12.06.24.Untouchables News.chennai.India.by Team Sivaji.



38 startups founded by SC/ST youth get funding from Tamil Nadu government

POSTED ON JUNE 12, 2024


According to an official release from the TN government, the startups have received a shared investment of around Rs 55.20 crore in the past two financial years.

Startups founded by entrepreneurs belonging to the SC/ST communities have benefitted from the state government’s special fund, according to an official release by the Tamil Nadu government. According to the release, the government has allocated Rs 80 crore to promote startups founded by entrepreneurs from the SC/ST communities, and 38 startups founded by SC/ST (scheduled caste/schedule tribe) youth have received a shared investment of around Rs 55.20 crore in the past two financial years. The Tamil Nadu Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Startup Fund was introduced in 2022-23. Entrepreneurs from Chennai, Salem, Kanniyakumari, Madurai, Tiruchy, Coimbatore, Erode, and Nilgiris have benefitted from the scheme. As many as 6,384 startupshave been established in the state since the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) assumed office in Tamil Nadu in 2021, said the release. There were 2,032 startups in the state before 2021, and it has gone up to 8,416. The number of women-led startups has risen from 966 in 2021 to 3,163 in 2024, the release added. Startups have come up in the fields of agricultural engineering, artificial intelligence (AI), and value addition to food items. The state government attributes this growth to the various steps undertaken by it to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. The revamped Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation Policy was launched in September last year by the chief minister of the state, MK Stalin. The vision is for Tamil Nadu to become one of the top 20 global startup destinations by 2032.

Courtesy : Yourstory



UTTAR PRADESH

Balrampur News: SIT will investigate the self-immolation case of a Dalit youth

POSTED ON JUNE 12, 2024


Balrampur. The government has formed a special investigation team for a fair investigation of the self-immolation case of Dalit Ram Bujhart. Additional Director General of Police (Railway) Jai Narayan Singh and Additional Commissioner Devipatan Ramprakash have been included in the SIT formed by the Home Department on the orders of the High Court. Special Secretary Home Vivek has issued an order and directed the SP to make all the files related to the case available to the SIT for a fair investigation.
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On 24 October 2023, a private land in front of Gaidas Bujurg police station was occupied overnight by erecting pillars. On getting information about this, Dalit Ram Bujhart complained to the police station. On this, he was stopped at the police station itself. After this, hurt by the occupation of the land, Ram Bujhart came live on Facebook and committed suicide. He was admitted to the Trauma Center in Lucknow, where he died on 30 October. The FIR of the case was also registered at Gaidas Bujurg police station. In which Ram Bujhart’s wife Kusuma made serious allegations against the police and filed a petition in the High Court. She had expressed doubts over the action of the police in the investigation of her husband’s death. It is being told that the investigation of the case was also transferred to Bahraich district. Which was much discussed. Kusuma had expressed apprehension of a cover-up in the investigation. In the case, the High Court was informed about the entire incident through an affidavit by District Magistrate Arvind Singh. After this, the High Court had ordered an investigation by the SIT. Taking action on this, the government has formed SIT and started the investigation.
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The police’s steps remained halted in fixing responsibility in the case of Dalit Ram Bujharat’s death in Gaidas Buzurg. First, the magisterial inquiry exposed the negligence of the then SHO Pawan Kumar Kanaujia and he was suspended. After this, he was reinstated. On the order of action by DM Arvind Singh, former SHO Pawan Kumar obtained a stay from the High Court. After this, the distrust grew, while questions were also raised on transferring the investigation of the victim’s FIR to Bahraich Police. Now in the SIT investigation, the entire situation of self-immolation along with all the action taken so far will be investigated. This has increased the difficulties of many responsible persons.
The matter is serious also because the police itself was accused of occupying the land and a person had to lose his life. DM Arvind Singh has prepared several reports in the entire matter and sent them to the government. Correspondence has also been done for action from the level of SP Keshav Kumar. The SIT will also investigate all the action taken so far. For this, all the records have been sought, which include the cases related to land as well as the report of the incident etc. In this, along with Balrampur, Bahraich police is also under the scope of investigation. Because Bahraich police is investigating the case but has not reached any conclusion. Victim Kusuma Devi says that now she is hopeful of getting justice.
The dispute over Ram Bujhart’s land is already pending in the Civil Court Balrampur. On 27 November 2018, the then SDM Utraula had allotted land for the construction of a new police station, its entire map was handed over to the police. In this, the land ahead of the police station was never given for the construction of the police station premises. Even in the layout of the implementing agency Police Housing Corporation, the land ahead is not the land of the police station, even after this, the occupation of the land was shocking. The land was occupied during the holidays of Navratri, Durga Puja and Dussehra. Regarding this, the DM has raised questions on the role of the police in his report. In the SIT investigation, the implementing agency is also under question.

