Opportunities for Dalit and Adivasi Students for Higher Education in World’s Premier Educational Institutions: A Report

Insight Study Circle Meeting  held on 22 August 2010 (Sunday) at  Indian Social Institute, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

Speakers

1. David Vumlallian Zou (from Manipur) teaches at History Department, Delhi University and did his doctorate from Queen’s University, Belfast with full scholarship from Academic Planning Grant (Northern Ireland).

2. Abhay Xaxa (from Chhattisgarh) is currently working with Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi and did his Masters in Social Anthropology from University of Sussex, UK  (2008) as one of the recipient of International Ford Fellowship Programme.

3. Bhawani Buswala (from Rajasthan) is currently in the country for his field research. He is pursuing his PhD in Anthropology from Brown University, Rhodes Island, USA on full university scholarship.

4. Rama Devi Hansraj (from Andhra Pradesh) completed her Post Graduation in Human Rights from University of London (2004) as one of the International Ford Fellow. She is currently based in Kolkata and is working with Catholic Relief Service.

Given below are the excerpts from the speeches from our panel of speakers followed by a brief interaction session with our audiences.

Rama Devi Hansraj

I did my MA from University of Hyderabad, Department of Mass Communication. I am the first generation educated person in my family. After completing my studies in Hyderabad, I worked with some small Human Rights groups in Andhra Pradesh.

Through that network I came to know about International Ford Foundation Fellowship programme that was meant exclusively for students from marginalised background.  I applied and was selected after going through its rigorous selection process. With that fellowship, I did my Masters in University of London in Human Rights.

As I was part of Dalit students’ movement in Hyderabad University, I was very conscious of caste discrimination that we all go through both subtle and direct. Perhaps that made me to opt for my study in the area of Human Rights.

Also I felt that articulation on the issues is a major problem. I have heard many Dalit women who were able to articulate and share their personal experiences in their vernacular language so well but doing so in English was a big challenge. They are being represented by people who are only good at articulating in English and so people coming from the grass root realities could never talk for themselves at a bigger platform like UN. These reasons led me to opt for a course in human rights.

What I liked about Ford Foundation was their entire interview process. The whole process was very comforting and gave us enough breathing space and to remain confident as applicants. They appointed one panel member to each applicant to interact at personal level. The one who was interviewing me, later, in the interview actually spoke on behalf of me which was very encouraging. This gave me lot of confidence and helped me face whatever question they asked. Read more… »

Insight Study Circle (22 August, Sunday)

Invites you for a public meeting

On

“Opportunities for Dalit and Adivasi Students for Higher Education in World’s Premier Educational Institutions”

And to interact with our panel of Dalit and Adivasi Scholars

Date - 22 August 2010 (Sunday)
Time - 3 PM to 5.30 PM
Venue - Room No 303, Indian Social Institute, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

Speakers

David Vumlallian Zou (from Manipur) teaches at History Department, Delhi University and did his doctorate from Queen’s University, Belfast with full scholarship from Academic Planning Grant (Northern Ireland).

Abhay Xaxa (from Chhattisgarh) is currently working with Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi and did his Masters in Social Anthropology from University of Sussex, UK  (2008) as one of the recipient of International Ford Fellowship Programme.

Rama Devi (from Andhra Pradesh) completed her Post Graduation in Human Rights from University of London (2004) as one of the International Ford Fellow. She is currently based in Kolkata and is working with Catholic Relief Service.

Bhawani Buswala (from Rajasthan) is currently in the country for his field research. He is pursuing his PhD in Anthropology from Brown University, Rhodes Island, USA on full university scholarship.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Insight Foundation is a group of students and young professionals committed towards working with Dalit and Adivasi students to make our education system more inclusive and to create various support systems for our students so that they are able to Read more… »

Celebrating the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People

A report by Mayanglambam Merina Leimarenbi and Gurinder Singh Azad

Every year, August 9, is being celebrated, across the countries, as the International day of the World’s Indigenous People.  This day is celebrated to bring forward the struggles that are being waged by various indigenous groups for their socio-political and economic rights.  It was on this day, August 9, 1982, that the first meeting of the United Nation’s working group on indigenous population took place and brought forward the plight of indigenous people on the global platform.  In India too, the day is celebrated by different Adivasi groups across the country and Insight foundation got the opportunity to participate in two events that were organised at Ranchi, Jharkhand. Below is a brief report on these two events.

