Dalits Media Watch News Updates 19.07.14 Three held for Dalit woman’s death- The Hindu thehindu/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/three-held-for-dalit-womans-death/article6227494.ece Dalit Men Flee Houses Fearing Action by Police- The New Indian Express newindianexpress/states/tamil_nadu/Dalit-Men-Flee-Houses-Fearing-Action-by-Police/2014/07/19/article2335907.ece Dalit School Heads Struggle to Hold Fort- The New India Express newindianexpress/states/kerala/Dalit-School-Heads-Struggle-to-Hold-Fort/2014/07/19/article2337944.ece Dalit Eviction: Panel Pulls up Chennai Babus- The New India Express newindianexpress/states/tamil_nadu/Dalit-Eviction-Panel-Pulls-up-Chennai-Babus/2014/07/19/article2338241.ece Six-month Deadline to Fill up SC/ST Vacancies- The New Indian Express newindianexpress/states/tamil_nadu/Six-month-Deadline-to-Fill-up-SCST-Vacancies/2014/07/19/article2338224.ece PROMOTE MICRO ENTREPRENEURSHIP AMONG SCS, STS, WOMEN- The Pioneer dailypioneer/state-editions/bhubaneswar/promote-micro-entrepreneurship-among-scs-sts-women.html Tamil Nadu: Girl dies in suspicious circumstances- Deccan Chronicle deccanchronicle/140718/nation-current-affairs/article/tamil-nadu-girl-dies-suspicious-circumstances The Hindu Three held for Dalit woman’s death thehindu/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/three-held-for-dalit-womans-death/article6227494.ece Relatives of P. Seetha (28), a resident of Adhivaraganatham in Bhuvanagiri block and belonging to the Scheduled Caste community, blocked traffic on Bhuvanagiri — Sethiathope Road on Thursday, urging authorities to conduct a proper inquiry and arrest those responsible for the woman’s death. Police detained Seetha’s lover Saravanan’s mother Selvi (55), sister Sakunthala (40) and her husband Venkatesh (45) for interrogation on Wednesday. Saravanan surrendered in court on Thursday. Seetha was beaten to death by Saravanan’s relatives. The New Indian Express Dalit Men Flee Houses Fearing Action by Police newindianexpress/states/tamil_nadu/Dalit-Men-Flee-Houses-Fearing-Action-by-Police/2014/07/19/article2335907.ece VILLUPURAM: Two days after the clash between Dalits and caste Hindus in Aasur village near Tindivanam, all the men in the Dalit colony fled from the village fearing police action. Following this, the Dalit women on Thursday morning, picketed the Villupuram Collectorate demanding justice. The men fled from their homes on Wednesday night after police officials, who were deployed in the Dalit area, threatened that they had received special orders from a higher official to arrest all the Dalit men in the hamlet. However, local sources said no such threats were made by the police officials, but panchayat chairman Ealumalai, who is a Vanniyar, was forcing local police to threaten the Dalit residents. After facing harassment at the hands of the caste Hindus and police, Dalits demanded that the district administration settle them in a separate village. On Thursday morning, a group of Dalit women from Aasur village picketed the Collector’s office and demanded justice. They threatened to return their ration cards if the district administration failed to take action on their demands. Speaking to Express, Gowri (32) a Dalit, said, police officials are showing partiality in the matter. The clash was well planned by PMK members and executed by the local caste Hindus, she said. She pointed out that even the parents of the couple that eloped were not involved in the clash. She said, although Dalits were the victims in the attack, police officials had filed false cases against them in order to conceal the truth. Sources insisted that some PMK members were the ones that sparked off the clash. Local sources said, so far no action had been taken against the caste Hindus who were involved in the attack. Four people were arrested just for a eye-wash, the woman said. The attack that took place on Monday saw at least 50 Dalits, including children, seriously injured. They were undergoing treatment in several hospitals. Gowri (12) a class VII Dalit student of Aasur Government High school, who was also attacked by the caste Hindus said, the people entered the houses of Dalits and attacked them. They also used abusive words and damaged the houses as well as household articles. As the school was located near the caste Hindu area, about 60 Dalit students have been skipping classes in fear of being attacked again by the caste Hindus. The Dalit residents demanded protection for themselves and their property from the caste Hindus. Collector V Sampath directed police to take immediate action. A special team was formed to deal the problem, police officials said. The New India Express Dalit School Heads Struggle to Hold Fort newindianexpress/states/kerala/Dalit-School-Heads-Struggle-to-Hold-Fort/2014/07/19/article2337944.ece KOCHI: Weeks after a dalit principal of a girls’ higher secondary school in the capital was transferred for allegedly hurting the ego of state Education Minister, two more instances in which school heads belonging to marginalised sections were shunted out have come to the fore. K R Pavithran, who took charge as the Head Master