DALIT ATROCITIES - 2005 - Indian Social Institute

on declaring them eligible for the same rights and protection of law given to dalits professing
Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh faiths. The advocacy group for dalit Christians led by All-India Catholic
Union president Dr John Dayal gave a memorandum to the Justice Ranganath Mishra
Commission through its Christian member, Dr Anil Wilson. It also met Christian member V.V.
Augustine of the National Minorities Commission and Reverend Valson Thampu, the Christian
member of the National Commission on Minority Educational Institutions. The dalit Christian
leaders also met various political leaders, including CPM general-— secretary Prakash Karat, CPl
national secretary D. Raja and Janata Dal(United) leader Nitish Kumar. In the memorandum to
the Mishra Commission, the dalit Christian, leaders demanded opportunity to make written, oral
and visual presentation to the commission, bringing before it adequate literature and other
evidence on the issue. The memorandum to the Mishra Commission came after the government
told the Supreme Court on August 23 that it was handing over the issue to the commission. The
government statement demanding a four-month adjournment of the dalit Christians PIL had led
the Chief Justice of India to pull up the government for its attitude to the judgements of the top
court. (Asian Age 28/8/05)
Dalits plan to move court for tsunami relief (2)
CHENNAI: : Amid large-scale allegations of discrimination against Dalits in tsunami relief and
rehabilitation, a consolidation of Dalit organisations has mooted a plan to approach the court. At a
daylong public hearing organised here on Tuesday, 22 Dalits from the 13 affected districts
alleged they had been left out of most of the relief works executed by the Government and nongovernmental
organisations. They emotionally recounted the discrimination they faced for the
past eight months, as a seven-member jury listened sympathetically. The jury included retired
Madras High Court judges Sami Durai and B. Akbar Basha Khadiri, C. Chellappan, former
member, National SC/ST Commission, Vasanthi Devi, former chairperson, State Commission for
Women, Annie Raja, general secretary, National Federation of Indian Women, Shabnam Hashmi,
human rights activist, New Delhi, and A. Marx. Rani of Muttukadu in Villupuram district said 150-
odd Dalit families had received no relief except a small package containing saris, soaps and food
that was unfit for consumption. All the Government had to do to restore livelihood to the men in
the village was to give them two catamarans and two nets (`modaavalai'), but this had not been
done. Women should be given training in other trades. Malini, from Sirgazhi in Nagapattinam
district, said the 15 Dalit families in their village had to pay Rs.1,000 a family to fishermen leaders
who told them that unless they paid up, the entire relief package would not reach them. Dhanavel
of Kottaimedu, Cheyyar, said only 11 families who had lost their catamarans and nets were paid
Rs. 10,000, though many more had been affected. They charged that fishermen in the affected
areas had cornered all the relief, in collusion with the authorities, and the Dalits whose livelihood
also depended on the sea were left out of every scheme. However, some of them acknowledged
that the limited relief they received was due to the benevolence of NGOs and Dalit movements.
(The Hindu 31/8/05)
Dalit houses in Haryana village set on fire (2)
Chandigarh, Aug. 31: Upper caste Jat villagers, angry over police inaction in a recent murder
case, torched more than twenty houses belonging to dalit Balmiki families in Gohana township on
the border of Delhi in Haryana’s Sonepat district. More than 500 Jat villagers had gathered at
Gohana’s Satsang Bhawan on Wednesday afternoon to protest against the reluctance of the local
police to book the culprits responsible for the murder of Manjit Singh, a property dealer from
Gadhwal village, who was allegedly done to death by a group of Balmikis two weeks ago. The
furious Jats had earlier also held a Barah-Panchayat (twelve-village panchayat) at the victim’s
village on Tuesday. Simmering temper flared quickly at Wednesday afternoon’s meeting in
Gohana when some of the participants egged on others to "teach the Dalits a lesson they would
remember." The Jats poured out of the Satsang Bhawan and proceeded to the nearby Balmiki
settlement where within minutes they had set more than twenty homes on fire. The crowd fled the
scene soon after. Fortunately, there was no loss of life or injuries since the 150 Balmiki families
living there had deserted the settlement several hours earlier clearly apprehending reprisals by
the Jats. The local administration was completely helpless in preventing the incident. The angry