te dwingen om dalit engineers aan te nemen om zo te voldoen aan de quota's. Het voorgaande bestuur is met het proces van achterstallige rekrutering begonnen, maar de huidige overheid lijkt dit beleid niet door te willen zetten.
    Unemployed Dalit engineers demand backlog recruitment

    GULBARGA: Karnataka State SC/ST Unemployed Engineers Action Committee has urged the JD (S)-BJP coalition government to immediately start the process of recruitment of engineers under the backlog quota.
    The committee members who have been on an indefinite relay hunger strike have decided to gherao Chief Minister H.D.Kumaraswamy whenever he visited Gulbarga.
    Speaking to the media here on Tuesday senior Dalit leader Vitthal Doddamani and committee convenor A.B.Hosamani criticised the new government for not showing any interest on holding backlog recruitment even three months after coming to power.
    They pointed out that the previous Dharam Singh government had initiated the process of backlog recruitment of engineers in various departments, but the new government appears to have given a burial to the proposal.
    The reluctance of the new government to take up backlog recruitment has caused concern for hundreds of Dalit unemployed engineers with their future hanging in balance, they said.
    It may be recalled that the committee which launched a relay fast for 115 days and an indefinite fast for 10 days, had called off the indefinite fast On the assurance of the then chief minister Dharam Singh. However, the relay hunger strike has been continuing for the last 118 days.
    During the relay fast Social Welfare Commissioner K.Shivaram visited Gulbarga and called on the agitating engineers on January 18.
    He had told them that the government had identified 525 backlog posts of engineers for recruitment.
    However, the new government has not even constituted a cabinet sub-committee to look into the issue, they alleged.
    The demands of the action committee include among others immediate launching the process of backlog recruitment, filling of supernumery backlog posts of teachers in aided-engineering colleges, polytechnics and ITIs, identifying additional backlog posts by considering inadequacy of roaster among daily wage employees in different departments and publication of a white paper on the actual number of backlog vacancies and the steps taken to fill them.


    Mumbai Mirror, 2-5-2006

    Zachter gooien voor de quota jongens
    Een lezer van de krant Mumbai Mirror suggereert nieuwe manieren waarop de overheid het reserveringsbeleid kan benutten voor het welzijn van de natie. Zo zouden politici alleen nog geopereerd moeten worden door doktoren die het quota systeem hebben benut, en piloten zouden alleen gercruteerd moeten worden omdat ze uit een bepaalde lage kaste komen. Van het populaire cricket zouden de regels moeten worden aangepast zodat de nieuwe Dalits spelers die via quato het nationaal team binnenkomen, ook mee kunnen spelen. In de cynische stuk gaat de schrijver in op de schijnbare tegenstelling tussen competentie en 'affirmative action'.
    Shoaib can't bowl too fast to the quota boys!

    Mirror reader Rohyt, tongue-firmly-in-cheek, suggests weird ways in which the govt can put its reservations policy to good use

    I think we should have job reservations in all fields. I completely support the PM and all politicians for making this proposal. Let's start the reservation with our cricket team. We should have 10 per cent reservation for certain communities, and 30 per cent for those from certain castes. Cricket rules should also be modified accordingly.
    For instance, the boundary circle should be reduced for a player from a reserved category. The four hit by such a player should be considered as a six and a six hit by him should be counted as eight runs. Also, if such a player scores 60 runs, it should be declared as a century. We should influence the ICC and make rules so that pace bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar are not allowed to bowl fast balls to our ‘reserved’ player. Bowlers should bowl at a maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour to the player. Any delivery above this speed should be made illegal. Also we should have reservation in the Olympics. In the 100 meters race, a reserved player should be given a gold medal if he runs 80 meters.
    There can be reservation in government jobs also. Let’s recruit pilots, just because they are from the reserved castes, for aircraft which carry ministers and politicians (that would really help the country...)
    Ensure that only doctors who have benefited from the quota system operate on our politicians.
    Let's be creative and think of ways and means to guide India forward. Let's show the world that India is a great country. Let’s be proud of being an Indian.


    The Times of India, 2-5-2006

    Overheid legt geen quotas op aan bedrijven
    Na kritiek vanuit het bedrijfsleven heeft de Indiase overheid dinsdag gezegd dat het geen quotas zal opleggen. Wel is het de bedoeling om via 'affirmative action' de kansen van kastelozen in het bedrijfsleven te bevorderen. De minister van Handel en Industrie ontkent dat er sprake is van een meningsverschil tussen bedrijven en de overheid, de nieuwe plannen sluiten immers aan bij het verantwoord ondernemen beleid van de bedrijven zelf.
    Government not to impose job quotas on private firms

    NEW DELHI: Amid opposition from the private sector to reserving jobs for SCs and STs, the government on Tuesday said it will not impose quotas on India Inc, but only wanted more 'affirmative action' from the industry for the socially underprivileged.
    "Government is not talking of any enforced action for the industry that would be run down your throats," Minister of State of Commerce and Industry Ashwini Kumar said at a CII conference for the specially abled people here.
    "You (industry) are already into affirmative action through your corporate responsibility initiatives. It does not need any enforced action, you are already doing it", he said, referring to the ongoing difference of opinion between the government and the industry on reservation and affirmative action, which he termed as 'spurious'.
    "There is no incongruity between what the govenment proposes and what the industry seeks to do," Kumar added.
    He said the UPA Government was committed to ensuring equal particiaption for all sections of the society and would purposefully assist those who were in need.
    "We are committed to creating more employment for the specially abled. There will be a renewed thrust and we will encourage the private sector to absorb more of the disabled to achieve the targeted three per cent job reservation for the disabled."
    Currently, around 0.60 per cent disabled is employed in the public sector and only 0.28 per cent in the private sector.


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