India's Biggest Nationwide Student Protest in a Quarter Century spread across University Campuses :

[Dalit Freedom]

[h=2]Caste and Race: Two sides of the same coin?[/h]By Vipul Tripathi
May 29, 2009

[h=5]Tags:[/h] CASTE | CASTE DISCRIMINATION | DALIT | DURBAN | GENEVA | GOVERNMENT | HUMAN RIGHTS |INDIA | RACE | RACIAL DISCRIMINATION | RIOTS | SIKH | VIENNA | VIENNA INCIDENT
The attack in a Sikh temple in Vienna and the subsequent clashes in Punjab have brought renewed focus on the internationalisation of what many Indians see as a domestic problem.
In August 2001, I heard Martin Macwan, a human rights activist, talk about raising the issue of caste at international forums, specifically in the context of the U.N. race summit in Durban that year. The move was however opposed by the government.
Macwan spoke movingly about how fellow activists had been killed while agitating for their rights.
Nearly a decade later, the debate on how to tackle caste still rages.
Those who want to highlight the issue on international forums, like at the Durban Review Conference at Geneva last month, see no problem in linking it to race since racial discrimination is a widely prevalent practice that helps people understand other kinds of discrimination as well.
Media reports say the Indian government remains opposed to this.
Some experts and newspaper columnists say caste and racial discrimination are similar.
They argue that the focus on race leaves out caste only because Europe’s experience has had more to do with race, and this should not be a reason for ignoring caste discrimination.
Both race and caste involve inequality and prejudice based on birth and descent.
Moreover, as the Vienna incident shows, with the Indian diaspora present in more than a hundred countries and numbering in millions, caste itself has been internationalised and is not a solely Indian concern.
Some say India’s commitment to international conventions and human rights is undermined if the plea of dissimilarity is used to put off raising the issue.
Others say race and caste cannot be equated.
They feel that different races cannot be identified in the diversity of the Indian population and therefore the issue of racial discrimination is irrelevant to India and cannot be likened to caste discrimination which is unique to Indian history and social experience.
In fact, anthropologist Andre Beteille argued that stating caste or any other kind of discrimination in terms of racial discrimination would be unscientific.
He said this may give a new lease of life to the concept of race.
Besides the Indian constitution bans discrimination based on caste, race, language or sex. After all, India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh is ruled by a Dalit woman and many call this an example of India’s success at tackling the issue.
Should caste be treated as race? Is the Indian government’s stand justified?

 

[Dalit Freedom]

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The Rediff Interview/Chandra Bhan Prasad, Dalit activist

'Indian languages carry the legacy of caste'

March 05, 2007

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In an article on reservation for oppressed classes in the information technology sector, noted sociologist Gail Omvedt had quoted a Dalit boy as saying: 'In Pune they just assume that anyone working with computers is a Brahmin.'The hidden agony of being born in the former untouchable class is now coming into the open in the so-called resurgent India. Dalits, who number around 17 million and live on the margins of society, are passing through testing times.
In a changing India, they don't want to be left behind as they have for thousands of years in the past. Their aspiration to get ahead is driving them to a variety of new ideas and actions. They are also, looking back to their messiah -- freedom fighter and Constitution expert Dr B R Babasaheb Ambedkar.
New Delhi-based Chandra Bhan Prasad, 48, is a Dalit activist who writes a weekly column on Dalit issues in The Pioneer newspaper.
Born in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, in a peasant's family, Prasad has done an M Phil from Jawaharlal Nehru University on technological acquisition in post-Mao China. Due to unavailability of resources he could not complete his Ph D in the Chinese history of science.
Prasad picked up the gun in the early 1980s when he joined the Communist Party of India-Maoist Leninist with dreams of changing Indian society. "The Maoists are ambiguous, they can't win," he says. "They are not reflective on the issue of caste in India so I left the CPI-ML."
Now, married but struggling without a regular income, Prasad keeps throwing up provocative ideas concerning Dalits in the national debate.
His latest idea is the anti-thesis of the saying -- 'language is the cradle of civilisation.' Prasad thinks the ethnic languages of India are carrying forward -- generation after generation -- the prejudices and biases of casteist Indian minds.
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[Dalit Freedom]

[h=1]THE INDIAN CASTE SYSTEM: A MEANS OF ETERNAL SEGREGATION AMIDST THE FIGHT FOR EQUALITY[/h]by Nivedha Kumar
On a sultry afternoon in Chennai, India, I lounge on my grandparents’ couch, forced to stay inside by the blistering sun whose unbearable heat tries to force its way into the house, only to be stopped by drawn curtains, high ceiling fans, and centralized air conditioning. Flipping through channels on television, I munch on Kurkure, a spicy Indian snack. With every bite, crumbs fall onto my lap but almost immediately land on the floor with the swift brush of my hand. Just as the clock strikes three, Priya, the house servant, enters, ready to begin her afternoon duties. She grabs a broom and turns off the fan in the living room, so as not to disrupt the dust she is about to accumulate in a pile. When she sweeps the crumbs near the couch, I lift my feet up to give her room. Within minutes she is done sweeping, and about 15 minutes later, a cup of cold Nestle chocolate milk is placed in front of me. My now empty bag of Kurkure is thrown away, the pillows on the couch are fluffed, and Priya is in the kitchen doing dishes. Later in the evening, my grandmother packs her some Jalebis, an Indian sweet, and new clothes that were bought for Priya and her kids. She reminds Priya of the family wedding taking place next weekend, telling her to be here promptly at 6 p.m. Saturday evening so the car can take her to the venue. With that last notice, Priya packs up and heads home to her children, who are sitting on the concrete floor of a one-bedroom apartment with a barely working rickety ceiling fan, eager to see the goodies their mother will bring home from work that day.