 



Dalit girl raped repeatedly in UP’s Bhadohi, becomes pregnant

POSTED ON JUNE 12, 2024



The accused came in contact with the girl’s family while working in a crop field with a paddy threshing machine, police said.

Bhadohi (UP): A 17-year-old Dalit girl became pregnant due to being raped repeatedly by a man in a village in the Suriyawa Police Station jurisdiction, police on Tuesday said.

SHO Ram Nagina Yadav said police on Tuesday arrested 26-year-old Raju Gupta, a resident of Dudwa Dharmapuri, on rape charges.

Gupta came in contact with the girl’s family while working in a crop field with a paddy threshing machine, the SHO said.

He started visiting the Dalit family and when there would be no one home, he would rape the 17-year-old girl, Yadav said.

The family, when it noticed changes in the girl’s body, took her to a hospital on June 8, where the doctors said that she was pregnant, he said.

When she was asked about the pregnancy, the girl told her family that Gupta raped her whenever they would be away.

On Sunday, the girl’s father went to Suriyawa Police Station with the girl and filed a complaint against Raju Gupta, the SHO said.

On the basis of the complaint, police registered a case against Gupta on charges of rape, criminal intimidation of the IPC, and SC/ST and POCSO Act.

Based on the victim’s testimony, raids were made and Gupta was nabbed from near Suriyawa Railway Station, Yadav said.

Courtesy : TSD


PUNJAB

The Fight Against Caste Oppression Can Unite Indian Workers

POSTED ON JUNE 12, 2024



The Indian state of Punjab shows us that caste oppression owes far more to material interests than it does to inherited religious ideologies. A movement of Dalit rural workers offers a powerful example of how that oppression can be challenged today.

The Indian state of Punjab, located on the border with Pakistan in the country’s northwest, has a population of twenty-seven million, the majority of which is Sikh. In recent times, Punjab has given rise to an important movement that seeks to organize the Dalits who comprise the poorest and most downtrodden section of rural society in the state.

More than two-thirds of India’s population still lives in the countryside, and 45 percent of the workforce is employed in agriculture. A closer look at the movement in Punjab can thus shed light on some of the most important questions for Indian politics and society, such as the relationship between class and caste, the extent to which India’s neoliberal turn over the past three decades has transformed its social structures, and the potential for mobilization of oppressed and exploited groups such as Dalits.

Virgin Soil Upturned

In 2008, Bahal, Amarjit, and a couple of other young Dalit men formed the Krantikari Pendu Mazdoor Union (Revolutionary Rural Laborers’ Union). Amarjit had been working for A. P. Solvex in the nearby town of Dhuri. As a child, he was a siri (a form of bonded laborer) with a family from the dominant Jatt agricultural caste for ten years.

Harbhajan Singh Says Bumrah and Suryakumar To Make Impact For India Against Pakistan

More than two-thirds of India’s population still lives in the countryside, and 45 percent of the workforce is employed in agriculture.

