Fwd: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 07.04.10

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From: Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC <pmarc2008@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 7:12 PM
Subject: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 07.04.10
To: Dalits Media Watch <PMARC@dgroups.org>

Dalits Media Watch

News Updates 07.04.10

16 sentenced to death for 1997 Jehanabad carnage - NDTV

http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/16-sentenced-to-death-for-1997-jehanabad-carnage-19422.php

Less than normal - Front Line

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100423270801500.htm

State committed to Dalit welfare - The Hindu

http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/07/stories/2010040760520200.htm

"Name Madurai airport after Dalit leader" - The Hindu

http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/07/stories/2010040762640300.htm

Bihar not properly implementing SC reservation: Buta - Zee News

http://www.zeenews.com/news617094.html

NDTV

16 sentenced to death for 1997 Jehanabad carnage

http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/16-sentenced-to-death-for-1997-jehanabad-carnage-19422.php

Press Trust Of India, Wednesday April 7, 2010, Patna

Sixteen persons were sentenced to death by a Bihar court on Wednesday for their involvement in the Jehanabad carnage in 1997 when 58 unarmed Dalits were killed by the Ranbir Sena, a private militia of landlords. Ten others were sentenced to life terms and also slapped with a fine of Rs 50,000 each by Additional District Judge Vijay Prakash Mishra.

Fifty eight Dalits were gunned down by the Ranvir Sena at Laxmanpur Bathe in Jehanabad on December 1, 1997, sending shockwaves across the country. The Lalu Prasad-led RJD government was then ruling the state.

The victims, landless agricultural workers and their families, were supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Party Unity. Among those killed were 27 women and 16 children. The victims were from the backward communities of Paswan, Chamar, Mahto, Mallah, Rajwar and Barbar.

In the well-planned operation, about 100 Ranbir Sena activists carrying firearms had descended on Lakshmanpur Bathe, 125 kilometres from Patna, at around 11 pm.

They forced their way into huts by breaking open the doors and fired indiscriminately at people who were asleep. The entire hamlet located on the banks of the Sone river was virtually decimated in the attack that lasted more than three hours.

The main aim of the killers was to terrorise the sympathisers of the CPI(ML) Party Unity to strengthen the stranglehold of the powerful landlords in central Bihar.

Mishra, on conclusion of trial in the case on April 1, had fixed April 7, 2010, as the date for announcing the verdict. Earlier, the case was transferred to Patna from Jehanabad following a Patna High Court order in October, 1999.

Charges were framed in the case against 46 sena men on December 23, 2008, 11 years after the massacre. Altogether 91 of 152 witnesses in the case deposed before the court.

Those sentenced to death were Girija Singh, Surendra Singh, Ashok Singh, Gopal Sharan Singh, Baleshwar Singh, Dawarka Singh, Vijendra Singh, Nawal Singh, Baliram Singh, Nandu Singh, Sheomohan Sharma, Pramod Singh, Shatrughan Singh, Ramkeval Sharma, Dharma Singh and Nand Singh, all belonging to an upper caste community.

Those sentenced to life imprisonment were Babloo Sharma, Ashok Singh, Mithilesh Sharma, Dharikshan Choudhary, Navin Kumar, Ravindra Singh, Surendra Singh, Sunil Kumar, Pramod Kumar and Chandreshwar Singh.

Two other accused Bhukhal Singh and Sudarshan Singh died in the course of the trial.

Front Line

Less than normal

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100423270801500.htm

T.K. RAJALAKSHMI in Rohtak

Social scientists and experts in the health sector had little to cheer as the overall results of the NFHS-3 came in. The results were particularly alarming in the case of States that were not traditionally considered backward. For instance, nearly 82.3 per cent of children in the age group of 6-35 months in Haryana were anaemic. Here was a State that was not in the BIMARU category but boasted a high per capita income, a high agricultural growth rate and high per capita availability of foodgrains, in addition to being a centre of the Green Revolution. (BIMARU is a term coined by the renowned demographer Ashish Bose to denote Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which were lagging behind in most indices of growth. Later, Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were added to the list.) The highest prevalence of anaemia was recorded in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, along with Haryana.

The NFHS-3 results showed that only 44.8 per cent of the children in the 6-9 months age group in Haryana got solid or semi-solid food and breast milk; 43.3 per cent of the children under three years were stunted, and 38.2 per cent of the children below one year were underweight. Though the State government does not deny the prevalence of malnutrition, it sees it as a matter of health and hygiene alone. NFHS-3 did not delve deeper into the matter to find why there was a regression in the nutritional levels in the States that fell outside the BIMARU fold.

