Samaj Weekly Issue 328

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NEWS LITERATURE POLITICS FASHION ART & CULTURE KIDS RELIGION FILMS
20/12/2019
23
Sixty-fourth Parinirvan Day Commemoration of
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar at Ambedkar Hall, Southall
Commemoration opened with the
Buddhist prayer by Ven. Vijithavansa
Thero, Head of the Buddha Vihara,
Southall.
The event began with an opening
speech from Mr Arun Kumar, General
Secretary of FABO UK. Paying tribute
to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, he
said that Dr Ambedkar was a national
leader par excellence. He worked for
all Indians irrespective of one’s caste,
religion, language or gender. The constitution
is not for one community, it
is for all Indians. Hindu Code Bill
also changed the lives of all Indian
women. It is pity that in India, one is
judged by one’s birth not worth. Had
he been born in so called upper caste,
he would have been worshipped in
every house hold. But Because of his
birth, he is generally referred to as a
Dalit leader. But the academics all
over the World are recognising his
contribution to the human rights
movement.
Ms. Santosh Dass MBE, President
of FABO UK said “On this day and
any other day when we mark
Babasaheb Ambedkar’s death or birth
anniversary or Constitution day we
must reflect on his struggles, achievements
and what he strove for to make
India’s society better. We have a duty
as Ambedkarites to live by
Babasaheb’s example of the continuation
of education of oneself and making
a social difference no matter
where we live. Babasaheb left us too
soon. He should have lived for at least
another 30 years. Today I want to
reflect briefly on Babasaheb and
womankind empowerment. He
believed in, and his work as the first
Labour minister and when drafting
the Constitution of an independent
India demonstrated was to empower
and improve the plight of the woman.
This was not only at home as part of
the Hindu Code Bill but also in the
workplace. As early as 1916 he had
written from Columbia University to
his father advocating the need for
education for girls and women to go
hand in hand with educating boys and
men”. Ms. Dass continued: “The
other thing I always reflect on daily is
what are the current issues that are not
in keeping with Babasaheb’s mission
that we need to raise our voice about.
I have huge concerns about the
democracy not working in India that
Babasaheb warned us about in a rare
BBC interview in 1953. Even at that
time, he talked about the political system
failing because puppets who have
been put up by the various parties
from our community to meet a proportional
representation of MLAs and
MPs. Not all MLAs and MPs carry
out the work with the courage expected
to improve the plight of our community.
There are serious issues to do
with the way the political systems and
democracy is working in India that is
failing our people right, left and centre
on a daily basis. Examples include
Demonetisation, the horse-trading of
MLAs to stay in power, the ebbing
away of the fundamental rights of
freedom of speech. Intellections and
activists like Dr Anand Teltumbde and
Soni Suri are labelled as Maoists.
They are threatened with imprisonment
because they have stood up
against the unfair actions or land-grab
of Corporates or the Government and
are labelled Maoists or being antinational.
This is absolutely outrageous.
We must stand shoulder to
shoulder with people who have the
courage to stand up and call the Indian
Government and the nationalists to
account. The other issue of concern to
me is EVM. This is failing our people.
Something is going wrong when we
get reports of loads of machines going
missing from areas where the vote
may go in a way the ruling party does
not want. So the principle of one man,
one woman vote, is being seriously
jeopardized. Another policy of concern
is to do with citizenship in India
– the Citizenship Bill. They are going
for the Muslims now but they will
come after us too. In this country,
we’ve seen Windrush as an example.”
Ms. Dass ended with the message “So
when we call ourselves Ambedkarites
we have to stand up and be counted.
We have to spell out what is right and
what is wrong and praise where praise
is due. Jai Bhim”.
Dr Prerna Tambay, FABO UK
Executive of Public Affairs and academic
researcher and champion of
gender equality said “On this day of
Dr Ambedkar’s death anniversary, I
pay my humble tribute to him. We are
because he was!!! Dr Ambedkar’s
seminal work “Caste in India (1916)”
says that caste originated and is sustained
by control over women.