 

[Dalit Freedom]

[h=2]INDIA: Breaking the Caste System[/h]

27 Jan 2012

Posted by Purnima Ramakrishnan (India)

18 Comments

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Recently, we had a beautiful Saturday Sidebar question from our Sidebar editor Eva Fannon, titled, ‘I have a dream’. This is my longer answer to that question:

Martin Luther King spoke about the ghosts of racism. Here, in India, racism exists too – but a different kind of racism. It is called the caste system.
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If you do not have a prior knowledge of the caste system, briefly it is like this – there is the concept of a higher (or forward or upper) caste of people comprising of Brahmins and such. The lower (or backward) caste comprises of Dalits and such. The lower castes were economically, educationally and socially underprivileged. And so the Indian government created laws, sixty years ago, which alloted a percentage of college seats and jobs for them so that their standard of living could improve. With that background, now you may read on…

Any Indian, who has been a victim of the caste system, could write volumes about it, but I will restrict myself to giving you just one link here for now to understand this better. It is called Reservation system based on caste. Someone unfamiliar with the caste system would be appalled reading just the first few lines of this wiki entry. But this general wiki link is the most muted version of the actual reality.
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[Dalit Freedom]

[h=1]A brief introduction to India's caste system[/h]India's constitution outlawed castes in 1950, but millions are still treated as outcastes.

STAFF WRITER | JULY/AUGUST 2001






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A brief introduction to India's caste systemA brief introduction to India's caste systemStaff WriterMarch 17, 2015UU World MagazineJuly/August 2001, published by theUnitarian Universalist AssociationFeatureCulture[h=2]Article, continued[/h]
The roots of the Hindu caste system were already in place between 1000 and 1500 B.C., when the Aryans settled in the Indus River valley. The Rig Veda, a sacred text from the period, describes the four main castes (varnas) in traditional Hindu society: brahmins, the class of priests and teachers; kshatriyas, the warrior class, who were the rulers and soldiers; vaishyas, the commercial class of artisans, traders, and cultivators; and shudras, the servant and peasant class.The Portuguese coined the word "caste" in the 16th century to refer to these four groups. To Hindus, however, the concept of caste has a narrower and more precise meaning, referring to the smaller subgroups defined by subtle distinctions of birth, intermarriage, and occupation. The four main castes comprise more than 2,000 subcastes.
Beneath these castes is a fifth population group—those without any caste, literally, outcastes. This includes the people traditionally known as "untouchables." The Indian constitution of 1950 made "untouchability" illegal. Today these people call themselves dalits("oppressed"). Also in this fifth group are the "tribals," the 50 million Indians who live in tribal communities that predate the Aryan and Dravidian civilizations. They are members of the "backward" classes.

 

[Dalit Freedom]

[h=2]Indian elections: the return of caste[/h]Victor Mallet Author alerts

| May 12 2014 10:07 | 2 comments | Share

The issue of caste never really went away during this election campaign. How could it in a country where government jobs and seats in parliament are set aside for “scheduled castes”, where some parties are run by and for lower-caste citizens or dalits (the former “untouchables”), and where parents routinely seek same-caste spouses for their children in the classified advertisements? But caste has loomed particularly large in the past week of political debates and disputes leading up to today’s final day of voting.
India’s media have been almost unanimous in attributing the return of caste as a hot issue to the campaign strategy of Narendra Modi, who needs to win seats in the populous and caste-obsessed states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar if he is to become prime minister at the head of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governmen

 

[Dalit Freedom]

[h=1]Britain searches for solution to caste discrimination In India[/h]Victory turned sour for those calling for the United Kingdom to outlaw Indian-type caste discrimination, when it was revealed the rules won't come into force until 2015. Some British Indians say such a law isn't needed.

