Two-tumbler system prevailing in 33 panchayats in Salem, Erode districts: study R. Ilangovan SALEM:
The practice of keeping two tumblers -- one for dalits and another for others in tea shops -- is persistently prevailing in 33 reserved village panchayats in Salem and Erode districts.
In 40 reserved panchayats, dalits are banned from entering temples. In 48 panchayats, they are being forced to beat tom-tom to announce the death of caste Hindus and remove the carcass of dead animals. Discrimination is noticed in Primary and Sub Health Centres, fair price shops and schools. Women are prevented from using sanitary complexes in 11 panchayats and in few other panchayats hair dressers refuse to patronise dalit customers.
These are not mere studies on this social issue. They are bold declarations not by individuals but by a group of dalit presidents of these reserved village panchayats. They have openly admitted to the prevalence of these acts of caste-based discrimination in writing in affidavit formats. Sadly they are also the victims of these despicable acts of prejudice.
Study
These startling endorsements of the dalit presidents on the prevalence of various forms of untouchability in their reserved village panchayats in Salem and Erode districts have come to the fore during a study carried out by a social organisation 'Evidence,' which also recently exposed similar issues in Madurai and Sivaganga districts. A dalit woman president of the Kandikattu Valasu in Erode district, V. R. Eswari, in her signed affidavit, has declared that a caste Hindu adopts two tumbler system in his tea shop. Marappan, a dalit president of Uthandiyur, also in Erode, in his written statement, claims that dalits in his village would never be permitted to sit in town buses.
In Salem district, Vellerivelli panchayat president S. Kannan, also a dalit, says that the tea served in plastic cups to him and other dalits would be of sub standard quality. "We will not be permitted to sit on the benches to drink tea," he claims. He even names the owners of these tea shops in his affidavit form.
Panel sought
The study insists that the Government should immediately form a committee comprising of independent members to probe these claims. These village panchayats should also be declared as 'prone to untouchability,' they demand. Local Administration Minister should convene a meeting of 'Dalit Presidents' to hear their grievances.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
Wall Street Journal's coverage of India's caste system
The article is published in the Wall Street Journal at the link here
Caste Away
India's high-tech revolution helps
'Untouchables' rise; Mr. Thoti's job hunt
By PAUL BECKETT
June 23, 2007; Page A1
Hyderabad, India
Venugopal Thoti's father, grandfather and ancestors worked as field laborers in a tiny village in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. As Dalits -- members of the "untouchable" caste at the bottom of Indian society -- they were barred from temples used by upper-caste Hindus and from upper-caste homes. Their name defined their low status: A "thoti" in their village communicates news of a death by walking door to door.
Mr. Thoti, 37, is in a different line of work and a much different station in life. Last fall, he got a new job as a software developer in the Hyderabad office of American Infoserv Inc., a New Jersey-based technology and outsourcing company.
Mr. Thoti's success, after a long slog, has been modest by U.S. and even some Indian standards. He earns about $800 a month and travels by bus around this clogged technology hotspot of about four million people. But his monthly earnings are roughly double what his father made in a year. And he has left the one-room thatched hut with no electricity or running water that he grew up in for a basic three-bedroom apartment that he shares with his wife and two young children. "Now, we are a little comfortable," he says.
For thousands of years, advancement in India has been restricted by its caste system, which is enshrined in the country's dominant Hindu religion. While Brahmins, the highest caste, are said to stem from the mouth of Purusha, or Universal Man, Dalits were considered so impure they were left outside the structure altogether. Castes -- which often can be identified by a person's last name -- reach into every part of Indian society.
But India's rapid economic expansion -- and its booming high-tech sector -- are beginning to chip away at the historical system that reserved well-paying jobs for upper castes and menial jobs for Dalits. With annual gross-domestic-product growth exceeding 9%, companies that have hired tens of thousands of workers in recent years are looking beyond their traditional sources of employees. High-tech firms, both foreign and domestically based, are at the forefront of that search. As a result, some Dalits are rising into India's middle class.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Read an academic report on employment trends and opportunities in India's technology sector. (Adobe Acrobat required)Technology giant Infosys Technologies Ltd. now recruits from 700 colleges around India, many of them in semi-rural areas where lower-caste people often live, up from about 50 urban colleges 10 years ago, says T.V. Mohandas Pai, the company's director in charge of human resources. "Today, a great number of the people whom we hire come from poorer backgrounds both economically and socially," he says. "It is changing the ground rules in India."