of South Ezhippuram GHSS was transferred to GHSS Kongorpilly within three days of him assuming the office. The transfer was allgedly made following a complaint by V H Subaida, a teacher of the same school, who made several allegations against him including discrepancies in financial dealings and harassment of teachers. T Latha, a cancer patient belonging to the dalit community, who receieved a transfer to Edappally HSS on compassionate ground in 2013 was posted back to the Elamakkara HSS, where she worked earlier, within six months. The transfer was also on account of the political influence of the teacher who took her place at the Edappally school, despite there being no provision for anulling a transfer made on compassionate grounds. Pavithran had joined the Ezhippuram school as Head Master on June 14, 2013. The transfer order that he received three days later said it was based on “administrative grounds”. Pavithran secured a temporary stay against the transfer order from the Administrative Tribunal. But after the period ended, he was served with the transfer order again, allegedly, after two teachers - Subaida and Naseema - filed requests before the DPI. The order had said that he was free to join any school as HM or AEO except Ezhippuram school. Pavithran, who got a stay order from High Court, said his transfer was based on fake plaints. The New India Express Dalit Eviction: Panel Pulls up Chennai Babus newindianexpress/states/tamil_nadu/Dalit-Eviction-Panel-Pulls-up-Chennai-Babus/2014/07/19/article2338241.ece CHENNAI: Taking exception to the eviction drives carried out by the Chennai Corporation at slums, the National Commission of Scheduled Castes has issued notices to key officials, seeking explanation for the alleged displacement of Dalit community members during the process. Acting on a complaint filed by SK Siva of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front, the Commission issued notices on July 10 to Corporation Commissioner, Collector, Secretary of Municipal Administration Water Supply Department and Chairman of Slum Clearance Board, demanding a reply within a period of 30 days. Speaking to Express, Siva said that the people evicted were provided settlements far away from the city.Hence, the stability of their livelihood was lost. “They work and earn their income in the city. After eviction, they are forced to spend Rs 60 for transportation just to come to the city. When they are surviving on a measly income, this is a huge hit,” he said. He also said that since more than two-thirds of the slum dwellers belonged to Dalit community, the eviction process was a violation under Article 338 of the Constitution. Activists too slammed the eviction drives saying that it affected the education of children. “There are about 15,000 children of these evicted slum dwellers and the school provided for them can accommodate only 2,000 children. This means that the dropout rates will increase because of the eviction drives,” said Vanessa Peter, a policy researcher associated with the Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities. Officials concerned remained unavailable for comment. The New Indian Express Six-month Deadline to Fill up SC/ST Vacancies newindianexpress/states/tamil_nadu/Six-month-Deadline-to-Fill-up-SCST-Vacancies/2014/07/19/article2338224.ece CHENNAI: The Madras High Court directed the TN government to fill up the vacancies in SCs/STs categories in the State, within six months. The first bench of Acting Chief Justice SK Agnihotri and Justice MM Sundresh gave the direction on Friday while disposing of a PIL from S Karuppiah, founder of Central & State Government SC/ST Employees Federation in Perungalathur. Earlier, the government submitted that to make sure that 18 per cent reservation for SC and 1 per cent for ST candidates in employment, a high-level committee had been constituted to review and ensure shortfall vacancies. The committee will finalise the programme and have discussions with secretaries of each departments. Thereafter, the report will be sent to the government for issuing orders, it added. In view of the specific stand taken by the government, the bench said it was directing the high-level committee to finalise the programme and arrive at the shortfall vacancies for SCs and STs. Thereafter, the committee will have to send the report to government. The Pioneer PROMOTE MICRO ENTREPRENEURSHIP AMONG SCS, STS, WOMEN dailypioneer/state-editions/bhubaneswar/promote-micro-entrepreneurship-among-scs-sts-women.html MANAS JENA | in Bhubaneswar The manufacturing sector is the second largest employment generating sector of Odisha which constitutes about 65 per cent of the share of industrial sector, almost one fourth of the State’s GSDP in 2012-2013. A major part of the manufacturing sector is micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) which includes different categories such as repairing and service, food and allied products, engineering and metal, textile, forest and wood based products, livestock and leather, electrical and electronics, rubber and plastic, paper and paper products, chemicals and allied products, etc. It generates maximum employment next to agriculture and has export potential. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Act, 2006 came into force in 2006. It provides conceptual and legal framework for this sector. The Odisha Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Policy 2009, published in the State Gazette in February 2009, aims at the growth of MSMEs and thereby widening opportunities for employment generation, revenue augmentation, and exports with focus on sustainable and inclusive industrial growth and balanced regional development. The statistical evidence shows the growth of MSME in Odisha is not at par with the national and international standard. The State MSME Department sources say about 1, 23,292 MSMEs have gone into production till March 2013 and invested Rs 4, 96,959 lakh which generate employment for seven lakhs persons. The districts of Sundargarh, Cuttack and Ganjam have more enterprises and also generate employment with higher amount of investment in comparison to other districts but backward districts such as Malkanagiri, Deogarh, Nuapada, Boudh, and Gajapati have very less number of units as well as employment and investment in comparison to other districts. The categories like food and allied products, repairing and service enterprise, textiles, glass and ceramic, engineering and metals, forest and wood based enterprises employ more number of people and there is scope of improvement in areas like livestock, horticulture, minor forest produce, seafood products, plastic and electrical and electronics, etc. This shows the relatively backward areas having SC and ST population have not been explored with the inherent potential of natural and human resources to set up micro, small and medium enterprises to boost local employment and bring down the regional imbalances in the State. There are also industrial hubs and Special Economic Zones(SEZ) coming up in the State such as Kalinganagar, Angul, Jharasuguda, Joda and Badbil, Paradip, Rourkela, Gopalpur, Dhamara, Choudwar, Rayagada, Kalahandi and Chatrapur etc where there are tremendous potentialities for promoting MSME involving the local people which can increase production and generate employment as ancillary and downstream industries. The State Government has made provisions in its MSME Development Policy, 2009 for reservation of minimum 20 per cent land in all industrial estates, industrial parks, industrial corridors, and banks for MSMEs. But the Government has not yet provided adequate attention to promote MSMEs by providing land, credit facility, technological and marketing support. It has been routinely complained that the MSMEs in rural and urban areas are being harassed during registration and have to spend time in coordinating with banks, DICs and other related Government departments for clearance. There is a lack of dedicated financial institution in the State to finance MSME while it cannot brushed aside that most of the scheduled commercial banks are charging higher rate of interest, with provision of collateral security which has been difficult for many of the prospective entrepreneurs of poor economic background and socially marginalised groups. The poor people still depend on informal credit systems and Self Help Groups (SHG) to get finance for economic activities. Many of the economic activities run by a number of SHGs are not economically viable and do not expand due to lack of adequate financial as well as facilitation support to make the units viable. There should be new trades and innovations with use of modern technology and that should be suit the market needs. Though it has been told in the policies that women and SC and ST entrepreneurs will be promoted but this has not been reflected in the implementation process of the Government departments and financial institutions operating in the State. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Finance Development Corporation Ltd and SCs and STs Development Department have very poor coordination and linkages with the MSME Department. The provisions of SCSP and TSP should be integrated for development of MSMEs among the SCs and STs of the State. It seems the State focus is more in setting up large and mega mineral based industries and mining which generates very less employment, where as the MSME sector which contributes more in terms of GDP and having potential of generating employment is being neglected. Recently the Prime Minister in his speech during this Budget Session in Parliament said, the SMEs form the backbone of our economy and accounts for a large portion of our industrial output and employment. The BRICS countries such as China, Brazil, and Russia, are doing well in manufacturing sector in terms of providing employment where as a vast majority of population in India depends on agriculture. The growth of employment in manufacturing sector is not changing like others. India’s share in world manufacturing is only 1.8 per cent where as it is 13 per cent for China. The Planning Commission of the Government of India in the 12th five year plan made details strategy of manufacturing sector growth plan for the country. A number of