Ram Dhariwal says he's experienced discrimination first-hand at work as an IT professional in Britain. "It made me feel small," he said, when a new Indian colleague immediately asked him at a department meeting about his caste, then derided him as a so-called "untouchable." Dhariwal's religion would have made him an untouchable, a Dalit, if he lived in India.
His experience was not an isolated one, with caste discrimination on the rise in the Indian-British community, the country's largest minority group. Lawmakers decided something needed to be done, and this spring they added caste as "an aspect of race" to the UK's anti-discrimination Equality Act. Critics say doing so has drawn attention to caste and made a small problem a greater one.
Race may have been an issue at times, but never caste issues from within his own community, said Dhariwal, a second-generation Indian Brit living the middle-class life his parents envisioned for their children after they moved here in the 1960s.
"My dad would be astonished," he told DW, adding that the issue of caste has come to the fore more frequently since Parliament took up the debate a couple of years ago.
The British-Indian community is a UK fixture

"Over the last few years … since this caste system legislation has been playing around," Dhariwal said, "that's made people more open - especially high caste - of raising their profile."
Opponents of the new legislation within the South Asian community say that caste discrimination was fading from memory in the UK before the issue came under scrutiny.
"I think this has done more harm than good," said Bharti Tailor of Hindu Forum UK. "It has brought up these divides and opened old wounds when they were in fact healing naturally. [And] this legislation is vilifying and putting a spotlight on [our] community … and saying we discriminate within that community. That is a big burden."
The right route?
The Indian-British community, some say, is increasingly blighted by growing internal divisions that emanate from India.
"We found cases we thought were caste discrimination that would come under the Equality Act," said Hilary Metcalf, co-author of a legislative report containing two dozen case studies in which caste was a major reason why certain people weren't hired for a job or some children were bullied at school.
"[One] carer was caring for [a family's] mother," recalled Metcalf, looking over her 2011 report. "But eventually the carer saw a picture of the guru Ravidass, who is related to the Ravidassian religion, regarded as a low-caste religion."
Metcalf says the carer started naming excuse after excuse to avoid washing the elderly woman who she now regarded as an "untouchable."

 

[Dalit Freedom]

Inside India's Perna Caste, Where Women Are Routinely Prostituted by Their In-Laws

Attention in India is finally being directed at gender relations following what's now widely known as the Delhi Incident, but the outrage is still class-based, and women like Rani, a 30-year-old whose husband is also her pimp, see little hope for change.

LOIS PARSHLEY JUN 17, 2013






NATURE & TECHNOLOGY
Bringing Schools Into the 21st Century






NATURE & TECHNOLOGY
Genetically Modifying Organisms in the Wild

(PHOTO: LOIS PARSHLEY)
NEW DELHI — On a recent sunny day before the monsoons began, a thin woman settled to the floor in the cool shade of a nondescript apartment building in Dharampura, where a Perna community lives on the outskirts of Delhi. Rani is not normally awake in the afternoon; the Perna practice a form of inter-generational sex work, which is a strangely polite way of saying that women here expect to be prostituted by their husbands.
Rani’s daily routine rarely changes: she “goes for prostitution” around 2:00 a.m., taking an auto-rickshaw with other Perna women to public places. “Anywhere that’s crowded is good,” she says. “Bus stations, taxis.” In nearby Delhi, women with the means to do so make their plans for the evening early and don’t leave the house without a male escort after dark. Rani, who goes out every night on her own, says she dreads the moment when the group of women inevitably separates: “You have to do the work alone.” She tries to avoid the police. Rather than providing her protection, they ask for free sex and take her money. On good nights she might service as many as five customers, bad nights are the ones when she can’t find a john. She comes home around 7:00 a.m., makes her six children and her husband breakfast, washes clothes, takes a nap, cooks dinner, sometimes steals another few hours of sleep, and then gets up to start the day all over again. She met her husband on the day of her wedding, becoming his second wife at the age of 17, and two years later, his prostitute. “I knew it would happen, it’s very normal,” she said. “I do it to earn for my family.”
“If rape happens in Delhi, everyone gets excited,” said Abhilasha Kumari, director of Apne Aap Worldwide. “But these women are raped every day,” she says of the country’s prostitutes.

 

[Dalit Freedom]

[h=2]How foreigners look at the division of Indian Society on caste/religion lines[/h][h=6]Manoj Kumar Paras, Special to The Milli Gazette[/h][h=6]Published Online: Oct 20, 2015[/h]19 October, 2015: Bihar is one of the most populous states of India. The population density is almost three times the average density in the country. This shows that resources are not sufficient for the residents. A similar situation exists in other eastern states like Orissa and West Bengal. Other parts of the country also face the problem of poverty but the situation is worst in the eastern part. Hence the upper castes who own most of the resources, always try to retain those privileges. Be it political or administrative opportunities, they always want their incapable own caste people to avail them. This is the main reason behind the division of society on caste and religion lines.In the current situation, bureaucracy is dominated by upper caste people. They exploit people from backward castes, schedule caste/tribes and minorities in one way or the other, whether it be the case of promotions in jobs or day-to-day work in the offices. In recent decades, representation of backward leaders has risen drastically. But they try to further divide the backward and minority communities in order to rule. This is not good for the nation as leaders need to be transparent. If the country wants to grow, the leaders of society, i.e., upper caste people, need to be honest. They should not harass marginalised communities.The caste system and divisions in the Indian society are well known to people all over the world. People in Europe are very much interested to know about the Indian caste system. One of my colleagues, who is Lithuanian, showed interest in this issue. She might find it good to know the secrets of the caste sytem but sharing knowledge about this bad practice is a matter of pain for me and any other Indian. These issues have been discussed by Michael Neuwirt, an Austrian. He says, “We to have divisions in society but its on the basis of economy.”These days developed countries are no longer religious. They a