He presents his life as a siri as having been akin to slavery: “I was given staled chapatis and milk with added water to eat, I had separate utensils. I used to work from early morning to late night. I was treated like a useless male calf.” In India’s modern, mechanized agriculture, farmers consider male calves worthless and keep them hungry, barely allowing them to suckle milk.

When the yearly bid for reserved land was unfolding, some local Dalits approached Bahal, Amarjit, and their comrades. They succeeded in disrupting a proxy bid that a Dalit was making on behalf of a Jatt farmer. The local administration, dominated by members of the upper castes, did not want the land to go to Dalits, so several more bids were obstructed. But the labor organization persevered and eventually took control of the nine acres of land.

Bahal belonged to a left-wing student organization in his college. He was familiar with Chinese and Soviet collectivization and had acquired a rosy picture of those experiences from reading translated works of literature like Mikhail Sholokhov’s Virgin Soil Upturned and The Hurricane by Chou Li-Po.

When he and his comrades began farming communally on the plot of land they had acquired, they called it a sanjha khet after the phrase used for a collective farm in the Punjabi translation of Sholokhov’s novel. They posted the figures for income and expenditure publicly on the village walls and held regular general meetings.

Dalit Mobilization

While about 250 Dalit families had joined the bid for the land, ninety-four of those families supplied the necessary funds. Those families owned cattle and wanted a share in cultivated sorghum and other greens as fodder. Cattle have always been significant for Dalit households, who rely on milk for nutrition. They also provide an asset for landless Dalits to sell in times of hardship.

The movement is a form of lower-caste assertion against Jatt domination. It has faced a brutal and violent reaction from Jatts and the state administration.

In the absence of common land, the Dalit women used to go to the boundaries of Jatt farms to collect greens twice every day, where they regularly faced abuse and sexual harassment at the hands of Jatts. Because of this experience, women outnumbered men in the movement.

Inspired by this example, a Maoist group went on to form the Zameen Prapati Sangharsh Committee (ZPSC) demanding reserved land for Dalits in 2014. The ZPSC has been leading a remarkable and unforeseen caste-based movement.

Every village has some common land, though the amount varies from village to village. One-third of this land is reserved for Dalits to make a bid every year. In the past, Jatts used to control this land under the name of proxy Dalit bidders. The ZPSC organized Dalits to bid for reserved land as a community and engaged in cooperative farming.

Without any competitors, they could keep the amount for the bid as low as possible. The amount of land varies from just a few acres to more than a hundred. Over the last ten years, this movement has spread to more than 120 villages.

At first glance, this looks like a movement of Dalit women looking for self-respect and economic benefits they reap from the land. But it is also much more than that. The movement is a form of lower-caste assertion against Jatt domination. It has faced a brutal and violent reaction from Jatts and the state administration.

Caste and Class

The Orientalist understanding of caste presents it as having originated in the Hindu religion, with the ideology of Brahminism maintaining caste hierarchies. This metaphysical understanding of caste dominates the discourse of identity politics in India’s universities.

The Orientalist understanding of caste presents it as having originated in the Hindu religion, with the ideology of Brahminism maintaining caste hierarchies.

However, the pattern of caste relations in the Sikh-dominated state of Punjab defies this explanatory framework. About 58 percent of the state’s population is Sikh, with a much higher proportion in rural areas, which form the crucible of caste-based oppression.

Punjab also has the highest proportion of Dalits in any Indian state: they comprise nearly one-third of the population but own less than 2 percent of agricultural land. Again, the Dalit proportion is higher in the villages, where members of the Jatt caste dominate.

Sikhism is a comparatively new religion, based in principle on the equality of castes. However, the material reality of control over the land made this religious philosophy ineffectual as an emancipatory movement, resulting in the prevalence of caste oppression and exploitation.

In the past, caste relations were based on the jajmani system. This was a system of hierarchical caste occupations based on the notion of “reciprocity.” In the village economy, land was central to production. Jatts owned the land and employed members of other castes such as julahe (weavers), lohar (blacksmiths), or ghumar (potterers), offering them a meager share of grain in return.