International companies are also having an impact. "We don't give a damn about any of these differences in caste or religion," says Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft Corp.'s India unit. "It has made talent the number one issue for all companies."
The ranks of Dalit entrepreneurs have also been growing, as India morphed in the past 15 years from a Socialist-modeled economy to a market-driven one and a new generation of young earners began to spend freely, take vacations and rack up shopping bills. That has created opportunities for Dalits to open hotels and restaurants, as well as find jobs as plumbers, electricians, air-conditioning repairmen and construction workers.
In 1993, after moving to Hyderabad, Jayaker Daniel Erpula borrowed from an associate to purchase his first taxi. The next year, he bought another car and in 1995, a third. Today, age 42, he runs a fleet of 100. About 60% of his employees are Dalits.
Mr. Erpula, who also owns a filling station, an inn and a small water-bottling plant, recently held a party for 400 guests at his new $360,000 three-bedroom home. Three of his employees who belong to a higher caste failed to show. He says he later heard that one of them told a colleague: "He's a Dalit. Why should we go?"
But Mr. Erpula says many of the higher-caste neighbors in his prosperous neighborhood have welcomed him. "They respect me because I'm financially sound," he says.
Still, success stories like those of Mr. Erpula and Mr. Thoti, who struggled many years to get his job, are rare. Estimates of the number of Dalits with skilled jobs and steady salaries in India's New Economy vary from tens of thousands to around 100,000, according to employers, workers, experts and government officials. That's out of a total Dalit population estimated at about 167 million, or about 16% of India's total population of 1.03 billion.
Many Dalits, especially in rural areas, don't have a shot at a decent education -- a must for the fastest-growing areas of India's economy like software development, medicine and engineering. Those that are educated are typically taught in their native language, leaving them ill-prepared to compete with wealthier, English-schooled job applicants.
Because a person's caste can often be determined by last name or father's occupation, hiring managers can stick to their own kind, dismissing lower castes who frequently lack refined social skills or self-confidence in job interviews. "We find our interviewing staff is very biased toward people who look right, particularly at the initial interview stage," says Azim Premji, chairman of Indian technology giant Wipro Ltd. He adds that merit remains the number one criterion for hiring. Some even argue that the new economy is bolstering caste distinctions. An August 2006 study of technology workers at multinationals or sizeable Indian tech companies found that 86% came "from upper castes and/or economically better-off communities."
India's government has long employed an affirmative-action program that reserves 23% of all national government jobs to those from underprivileged classes. Now Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants companies to voluntarily diversify their workplaces.
Across the street from a small park with children's swings, Mr. Thoti and his family rent a ground-floor apartment. A Sony large-screen television set he bought in January on credit dominates one corner of the main room. A blue refrigerator sits in another. The rest serves as a living room and dining room. A small, neat man with a trim moustache, Mr. Thoti is quick with a laugh and has a self-deprecating smile.
He was born in 1970 in the village of Pedda Thayiur, a hamlet of 300 Dalits about 490 miles away. For performing his duties as a thoti, Mr. Thoti's father earned about $1 a day in addition to the pittance he earned working the fields. "At the early stage of my life I strongly desired not to follow in my father's footsteps," Mr. Thoti says.
As a child, Mr. Thoti was a good student, and was particularly interested in math and science. Graduating first in his high-school class, he was accepted to the equivalent of a junior college in the area. Mr. Thoti's parents urged him to forget school and get a job. Instead, Mr. Thoti borrowed about $4 to help pay the admission and application fees and for travel.
When he arrived, Mr. Thoti slept on a bus-stop bench under a tamarind tree for two weeks. Odd jobs later allowed him and some friends to rent a room. After two years, in 1987, Mr. Thoti was called by a college to interview for a bachelor's-degree program, but couldn't raise the money for the bus ticket and overnight stay in Hyderabad. Dejected, he returned to his village.
He began working as a teacher's assistant for a nongovernmental organization working on Dalit issues. Financially supported by the NGO, he completed his bachelor's degree and entered a master's program in computing at a nearby university.
Mr. Thoti, who learned to read and write basic English in school but couldn't speak the language, read grammar books at night and practiced speaking. Higher-caste students called him and other Dalits "Gold Medalist Students" -- sarcastically referring to the fact that Dalits, usually lacking English language skills, are less academically prepared but benefit from the school's affirmative-action admission policies.