studies such as ‘Caste and Entrepreneurship in India’ by Harvard Business School and ‘Caste and Business and Industry in Modern Nation’ by Prof Thorat, Prof Jodhaka, and Harish Damodaran, have established that SCs and STs are considerably underrepresented in entrepreneurship sphere even in States having progressive policy for their upliftment. SCs and STs of Odisha in comparison to others are not being adequately represented in the MSME sector in spite of their proportionate representation in politics due to provisions of reservation at different level though they constitute about 40 per cent of the total population of the State. Their access to economic activities has not been democratized due to social discrimination, which also affects their economic participation in the absence of protection against economic exclusion. There are a number of programmes and institutions under the Union Ministry of MSMEs for the promotion of MSMEs in States and affirmative provisions are being introduced to promote SCs, STs and women entrepreneurs. There is provision both in Central and State policies about capital investment subsidy at 10 per cent of the Fixed Capital Investment (FCI) subject to an upper limit of Rs 8lakh to a new enterprise and 12 per cent of FCI maximum up to Rs10 lakh to an enterprise set up by SC, ST, PWD, women and technical degree and diploma holder entrepreneur. The policies also say about tax relaxation in case of women entrepreneurs. The procurement policy for MSEs says that 4 per cent will be earmarked for procurement from MSE owned by SC and ST enterprises. The Government has set up credit guarantee fund to provide relief to entrepreneurs who are unable to pay collateral security to avail loan. There are credit linked subsidy schemes such as the Prime Minister Employment Guaranty Programme, which have provisions of subsidy of 35 per cent for the weaker section for service and manufacturing projects cost of Rs 10 to Rs 25 lakh. The States having clusters with more than 50 per cent of SC, ST, and women entrepreneurs will have special Central assistance for infrastructure development. But it is unfortunate that many of our policy discourses are not being grounded due to lack of political will, bureaucratic apathy, poor planning and lack of socio-cultural motivation among people to be entrepreneurs. Odisha with huge potentiality has been suffering from lack of leadership in economic sector and non representation of its majority of marginalised communities in modern economic activities who are still in the traditional activities for their survival. They are officially encouraged to become beneficiaries of welfare programmes and subsidy culture but not as entrepreneurs to get engaged in productive activities. The State Government should build infrastructure for setting up MSME and promote institutions like National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD) to develop the entrepreneurial skill of youths and provide them all kinds of handholding support. There should be dedicated financial institutions and business facilitating agencies to incubate the prospective entrepreneurs from marginalized sections in backward areas. The areas having advantage of natural resources should have special institutions to promote MSMEs. (The writer is a rights activist, who can be reached at ojaabbsr@gmail) Deccan Chronicle Tamil Nadu: Girl dies in suspicious circumstances deccanchronicle/140718/nation-current-affairs/article/tamil-nadu-girl-dies-suspicious-circumstances Ramanathapuram: A case has beenregistered on the suspicious death of a 16-year-old girl who married a dalit boy at Kathayan village in the district on July 6, after her father lodged a complaint to police. Kavyas father Allirajan in his complaint said that he suspected that his daughter had been poisoned to death. Police Inspector Satheeshkumar told reporters today that the reason for the death of the girl would be known only after the postmortem report was received from Madurai Government Rajaji Hospital. In his police complaint on June 13, Allirajan had alleged that his daughter was kidnapped by the dalit boy Saranraj on May 16 and later he married her. The boy and the girl surrendered before the police the next day and police arrested Saranraj on charges of kidnapping and marrying a minor girl. However, a Judicial Magistrate court ordered release his release on conditional bail. During the proceedings before Judicial Magistrate, Allirajan refused to take the girl with him saying that he had to take care of his other children and could not focus on the safety and security of Kavya. following which the girl was sent to Pazhanganatham home for children. Allirajan had also filed a Habeas Corpus Petition in the Madurai bench of the Madrs High Court. On June 13 court directed that the girl be sent with her parents. Then the girls parents put her in her aunts house at Erode. The girl who had returned to her parents house on July 3 was found dead on July 6, Satheeshkumar said. News Monitor by Girish Pant
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 08:31:37 +0000
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