 

[Dalit Freedom]

[h=1]Inter-Caste Marriage Tears Indian Family Apart[/h][h=5]By: Seema Chowdhury[/h]

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MUMBAI, India (WOMENSENEWS)--"Girls are not suppose to speak their mind," Aastha says. "My parents were totally against me marrying Vivan, who belonged to another caste."
Aastha, 39, who requested her full name not be used, says her father no longer speaks to her because she married a man from a different caste six years ago.
The project manager for an information technology company here, she says she met her husband in a computer class. Two years later, they decided to get married.
"I tried very hard to bring my family to an agreement," she says. "After five months of persuasion, they accepted."
Everyone except her father.
"He was concerned that our family would be given bad names because, before this, no one had married outside our caste, and if I did so, he would have to face problems in our community," she says.
After years of marriage, Aastha still hasn't visited her parents' house.
"Even after my child's birth, my father did not speak to me or come to see my daughter," she says. "He still believes that I have broken family tradition by marrying outside our caste."
Aastha says she is happy with her decision to marry her husband, but she is unhappy with the mindset of her parents.

 

[Dalit Freedom]

IMPAIMPACT OF CASTE SYSTEM IN INDIACT OF CASTE SYSTEM IN INDIA​

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Blog by Col Gurnam Singh



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In India, the caste system developed and is prevalent since ancient times and it remains as a great thorn and mystery in the flesh of Mother India.It is believed to have been adopted by the Brahmins to express their superiority and to maintain it. Then the Aryan races swept into India from the North and they wanted them to be superior to the insiders and so they maintained the prevalent caste systems. Gradually the caste system became formalized into four major groups, each with its own rules and regulations and code of conduct.
The caste system finds its origin in functional groupings, called [FONT=robotobold !important]varnas, which have their origins in the Aryan society. In their creation myth, four[FONT=robotobold !important] varnas[/FONT] are said to have emanated from the Primeval Being. "According to the [FONT=robotobold !important]Rig Veda hymn[/FONT], the different classes sprang from the four limbs of the Creator. The Creator’s mouth became the [FONT=robotobold !important]Brahman priests,[/FONT] his two arms formed the [FONT=robotobold !important]Rajanya [/FONT](Khastriyas), the warriors and kings, his two thighs formed the [FONT=robotobold !important]Vaishya[/FONT] landowners and merchants, and from his feet were born the [FONT=robotobold !important]Shudra ([/FONT]Untouchables) artisans and servants. It was meant to show that the four classes stood in relation to the social organization in the same relation as the different organs of the Primordial Man to his body. Together they had to function to give vitality to the body politic.”
"A person’s worth is determined by his knowledge and capacity and the inherent qualities which mark his conduct in life.” The four fold division of castes’ says the Creator in the [COLOR=#000000 !important][FONT=robotobold !important]Bhagavad Gita,[/FONT][/FONT] [FONT=robotobold !important]“was created by me according to the apportionment of qualities and duties.” “Not birth, not sacrament, not learning, make one dvija (twice-born), but righteous conduct alone causes it.” “Be he a Sudra or a member of any other class, says the Lord in the same epic, “he that serves as a raft on a raftless current , or helps to ford the unfordable, deserves respect in everyway.”

This caste system became fixed and hereditary with the emergence of Hinduism and its beliefs of pollution and rebirth. The Laws of Manu [FONT=robotobold !important](Manusmitri),[/FONT] refer to the impurity and servility of the outcastes, while affirming the dominance and total impunity of Brahmins. Those from the “lowest” castes are told that their place in the caste hierarchy is due to their sins in a past life. Vivid punishments of torture and death are assigned for crimes such as gaining literacy or insulting a member of a dominant caste. Among the writings of Hindu religious texts, the [FONT=robotobold !important]Manusmitri[/FONT] is undoubtedly the most authoritative one, legitimizing social exclusion and introducing absolute inequality as the guiding principle of social relations.
[FONT=robotobold !important]How did caste system affect:[/FONT]

The religious leaders of Hinduism created the oppressive caste system as an essential component of the religion.
It does not allow for upward mobility in society. If a person's family comes from the lower economic strata, in a society based on a caste system, that person would need to remain within that restricted level.
However so long as a caste system is designed on he basis that people placed in a given caste have the appropriate skills and disposition for their a caste it improves efficiency as over time people in a given caste will become more specialized at fulfilling the duties of their caste. This however is often not the case and castes are more often based solely on social and economic power, not the actual suitability of the given people's abilities to their caste.

In my opinion, the [FONT=robotobold !important]caste system affects the society by making the people more exposed to prejudice, stereotyping and other things[/FONT]. These differences in rankings often cause disputes within the society. However, how it affects the society depends on how you see it.

Caste system is filled with inequality and injustice. [FONT=robotobold !important]There is no point in calling casteism as a system or a process, rather it is an evil.[/FONT] Indian society is cast ridden. The people of one caste don’t like to mix with others. This division of society into so many religions, castes and sub-castes comes in the way of the unity and integrity of the Indian nation. People vote on the basis of caste and religion and do not take the merits of the candidate into consideration. Democracy itself has become a mockery owing to this evil.