The taunts angered Mr. Thoti, but he said nothing. One night, when he wasn't feeling well, Mr. Thoti and a friend stood up to their tormentors. They backed down, but Mr. Thoti says his classmates didn't speak to him or his friend for a month.
In 1996, master's in hand, Mr. Thoti struck out for Bangalore, the heart of India's technology industry. Sleeping at night in a friend's office, he looked for work for six months. He got 15 job interviews, but says he did poorly at each one.
Sometimes, he provided answers that revealed his caste. Noticing that higher-caste applicants were landing jobs, Mr. Thoti applied as "T. Venugopal." Venugopal, his first name, is a common Brahmin name. But his main problem, he says, was his lack of English. The rejections continued.
"I was very upset," Mr. Thoti says. "I didn't sleep sometimes."
Then he got a break. He met Srini Rao, then group manager in India for VeriFone Holdings Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based electronic payments company and now managing director of the Indian unit of Datacard Group, an identity and payment-card company based in Minnetonka, Minn. Mr. Rao's wife was involved in Dalit issues, and Mr. Rao says he's sympathetic to the cause.
"I did see the desire in him to be successful," Mr. Rao says. VeriFone hired only from India's top colleges so Mr. Rao found Mr. Thoti a job writing software code for a small company that worked with VeriFone.
Mr. Rao recalls that in interviews and in the first few months of his new job, Mr. Thoti spoke little. "If he wasn't sure of the answers, he wouldn't even talk about it and stay absolutely quiet," Mr. Rao says. He often said nothing in meetings with higher-caste colleagues, and didn't sit down when chatting with higher-caste acquaintances. "You'd have a casual conversation with him and ask him to take a seat and he wouldn't. I literally had to force him to sit down," says Mr. Rao, a 44-year-old Brahmin. He adds that Mr. Thoti called him "sir" for the first 18 months they knew each other, even though Mr. Rao told him not to.
Like other Dalits Mr. Rao knows, he says Mr. Thoti "was always scared of making a fool of himself in table manners." In his village, Mr. Thoti ate with his hands and sitting on the floor. In Bangalore, he had to get used to sitting at a table to eat and learn to use a spoon. He exchanged the tightly-folded towel he typically wore around his waist when in the village for trousers and shirts that are the uniform of high-tech Indian office workers.
In 1999, Mr. Thoti moved to a new job in Chennai, on India's southeast coast. At his new workplace, he dodged many questions from colleagues until finally revealing he was a "scheduled caste" -- the term for those who benefit from affirmative action for government jobs. After that he says, "They were maintaining their distance, not close like previously."
Once their caste is revealed, other Dalits say they too are sometimes shunned at work by higher-caste colleagues. "Most of my friends in other industries don't reveal their caste," says Raghu Eshwar, a Dalit and senior software developer at MindTree Consulting Ltd. a technology-consulting company with headquarters in Bangalore. But Mr. Eshwar says the money earned in tech gives Dalits self confidence. "The moment you have money, people will give some value to you," he says. "With the power I have, I feel I don't have to hide" my identity.
With his $200-a-month salary, Mr. Thoti bought a new small concrete house with two rooms and an outside toilet for his parents. But in 2001, after the technology bubble burst, Mr. Thoti lost his job. He considered returning to his village to start a school, but his wife Jayamala convinced him to stay in high-tech. "What is there in the village? There is no rain, not much work. How can we eat food?" she told him.
The family moved to Hyderabad and Mr. Thoti took a job as a technician at a microfinance company, where he worked for the next five years. The company frequently didn't pay employees for two or three months. "There was no rice, the rent was due, shopping, fees, paying bills -- very difficult," his wife says.
Mr. Thoti posted his résumé at online job sites including Monster.com . Last fall he got an interview as a software developer for American Infoserv.
He was interviewed by Abhishek Jain, executive vice president of information technology at Lyndhurst, N.J.-based IncentOne, a company that runs employee incentive programs. IncentOne outsources some technical work to American Infoserv in India. Mr. Thoti says he told Mr. Jain that interviews have been a problem for him.
"Some people don't interview well but do good work and work hard, so I'm giving an opportunity to you," Mr. Jain responded, according to both men. Mr. Jain, a 34-year-old Indian who has worked for technology companies in the U.S. for a decade, says Mr. Thoti's English skills "weren't all that good." But he liked Mr. Thoti's approach to a case study that involved writing a short computer application on a laptop.