In the course of its interviews with functionaries of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), children and mothers, Frontline found that there was a definite connection between the food consumption basket, which itself is a function of the wealth index (a correlation that NFHS-3 also established); the agrarian pattern of development; and irregular employment. With rising prices and changing agricultural patterns of production, there has been a visible decline in the consumption of certain kinds of food that are rich sources of protein, iron and essential nutrients. The main crops now grown are paddy, wheat, cotton and oilseeds.

A senior functionary of the ICDS, with nearly two decades of experience, said that all along she had seen mothers being told to give their children gur (jaggery), ber (a kind of berry) or lassi (whey). "How can we ask them to eat jaggery when we know that it is not affordable? It is a rich source of iron but costs Rs.30-35 a kg." With chana, or gram, cultivation almost non-existent, another rich source of iron is lost.

Jaggery became unaffordable to the common man mainly because of the decline in the production of sugarcane in the State. In fact, the area under sugarcane cultivation now (74,000 hectares) is only half of what it was in 1966-67 (150,000 hectares).

According to Economic Survey of Haryana 2009-10, the area under sugarcane cultivation has seen the sharpest fall since 2008. In one year from 2008-09, there was a decrease of 17.8 per cent in the area under sugarcane when there was an 11.4 per cent increase in the area under cotton and a 3 per cent increase in the area under oilseeds.

Samar Gopalpur Kalan

Samar Gopalpur Kalan is a big village in Rohtak district. It has three anganwadi centres for children in the 3-6 age group and pregnant and lactating mothers. It is a typical village with segregated colonies for upper castes and Dalits. Two of the three anganwadis are in Dalit colonies and are managed by Dalits. The third one, located in the well-to-do part of the village, is run by a Brahmin. Most of the children who come here are either from the upper castes or from the backward castes. No Dalit child comes to this anganwadi because of the distance as well as for social reasons.

The children in one of the Dalit anganwadi centres told Frontline that they had tea and chapattis daily before coming to the centre. Milk and curd were unaffordable luxuries. The anganwadi workers said that on an average a family of 10, including three minor children, could afford only a litre of milk a day and that too with much difficulty. "A family requires at least four to five litres of milk. Here one litre is divided among ten," said one worker.

Most of the children in the centres belonged to landless families that did not own any livestock. Dhanpati, 70, a self-help group (SHG) worker, said that earlier landlords used to sow chana, which was available for Rs.3 or Rs.4 a kg. The same now costs Rs.30 a kg.

It is assumed that in a State where the per capita availability of milk is higher than the national average, the consumption of milk and related products would be high. But it is not so. Clarified butter, or ghee, is sold at Rs.350 a kg in the villages, making it unaffordable to the poor and the landless. Earlier, whey was given free or given to animals. Now it is sold.

Being a Dalit makes matters worse, particularly so for women. A popularly consumed weed called bathua, rich in iron, is known to grow abundantly in winter amid other crops like spinach. Earlier, this was not a saleable item. Following its marketability, Dalit women have to go in the dark to pick bathua leaves.

Valmiki Colony

Things are no different in Valmiki colony. "When we do not even have enough milk for tea, how can we give milk to our children in decent quantities?" asked Priyanka, a 16-year-old girl.

"Everything has a price now. We have to pay even for drinking water from a government tap," she added. The provision of taps in homes, no doubt, has reduced their dependence on wells owned by the upper castes for drinking water. But the colony stands next to a pond of stagnant water, which is full of garbage and is infested with mosquitoes and other vermin. There are two safai karamcharis (scavengers), both Valmikis, responsible for the sanitation of the village of 2,000 homes. But the colony is a picture of neglect. Only 40 per cent of the households have latrines; others defecate in open fields.

In another part of the same village lies the third anganwadi centre, run by Sheela Devi in her house. It is well ventilated and airy compared with the congested centres in the Dalit habitations. But Sheela Devi is unhappy that her records showed children slipping into first- and second-grade malnutrition soon after they completed one year. The children who came to her centre were mostly from backward castes with the exception of a few from the upper castes. "Their parents are unable to feed them properly because of poverty, not ignorance," she said. The people are trapped in a vicious circle. A buffalo owner has to sell his entire stock of milk in order to buy fodder and rations for the family. "That is why the poor get their children into the habit of drinking tea early on," said Savita Malik, a superviser with the ICDS. Apparently, anganwadi centres are under tremendous pressure to declare the children listed under their centres as healthy and "normal". They are given a three-month target to improve the status or grade of malnourishment. There are also incentives to reward village-level committees that show a decline in malnutrition levels.

It was also learnt that the number of BPL households in the village was much lower than the number of eligible households. Many landless families that do not have any livestock are not in the BPL list.

