03.05.25.UT news of India.Chennai.India.by Team asivaji1962@gmail.com.Follow us F,Youth,x,in,wachnl,inst...
In Rajasthan village, police protection for Dalit groom to ‘safely hold wedding procession’
Comes after the National Commission for Scheduled Castes intervened and wrote to the SP seeking police protection for the groom.
- Written by Parul Kulshrestha
A Dalit family in Tarwada village in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district sought police protection to help conduct a wedding procession, prompting the National Commission for Scheduled Castes to intervene.
In a letter to the Rajsmand Superintendent of Police Friday, the panel had asked the police to provide adequate protection to the family for the wedding procession. The police have also been asked to file a report in 15 days. The wedding procession was held on Saturday and the wedding is scheduled for Sunday.
This comes a week after a Dalit groom in Madhya Pradesh was attacked for riding a mare during his wedding procession.
According to officials, the SC panel took suo motu cognizance after the groom’s brother, Suresh Bamaniya, wrote to the district police seeking police protection for the wedding procession planned for his brother. To make his case, Bamaniya cited an incident from 2022 when a Dalit man’s wedding procession was disrupted.
The police have also been asked to file a report in 15 days. (Express Photo)Rajsamand SP Manish Tripathi confirmed that the police had received the letter. “We have deployed 170 police officers in the village. We also have drones to keep an eye on the situation,” he said.
Supreme Court orders reinstatement of Dalit PhD scholar Ramadas KS at TISS
The Supreme Court has ordered the reinstatement of Dalit PhD scholar and Left student leader Ramadas K.S, who was suspended by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in 2024 for alleged misconduct and anti-national activities.
The Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Manmohan on Friday further allowed the Dalit scholar to conclude his PhD.
While clarifying that it was not invalidating the suspension, the Apex Court reduced the suspension period to the already undergone till May 1.
In April 2024, TISS had suspended Ramadas from the institute for two years and debarred his entry across all its campuses after he protested in the ‘Parliament march’ in January 2024 under the banner of TISS- PSF(Progressive Students’ Forum), allegedly against the Central government and the BJP, opposing the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP).
Earlier, the scholar approached the Bombay High Court challenging his suspension.
The High Court rejected his plea, calling the protest politically-motivated. It held that the action taken by TISS was correct on the grounds that Ramadas created an impression that the views expressed in the march represented the views of the institute and that this brought disrepute to the institute.
He then moved the Apex Court.
In 2015, Ramadas first enrolled with the TISS for a Master’s degree in the course Media and Cultural Studies. He was awarded a scholarship from the institute. In 2018, he enrolled in the integrated M.Phil. and Ph.D. course in Development Studies. In 2023, he was awarded a National Fellowship in Scheduled Caste by the Union Ministry of Social Justice in view of his performance in the UGC-NET examination.
May 2, 2025
Dalla outlines tragedy of sex trafficking in India
Impoverished Indian women sold into sex trafficking as children by their families want better for their own daughters, but it is often hard for them to see other paths forward, said a University of Nebraska–Lincoln professor who has extensively studied the issue.
“Human trafficking is a tragedy, and when children and complex family dynamics are involved, the tragedies are compounded,” said Rochelle Dalla, professor of child, youth and family studies. Dalla was the speaker April 30 for the spring Nebraska Lecture.
Dalla has spent her career studying family-facilitated child sex trafficking in India, though her research began in Omaha in 1998, when she partnered with the Salvation Army to conduct in-depth interviews with 43 women involved in the street-level sex economy. Thirty of those women reported being victims of sex trafficking.
It is an international tragedy. It is estimated that there are 49.5 million victims of human trafficking globally at any point in time, a figure that includes both sex trafficking and forced-labor trafficking.
In 2010, Dalla’s interest in the issue took her to India, where the caste system, though officially outlawed, still operates and underpins a far-reaching commercial sex industry fed by both the kidnapping of girls and women and the selling of them into the life by family members.
India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development estimates about 3 million people are involved in the commercial sex industry, 40% of them minors. Many of them work in urban brothels.
Human trafficking is a tragedy, and when children and complex family dynamics are involved, the tragedies are compounded.
Sex-trafficking victims in India occupy the lowest rung on India’s social hierarchy — the Dalits, a group of about 1,100 castes formerly known as “untouchables.” Many of them engage in the sex industry as their only means of income.
“Being born into a Dalit caste often comes with tremendous social, economic challenges — with barriers to education, resources and political power,” Dalla said.
