DALITS/SCHEDULED CASTES - 2013 - Indian Social Institute

girl over picking up dung from a field. “The woman assaulted the girl. After this, there were rumours thatDalits were planning to file a case under the Atrocities Act. In anticipation, the mukhiya, sarpanch andzilla parishad [ZP] members had a meeting in which they told the Muslim community to socially andeconomically boycott Dalits. They said Dalits were filing cases under the Act,” Superintendent of PoliceManoj Kumar told The Hindu . An FIR under the Act was filed against 15 persons, including village headAnwar Alam and ZP members. No one has been arrested yet. Tension prevailed in the village for sometime on Tuesday. (The Hindu 6/3/13)K’pada village Dalits denied school, road by upper caste (2)KENDRAPADA: Dalits from Karandiapatana village under Mehendipur Gram Panchayat underMarshaghai block on Monday urged District Collector Durga Prasad Behera for a primary school and aroad in their village after the upper caste people assaulted and ostracized them over a land dispute inFebruary, 2010. District Welfare Officer (DWO) Charulata Mallick said the Dalits met the District Collectorin the grievance cell and told him that their children were earlier abused and misbehaved with by theupper caste villagers when they attended the school. Their children were told not to use the road whichpasses through the houses of upper caste people. They said the Dalits were harassed for over threeyears. They said that they were forced to admit their children in a neighbouring school at Japada, about1.5 km from the village after taking school leaving certificate from the local school. District CollectorBehera directed the DPC of SSA to take steps for sanctioning a project primary school for the Dalits anda road. When contacted, SSA DPC Kailash Chandra Das stated that the district administration has writtento the Mass Education department for sanctioning a project primary school for the Dalit children. Notably,the Dalits of Karandiapatana village drew the wrath of the upper caste people on February 18, 2010 overdigging of earth from a Goochar land for the construction of a Hanuman temple. The upper caste peopleforcibly entered into their houses and ransacked the houses by throwing household items, utensils andclothes by damaging valuable household items. Even they had allegedly molested the Dalit women.Later, the police had nabbed 10 upper caste persons for creating the mayhem. At least 25 Dalit childrenof Karandiapatana village in Kendrapada district's Marsaghai block had allegedly been compelled toobtain school leaving certificates (SLC) from Surendra Vidyapith in Rankal village and got themselvesadmitted to another school. The National Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe Department had fundedsum of Rs 2.09 lakh as financial assistance to the Dalit victims of the village. Later, the districtadministration had distributed compensation amount to 43 Dalits. Notably, the National Commission forScheduled Castes (NCSC) in March, 2010 had intervened in the matter and sought report from theDistrict Collector and the SP on the issue. (Pioneer 7/3/13)Dy SP’s murder could unravel grand anti-dalit plan (2)NEW DELHI: The continuing outrage over the murder of a Muslim police officer threatens to neutralizethe cunningly crafted Samajwadi plan to use "promotion quota" to mobilize Muslims, backwards andupper castes on the anti-dalit plank. The young widow's finger of suspicion at Mulayam Singh Yadavprotege and Kunda MLA Raja Bhaiya has locked the Samajwadis into a defensive posture, unable torebuff the accusation for fear of sending a negative signal to Muslims. Reports that DySP Zia-ul-Haq wasfinalizing a report on a communal attack that could implicate Raja Bhaiya's aides has compounded thesensitivity of the issue. The murder as a sign of growing law and order problem under Akhilesh Yadav'swatch could dash Mulayam's hope of cobbling together a wider social coalition sans dalits who vote forMayawati, a hope raised by the response to his decision to oppose "promotion quota".Disquiet amongMuslims is palpable but compounding the Samajwadi misery is the disappointment among upper castemiddleclasses who see their worst fears on law and order coming true. Now, if CBI arrests Raja Bhaiyaand he faces prolonged incarceration, SP could face the anger of the influential Thakurs whom it hasbeen wooing, ironically, through leaders like the Kunda MLA. The damage potential of Zia's shooting wasevident in Parliament this week as Samajwadis uncharacteristically discouraged the "religious angle" to