DALITS/SCHEDULED CASTES - 2013 - Indian Social Institute

km from Majure viallge, were eking out a living by working in the fields and houses of the “upper” caste inMajure. What brought the situation to a boil was the appointment of a Dalit woman, Lakshmamma ofShivanagar, as a cook in the anganwadi of Majure village. According to the protesters, residents ofMajure boycotted the Dalit families because Lakshmamma refused to sign a letter rejecting theappointment. “They did not want a Dalit to cook food and feed their children,” said Lakshmamma, who isamong the agitators. “They abused me in the foulest language and humiliated me.” According to M.Jagadish, another protester, village heads have warned residents of the village that they would be finedRs. 5,000 if they employ any Dalit from Shivanagar. “They even stopped shop owners from selling usgroceries,” he alleged. Except the very old, nobody is living in Shivanagar now, he added. The entireofficial machinery has failed to respond, he said. When The Hindu contacted M. Venkatesh, SocialWelfare Officer at Chitradurga, he said: “The issue has been sorted out and a detailed report on the plightof Dalits is ready for submission soon.” (The Hindu 26/2/13)Dalit girls’ rape, murder rock Rajya Sabha (2)NEW DELHI: The brutal rape and murder of three minor Dalit girls in Maharashtra’s Bhandara districtrocked the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, with all political parties seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) inquiry into the heinous crime. Seeking a reply from Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, MPsexpressed anger and dismay that the State police have failed miserably, as the accused are still roamingfreely. Raising the issue during zero hour, Bharatkumar Raut of the Shiv Sena said all talk of women’sempowerment was meaningless when the girl child wasn’t safe, and asked the Centre to intervene.“Three Dalit sisters were raped and murdered and their bodies thrown into a well. Under whose protectionare these culprits, with the police hesitating to arrest them, when all the villagers knew who they were?,”he asked. The bodies of three missing minor girls, all below 11 years, were found in a well at Murwadivillage in Bhandara district in Nagpur on February 16. Calling it a shameful incident, Rajni Patil of theCongress said the case should be speeded up, besides seeking protection and relief for the victims’mother. The issue of rape of another Dalit minor, allegedly raped by her teacher, was also brought up,and proper investigation sought. Seeking a CBI inquiry, Hussain Dalwai and Bhalchandra Mungekar, bothfrom the Congress, said people have lost faith in the Maharashtra police, and hence the probe should bedone by the CBI. “Where is the conscience of the middle class, which surfaced during the ‘Nirbhaya’ case(the paramedic who was gang-raped last month) and resulted in them thronging India Gate andParliament? Are you dividing rape on caste lines?” Mr. Mungekar asked. He alleged that atrocities againstSCs/STs weren’t looked into seriously, and as per the National Crime Records Bureau data, there were1,000 rape cases annually, and the victims were girls belonging to such communities. (The Hindu27/2/13)Dalits return land, can keep houses (2)Faridkot: The fear of turning homeless has passed off for nearly 60 Dalit families.On Friday at Bir Sikhan Wala village in this district, the Maharval Kheva Ji Trust of Faridkot and thefamilies reached an amicable solution. The agreement says that the Dalits would remain on the trust landon which they have their houses but vacate another about 5 acres they use for various purposes. Thesitting down for agreement was forced by the outcome of a court decision on the dispute, in which BoharSingh of Bir Sikhan Wala and others had pleaded for making the possession of land legal. The Dalits lostthe case because the 15 acres, on the most part of which they made 150 houses more than 50 yearsago, is the property of Raja Haridner Singh, former ruler of the erstwhile princely estate of Faridkot, whichafter his death, is cared by the Maharwal Kheva Ji Trust. After the order of the Faridkot court, nearly allDalit people on the land were illegal occupants of the site in khasra 342. After the verdict, however, effortswere made for settlement, which both parties reached on Friday. After the trustees sought help from thecourt in executing the order, the revenue department had asked the police for force to support theoperation to demarcate the site for the trust. The kanungo of Panjgrain Kalan had first written to the police