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[Dalit Freedom]

[h=1]India’s ancient caste system prevents it from becoming a modern power[/h]

• Politics
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by Joseph Cotto - May 6, 201415 8573

image: [url]http://commdiginews.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/caste2.jpg

[/URL]India's caste system
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OCALA, Fla., May 6, 2014 — India is an emerging power often overlooked by America. It is the former British colony which has surged to prominence not so much for cheap manufacturing as for information technology. From product support centers to software development, American corporations have seen the promise of India’s high-aptitude yet low-paid workforce.
Such an almost unbelievable combination has led no small number to conclude that India will someday leave America in the dust. While class-transcendent social mobility may have made this the case in China, India plays by its own age-old set of rules.
These rules have provided a sense of stability over the years, but have proven incompatible with contemporary Western values. How this conflict is sorted out during the years ahead will determine India’s ultimate place in the global community.

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READ ALSO: Standing against illegal immigration isn’t ‘conservative,’ it’s American

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At the heart of this conflict is the caste system; a traditional cornerstone of India’s dominant Hinduism. Simply put, the caste structure calls for rigid separation between social classes. The concept of laws applying equally to all people or broad-based possibilities for economic prosperity are laughingstocks if mentioned at all.
Fortunately, some Indians are trying to change this setup. One of them is Yogesh Varhade, the longtime president of the Ambedkar Centre for Justice and Peace. Born to impoverished cotton mill laborers at the caste system’s ground floor, he went on to receive a college education and pursue human rights work. He now lives in Pennsylvania, and despite being of retirement age, has no intention of slowing down with h
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Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/politic...ing-a-modern-power-16900/#QDBCBly2k0bfzzRv.99

 

[Dalit Freedom]

India child sex abuse report: Sita's story

• 7 February 2013
• From the sectionIndia

The Indian government has failed to curb the rampant sexual abuse of thousands of children, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. One of them was Sita (not her real name) - a 12-year-old girl living with HIV whose parents were too poor to look after her.
Sita was placed in a small residential facility in Haryana state - the Drone Foundation - that was supposed to give her specialised care.
But she says she was raped by the son of the woman who ran it - a 42-year-old man who also had HIV.

He would take me to a room and say that if I told anybody about this, he would throttle my neckSita, 12, abuse victim​

"He used to come drunk. He would take me to a room and say that if I told anybody about this, he would throttle my neck," she told counsellors after she left the facility.
When she told other people about the abuse, she says they slapped her.
In January 2012 an employee at the Drone Foundation called Childline - a telephone helpline for children in distress.
Within hours, the facility was raided by police and the children rescued. The manager and her son, who deny wrongdoing, are on trial.
'Systemic failure'

But Sita's ordeal did not end there.
Haryana state's child welfare committee sent her to another residential home, Apna Ghar, that was run by a respected local charity.
But three months after Sita was placed there, three other children escaped to Delhi and reported shocking levels of abuse.
Investigators heard that Sita had been forced to work as a cleaner, while other children who had been there longer reported violent sexual abuse by the owner and members of staff.
"She used to beat some people naked. Some were hung from the ceiling fan and beaten by her. Others were tied to their bed or the window grill," one girl said.
Some said they had been forced to have sex with policeman and other strangers, and to have abortions.
After the raid the home was closed down, but inspectors from the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said Haryana state government should have detected the abuse much sooner.
"The mechanism of monitoring the facilities has actually entirely failed in the state of Haryana. It is not neglect, it is systemic failure," Vinod Tikoo of the NCPCR told Human Rights Watch.
Nine people accused of the abuse, as well as the policeman in charge of the initial investigation, are awaiting trial.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-21366620

• India child sex victims 'humiliated' - Human Rights Watch
  7 February 2013
  
  
  
  

 

[Dalit Freedom]

India child sex victims 'humiliated' - Human Rights Watch

But Sita's ordeal did not end there.
Haryana state's child welfare committee sent her to another residential home, Apna Ghar, that was run by a respected local charity.
But three months after Sita was placed there, three other children escaped to Delhi and reported shocking levels of abuse.
Investigators heard that Sita had been forced to work as a cleaner, while other children who had been there longer reported violent sexual abuse by the owner and members of staff.
"She used to beat some people naked. Some were hung from the ceiling fan and beaten by her. Others were tied to their bed or the window grill," one girl said.
Some said they had been forced to have sex with policeman and other strangers, and to have abortions.
After the raid the home was closed down, but inspectors from the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said Haryana state government should have detected the abuse much sooner.
"The mechanism of monitoring the facilities has actually entirely failed in the state of Haryana. It is not neglect, it is systemic failure," Vinod Tikoo of the NCPCR told Human Rights Watch.
Nine people accused of the abuse, as well as the policeman in charge of the initial investigation, are awaiting trial.