Inderjit Singh, State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), comes from an agricultural background. As a child he has worked in the fields and made gur. He later went to do his studies at Hisar Agricultural University. Inderjit Singh recalls how mustard crops were grown along with wheat and how much of the oil from the crops was consumed by the family unit. The crop used to be pruned after reaching a certain height and the pruned leaves were consumed by the poorer Scheduled Caste groups. But the commercialisation of mustard cultivation and the mechanisation of the processes ensured that the S.Cs could not utilise the discarded portions of the crop anymore.

The decline in the production of gram has made its consumption, either in nascent form or of its pods, impossible. "This is not a rice-eating State, yet we produce a lot of paddy. We used to grow gram, now we don't," he said.

There are a number of factors that have adversely affected the economic status of the hitherto oppressed social groups: lack of an equitable alternative in relations of production compared with the traditional jajmani system (a semi-reciprocal relationship between the artisan caste and the landed castes); lack of land reforms; shrinking of common lands; and a general lack of decent employment.

NFHS-3 brought out other startling facts as well. For instance, it was the children of the S.Cs, the Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes who had high levels of malnutrition; that the nutritional status of children was strongly related to maternal nutritional status; and that under-nutrition decreased with an increase in the wealth index of a household. Infant- and young-child- feeding practices improved with the wealth index of a family as well as the mother's educational level.

The survey also said that poverty had a strong negative effect on the consumption of nutritious food and that women and men in households with a low standard of living were most likely to have a diet particularly deficient in fruits, milk and curd.

The Hindu

State committed to Dalit welfare

http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/07/stories/2010040760520200.htm

Special Correspondent

Chief Minister inaugurates Dalit Empowerment Week

'Dappu' performance by 1,000 artistes steals the show

HYDERABAD:Chief Minister K. Rosaiah on Tuesday said the government was committed to the welfare of Dalits and asked them to report to officials if they were denied access to welfare schemes.

He inaugurated the Dalit Empowerment Week at Lalitha Kala Thoranam.

Ministers J. Geeta Reddy, D. Manikya Varaprasad Rao and P. Subhash Chandra Bose, J. Prabhakar, MLC and V. Hanumantha Rao, M. Anjan Kumar Yadav and S. Satyanarayana, MPs, were present.

Mr. Rosaiah said the government was taking several initiatives aimed at all-round development of the marginalised sections of society.

"Only the Congress has done what it has promised," he asserted. As many as 2,358 Social Welfare hostels were being run to benefit 2.48 lakh students and 6.17 lakh scholarships given.

A highlight of the evening was the performances by 1,000 'dappu' (drum) artistes and 100 folk singers.

The Hindu

"Name Madurai airport after Dalit leader"

http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/07/stories/2010040762640300.htm

Staff Reporter

TIRUCHI: Puthiya Tamizhagam (PT) has urged the Central and State governments to name Madurai Airport after Dalit leader Immanuel Sekaran.

A resolution to this effect was adopted at the sixth State general body meeting of the party here on Tuesday. The party has decided to observe hunger fast in support of this demand at Madurai in the first phase on April 26.

The PT has appealed to Dalit organisations and Tamil enthusiasts to take part in the hunger fast.

Speaking to the media here, Mr. Krishnasamy said the party had already submitted memorandum containing this plea to the Central government. Stating that more than 600 party members from across the State had taken part in the general body meeting, he said the party's executive committee meeting would be held here on Wednesday.

The changes in action plan that the party needs to initiate in tune with the prevailing political, economic and social environment in the State; human rights violations in Tamil Nadu; anti-people policies and schemes of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government and DMK governments and its effects; insecure living conditions of Eelam Tamils; price rise, unemployment, corruption in Centre and State and women's liberation would all be discussed during the executive committee meeting. The meeting would also come out with solutions for these issues, Dr. Krishnasamy said.

Zee News

Bihar not properly implementing SC reservation: Buta

http://www.zeenews.com/news617094.html

Patna: National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) chairman Buta Singh today accused the Nitish Kumar government of not providing the benefits of reservation to the scheduled caste community in Bihar.

"The reservation which the scheduled caste people should enjoy is not being properly implemented in Bihar," Singh told reporters after a three-member panel of the commission held a high level meeting with state chief secretary Anup Mukherjee and other state officials here.

Even the benefits of the centrally-sponsored welfare scheme were not properly reaching the community, he alleged.

Singh said the SC community deserved sixteen per cent reservation in jobs, education, and another related services in Bihar but it is not being adhered to in the true spirit.

Citing lack of awareness among the people of the scheduled caste community as the reason for their backwardness, Singh said he would submit a report to President Pratibha Patil within a month providing details about the condition of the community.

He further alleged that even the fund under special component programme and other welfare schemes formulated for the upliftment of the scheduled caste people were not being fully implemented in Bihar.

--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
..................................................................
Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.

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