Dalits Media Watch
News Update 14.01.10
Dalit youth alleges he was forced to eat human excreta - PTI
http://www.ptinews.com/news/467718_Dalit-youth-alleges-he-was-forced-to-eat-human-excreta
A new cooking experience for Dalit women - The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/14/stories/2010011451330300.htm
Need for feminists to reclaim Ambedkar seen - The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/11/stories/2010011154450500.htm
PTI
Dalit youth alleges he was forced to eat human excreta
http://www.ptinews.com/news/467718_Dalit-youth-alleges-he-was-forced-to-eat-human-excreta
Dindigul (TN), Jan 14 (PTI) In a shocking case of caste discrimination, a dalit has alleged that he was forced to eat human faeces by a group of 'high caste Christians' for walking with chappals in their street in the district.
The dalit youth, in his complaint to Batalagundu police inspector, said "a group of high caste Christians forced human faeces into my mouth after beating me for walking with chappals in their street".
Sadayandi, who is from Indhira Nagar in Meikovilpatti in Dindigul district, claimed the incident occurred on January 7 when a group of more than 10 'caste christians' stopped him and asked if he was not aware of the "order" that dalits should not walk with chappals in their street. Then they asked him to remove his chappals and slapped him with it, he said.
"One of them suggested that I should be fed human excreta.
The Hindu
A new cooking experience for Dalit women
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/14/stories/2010011451330300.htm
Karthik Madhavan
The women's complex, constructed in 2000, was renovated five months ago
SATHYAMANGALAM: If 'Bogi' is all about discarding the old to embrace the new, then the dalit women in Komarapalayam Adi Dravida Colony have got it perfectly right.
They gave up cooking on firewood stove to graduate to gas stove, thanks to the support the Bannari Amman Rural Foundation and the District Rural Development Agency have provided.
The Foundation has put in place a system in the colony, near here, wherein the women get to cook in specially designed stove, which burn methane.
The gas is obtained from the men's and women's public convenience facilities, which have been repaired and renovated with funds from the Foundation and also Komarapalayam panchayat.
The Foundation renovated the women's toilet complex at Rs. 50,000 and supported the panchayat in building the men's complex by providing around Rs. 1.5 lakh, says A.N. Kolandaiswamy, executive treasurer, Bannari Rural Foundation.
"The women's complex, constructed in 2000, was in disuse for a long time and renovated about five months ago," he says and adds that the flooring has been changed and the outlet pipelines have been diverted to the newly-constructed septic tank.
Panchayat
As for the men's complex, the Foundation complimented the panchayat by tile flooring the entire toilet complex and again taking the pipeline to the septic tank, which is attached to a 25 cubic metre tank, from which the gas is tapped.
In all, around Rs. 6.5 lakh has been spent, says Mr. Kolandaiswamy and adds that the Foundation has applied for subsidy to the District Rural Development Agency.
Project Officer, DRDA, N. Sreenivasan says the Agency has forwarded the Foundation's proposal to the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency, which will soon disburse Rs. 1.5 lakh.
The Foundation has taken the gas through a pipeline to a house in the Colony, where six stoves are in use. The women, most of who are employed, say they take turns to cook as they will have to leave early for wok. "The cooking starts 6 a.m. onwards and happens in two shifts," says S. Latha, councillor.
"One group of women finish work by 7 a.m., after which the next takes over," she says and adds that the cooking time has halved. "Earlier it used to take two hours to cook as the firewood takes a long time to burn; but now it is just an hour," says P. Vijaya, a resident.
Not only that the women are spared of the problems of smoke. "The smoke from firewood was a trouble, as we need to keep blowing air and it used to spread all over the house. Now that is not there," she says.
But then it was not a smooth start for the women. They had apprehensions about using gas tapped from septic tank. "Initially we had hesitations about the smell but after checking it for a couple of days, we have been able to overcome those," says Ms. Latha.
However, many women continue to hold on to those apprehensions and refuse to use the facility. Mr. Kolandaiswamy says the Foundation is in the process of constructing a community kitchen with about a dozen stoves.
The Hindu
Need for feminists to reclaim Ambedkar seen
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/11/stories/2010011154450500.htm
Rahi Gaikwad
Mumbai: A thriving corpus of literature and music pertaining to Babasaheb Ambedkar's thought has been integral to the Ambedkarite or Dalit movement in Maharashtra.
"Dalit feminism" has drawn copiously from this pool. However, feminist discourse at large has remained ignorant of the rich and complex interpretations of caste and gender as conceptualised by the architect of the Constitution, Sharmila Rege, director, Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women's Studies Centre at Pune University and a leading feminist sociologist, said during the 6th Ambedkar Memorial Lecture she delivered at the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) here on Saturday.
"There is an urgency for feminist discourse to turn to Ambedkar. A category of women undifferentiated by caste does not exist for feminists to mobilise. Now the pressure is not to talk about gender in isolation, but to include class, caste and other factors. Therefore, there is a need to reclaim Dr. Ambedkar's writings as feminist classics," she said.
She said though feminist academics had been late in turning to Ambedkar, a culture of booklets and music of the Dalit movement has had a much longer history.
--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.
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