 

[Dalit Freedom]

[h=1]India: Ugly face of caste politics in Tamil Nadu[/h]
by Vidya Bhushan Rawat, 9 July 2013

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other articles by the author

sacw.net - 9 July 2013
The death of E.Ilavarsan in Tamilnadu might be a single column report in our newspapers but it has reflected the mindset prevailing in India and deep rooted caste prejudices against the Dalits in our society. It has also proved that the Dravidian politics has not been able to overcome its own prejudices against Dalits and they large represent the politics of powerful politicized OBCs who at the social level have been at the loggerheads with Dalits. It is not strange therefore that none of the mainstream Dravidian parties have spoken unambiguously on the issue though the political parties particularly representing Dalits, such as Puthia Tamilgam and Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi have sought action against PMK, yet so far no visible action is seen on the ground by the Tamilnadu government. The Madras High Court is now observing this matter as the family of Ilavarsan has asked for a second autopsy as they refuse to believe that it is a case of suicide.

 

[Dalit Freedom]

[h=1]A ‘Rape Map’ of India[/h]

By Aditi Malhotra and Saptarishi Dutta

A graphic showing the number of rape cases in India in 2011. The Wall Street Journal
Delhi has long been considered one of the most unsafe big cities for women in India. And north India is often referred to as mo

 

[Dalit Freedom]

[h=2]India’s Caste System: Barrier to Inclusive Development[/h]Posted on 19 May 2010
By Ramaswami Balasubramaniam
Over the last year, I have spoken at universities in Canada and the U.S. on India’s development challenges. One question that repeatedly came up was on the issue of caste and how it was impacting India. India’s caste system has been much studied and researched. It has been criticized and commented upon. Many have blamed it for present day ills.

Subscribing to the view that ‘development is an expansion of human capabilities’ and that poverty is more a lack of opportunity rather than anything else, I have been personally disgusted by the discrimination and the denial of opportunity that the caste system has created. Part of my dream for India is an egalitarian and caste free society where every Indian would have equal opportunity to pursue his life without fear and with all his basic needs addressed. The state would only be a facilitator ensuring that the people below the safety net have a helping hand and not be condemned to live off handouts.

Can this ever happen? Will our caste ridden societal framework ever let this happen? How could the system based on division of labor (as propounded in the Bhagavad Gita) have degenerated over the years to what it is today?

Our early ancestors were mainly hunter-gatherers and depended on crude weapons to help sustain their lives and economies. With progress came the concept of a settled existence and this led them to have land holdings, take to agriculture, store food grains, and become less nomadic. Societal demands forced them to discover the secrets of metallurgy, fabricate better weapons, and develop their drive to acquire and defend. They not only had to start thinking about tomorrow, but also protect what they had and lead a life based on some social norms.
- See more at: http://hausercenter.org/iha/2010/05...o-inclusive-development/#sthash.rWEJWIPo.dpuf

 

[Dalit Freedom]

[h=1]india :In five years, child rapes soar 151%[/h][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 46, align: left"]Source :[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]SIFY[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 46, align: left"]By :[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]Devanik Saha, IndiaSpend[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Last Updated: Mon, Aug 24, 2015 11:02 hrs

​

In 2014, a spate of child-sexual-abuse cases in Bangalore gained much attention: A six-year-old girl raped by her 37-year-old teacher, a four-year-old girl sexually assaulted by unidentified persons and an eight-year-old girl raped by her 63-year-old teacher, to mention a few.
Splashed in the media and fiercely debated, these cases were only the public manifestation of what is increasingly acknowledged as a largely private crime, with unknown numbers not reported or registered in official statistics.

