DALITS/SCHEDULED CASTES - 2009 - Indian Social Institute

ound to implement them.” And yet, when a commission team visited the campus recently, neither the
Vice-Chancellor nor the Pro Vice-Chancellor met it, as the union swung into action to place the issues
before the commission. Refuting allegations of apathy, Dr. Khole said he had been out of town for a
meeting and had expressed his desire to visit the commission in Delhi. “Mr. Khole was in Goa. He spoke
to me on the phone, apologised for not being there and said that he would be open to visiting Delhi to
meet the commission,” said its Vice-Chairman N.D. Kamble. On the low proportion of SC/ST students and
teachers in the university and its colleges, the memorandum points out: “The proportion of SC/ST
students in colleges affiliated to university was only 8 per cent in 2001 as compared to the State average
of 15 per cent.”Professor B.R. Salve of the union says the recently held Senate elections were an eyeopener.
Not a single ST representative could be found.For, the memorandum states, “as on 2007-08
there was not a single postgraduate teacher recruited from the ST category in the university
departments.” The reserved seat for the ST candidate in the Senate is vacant, resulting in the community
going potentially unrepresented. In fact, in educational institutions all over the State, the voice of the
weaker sections in the Senate is muffled by the Universities Act itself.For instance, as per Section 25 (2)
(l) of the Act, out of 18 college principals in the Senate, only one seat is reserved for all the weaker
categories put together .This works out to 5.5 per cent of reserved seats as opposed to the 50 per cent
reservation (The Hindu 19/1/09)
Dalit bodies demand apology from Pramila Mallick (2)
Bhubaneswar: Several Dalit associations on Sunday demanded regination of Women and Child
Development Minister Pramila Mallik for not protesting after her entry into the Garva Griha of
Akhandalamani Temple sparked tension among the temple servitors. The Minister is incapable to hold
her port-folio and she should apologize for her mere inaction, Dalit leaders demanded. Why the Minister
not lodged any FIR soon after the incident, they asked. They also demanded stringent action against the
tehesildar, the Collector and the temple servitors. They called a huge demonstration in Jajpur on January
27 in this connection. (Pioneer 19/1/09)
‘Dalits living in panic in Bharatpur village’ (2)
JAIPUR: Dominant Jat residents of Ballabhgarh village in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan allegedly
insulted and assaulted the Dalit woman Sarpanch of the village panchayat and her son earlier this month
for her refusal to part with the muster rolls of labourers engaged and records of public works executed
during her tenure. Fifty-five-year-old Sone Deyee, elected as Sarpanch in August last year, and her 20-
year-old son, Jal Singh, sustained serious fractures in their heads, arms and legs in the brutal attack on
January 7. The group of about 25 accused allegedly humiliated them for their caste and then assaulted
them with sharp-edged weapons. Sone Deyee contested the election for Sarpanch after the previous
occupant of the office, Hardeo Koli, quit following threats and thrashing by prime accused Ishwar Singh,
who works as the public distribution system dealer in the village. The rural Jat community of the region
blatantly supports the accused and has since boycotted the Dalit residents of the village. A three-member
fact-finding team of the Jaipur-based Centre for Dalit Rights, which visited the village situated in Weir
tehsil of Bharatpur district, detected a “hostile atmosphere” prevailing for Dalits who were living in panic
with no help coming from the law enforcement agencies. The police, who have perfunctorily registered a
case against Ishwar Singh and his accomplices at the Bhusawar police station, have not arrested any of
the accused. The CDR charged the police with acting under political pressure while the accused roam
about freely in the village and threatening the victims. Sone Deyee, a widow who has worked hard to
come up in the Panchayati Raj institution, was returning from the village primary school after making
payment for a kitchen set on the day she and her son were attacked. The fact-finding team suspected
that there was a conspiracy hatched by dominant Jats to intimidate the Sarpanch and force her to
relinquish her post. CDR Director Satish Kumar said the way the previous Sarpanch was first not allowed
to function independently and then forced to resign amounted to a “travesty of grassroots democracy”.
Hardeo Koli was reportedly blinded as a result of thrashing by the accused. Ever since she assumed
office in August, Son Deyee has been resisting attempts by Ishwar Singh and his cohorts to dictate their
terms to the village panchayat. The accused earlier insulted her publicly and tore the muster rolls in
September 2008, for which she immediately lodged a complaint and the police registered a case. In its
memoranda submitted to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission
for Women, the CDR has demanded addition of Section 3(2)(5) [life imprisonment] of the Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, to the latest criminal case against the