RTE ADMISSIONS UP 50% THIS YEAR.

Enrolment Under Act Crosses 75% In Chennai

The number of RTEadmissions in TamilNadu has gone upfrom 49,864 in 2013-14 to 74,127 this year, announced school education minister K C Veeramani in the current Assembly session. This is nearly a 50% jump over the last year.Officials in charge of RTE admissions said Chennai and Coimbatore were the big contributors. In Chennai the increase was around 78%, and 70% of the target was reached.
Officials and child rights activists said that the increase in numbers was encouraging, and attributed it to increased awareness campaigns in target areas and regular threats issued to schools warning them against turning away children from underprivileged backgrounds seeking admission under the 25% reservation clause of the Right To Free and Compulsory Education Act.
A Subramaniam, inspector of matriculation schools in Chennai, said, “ Awareness campaigns did a lot to increase admissions. We forwarded applications to schools, and ensured that applications were converted into seats.“
This year several private non-profit organisations like Becoming I Foundation jumped in to do their bit. Supraja Narayanaswamy , Chennai head of the organisation, said they set up a helpline and helped get admission for around 50 children. “We held awareness campaigns in central and north Chennai, where people had no idea about the Act and that they could benefit from it,“ she said. Volunteers visited schools in the locality and educated them about the provisions of the RTE Act.
Schools were initially reluctant to take students under the 25% reservation clause this year, because they did not receive reimbursements for admissions made in previous years. This was overcome after school education secretary D Sabitha and director of matriculation schools R Pitchai held talks with school heads, assuring them of the refund.
“They told us that they would be allocating around Rs25 crore for reimbursements. We felt reassured when they put a figure to the claim, because we felt some effort was being taken to address our problems. Earlier we were left hanging,“ said the correspondent of a private matriculation school.
Not all are convinced. Child rights activist A Narayanan said, “Everybody has diluted the Act -state government, courts.
There is no meaning in talking about enrolment because the state has allowed all sections of society to benefit.“ Apart from other caste (OC) students, children from any other community , including OBC and SC/ST, can get admission under the state rules. Even children from OC communities can seek admission if their annual income is below Rs2 lakh. “So, it is neither enabling nor empowering the underprivileged,“ he said.

Source: The Times of Inida dt 21-7-14

Dalit woman beaten to death by non-dalit husband, in-laws.

A 28-year-old dalit woman was beaten to death and buried by her non-dalit husband and in-laws at a village near Bhuvanagiri in Cuddalore district. The murder took place on June 3 but it came to light recently. Police on Saturday exhumed the body and sent it for postmortem.Police said P Seetha of Aathivarahantham village and Saravanan got married on May 5 after a brief courtship despite strong objections from Saravanan’s family. The couple started living in Keerapalayam. But the relationship turned sour after the marriage and Seetha started complaining of abuse by her husband and in-laws.
Seetha went missing on June 3. Her parents, after failing to get details about her whereabouts from Saravanan, lodged a complaint with the Bhuvanagiri police on July 8.
On July 16, Saravanan surrendered before the Panruti judicial magistrate and confessed to murdering his wife
with the help of his mother Selvi, sister Sakunthala and brother-in-law Venkatesan.Police arrested Selvi, Sakunthala and Venkatesan on July 17 and produced them before a local court which remanded them in judicial custody. Preliminary inquiries revealed that Seetha, who was invited by Saravanan to his parents’ house in Kadavacheri, was beaten to death by him, his mother, sister and brotherin-law. They later set her body on fire and buried it near their house, police said.
Various dalit rights organisations, condemning the brutal murder, have demanded that the district police book all the accused under the SC/ ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The activists also demanded that the postmortem be videographed.
Source: The Times of india dt 20-7-14

Woman killed by husband, in-laws

A 28-year-old dalit woman was beaten to death and buried by her non-dalit husband and in-laws at a village near Bhuvanagiri in Cuddalore district. The murder took place on June 3 but it came to light recently. Police on Saturday exhumed the body and sent it for postmortem.

Police said P Seetha of Aathivarahantham village and Saravanan got married on May 5 after a brief courtship despite strong objections from Saravanan’s family. The couple started living in Keerapalayam. But the relationship turned sour after the marriage and Seetha started complaining of abuse by her husband and in-laws.

Seetha went missing on June 3. Her parents, after failing to get details about her whereabouts from Saravanan, lodged a complaint with the Bhuvanagiri police on July 8.

On July 16, Saravanan surrendered before the Panruti judicial magistrate and confessed to murdering his wife

with the help of his mother Selvi, sister Sakunthala and brother-in-law Venkatesan.

Police arrested Selvi, Sakunthala and Venkatesan on July 17 and produced them before a local court which remanded them in judicial custody. Preliminary inquiries revealed that Seetha, who was invited by Saravanan to his parents’ house in Kadavacheri, was beaten to death by him, his mother, sister and brotherin-law. They later set her body on fire and buried it near their house, police said.

Various dalit rights organisations, condemning the brutal murder, have demanded that the district police book all the accused under the SC/ ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The activists also demanded that the postmortem be videographed.

Source: The Times of India dt 20-7-14

Educational loan offtake increases 10% in three years.