Yet, the number of registered child rapes rose 151% from 5,484 in 2009 to 13,766 in 2014, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
In addition, 8,904 cases were registered nationwide under the Prevention of Sexual Offences Against Children (POCSO) Act and 11,335 under the category "assault on women (girl child) with intent to outrage her modesty under Section 354 IPC (which includes stalking, voyeurism, use of criminal force with an intent to disrobe, etc)", according to the NCRB.
NCRB has started collecting POCSO-specific data only from 2014 onwards only. A simple explanation of the POSCO Act is given here the new law makes it mandatory to report all cases of child sexual abuse.
Madhya Pradesh tops the list in child rapes, followed by Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh (UP).
Source: NCRB
Source: NCRB
There are two major reasons for rising rapes against children over the past four years: First, a rise in reporting; and second, new criminal laws, experts told IndiaSpend.
"Reporting of child abuse and rape cases have increased due to the lowering of the stigma attached, but incidence has also increased, definitely," said Amit Sen, a child and adolescent psychiatrist from Delhi.
The rise of social media has created awareness about child abuse, said Sonali Gupta, a clinical psychologist from Mumbai. "Furthermore, many instances of celebrities opening up about being abused in their childhood (for instance, the actor Kalki Koechin) have also motivated many parents to report abuse," she said.
Simultaneously, the introduction of POCSO in 2012 and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Actin 2013 was instrumental in higher reporting of rape against children-although sexually active teenagers now run the risk of consensual intercourse being classified as rape.
The new definitions of rape
"The definition of rape… now includes many more sexual actions than were earlier classified as sexual assault," said Ved Kumari, a professor at Delhi University's Faculty of Law. She explained how POSCO has raised the age of consent for girls from 16 to 18 years. This means boys who have consensual sex can be charged with rape.
Before the new laws, only "peno-vaginal assault" was considered rape with an excessive emphasis on torn hymens (which continues), according to Shaibya Saldanha, co-founder of Bangalore's Enfold Trust, an advocacy that focuses on child sexual abuse.
"But now, injuries to vagina and other parts are considered as evidence," said Saldanha. "For boys, it was even more difficult as only serious anal injuries would be considered as evidence. POCSO states that a child's testimony and circumstantial evidence will be of paramount importance."
As a consequence, there has been "a huge increase" in child-sexual-abuse cases after the POSCO Act of 2012, said Audrey D'Mello, Project Director at Mumbai's Majlis Law, a legal advocacy.
Source: NCRB
UP tops the list in POCSO cases, accounting for 40% of the total cases, followed by West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
However, little has changed in rural areas, which are largely untouched by media pressure, political interest and the NGOs who help in registering cases.
"In rural areas, police are extremely reluctant to file a FIR," said Rakesh Senger, Project Director–Campaigns and Victim Assistance, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), or Save Childhood Movement, an NGO. "Only extreme cases such as a gang rape or a multiple rapes by a single person are accorded some importance."
Most abuse is by people close or known to children
It is known that about nine of 10 rapes and sexual assaults are carried out by people known to the victim. That holds true in the case of children as well.
As many as 86% of all rapes in 2014 were committed by a person known to the victim, according to the NCRB.
RAHAT is a program by Majlis Law to provide socio-legal support to survivors of sexual assault, so that survivors are not traumatised in the course of investigation and prosecution. This is what they found during a study of 644 cases they handled in Mumbai:
51% of the victims were between 11 years and 18 years old
91% of rapes were committed by known persons and involved long-term abuse
46% of family rapes were by fathers
"We all talk about installing CCTVs and making public spaces, but children are being abused more by known people including family members, therefore, the discourse needs to focus in the right direction," said D'Mello of Majlis Law.
"In most of the cases that come to us… very few cases involve strangers," said Pooja Taparia, founder of Arpan, an NGO that works with affected children.
Therefore, apart from spending quality time with children, parents and schools need to provide sex education to children and empower them to talk about possible abuse.
"Pedophiles target children who are easily accessible (For e.g. [the pedophile could be] a close relative, watchman, guard or school conductor)," said Aarti Rajaratnam, a psychologist from Chennai. "Children who are emotionally vulnerable and needy, whose parents are out for long hours and do not spend quality time with them are most likely to be swayed by pedophiles."
Police, judiciary and hospitals lack sensitivity in dealing with abused children
"Show me the undergarment you were wearing before being raped." This was the demand that a policeman made of a 12-year-old girl in a Jashpur (Chhattisgarh) police station in June this year.
The case was narrated by the BBA's Senger, who has worked with police of several states. He said police frequently threaten or intimidate child victims of sexual abuse, pressuring them to retract statements; in some cases, they try to broker a "compromise" between rapist and victim.
The conviction rates for rape cases, cases under POCSO and assault on women (girl child) with intent to "outrage her modesty" under Section 354 IPC in 2014 were 31.1%, 24% and 29.3% respectively (of cases whose trials have been completed), according to the NCRB.
Data tabled in the parliament reveal 6,816 FIRs (till October 2014) filed under the POCSO Act, with 166 convictions, a rate of no more than 2.4%.
[TABLE="width: 510"]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFF66, colspan: 4"]

POCSO conviction rate​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]No. of FIRs registered
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]No. of cases in which charge-sheets filed
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]No. of cases in which accused convicted
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]No. of cases in which accused acquitted
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]6816
[/TD]
[TD]5340
[/TD]
[TD]166
[/TD]
[TD]389
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[TABLE="width: 510"]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]2014
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]No. of cases in which trials completed
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]No. of convictions
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]%age of conviction
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]POSCO
[/TD]
[TD]406
[/TD]
[TD]100
[/TD]
[TD]24.6
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Rape
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]5527
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]1717
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]31.1
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Assault on women (girls) with intent to outrage her modesty
[/TD]
[TD]1404
[/TD]
[TD]412
[/TD]
[TD]29.3
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Source: Lok Sabha; Note: It is possible that cases under IPC 376, IPC 354 and POCSO overlap. For instance, in a single rape case, the police might use either IPC 376 or IPC 376+ POCSO or just POCSO. It depends on the discretion of the investigating officer and other factors.
The data might be unclear, but those who deal with abused children make it clear that insensitivity and the unhelpful attitude of police, lawyers and untrained hospital staff makes prosecution and conviction difficult.
"There is absolutely no sensitivity amongst policemen to handle cases of child abuse. POCSO as a law is quite good but it needs to be implemented effectively as well," said Sen, the Delhi psychiatrist.
In several court trials, said Chennai's Rajaratnam, she has witnessed defence lawyers making the process so "unpleasant and humiliating for the children that their trauma increases". Often, parents decide it is better to drop out of the case than traumatise a child further.
D'Mello of Majlis Law believes the only way forward is to work within the system. She explained how Majlis, for years, has provided the Mumbai police training and sensitisation, created standard operating procedures to handle sexual-assault cases, made officers aware of POCSO Act provisions, and helped when they recorded victims' statements.
[TABLE="width: 510"]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFF66, colspan: 4"]