“My first trip to India was in 2012, and my goal was simple enough. I wanted to understand how women and girls ended up working in India’s red-light brothel districts,” she said.
With the assistance of a nongovernmental organization, Dalla conducted interviews with 30 women working in two infamous red-light brothel districts in Mumbai.
“This trip was pivotal in my understanding of sex trafficking in India,” Dalla said. "First, none of the participants had been kidnapped by strangers, and only one was there intergenerationally — her mother and grandmother had also worked there, and she did not know how her grandmother got there.”
Most were sold to the brothels by family members or a third party assisted by a family member.
Not all trafficking is the same. For example, some stems from an ancient Indian tradition known as Devadasi, in which one young girl in a family would be dedicated to a deity for life. Her work would include dance and other performances, domestic chores but also sex with older men, considered a “religious duty.” Though officially outlawed in 1988, the practice continues today. These girls send their earnings home to their villages.
Other castes are equally entrenched in the commercial sex industry — but without religious or spiritual associations. For example, the Bedia caste offers females two life options: Marry and perform all family labor or enter the commercial sex industry, prohibited from marrying, with the families entirely financially dependent on their sex work.
There are differences between the commercial sex industry in urban and rural areas, with the former centered on organized brothels and the latter in family homes. The rural-based sex industry is conducted with little violence or police harassment, and its victims tend to experience little shame or stigma.
Also, Dalla hypothesizes that females trafficked into sex because of their caste association might have higher psycho-social well-being than those trafficked by family without any caste-based association. However, she added, caste-associated females’ daughters are at “extremely high risk” of ending up in the same life. Non-caste-associated females involved in sex trafficking seem least at risk of seeing their daughters victimized.
Dalla said the research is emotionally charged. Sometimes, she finds herself crying with victims. But, she said, she often feels “awe and respect” for women desperately trying to keep their own daughters from falling into the life, too. Many of these women cannot see another way to support their families.
Lacking an outlet for publishing her work, Dalla created the Journal of Human Trafficking, published four times a year. Now in its 10th year, the journal covers medical and mental health, social work criminology, economics, tourism, law and policy aspects of human trafficking.
The Nebraska Lectures: The Chancellor’s Distinguished Speaker Series are offered once a semester, sponsored by the Office of Research and Innovation, Office of the Chancellor and Research Council, in collaboration with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The lectures bring together the university community with the greater community in Lincoln and beyond to celebrate the intellectual life of the university and showcase faculty excellence in research and creative activity.
A recording of Dalla’s talk will be posted on the Nebraska Lecture website within a week of the lecture.
Caste census could change cap on reservations set by Supreme Court in 1992
But given that the courts have insisted on quantifiable data to justify state action, the caste census announced by the Union government on could change things.
For decades now, the push for an increase in reservation, over and above a cap set by the Supreme Court in 1992, has come up against an immovable object in the form of constitutional courts.
But given that the courts have insisted on quantifiable data to justify state action, the caste census announced by the Union government on Wednesday could change things.
Also Read: ‘Kaha tha na, Modi ji…’: Congress poster claims credit for caste census move; Centre hits back
In 1992, a landmark decision in the so-called Indira Sahwney case by a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court laid down the rule that as a norm, reservation cannot exceed the 50% threshold. In the years since, laws by states and Centre providing reservation beyond this limit came to be challenged in the top court, and judicial decisions maintained the sanctity of the threshold. But even as the courts struck down these laws, they insisted on the need for benchmarks of backwardness and data on under-representation (if any).
Also Read: On Centre’s caste census move, Siddaramaiah questions timing, sees a Bihar poll link
The Supreme Court itself has also played an active role in extending reservation for other backward classes to local bodies as well as for scheduled classes and tribes to promotions in government jobs.
In the 1992 case, the apex court was considering the constitutional validity of providing reservation to OBCs quantified at 27%, as recommended by the Mandal Commission, which estimated the OBC population to be 52% in the country.
Also Read: RSS cautious about use of caste census as a political tool
The court allowed reservation for OBCs with riders by seeking exclusion of the “creamy layer”-- those affluent among them based on income and other indicators--and placing a cap on total reservation to not exceed 50% except in “extraordinary” situations. This cap comprised 15% reservation to SCs, 7.5% to STs and 27% to OBCs.
