The article by harsh mander makes disturbing reading. Let"s take the issue(s) to wherever we go , whatever be the state of preparedness or otherwise of our easy-going ,peace-loving , evasive of talking bitter compatriots Venu K.M
On 8/16/06, Anivar Aravind <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > HindustanTimes.com » Editorial » Platform » Story > Freedom's just another word > > DEMOCRACY WALL | Harsh Mander > > August 15, 2006 > > Velmurugan and Ramesh, who study in high school in Tamil Nadu's > Coimbatore district, are good friends. Yet, Ramesh can never visit his > classmate's home because Velmurugan lives in the Dalit colony. > Velmurugan's hut has no electricity, so he often goes to his > upper-caste friend's home to study. He is the brighter student, and > helps Ramesh in his school work. But he is never permitted to proceed > beyond the verandah, and is rarely offered food. The few days that he > does eat in his friend's home, it is on a separate plate earmarked for > the Dalit house servant. > > Children in rural India learn early the rules of caste, even as their > country races into the 21st century. A survey of practices of > untouchability in 565 villages in 11 states reveals that in as many as > 38 per cent government schools, Dalit children are made to sit > separately while eating. In 20 per cent schools, Dalit children are > not permitted to drink water from the same source. > > The recently released report of perhaps the first nationwide survey of > the continued prevalence of untouchability, jointly authored by > Ghanshyam Shah, Sukhadeo Thorat, Satish Deshpande, Amita Baviskar and > myself, finds such untouchability in all local state institutions. A > shocking 27.6 per cent Dalits are prevented from entering police > stations and 25.7 from ration shops. Thirty-three per cent public > health workers refuse to visit Dalit homes and 23.5 per cent Dalits > still do not get letters delivered to their homes. Segregated seating > for Dalits was found in 30.8 self-help groups and cooperatives, and > 29.6 per cent panchayat offices. In 14.4 per cent villages, Dalits > weren't permitted to enter the panchayat building. They were denied > access to polling booths, or forced to form separate lines in 12 per > cent of the villages surveyed. Despite being charged with a > constitutional mandate to promote social justice, various local > institutions of the Indian-State clearly tolerate and even facilitate > the practice of untouchability. > > Dalit settlements are most often segregated from the main village. > Such traditions are reproduced by government, when building Indira > Awaas housing colonies for Dalits, or by NGOs such as in the post-2001 > earthquake reconstruction programmes in Gujarat. In nearly half the > surveyed villages (48.4 per cent), Dalits were denied access to water > sources. In over a third Dalits were denied entry into village shops. > They had to wait some distance from the shop, the shopkeepers kept the > goods they bought on the ground and accepted their money similarly > without direct contact. In teashops, Dalits were denied seating and > had to use separate cups. > > There was found to be great, and at times violent, intolerance of > displays of well-being, or public celebrations by Dalits. In many > villages, bans operated on wedding processions on public (arrogated as > upper-caste) roads. In 10 to 20 per cent villages, Dalits weren't > allowed even to wear fashionable clothes or sunglasses. They could not > ride their bicycles, unfurl their umbrellas, wear chappals on public > roads, smoke or stand without head bowed. Restrictions on their entry > into Hindu temples averaged 64 per cent in 11 states, ranging from 47 > per cent in UP to 94 per cent in Karnataka. > > The research established that such restrictions endured even after > conversion of Dalits to egalitarian faiths. In punjab, 41 of the 51 > villages surveyed reported separate gurdwaras for Dalit Sikhs. Dalits > who worshipped in gurdwaras frequented by upper-caste Jats were served > in separate lines at the langar and were not permitted to prepare or > serve the sacred food. In Maharashtra, despite mass conversions of the > Mahars to Buddhism, Dalits were denied temple entry in 51 per cent > villages. In Kerala and Andhra, there are divisions in the church > between Dalit converts and others, and discrimination even against > ordained Dalit priests. > > Untouchability persists even into death. In nearly half the villages, > Dalits were debarred from access to cremation grounds. In Maharashtra, > Dalits have their own cremation grounds but these are permitted only > on the eastern side of the village, so that the upper-castes aren't > polluted by the winds that pass from west to east. > > The study reports discrimination against Dalits in the labour market. > Although normally Dalits are coerced into agricultural labour in > unfavourable conditions, sometimes even of bondage, they are excluded > in the lean agricultural season, when work is scarce for all, and > therefore upper-caste workers are preferred. In 25 per cent of the > villages, Dalits were paid lower wages than other workers. They were > also subjected to much longer working hours, delayed wages, verbal and > physical abuse, not just in 'feudal' states like Bihar but also > notably in Punjab. In 37 per cent of the villages, Dalit workers were > paid wages from a distance, to avoid physical contact. The study also > found evidence of discrimination between non-Dalit and Dalit workers, > evidence of caste surmounting proletarian solidarity. > > The large majority of Dalits is landless. In the few cases where they > were landowners, they were denied access to water for irrigation in > more than one-third of the villages. In 21 per cent villages, they > were denied access to grazing lands and fishing ponds, and violent > upper-caste opposition was reported when Dalits encroached onto or > were allotted government lands for cultivation or housing. > > Untouchability was found to extend to consumer markets. Dalit > producers in 35 per cent villages were barred from selling their > produce in local markets. Instead, they were forced to sell in the > anonymity of distant urban markets where caste identities blur. This > imposes additional burdens of cost and time and reduces their > competitiveness. Caste taboos apply particularly to products like milk > — in as many as 47 per cent of the villages with cooperatives, Dalits > were not allowed to sell milk to the cooperatives or private buyers. > In a quarter of the villages, they were prevented from buying milk > from cooperatives. > > Dalits are therefore not only disproportionately burdened with poverty > to start with; caste discrimination in labour and consumer markets > condemns them to lower wages with harder work in uncertain employment > and restrictions on their access to natural resources as well as the > markets for their products. > > Even more than in secular and religious public spaces, the practice of > untouchability endures most in upper-caste rural homes, in what people > regard to be their private sphere. Our survey confirmed that in as > many as 73 per cent of the villages, Dalits were not permitted to > enter non-Dalit homes, and 70 per cent would not eat together. Even > Dalit researchers in this study were denied entry into upper-caste > homes. > > With untouchability thus persisting unashamedly in state institutions > like schools and police stations, in public spaces like temples and > shops, in farms and markets, and in homes and hearts, the Dalit still > lives in India waiting hopelessly, and sometimes in anger, for the > long-betrayed dawn of equality. > > The writer is the convenor of Aman Biradari, a people's campaign for > secularism, peace and justice. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala run by Global Alternate Information Applications (GAIA) To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