There's another indicator that more students are going to college -at least one lakh accounts have been opened in public sector banks to service education loans in the last four years.In March 2011, 22.1 lakh accounts were created for educational loans, which rose to 25.7 lakh by March 2014, a 10% increase in three years. The number could go up by around 50,000 accounts after the admission season is over, experts say .
Borrowing has been on the rise ever since public sector banks came up with a number of schemes. A senior official from Mumbai said, “` `10 lakh is the upper limit for education loans for study in India. For those going abroad, it is `20 lakh.“ For loans less than Rs 4 lakh, there is no need to provide security or guarantee, but both parents have to be joint borrowers.
In the Tamil Nadu engineering counselling, more than 30% of students in the first three days were first-generation learners and many were from rural areas and planned to avail of educational loans.
“I am a farmer and I don't earn enough to fund my son's higher education,“ said P Sampath, father of S Ramu, a student who has chosen computer science engineering in Anna University, Guindy campus. Sampath has applied for a loan in a public sector bank in Chennai.
“Today, fees in a government college is around Rs 30,000 a year. In private colleges, it is between Rs 70,000 and Rs 1 lakh a year,“ said a senior official of a public sector bank from Chennai. “The average Indian, who earns around Rs20,000 a month, cannot afford education without a loan,“ he said.
Many banks also offer interest-free educational loans to students.





Source: The Times of India dt 19-7-14

Court: Identify vacancies for SC/STs in 6 mths

The TN government, which has formed a special committee to identify accumulated backlog vacancies meant for SC/ST candidates in government service, has been directed by the Madras high court to complete the process in six months.The first bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Satish K Agnihotri and Justice M M Sundresh said the committee constituted on January 5, 2012 should compute the shortfall in vacancies for SCs and STs and finalise a programme to fill them. It should send a report to the government for appropriate orders, the bench said.
The matter relates to a PIL filed by Central and State Government SC/ST Employees Federation founder S Karuppiah, who said the state government went on a recruitment spree for other categories of candidates though a large number of posts meant for SC/ST candidates remained unfilled.
These vacancies should be filled prior to the commencement of new recruitment process, his counsel P Vijendran said.
In response, the government filed a counter-affidavit detailing the steps it had taken to address the issue. It said filling backlog vacancies was a continuing process and that it would be done after a series of measures to identify qualified candidates for the posts.
Source: The Times of India dt 19-7-14





SC, ST Amendment Bill deferred amid din

A Bill that makes it a punishable offence for public servants to “wilfully neglect” duties on matters relating to atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Tribes was referred to a Standing Committee by the Lok Sabha amid strong objections by the Congress that wanted the Bill to be taken up immediately.

The Congress’ contention is that since the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2014, replaces an Ordinance there is no precedent for sending it to the Standing Committee. The Ordinance was promulgated in March this year by the then United Progressive Alliance government.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan referred the Bill to the Standing Committee amid disruptions by the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Nationalist Congress Party MPs, who were demanding an immediate response from Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on journalist Ved Pratap Vaidik’s controversial meeting with Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.

Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot, who stood up to move the Bill, looked uncertain due to the Opposition protests, but when the Speaker told him to send it to the Standing Committee, he said he would go by her orders.

Objections overruled

Ms. Mahajan overruled all objections, saying she would not change what had already taken place. The Bill replaces an Ordinance that states that if a non-SC/ST public servant wilfully neglects duties required to be performed under this Act, he or she shall be punished with imprisonment for a term from six months to one year. The Bill also makes provisions for States to set up special courts to try offences under the Act.

Act makes “wilfully neglect” of duties on atrocities against these sections punishable

Source : The Hindu dt 18-7-14

Bapu was casteist, says Arundathi





Author and Man Booker prize winner Arundhati Roy, who has consistently castigated Mahatma Gandhi for his `çasteist' tendencies, went a step further on Thursday , saying it was high time institutions named after the Father of the Nation be rechristened. She said it could begin with renaming universities, a not-so-subtle reference to Mahatma Gandhi University , one of Kerala's leading varsities. Roy made this observation while delivering the Mahatma Ayyankali address -in commemoration of the state's renowned dalit leader -at Kerala University here.Roy cited an 1936 essay by Gandhi, `The Ideal Bhangi', in which he advises manual scavengers to convert urine and night soil into manure, as proof of Gandhi's patronising attitude towards Harijans and how it helped reinforce caste hierarchies.
Refuting Roy , J M Rahim, coordinator for Centre for Gandhian Studies, drew attention to Gandhi's autobiogrphy `My Experiments with Truth' where he narrates how he once had a bitter fight with his wife Kasturba as he wanted her to clean an open latrine, refusing to allow a Bhangi to do it.
“When his wife protested he did the job himself,'' Rahim said.
Making a connection to BJP's `casteist' politics, Roy recalled that Narendra Modi too had not long ago said that Balmikhis (Bhanghis) had been doing scavenging work for centuries for the happiness of society and in the process they (Bhangis) were spiritually cleansed.
Rahim contended that Gandhi's actions often reflected the man better than his words. “To quote Gandhi out of context and say that he is castiest is not only superficial but also shows that Roy has not understood Gandhi's philosophy . In South Africa, for instance, a Tamil dalit family afflicted with leprosy stayed in his ashram much to the chagrin of the inmates,'' Rahim said.

In her lecture, Roy also claimed that while in South Africa Gandhi had branded black prisoners `kafirs' who were uncivilized, liars and had no moral scruples. Dr M S John, professor and director of School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies at Mahatma Gandhi University said it was a mistake to view Gandhi as someone who emerged fully formed.
“The early Gandhi was not a radical personality . He evolved. The comment that he made about black prisoners is due to his own experience of threat of sodomy by inmates while he was in jail,'' he said.
“Gandhi knew the culture and roots of India in all its depth and it is unfortunate that a person like Arundhati Roy makes this statement for cheap publicity,'' said poet and activist Sugathakumari.
Source: The Times of India dt 18-7-14