In 2006, the Supreme Court considered petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Articles 16(4A) and 16(4B) in the Constitution providing reservation in promotion with consequential seniority in favour of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
The decision of the five-judge Constitution bench in M Nagaraj v Union of India case (2006) reiterated the ceiling limit of 50%, the concept of creamy layer, and went on to impose additional riders indicating that the state will have to demonstrate compelling reasons of “backwardness”, “inadequacy of representation” and “overall administrative efficiency” to justify reservation in public employment under Article 16, without which, it held, “the structure of equality of opportunity in Article 16 would collapse.”
In 2018, the court was required to consider whether the M Nagaraj decision needed to be reviewed. In its decision in Jarnail Singh v Lacchmi Narain Gupta, it accepted that in matters of promotion of SC/ST, states need not prove their backwardness, but required them to fulfil the other conditions to provide data justifying inadequate representation of SC/STs.
But the Supreme Court has also shot down efforts to expand the benefits of reservation -- it scrapped the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s decision to include Jats within the list of OBCs in the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and certain districts of Rajasthan.
And , it scrapped a 2018 law by Maharashtra that extended the benefits of reservation to Marathas, on the grounds that this would make overall reservations in the state breach the 50% mark. That judgement also said only the Union government could define a socially and economically backward class (or SEBC). Following this decision, the Parliament had to amend Article 342A restoring authority to states and union territories to identify SEBCs.
In a 2021 judgement, the Supreme Court defined the protocol for states to provide reservation in local bodies -- a three step process that involved appointing a commission, gathering empirical data quantifying extent and backwardness of OBCs, and ensuring that total reservation in any local body seat does not exceed the 50% ceiling. This mandate led many state governments to first establish a commission.
Moving away from caste-based reservation, the Centre in 2019, brought the Constitution (One Hundred and Third) Amendment Act granting 10% reservation to economically weaker sections (EWS) belonging to the unreserved category of the population. This law was challenged before the top court and a five-judge Constitution bench upheld it in the Janhit Abhiyan v Union of India case (2022) by a 3:2 majority. While this meant breaching the 50% ceiling, the bench held that reservation based on economic criteria is constitutionally permissible.
The EWS reservation is one exception to the 50% rule -- Tamil Nadu’s 69% reservation is the only other, although this was achieved by placing the law, duly approved by the President, in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, which is now open to judicial review -- even as challenge to other state laws mandating reservation above 50% is pending consideration before the court.
The caste census, which is a scientific enumeration by the Union government , may well meet the criteria set by the Supreme Court.
- Vijay Deverakonda lands in legal trouble for comparing Pahalgam attack with tribal clashes
Vijay Deverakonda lands in legal trouble for comparing Pahalgam attack with tribal clashes
A written complaint has been filed against actor Vijay Deverakonda on Friday. The actor has been asked to apologise for hurting tribal community.
Telugu actor Vijay Deverakonda is surrounded by controversies. He has been accused of insulting the tribal society and passing derogatory remarks against them. This case is related to the actor's comments about the tribal community during the pre-release event of the film Retro in Hyderabad on April 26. Now, Kishanraj Chauhan, President of Adivasi Lawyers Association Bapunagar, has filed a written complaint accusing Deverakonda of disrespecting the tribal community.
Demand for legal action
In a written complaint lodged against Vijay Deverakonda at Sanjeev Reddy Nagar Police Station in Hyderabad, a case was registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Tribal associations have asked the actor to apologise in this matter immediately. In the complaint filed on behalf of the Adivasi Lawyers Association, Kishanraj Chauhan wrote, 'This is not just a matter of freedom of expression. It is a matter of dignity and constitutional protection of marginalised communities. We demand immediate legal action against the actor under SC/ST atrocities laws.'
The complaint further stated that Vijay made this comment in the presence of mainstream electronic and print media and it was streamed online on a large scale. The complaint also presented screenshots and links of the video containing Vijay Deverakonda's statement. This is part of the complaint that is going viral.
What did Vijay Deverakonda say?
The actor commented on the Pahalgam attack at the pre-release event of Suriya starrer Retro. 'The solution to what is happening in Kashmir is to educate the terrorists and ensure that they are not brainwashed. Kashmir belongs to India and Kashmiris are ours. India does not even need to attack Pakistan because Pakistanis themselves are fed up with their government and if this continues, they will attack them. They behave like tribals 500 years ago, fighting without any sense,' the actor said at the pre-release event.
https://m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/caste-census-ambedkars-call-for-limiting-reservation-to-minimum-likely-to-be-violated/articleshow/120833035.cms.
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