The UN General Assembly while deciding to observe 1995-2004 as the ‘International Decade of World’s Indigenous People’,  decided to observe August 9, every year as a International day to offer the world community an opportunity to reiterate the principles of respect for human rights enshrined in UN Charter and to find solutions to alleviate the plight of indigenous people. Read more… »

Miscarriage of Justice

Khairlanji, a Lodha Tribal girl Chuni Kotal and Lord Lytton

by A. K. Biswas

A Painting at a Dalit protest Against Khairlanji Massacre (source:www.ambedkar.org)

The judgment delivered by a Division Bench in quadruple  murders of members of  Bhotmange family, village Khairlanji, district Bhandara in Maharashtra left everyone with sensitive mind shocked and dismayed. Surekha Bhotmange and her 18-year old daughter and two sons, including one who was disabled — were brutally  murdered by  an upper caste mob  on September 29, 2006.

The Bench concluded that the accused, who were sentenced to death by District and Sessions Court, Bhandara were not driven by hatred against the Bhotemange family members, who were scheduled castes. The High Court held that the accused took revenge!

This sounds like a joke widely prevalent in pre-independent India. The bureaucracy often termed starvation death as death due to malnutrition.

If someone takes someone’s life (deliberately and not accidentally) then he forfeits the right to his life - J.S. Mill

Part I

Justice and fairness of treatment for the victims belonging to socially disadvantaged is practically non-existent in India. In denying justice, very sound and cogent reasons and arguments couched in ceremonial legalese are advanced on behalf of the aggressors to satisfy analytical quest.

However,  the caste system, needless to note, prompts discrimination, which undoubtedly is the root cause for  denial of  justice to the dalits and adivasis.

The Kairlanji is the case in point.

Read more… »

POLITICIZING THE SHIT

Guest post by Ravi Chandran

The recent incident of Dalits smearing human excreta for saving their homes in a place called Savanur in Haveri district, Karnataka, one of the southern Indian states, has created diverse responses from civil society.

The most common response from the incident is that it is the ‘worst’ kind of protest anyone can do. Some people even may say ‘SHIT’ about the news!

After this news was carried by mainstream newspapers, the state government and the municipal authority have been questioned for allowing such practices (scavenging) in their state (Karnataka). Still the government has not been questioned on why they were thrown out of their homes, instead the anxieties of civil society seems to focus more on ‘why they were allowed to pour human excreta on their body’! Read more… »

Dalit cooks expose divisive mindsets

By Sudeep K.S.

“It is usual to hear all those who feel moved by the deplorable condition of the Untouchables unburden themselves by uttering the cry “We must do something for the Untouchables”. One seldom hears any of the persons interested in the problem saying ‘Let us do something to change the Touchable Hindu.’ ” - Dr. Ambedkar

I first noticed it when Kuffir shared a report that appeared on India Today website. Titled “Dalit cooks divide UP schoolkids“, the report by Piyush Srivastava explained how the introduction of Dalit cooks in schools led to a “bad situation” in Uttar Pradesh:

“Mid-day meals prepared by Dalit cooks has created such a bad situation in UP that upper caste students are leaving government schools in droves - so far the number is 1,000..”

When upper caste and OBC people refused to eat food that the dalits cooked, the report concluded that it is the induction of the Dalit cooks in schools that caused “increased casteism”. Read more… »

A Public Dialogue on SC/ST/OBC Reservations

Insight Study Circle

Invites you for a Public Dialogue to discuss on

“Ways and strategies for proper implementation of SC/ST/OBC Reservation in Higher Education”

with a team of students and faculty members from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Date: 24/07/10 (Saturday)
Time: 2.30 – 5.30 PM
Venue: Room No: 303, Indian Social Institute (ISI), Lodi Road, New Delhi

Context -

Both Delhi University and JNU are the premier institutions of our country and recently have been in news for their obstinate and hostile attitude towards the implementation of SC/ST/OBC reservations both at the level of students’ admissions as well as on the recruitment for the teaching posts.

On 5th August Delhi University is going to convert about 6,000 undergraduate seats reserved for OBCs into general category seats as the university is unable to find suitable candidates among the class that constitutes about half of the Indian population !!!

Not only OBC reservations, various colleges in Delhi University has had a long history of non-implementation of reservations for SC/ST students and denying them the opportunity of studying there on small pretexts and there have been regular complaints of caste based harassment of Dalit and Adivasi students by colleges’ administration during the process of admission.

Then in JNU, the proponent of brahminical hegemony have been dishing out arguments ranging from ‘SC/ST/OBC being genetically inferior’ to ‘Reservation in teaching posts will actually harm the disadvantage sections (read SC/ST/OBC) as it will result in exodus of well to do (read meritorious ‘upper’ castes) to foreign universities.

Which of these two statements sounds most ludicrous and racist?  Amazed? These are the statements of well renowned scholars and academicians not your regular ‘upper’ caste.

In this context, it is very necessary for all of us to sit together, discuss and strategise over ways in which we can counter the casteist tendencies of those who have the control over the educational institutions in our country and denying us our constitutional rights.