Mr. Jain, who is part of a different religion that is technically outside the caste system, says he was unaware Mr. Thoti was a Dalit. "Even if he is, it doesn't matter to me," he says. "It's a global industry. In America, the only caste that matters is talent."
In his new job, Mr. Thoti leads a small production-support team that processes work and writes computer code. He must speak to clients in English. He says his skills are improving but he has problems understanding spoken English, especially when it is pronounced with an American accent. From time to time, Mr. Thoti sends money back home to help educate some village children. When he visits his illiterate sister there, she sometimes jokes with him about his city clothes.
He says he's happy. "I never ask him about his caste," says K. Sreenivasulu, a 30-year-old colleague from a higher caste. "Caste doesn't matter to me here, especially in the work environment."
Outside the office, the picture remains more complicated. Recently, Mr. Thoti learned he would have to move, and began searching for a new apartment. He approached a building just around the corner. The landlord's response: "Brahmins only."
--Vibhuti Agarwal and Binny Sabharwal in New Delhi and Jackie Range in Bangalore contributed to this article.
Caste Away
India's high-tech revolution helps
'Untouchables' rise; Mr. Thoti's job hunt
By PAUL BECKETT
June 23, 2007; Page A1
Hyderabad, India
Venugopal Thoti's father, grandfather and ancestors worked as field laborers in a tiny village in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. As Dalits -- members of the "untouchable" caste at the bottom of Indian society -- they were barred from temples used by upper-caste Hindus and from upper-caste homes. Their name defined their low status: A "thoti" in their village communicates news of a death by walking door to door.
Mr. Thoti, 37, is in a different line of work and a much different station in life. Last fall, he got a new job as a software developer in the Hyderabad office of American Infoserv Inc., a New Jersey-based technology and outsourcing company.
Mr. Thoti's success, after a long slog, has been modest by U.S. and even some Indian standards. He earns about $800 a month and travels by bus around this clogged technology hotspot of about four million people. But his monthly earnings are roughly double what his father made in a year. And he has left the one-room thatched hut with no electricity or running water that he grew up in for a basic three-bedroom apartment that he shares with his wife and two young children. "Now, we are a little comfortable," he says.
For thousands of years, advancement in India has been restricted by its caste system, which is enshrined in the country's dominant Hindu religion. While Brahmins, the highest caste, are said to stem from the mouth of Purusha, or Universal Man, Dalits were considered so impure they were left outside the structure altogether. Castes -- which often can be identified by a person's last name -- reach into every part of Indian society.
But India's rapid economic expansion -- and its booming high-tech sector -- are beginning to chip away at the historical system that reserved well-paying jobs for upper castes and menial jobs for Dalits. With annual gross-domestic-product growth exceeding 9%, companies that have hired tens of thousands of workers in recent years are looking beyond their traditional sources of employees. High-tech firms, both foreign and domestically based, are at the forefront of that search. As a result, some Dalits are rising into India's middle class.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Read an academic report on employment trends and opportunities in India's technology sector. (Adobe Acrobat required)Technology giant Infosys Technologies Ltd. now recruits from 700 colleges around India, many of them in semi-rural areas where lower-caste people often live, up from about 50 urban colleges 10 years ago, says T.V. Mohandas Pai, the company's director in charge of human resources. "Today, a great number of the people whom we hire come from poorer backgrounds both economically and socially," he says. "It is changing the ground rules in India."
International companies are also having an impact. "We don't give a damn about any of these differences in caste or religion," says Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft Corp.'s India unit. "It has made talent the number one issue for all companies."
The ranks of Dalit entrepreneurs have also been growing, as India morphed in the past 15 years from a Socialist-modeled economy to a market-driven one and a new generation of young earners began to spend freely, take vacations and rack up shopping bills. That has created opportunities for Dalits to open hotels and restaurants, as well as find jobs as plumbers, electricians, air-conditioning repairmen and construction workers.
In 1993, after moving to Hyderabad, Jayaker Daniel Erpula borrowed from an associate to purchase his first taxi. The next year, he bought another car and in 1995, a third. Today, age 42, he runs a fleet of 100. About 60% of his employees are Dalits.
Mr. Erpula, who also owns a filling station, an inn and a small water-bottling plant, recently held a party for 400 guests at his new $360,000 three-bedroom home. Three of his employees who belong to a higher caste failed to show. He says he later heard that one of them told a colleague: "He's a Dalit. Why should we go?"
But Mr. Erpula says many of the higher-caste neighbors in his prosperous neighborhood have welcomed him. "They respect me because I'm financially sound," he says.