In this system, Dalits engaged in the so-called dirty work of removing dead animals, making leather, and scavenging. Their main occupation, however, was that of agricultural labor. The relations between landowners and laborers were highly oppressive and exploitative.

The caste structure that the jajmani system produced and reproduced was predicated on the economic and social power of the Jatt caste. But the village economy and the jajmani system have disintegrated in the wake of the Green Revolution in the 1970s and India’s subsequent turn to neoliberal policies from the 1990s.

After the Green Revolution

During the 1970s, the Indian state introduced hybrid crop varieties and fertilizers, combined with the use of new machinery, in an attempt to solve the problem of national food deficiency. Punjab was at the center of these changes.

The employment of tractors and combine harvesters as well as herbicides has drastically reduced the number of working days required in agriculture, pushing out the Dalit laborers.

Over the last fifty years, the employment of tractors and combine harvesters as well as herbicides has drastically reduced the number of working days required in agriculture, pushing out the Dalit laborers. According to recent data, out of the total rural workforce, about 30 percent only engage in agriculture for short periods of the year, facing unemployment the rest of the time or relying on petty trade and other forms of wage labor.

The phenomenon of the permanently attached laborer (siri), paid a meager income at the end of the year, has declined from nearly 36 percent of the entire workforce in 1987–88 to just over 1 percent by 2018–19. Siris were highly exploited, without any fixed number of hours or any set type of work. Their levels of remuneration were very low, as they usually had to repay debts they had taken on at onerous interest rates from Jatts. This often trapped them in a debt cycle, forcing them to work as siris throughout their lives.

Most Dalits now work as wage laborers in construction, manufacturing, or the service sector. They are inclined to disassociate themselves from the village economy and work in nearby towns and cities. On the other hand, members of the middle and lower castes from poorer Indian states now migrate to Punjab to take up the agricultural work that Dalits used to do.

Although the Green Revolution increased the income of Jatt farmers at first, with the advent of the neoliberal era, the state began clawing back support it had previously provided to farmers and they found themselves subject to exploitation by multinational corporations. Between 1991 and 2000, out of a total of one million farming families, two hundred thousand small and marginal farmers left agriculture, with many joining Dalits in the ranks of wage laborers.

At the other end of the scale, there has also been a decline in the number of large farmers and the land they own. Across the whole of India, only those rural families that own at least ten acres of land earn more than they spend, and the vast majority — 96 percent — of rural households fall below this threshold.

The gap between income and expenditure for Jatts has resulted in debt and distress, eventually culminating in a wave of suicides. A large number of Jatts and Dalits now form what the sociologist Henry Bernstein calls “classes of labor” — working people who eke out their living through a combination of petty commodity production, small-scale trade, and wage labor. While this might suggest that there is a growing disconnect between caste and social power, that impression would be mistaken.

A New Ruling Class

A new regional ruling class has emerged in the process as rich Jatt farmers reaped the benefits of the Green Revolution. They also had avenues into moneylending, the sale of farm inputs, and other businesses outside of agriculture. This class has a firm grip on village resources of various kinds, including religious shrines, panchayats (village councils), welfare institutions, farmer organizations, political parties, and bodies of the state administration.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), for example, is a Sikh religious body that internal critics has accused of being dominated by Jatts. It controls the Sikh shrines in Punjab, Haryana, and the union territory of Chandigarh. The practice of social boycott is enforced through village-level Sikh shrines, which are dominated by this class of rich farmers.

Usually, when Dalits demand better wages during the labor-intensive period of rice cultivation, which still relies on hand cultivation, the Jatt community excludes the Dalits from any kind of economic transaction, whether that means selling food or milk, paying wages, or receiving welfare benefits, which are distributed by village councils. The Jatts mobilize all the institutions of power in the village to make this social boycott work.

