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The Hindu : Arts / Magazine : Colours of discrimination

The Hindu : Arts / Magazine : Colours of discrimination

INVITATION

INVITATION

Intellectual Seminar of Dalits & Bahujans

Venue: Balaji Thirupati Rao Date: March 13 & 14, 2010

Kalyana Mandapam, ONGOLE Saturday & Sunday



________________________ Organised by_________________________________

Intellectual Forum of Dalits & Bahujans.

INAGURAL SESSION

Preside over by
Sri Jaibeem Nageswara Rao
Chief convenor, intellectual forum

Inaugural Address
prof: B.L. Mungekar
Former Member of planing commission and
former vice chancellor, Bombay University.

Chief Guest
Justice Mr. K. Rama Swamy
Suprem court judge (rtd)

Upper cast Discrimination

As the Women's Reservation Bill rings in the centennial year of Women's Day on a celebratory note, 25-year-old Sushma Tiwari's story tells of an inspirational fight-back against a brutal form of patriarchy and caste oppression.

It has been a six-year legal battle for Sushma against the horrific ‘honour killing' by her brother of almost her entire marital family: husband Prabhu Nochil, her father-in-law and two minors in their home near Mumbai, all to avenge her marriage into a family of a ‘lower' caste. Sushma is from a Brahmin family of UP, and Prabhu, an Ezhava from Kerala.

Although the fast track sessions court in Maharashtra, and later the Bombay High Court, awarded the death penalty to Sushma's brother Dilip Tiwari and his accomplices, the Supreme Court in December 2009 reduced the sentence to 25-year imprisonment.

This February, Sushma filed a review petition questioning the decision to let off the perpetrators of this heinous crime.

In 2004, seven months after the couple got married, Dilip and his associates massacred four members of the Nochil family, and grievously injured two others. A pregnant Sushma luckily escaped as she was visiting a relative.

The Supreme Court, explaining its decision to revoke the death sentence, said: “It is a common experience that when the younger sister commits something unusual and in this case it was an inter-caste, intercommunity marriage out of [a] secret love affair, then in society it is the elder brother who justifiably or otherwise is held responsible for not stopping such [an] affair.”

It added: “If he became the victim of his wrong but genuine caste considerations, it would not justify the death sentence... The vicious grip of the caste, community, religion, though totally unjustified, is a stark reality.”

“Totally illegal”

Sushma has challenged this reasoning, stating this perception “is wrong and totally illegal under our Constitution and various laws of the land like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989” and “can never be made a ground for lessening a sentence. In fact, these feelings of caste hatred are themselves criminal…”

Her petition states: “In fact, mass killings based on the concept of ‘honour' must be viewed by this Hon'ble Court as murders which must be given the highest deterrent sentence.”

In Bangalore recently to attend the National Young Women's convention organised by the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), this resolute young woman told The Hindu that by reducing the sentence, the highest court of the land has sent out a wrong message to all those who wished to marry out of caste. “Even if not for my own safety or that of my five-year-old daughter Trishna, the death sentence must be upheld for the sake of humanity.”

By Divya Gandhi
The Hindu

Dalits retain their own land

About 100 villagers from the Dalitwada of Mambakam village of Varadaiahpalem mandal in the district on Thursday encroached the sprawling 40 acre of the Kalki Bhagawan Ashram and earmarked their individual borders.
According to information reaching here, villagers reached the ashram surrounded by the reserve forest early in the morning. Carrying farm equipment like crowbars, sickles and pickaxes, they started clearing bushes and made individual boundaries, writing their names on the rocks.
Police at Satyavedu and Varadaiahpalem station received information around 10.30 am, but there was no action from them. Similarly, the management of Kalki Bhagawan Ashram, located 12 km from the encroached land, also did not respond.
Villages claimed that the lands originally belonged to them and the ashram personnel had taken these over, making false promises.
They remained there till dusk and later left for their hamlet.

Seeking justice: Activists at the Dalit Stree Shakti meeting in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: She was trembling as she was helped up the steps. Unsure and a little scared, the fifteen-year-old sat facing rows of women, all strangers to her. She wouldn’t look up. “I want justice,” she said, her words barely audible as she buried her face in her hands along with her tears. It was the voice of a child – frightened and scarred.

The hall murmured, clucked in sympathy but there was no comfort in that. Not for a victim of gang-rape. She cried quietly as somebody relayed the sordid details. Her father’s upper caste employer, a Sub-Inspector, two constables were all accused in a case that has dragged on for ten months.
She was one among 70 men and women, all of whom testified at a public hearing on violence against Dalit women and girl-children held here on Thursday by the Dalit Stree Shakti.
Young mothers

Dalits by birth, they came from Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, East and West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and other places in the hope of getting justice. There were young mothers cheated of child support, grieving parents who have lost their daughters to statutory rape and ‘suicide’.

Stories blurred as victims and their families asked the same questions. Why my child? How can we be refused justice so brazenly? When, everyone else is fighting for rights, why are we fighting to live? They looked tired. They tried for months to convince the police to register a First Information Report (FIR). They spent years in and around courts, filing the same case after it was quashed as false. After bundling away a life’s worth of savings, they watched as a thicker wad of notes denied them justice. And they started all over again.

They were all exhausted but not one of them has given up hope. “I will not let this go. I owe it to my child,” said a woman, whose 16-year-old daughter died earlier this month hours after she had been raped.


Source : The hindu

SC, ST Entrepreneurs

RBI nod for loans up to Rs. 1 cr. to SC/ST entrepreneurs



HYDERABAD: The RBI has cleared a proposal made by the State government to give loans up to Rs. 1 crore to SC/ST entrepreneurs without collateral security to encourage them as industrialists.

Announcing this in the Assembly on Thursday in reply to a question by G. Nagesh and P. Ramulu (both Telugu Desam), Major Industries Minister K. Lakhsminarayana said as the RBI approval was available now, a trust would be constituted shortly with an amount of Rs. 5 crore to stand guarantee for the loans given to these entrepreneurs through State Finance Corporation. The Telugu Desam members cautioned the government that some people with bogus caste certificates might apply as the loans were being sanctioned with huge subsidy.

source : The Hindu.