Still, success stories like those of Mr. Erpula and Mr. Thoti, who struggled many years to get his job, are rare. Estimates of the number of Dalits with skilled jobs and steady salaries in India's New Economy vary from tens of thousands to around 100,000, according to employers, workers, experts and government officials. That's out of a total Dalit population estimated at about 167 million, or about 16% of India's total population of 1.03 billion.
Many Dalits, especially in rural areas, don't have a shot at a decent education -- a must for the fastest-growing areas of India's economy like software development, medicine and engineering. Those that are educated are typically taught in their native language, leaving them ill-prepared to compete with wealthier, English-schooled job applicants.
Because a person's caste can often be determined by last name or father's occupation, hiring managers can stick to their own kind, dismissing lower castes who frequently lack refined social skills or self-confidence in job interviews. "We find our interviewing staff is very biased toward people who look right, particularly at the initial interview stage," says Azim Premji, chairman of Indian technology giant Wipro Ltd. He adds that merit remains the number one criterion for hiring. Some even argue that the new economy is bolstering caste distinctions. An August 2006 study of technology workers at multinationals or sizeable Indian tech companies found that 86% came "from upper castes and/or economically better-off communities."
India's government has long employed an affirmative-action program that reserves 23% of all national government jobs to those from underprivileged classes. Now Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants companies to voluntarily diversify their workplaces.
Across the street from a small park with children's swings, Mr. Thoti and his family rent a ground-floor apartment. A Sony large-screen television set he bought in January on credit dominates one corner of the main room. A blue refrigerator sits in another. The rest serves as a living room and dining room. A small, neat man with a trim moustache, Mr. Thoti is quick with a laugh and has a self-deprecating smile.
He was born in 1970 in the village of Pedda Thayiur, a hamlet of 300 Dalits about 490 miles away. For performing his duties as a thoti, Mr. Thoti's father earned about $1 a day in addition to the pittance he earned working the fields. "At the early stage of my life I strongly desired not to follow in my father's footsteps," Mr. Thoti says.
As a child, Mr. Thoti was a good student, and was particularly interested in math and science. Graduating first in his high-school class, he was accepted to the equivalent of a junior college in the area. Mr. Thoti's parents urged him to forget school and get a job. Instead, Mr. Thoti borrowed about $4 to help pay the admission and application fees and for travel.
When he arrived, Mr. Thoti slept on a bus-stop bench under a tamarind tree for two weeks. Odd jobs later allowed him and some friends to rent a room. After two years, in 1987, Mr. Thoti was called by a college to interview for a bachelor's-degree program, but couldn't raise the money for the bus ticket and overnight stay in Hyderabad. Dejected, he returned to his village.
He began working as a teacher's assistant for a nongovernmental organization working on Dalit issues. Financially supported by the NGO, he completed his bachelor's degree and entered a master's program in computing at a nearby university.
Mr. Thoti, who learned to read and write basic English in school but couldn't speak the language, read grammar books at night and practiced speaking. Higher-caste students called him and other Dalits "Gold Medalist Students" -- sarcastically referring to the fact that Dalits, usually lacking English language skills, are less academically prepared but benefit from the school's affirmative-action admission policies.
The taunts angered Mr. Thoti, but he said nothing. One night, when he wasn't feeling well, Mr. Thoti and a friend stood up to their tormentors. They backed down, but Mr. Thoti says his classmates didn't speak to him or his friend for a month.
In 1996, master's in hand, Mr. Thoti struck out for Bangalore, the heart of India's technology industry. Sleeping at night in a friend's office, he looked for work for six months. He got 15 job interviews, but says he did poorly at each one.
Sometimes, he provided answers that revealed his caste. Noticing that higher-caste applicants were landing jobs, Mr. Thoti applied as "T. Venugopal." Venugopal, his first name, is a common Brahmin name. But his main problem, he says, was his lack of English. The rejections continued.
"I was very upset," Mr. Thoti says. "I didn't sleep sometimes."
Then he got a break. He met Srini Rao, then group manager in India for VeriFone Holdings Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based electronic payments company and now managing director of the Indian unit of Datacard Group, an identity and payment-card company based in Minnetonka, Minn. Mr. Rao's wife was involved in Dalit issues, and Mr. Rao says he's sympathetic to the cause.
"I did see the desire in him to be successful," Mr. Rao says. VeriFone hired only from India's top colleges so Mr. Rao found Mr. Thoti a job writing software code for a small company that worked with VeriFone.