Pendency In Court Cases For Rapes​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 101, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Year
[/TD]
[TD="width: 185, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]No. of cases for trial including pending cases from previous year
[/TD]
[TD="width: 104, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Pendency at end of year
[/TD]
[TD="width: 94, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Percentage pendency
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2010
[/TD]
[TD]17187
[/TD]
[TD]20594
[/TD]
[TD]83%
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]2011
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]19394
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]23181
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]84%
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2012
[/TD]
[TD]22812
[/TD]
[TD]26972
[/TD]
[TD]85%
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]2013
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]28171
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]33328
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]85%
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2014
[/TD]
[TD]31976
[/TD]
[TD]37519
[/TD]
[TD]85%
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Source: NCRB
[TABLE="width: 510"]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFF66, colspan: 3"]

POCSO And Outraging Modesty Cases​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 102, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Specific act
[/TD]
[TD="width: 285, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Total no. of cases for trial including pending cases from previous year
[/TD]
[TD="width: 103, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Pendency at end of year
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]POCSO
[/TD]
[TD]8379
[/TD]
[TD]7970
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]IPC 354 outraging modesty
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]13162
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]11607
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Source: NCRB
It is clear there is much to do. In 2014, 85% of child-rape cases-registered over five years-were pending, as were 95% of POCSO cases and 88% of cases for "outraging modesty", according to the NCRB.
Bringing support systems together-the lesson from Bangalore
It's not just the police and the justice system, hospitals too are not equipped to handle sexual-abuse cases against children. The issues include a lack of privacy for victims and trained staff.
"Another problem is that every stakeholder likes to blame the other stakeholder," said the Enfold Trust's Saldanha. "Police blame the hospital. Hospital blames the police and so on," she said. "Therefore, it is important to bring all stakeholders together, which is why we started Collaborative Child Response Units (CCRU)."
In 2011, Enfold helped set up CCRUs in hospitals, the first such units in India-aimed at providing child victims with proper treatment and social and legal support. A collaboration between Enfold, the government of Karnataka and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there are now CCRUs in three leading Bangalore hospitals.
These centres also link and train counsellors, medical practitioners, social workers, the judiciary, legal workers, NGOs and the police-with the well-being of the abused child in mind.
Hospitals are clearly a vital link in the chain. "It is necessary to train doctors to handle sexual assault cases as well as document case details," said Shailesh Mohite, Head, Forensic Department at Nair Hospital, Mumbai. "Since their testimony matters a lot, they must be trained to handle cross examination at court."
Social media can endanger children
The exploding growth of social media has increased awareness about child-abuse issues, but it is also endangering the safety of children.
Experts said that exposure to the Internet occurs earlier than ever, and it is important that parents are careful about sharing pictures and details of their children online.
Recently, a series of stories on The News Minute, a new portal, explored how online pictures on Facebook were being used by pedophiles.
"This should be a wake-up call for all of us as parents," said Vidya Reddy of Chennai-based NGO, Tulir-Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse. "There are people interested in our children sexually. Social media are only a reflection of society."
Shakthi V, a popular blogger and writer, has written a post on how parents should guide their children in accessing the internet.
"I know children who fake their age to get on Facebook, there are some who create profiles on all social sites faking their ages," he writes. "This is just one group of kids. There are others who get on to dating sites and get into all sorts of messy things there. The overall conclusion is that kids and the internet are a potent combination that goes very bad."
(Saha is a freelance journalist based in New Delhi.)


​

 

[Dalit Freedom]

A ‘Rape Map’ of India





By Aditi Malhotra and Saptarishi Dutta

A graphic showing the number of rape cases in India in 2011. The Wall Street Journal
Delhi has long been considered one of the most unsafe big cities for women in India. And north India is often referred to as mo

 

[Dalit Freedom]

Why is Inter-Caste Marriage a Problem in India?

Marriage between two people is a wonderful union but when it is an inter-caste marriage, it can become a problem for both the couple and families.
By Priya Chandra • December 26, 2015

"I love my parents a lot and can't even think of losing them because of my own happiness"​

Inter-caste marriage is where two people from different castes seek union as a married couple.
It is usually a result of the couple meeting and dating outside of family circles.
Caste, is a traditional and cultural entity, which has stemmed from primarily Hinduism but has prevailed across most backgrounds from South Asia.
Often compared to class in the west, it is associated with a working profession or background that you belong to from a family heritage perspective.
Common practice when it comes to marriage is that ‘you marry your own kind’ and therefore, within your own caste.
It is very common for higher castes to object to a marriage to a lower caste.
Therefore, as much as modern and western values endorse the freedom to choose who you want to marry, marrying out of caste can still be a huge issue for those with South Asian roots.
It is likely that the percentage of inter-caste marriages in the UK is very low compared to caste matched marriages, and in India, it is definitely no different.