Clearly then, if we want to solve the
problems created by caste, then freeing
women needs to be part of the
solution. 50% of India’s population is
between the age of 10 and 27. 50% of
these young people are women and
22% of these young people are casteoppressed
(SC+ST). Therefore, the
future of India depends on what these
60 odds % of people achieve in their
lives. Most women are limited to pink
professions in India including being a
homemaker and caste-oppressed people
are limited to undesirable professions.
This control over their employment
opportunities is exerted by
denying access to better education,
employment and enterprise opportunities
to these segments through visible
and invisible methods. They are
encouraged through cultural signaling
by society to take up professions
aligned to their caste and/or gender,
even if they may have a talent for
other professions. The privatization of
education has made education expensive,
preventing a large segment of
women and caste-oppressed from
receiving an education suitable to
their natural talent. Despite such signaling
and expensiveness of education,
if they take up better professions,
the well-established caste-gender networks
in these professions make it
difficult for them to succeed. Many of
them drop out of the race and return to
their caste-gender determined professions
or under-achieve, despite their
talent. As a result, a large proportion
of the Indian population is not able to
achieve their highest potentials.
Surely, this is not good for the GDP
of India. Consider the fact that digital
disruption is destroying the business
models sustaining the lives of large
segments of the Indian population,
which are not able to participate in
digital business models. Clearly, there
is a hidden genocide waiting to happen
as those whose livelihoods are
snatched by digital business models
and directly or indirectly are unable to
survive. The deterrent to caste and
gender crimes = The size of the punishment
X the chances of getting
caught for crimes X the chances of
getting convicted if caught. We all
know that caste and gender crimes go
unreported many a time, due to social
pressure as well as due to the justice
process being complex and difficult to
access.
The justice process also becomes
difficult to access for many for its use
of complex ceremonies and use of the
English language. We all know that
powerful people and people connected
to them are hardly caught by the
police. And we all know how the lack
of jurisprudence in caste and gender
crimes is caused by the low conviction
rate. Finally, the size of the punishments
meted out to those found
guilty of these crimes is rarely large
and most of the time is small. So,
there is nothing surprising in the fact
that these crimes are not decreasing.
Our laws do not work well enough,
despite an admirable constitution.
Despite the lack of good education,
employment, enterprise opportunities
and the high number of caste and gender
crimes, if caste and genderoppressed
people raise their voice on
social media and in general in the
public domain, they are quickly
branded as Naxals or presstitutes or
sundry similar terms. There is trolling,
lynching, raping to silence them.
Those who speak out despite this are
always at risk. Most caste and genderoppressed,
despite their own views,
learn not to confront the system which
holds them in bondage.” She concluded
by saying that “Certainly, there is
the need for change. On the death
anniversary of Dr Ambedkar, let us
work towards building a coalition of
caste and gender-oppressed people in
India. “
Mr. Devinder Chander, chief editor
of Samaj weekly paper said that “Dr
Ambedkar fought against so many
obstacles and came out victorious.
Now it is our responsibility to continue
his legacy. He wanted the constitution
to be the emblem of liberty,
equality, fraternity, justice and we
need to strive that his dream come
true and remains true.”
Among other distinguished guests
who addressed the meeting were:
Harbans Lal Bali, Ramesh Klair,
Jagdish Gaware, Ranjit Boudh,
Sudhakar Goud and Gampa
Venugopal.
The event concluded with a
vote of thanks from Mr.
Gautam Chakravarty. Arun
kumar anchored the event.
Jagdish Gaware
addressing the audience.
Mr. Virendra Sharma
former labour M P
addressing the gathering.
The audience at the parinirvana commemoration at Ambedkar
Hall, Southall.
Ranjit Boudh addressing the
audience.
Gampa Venugopal addressing the
audience.
Mr. Harbans Bali,
writer and poet reciting
his poem.
Singer- Monika, Tabla
by Karan, Harmonium
by Nirmal Guru.
Singer Ramaz, Tabla
by Karan.