Above all the time has come for us to question the ‘merit’ of the system itself, under which about 80% of the Indian population is ‘non-meritorious’ enough to be denied admissions in simple BA and MA courses.

The Story of ‘Merit’: From 1950 through 2004 to the present

by Anoop Kumar

My lawyer father used to tell me about the power of  certain surnames and the ‘reservation’ they enjoyed in their public lives in contrast with people who were granted ‘reservations’ through the Indian constitution.  I used to get amazed with the stories he narrated of court rooms where the surnames of judges and the advocates often used to determine the outcome of the cases rather than their merits.

And these used to happen automatically, no conspiracy, no underhand dealings but pure, unadulturated ‘brotherhood’ of certain surnames. However, more than this ‘brotherhood’ what became more important gradually was the ‘othering’ of people who do not have these surnames and have to suffer prejudices, discrimination at all levels.

I myself witnessed the same ‘brotherhood’ and the ‘othering’ while giving viva in school practicals, interviews in entrance exams and also seen a Dalit candidate being dismissed by the interview board for JNU Mphil entrance exams after being asked just one question and then commented upon, “Tumhara toh selection ho hi jayega” (You will anyhow get selected).

The student did get selected under SC quota but it is a different matter that he got less than the average marks in his interview while scoring at par with others in written examination.

I am posting two articles to understand how merit is linked with surnames in this country. The first peice is an article written by a very eminent Dalit writer and ex -bureaucrat  Mr. A.K. Biswas that has been published in Mainstream (1993) and later on www.ambedkar.org.

Another one is a small interview, taken by our magazine INSIGHT and published in its first issue (2004), of Dalit student Himanshu Gautam who cleared UP civil services exams with an over all 9th rank and broke the record of maximum marks scored in UP PSC interviews by scoring staggering 80% marks as the UP government decided against revealing the background of any candidate except the educational one to the interview board.

Case of an IAS Topper

By A.K. Biswas

[The Author is retired IAS officer, an eminent writer, ex Vice-Chancellor of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The article was first published in Mainstream, VOL XXXII NO5, December 18, 1993.]

Fate of the first Scheduled Caste IAS (1950)

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) under the Constitution of free India started functioning from January 26, 1950. The UPSC conducted its first examination to recruit personnel for the IAS and Central Services the same year. The First Report of the UPSC does not mention the number of SC/ST candidates. But it discloses that Achyutananda Das was the country’s first SC to make it to the IAS in 1950 itself. He was, in fact, the topper of his batch in the written examination.

Achyutananda Das, from West Bengal, secured 613 out of 1050 marks in written examination whereas N. Krishnan from Madras secured 602. But in the interview, Krishnan secured 260 out of 300 as against 110 by Achyutananda Das. Thus Achyutananda was left miles behind by Krishnan due to the latter’s performance in the viva-voce test.

But the case of Aniruddha Dasgupta, also from West Bengal, is both interesting and revealing. The marks obtained by these three may be examined to appreciate the case of the topper in the table below - Read more… »

(CASTE)ING ‘THE INDIAN’

A context to argue for Caste Census

by Ranjith Thankappan

Bold and Beautiful ‘Indians’ : Barkha, Maniratnam and Amitabh Bachchan

Of late, Amitabh Bachchan in his inimical style has blogged out to become the self-appointed member of the caste called ‘Indian’. In  similar fashion, the popular academics of the ilk Vivek Dhareswar, Nandini Sundar et al. have polemically put forward their case against including caste in census 2011.

An array of academic gentry follow suit as usual.  And in popular culture, apart from Big B, there comes another Big B of the ‘B’-dominated national media- Barkha Dutt- singing the same old tune, the ‘caste of the Indian’ fuming in their blood, masked as ‘secular’ suiting the liberal democratic social attire of post-colonial societies.

I would rather disagree with all these positions with due respect and put forward a context of lived experience to argue in favour of caste census, and of course in the same polemical vein. Read more… »

Dalit and Adivasi Students’ Portal

Dear Friends,

We are very pleased to announce the launching of our Dalit and Adivasi Students’ Portal (www.scststudents.org). After the successful launch of National Telephone Helpline (helpline number – 0 9999 48 42 49) for our students on 27th May, 2010, this portal is one more effort from Insight Foundation, towards creating a support system for Dalit and Adivasi students in Higher Education and also supporting them to make informed choices while pursuing higher education and in career opportunities.

About the Portal -

Dalit and Adivasi Students’ Portal (DASP) is an e-resource centre for Dalit and Adivasi students in Higher education. DASP includes online discussion, mentoring for Dalit and Adivasi students, and provides relevant information about admissions, scholarships and career opportunities. It is also a space for advocating intervention at policy levels, towards creating equal opportunities in higher education, by making our educational system more inclusive.

Various Sections in the Portal - Read more… »