When Dalits demand better wages during the labor-intensive period of rice cultivation, the Jatt community exclude the Dalits from any kind of economic transaction.

Jatts dominate the village councils. Even when the position of head is reserved for Dalits, the person actually elected is someone faithful to the rich farmer class. In most villages, Dalit members of the council are not allowed to sit in the chair in front of the upper-caste members. The welfare institutions of village cooperatives are under their control, including government resources for lending money to poor Dalits. Recently, the ZPSC sought to challenge their control over the village cooperatives, but without any success.

Jatts control several large organizations of farmers. However, the left-wing farmers’ organizations are stronger and more numerous, offering support to Dalits when they are the victims of atrocities. Unfortunately, in some villages, local branches of the left-wing farmers’ organizations have actually imposed the social boycott, but the state-level organizations took notice of this and expelled the members responsible.

Through control over these various institutions of political, social, and economic power, rich Jatts exert their authority over electoral politics and all the mainstream parties. For their part, left parties that adhere to Maoist ideology see liberal democracy as a sham and avoid participating in elections, believing that this would convert them from revolutionaries into reformists.

Small farmers have also been the perpetrators of discrimination, although many small farmers share a class position with Dalits when they work alongside them in small industries and the service sector, or as laborers in state employment schemes. One can understand these social boycotts and atrocities as the reaction of rich farmers and newly pauperized small ones to the assertion of Dalits, seeking to maintain caste power.

In the village of Jhaloor, a Jatt crowd of around 250 responded to the Dalit demand for reserved land by attacking the Dalit area. They assaulted a woman with axes, severing her leg; she later bled to death in the hospital. Jatt youth sexually harassed and beat Dalit women, whose homes were ransacked.

This was not an isolated incident of persecution. In the village of Balad Kalan, the local administration arrested forty-one Dalits on trumped-up charges of attempted murder, demanding their share of land. They were put in jail and only released after a struggle lasting fifty-nine days.

Beyond Base and Superstructure

The program of the underground Communist Party of India (Maoist) depicts caste oppression as a legacy of India’s “semifeudal” system and predicts that “distribution of land to the tiller” will begin a process leading to the eradication of caste. For its part, the legal, parliamentary Communist Party of India (Marxist), which forms part of the opposition alliance in this year’s elections, defines caste as “a remnant of precapitalist society.”

The fight against caste is vital in order to build the unity of working people.

We can divide the understandings of caste among India’s communists into three broad categories. The first is composed of those who see caste as part of the socioeconomic “base” and believe that it can only be abolished through class struggle and revolution. The second is composed of those who see it as a phenomenon of the “superstructure” and argue that a cultural transformation can eliminate it after the revolution. In the third category we have those, like the ZPSC, who see caste as an issue of base and superstructure alike.

The problem with using the inherited binary division of base and superstructure, which derives from a particular text of Karl Marx, is that we always tend to trivialize what we place in the superstructure — in this case, social and political institutions. Since the communist groups characterize Indian society as “semifeudal,” they argue that land reforms are required to clear away the forces of feudalism and complete what they call the New Democratic Revolution.

Economist Vikas Rawal has estimated that if an upper ceiling on land holdings of 17.5 acres is imposed, it will only supply 0.33 acres of land for each currently landless household. This does not mean that land reforms are redundant — if carried out, they would have a significant impact on caste structures and should be fought for. But we should also recognize the importance of challenging the institutions through which Jatt hegemony is manifested.

Local village-level organizations along the lines of the ZPSC can organize such a challenge. This may not be a movement for socialist transformation as the Maoist groups would understand it, but the fight against caste is vital in order to build the unity of working people. After all, no such unity is possible on the basis of Jatt domination. This movement could supply the basis for working people to engage in a future united struggle against global capitalism.



The Young Dalit MPs Entering the 18th Lok Sabha As First Time Parliamentarians

POSTED ON JUNE 12, 2024



Bhim Army chief and Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) founder Chandra Shekhar Aazad, the Samajwadi Party’s Priya Saroj and Pushependra Saroj, as well as the Congress’s Sanjana Jatav are among the young Dalit MPs entering the 18th Lok Sabha.

New Delhi: The 18th Lok Sabha will see several young Dalit MPs who will be entering parliament for the first time. This includes Bhim Army chief and Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) founder Chandra Shekhar Aazad, the Samajwadi Party’s Priya Saroj and Pushependra Saroj, as well as the Congress’s Sanjana Jatav.

According to an analysis by political scientist Gilles Verniers in the Hindustan Times, the representation of OBCs from the Hindi heartland in the Lok Sabha has increased from 25.7% in the 17th Lok Sabha to 31% in the 18th and current Lok Sabha.

Representation of SCs and STs only noted a small increase in comparison. SC representation increased from 17.3% to 17.7% while that of STs increased from 8% to 8.04%.

Nationally, the representation of OBCs increased from 22.8% in 2019 to 25.4% in 2024. As in the Hindi heartland, the representation of SCs increased only marginally at the national level, from 15.5% in 2019 to 15.8%. The representation of STs remained the same at 10.1%.

Here is a look at some of the young Dalit MPs who will enter parliament:

Chandra Shekhar Azad

Azaad, 37, has recorded a resounding victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by winning Uttar Pradesh’s Nagina seat by a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes.

In an interview to The Wire, Aazad, who was an activist for over a decade before forming the Aazad Samaj Party, said that it is the people of the country and not the opposition that have defeated the BJP.

“The Dalit voter is very intelligent. I believe that they understand the constitution, its power, reservations and the government’s duties very well. There is a lot of awareness now among backward communities,” he said.

“I believe that this time, the people of the country have fought these elections and not the opposition. The people of the country fought to defeat the BJP in this election, against their policies and their statements and their arrogance. And if any other party attempts this again in the future, even they will meet the same fate that the BJP has today.”

In 2022, he contested against Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur but finished fourth.

Aazad’s victory comes less than a year after he sustained a bullet injury when his convoy was shot at in Saharanpur. Long known as a grassroots political activist, Aazad has spent time in jail, including during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in 2019.

Sanjana Jatav

The Congress’ Sanjana Jatav, 26, one of the youngest members of the 18th Lok Sabha, has won the general election from Rajasthan’s Bharatpur by over 51,000 votes, defeating BJP candidate Ramswaroop Koli.

Her victory came barely six months after she lost the 2023 Rajasthan assembly elections from Alwar’s Kathumar by 409 votes to the BJP’s Ramesh Khinchi.

A law graduate, the young Dalit MP said to The Hindu that she won as “too much of religion-related violence [had] made [the] people choose her.”

“Unemployment, healthcare, everything needs immediate attention in my constituency,” she added.

Priya Saroj

Priya Saroj, 25, of the Samajwadi Party won from Uttar Pradesh’s Machchalishahr constituency, defeating sitting BJP MP B.P. Saroj by over 30,000 votes.

Saroj has been elected from the constituency that her father Toofani Saroj represented from 2009 to 2014. While she is a first time parliamentarian, she assisted her father in the 2022 assembly election campaign.

“I always played an active role in social activities in college and university … I have grown up in a political environment. In the 2022 elections, my father contested the assembly elections. I looked after the campaigning during the election. So, poll politics is not new to me. I know the people of the area. With the blessings of people, I won the election,” she said to the Hindustan Times.

“As an MP, I will work to create employment opportunities for the [youth] … Simultaneously, I will work for women’s empowerment.”

Pushpendra Saroj

Pushpendra Saroj, 25, fielded by the Samajwadi Party from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaushambi, is also a first term parliamentarian.

Saroj defeated sitting BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar by a margin of over one lakh votes.

Sonkar had won the seat in both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2019 elections, Sonkar had defeated Saroj’s father Indrajeet Saroj from the same constituency.

“My father contested the seat in 2019 and lost to the BJP’s Vinod Kumar Sonkar. This time, I was appointed, and the BJP candidate said ‘I defeated your father last time and now I’ll defeat you’. The people of Kaushambi took it upon themselves and voted for me,” he said to NDTV.

“I knew in 2024, I’d turn 25. I decided to enter politics. I met our party president, Akhilesh Yadav. After speaking to me, he was convinced and suggested that I contest from the seat instead of my father.”

Courtesy : The Wire

Dalit widow beaten by goons, serious


POSTED ON JUNE 12, 2024

Sherghati | On Tuesday, in Fazlaha village of Sherghati police station, a Dalit woman was beaten up by some miscreants, due to which the woman got injured.

The family members have admitted the injured woman to the sub-divisional hospital. The injured woman has been identified as Kanti Devi. A complaint has been lodged at the police station regarding the matter. On the basis of the complaint, the police have registered a report and started investigation. The family members of the injured woman told that due to the heat, the children of her house went to take bath at the motor pump running nearby. Due to this, the miscreants thrashed the widow woman. It is said that the miscreants often harass the woman due to her living alone.

Courtesy: dainik bhaskar



    28 ministers of new Modi govt have declared criminal cases: ADR

    POSTED ON JUNE 12, 2024



    The ADR report also highlighted that five ministers have cases related to crimes against women.

    New Delhi : Twenty-eight ministers in the third Narendra Modi government have criminal cases against them with 19 of them facing serious charges such as attempted murder, crimes against women and hate speech, poll rights body Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said.

    Among the ministers facing the most severe allegations, two have declared cases related to attempt to murder under Indian Penal Code section 307.

    They are Shantanu Thakur, minister of state for ports, shipping and waterways, and Sukanta Majumdar, minister of state for education and Development of North Eastern Region, the ADR said.

    The ADR report also highlighted that five ministers have cases related to crimes against women.

    They are Minister of State (MoS) for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Thakur, Majumdar, MoS for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Tourism Suresh Gopi and Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram.

    Additionally, the ADR report identifies eight ministers with cases related to hate speech.

    A total of 28 out of 71 ministers (39 per cent) have declared criminal cases, it said.

    The new Council of Ministers that took the oath on June 9 has 72 members, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



    India's heat wave hits marginalized Dalit caste

    Midhat Fatimah in New Delhi
    13 hours ago

    India's unusually severe heat wave has killed more than 200 people and made tens of thousands ill so far. Amid these extreme weather conditions, there are concerns about the country's marginalized.

    A woman pours water on her head after filling her containers with drinking water from a municipal tanker on a hot summer day in New Delhi, India, May 21, 2024
    In New Delhi alone, the mercury climbed to nearly 53 degrees Celsius (127 Fahrenheit), making it the hottest summer in 120 yearsImage: Adnan Abidi/REUTERS

    A nationwide heat wave that began in May has brought unprecedented temperatures to northern and western India .

    The India Meteorological Department issued red alerts at the end of May warning about the "very high likelihood" that many people would experience heat illness and heat stroke, and urging "extreme care" for vulnerable individuals.

    Despite the heat wave, however, Kanchan Devi is forced to make her living outdoors, baking bricks in the state of Haryana.

    Shanties of brick kiln workers in India fly flags with symbols of Dalit resistance
    Dalits often find themselves living in dwellings with roofs made from tin or tarpaulinImage: Midhat Fatimah/DW

    Temperature warnings do little for informal laborers such as Devi. The twenty-something-year-old only has a piece of cloth wrapped around her head to protect her from the sun.

    Devi, who belongs to the Dalit community — a historically marginalized group from the lowest level of India's centuries-old discriminatory caste hierarchy — squats for hours at a time as she works at the furnace to produce bricks. Last month, Devi experienced dizziness at work during the heatwave and was subsequently hospitalized due to low blood pressure.

    'Risking our lives'

    report by the Center for Labour Research and Action found that over 50% of the workers at the 21 brick kilns it surveyed were Dalits.

    "Our lives are always at risk," said Raheb Rajput, a Dalit construction worker in New Delhi, who told DW that he lost his cousin to the heat wave in May. "It is getting hotter with every passing year."

    Nearly 25,000 people are believed to have experienced heatstroke during India's summer season, which runs from March through May, the news website ThePrint reported ,citing government data.

    The National Alliance of People's Movements, a civil rights organization, demanded that this year's extreme heat be declared a disaster under India's Disaster Management Act, 2005.

    Devi bakes bricks under the sun, squatting with a cloth wrapped around her head
    Kanchan Devi bakes bricks outdoors with cloth wrapped around her head to protect herImage: Midhat Fatimah/DW

    Is caste a heat vulnerability factor in India?

    Several studies and media reports highlight the plight of workers in the unorganized sector, which represents a huge chunk of the Indian labor force, especially during sweltering summers — but caste has rarely been recognized as a factor that contributes to heat vulnerability.

    Experts say socioeconomic factors can have an impact on people's vulnerability to heat. A study by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) revealed that occupational heat exposure exacerbates social inequalities.

    "Research suggests that caste-based division of labor continues to exist in India's modern market economy," said Arpit Shah, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Bengaluru, one of India's most-populous cities.

    Shah's ongoing research explores the relationship between caste and occupational heat exposure.

    "Construction workers and sanitation workers are disproportionately likely to be from the marginalized caste groups. Since these occupations require more outdoor work, there is greater risk because of heat waves," Shah said.

    By some accounts, 90% of the workforce in India is employed in the informal sector. A massive proportion of the workers in the informal sector belongs to the Dalit community, Scheduled Tribes and other "lower" caste groups, according to a 2020 report by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights.

    Challenges faced by brick kiln workers

    Most laborers at brick kilns are migrants who live in shanties constructed by stacking up bricks on top of each other, with tin sheets or tarpaulin used for the roof.

    At times, the migrant workers stay with their families, including children, at the site of the kiln in severely hot temperatures.

    Devi said she slept in the field at night. "It is hotter inside our tin-roofed shanty," she said.

    Most of the shanties lack basic amenities such as fans and light bulbs. Many of the workers DW spoke with said they arranged for fans on their own.

    Some employers fail to provide even drinking water. Laborers are forced to search for water in nearby areas, and this scarcity also puts them at risk.

    Gulrez Shah Azhar, a former researcher with the Public Health Foundation of India, said heat vulnerability could be exacerbated by people's individual environments.

    "Imagine living in a shanty," he said. "There's no separate bathroom or running water supply enabling privacy to take a shower. All of these factors add to how vulnerable a person is to heat."

    The mercury's rise makes access to cooling and shade a crucial heat adaptation strategy, but most of the people from the Dalit community DW spoke with did not own air coolers — let alone air conditioners.

    The lower-caste and tribal households are also reported to have 10%-30% less access to electricity.

    A laborer sun-drying bricks at a kiln
    Some employers don't ensure access to water for their workersImage: Midhat Fatimah/DW

    Pathway for inclusive policy to deal with heat waves

    The National Disaster Management Authority adopted the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and released its plan in 2016. The initial plan considered only the elderly and disabled as vulnerable groups to natural disasters. However, in 2019, it was revised to include Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in this category.

    "The Heat Action Plans formulated at state, city and district levels do not take the impact on vulnerable caste groups into account," said Beena Johnson, the general secretary of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights.

    study by the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research think tank found that "nearly all Heat Action Plans are poor at identifying and targeting vulnerable groups."

    Mukul Sharma, the author of the book "Caste and Nature," said the government only provided data for deaths caused by heat, but disaggregating the numbers would most likely reveal that many of the victims are Dalits.

    "We are living in a different time, for all of us," Azhar said. "Heat is the greatest inequality issue of our time."

    Edited by: Keith Walker.


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