Mr. Rao recalls that in interviews and in the first few months of his new job, Mr. Thoti spoke little. "If he wasn't sure of the answers, he wouldn't even talk about it and stay absolutely quiet," Mr. Rao says. He often said nothing in meetings with higher-caste colleagues, and didn't sit down when chatting with higher-caste acquaintances. "You'd have a casual conversation with him and ask him to take a seat and he wouldn't. I literally had to force him to sit down," says Mr. Rao, a 44-year-old Brahmin. He adds that Mr. Thoti called him "sir" for the first 18 months they knew each other, even though Mr. Rao told him not to.
Like other Dalits Mr. Rao knows, he says Mr. Thoti "was always scared of making a fool of himself in table manners." In his village, Mr. Thoti ate with his hands and sitting on the floor. In Bangalore, he had to get used to sitting at a table to eat and learn to use a spoon. He exchanged the tightly-folded towel he typically wore around his waist when in the village for trousers and shirts that are the uniform of high-tech Indian office workers.
In 1999, Mr. Thoti moved to a new job in Chennai, on India's southeast coast. At his new workplace, he dodged many questions from colleagues until finally revealing he was a "scheduled caste" -- the term for those who benefit from affirmative action for government jobs. After that he says, "They were maintaining their distance, not close like previously."
Once their caste is revealed, other Dalits say they too are sometimes shunned at work by higher-caste colleagues. "Most of my friends in other industries don't reveal their caste," says Raghu Eshwar, a Dalit and senior software developer at MindTree Consulting Ltd. a technology-consulting company with headquarters in Bangalore. But Mr. Eshwar says the money earned in tech gives Dalits self confidence. "The moment you have money, people will give some value to you," he says. "With the power I have, I feel I don't have to hide" my identity.
With his $200-a-month salary, Mr. Thoti bought a new small concrete house with two rooms and an outside toilet for his parents. But in 2001, after the technology bubble burst, Mr. Thoti lost his job. He considered returning to his village to start a school, but his wife Jayamala convinced him to stay in high-tech. "What is there in the village? There is no rain, not much work. How can we eat food?" she told him.
The family moved to Hyderabad and Mr. Thoti took a job as a technician at a microfinance company, where he worked for the next five years. The company frequently didn't pay employees for two or three months. "There was no rice, the rent was due, shopping, fees, paying bills -- very difficult," his wife says.
Mr. Thoti posted his résumé at online job sites including Monster.com . Last fall he got an interview as a software developer for American Infoserv.
He was interviewed by Abhishek Jain, executive vice president of information technology at Lyndhurst, N.J.-based IncentOne, a company that runs employee incentive programs. IncentOne outsources some technical work to American Infoserv in India. Mr. Thoti says he told Mr. Jain that interviews have been a problem for him.
"Some people don't interview well but do good work and work hard, so I'm giving an opportunity to you," Mr. Jain responded, according to both men. Mr. Jain, a 34-year-old Indian who has worked for technology companies in the U.S. for a decade, says Mr. Thoti's English skills "weren't all that good." But he liked Mr. Thoti's approach to a case study that involved writing a short computer application on a laptop.
Mr. Jain, who is part of a different religion that is technically outside the caste system, says he was unaware Mr. Thoti was a Dalit. "Even if he is, it doesn't matter to me," he says. "It's a global industry. In America, the only caste that matters is talent."
In his new job, Mr. Thoti leads a small production-support team that processes work and writes computer code. He must speak to clients in English. He says his skills are improving but he has problems understanding spoken English, especially when it is pronounced with an American accent. From time to time, Mr. Thoti sends money back home to help educate some village children. When he visits his illiterate sister there, she sometimes jokes with him about his city clothes.
He says he's happy. "I never ask him about his caste," says K. Sreenivasulu, a 30-year-old colleague from a higher caste. "Caste doesn't matter to me here, especially in the work environment."
Outside the office, the picture remains more complicated. Recently, Mr. Thoti learned he would have to move, and began searching for a new apartment. He approached a building just around the corner. The landlord's response: "Brahmins only."
--Vibhuti Agarwal and Binny Sabharwal in New Delhi and Jackie Range in Bangalore contributed to this article.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ms. Mayawati's recent decisions
C.M. lends support to destitute Kandh Ram Lucknow : June 21, 2007
It was a different scene altogether at the gates of Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan this morning when the U.P. Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati arrived here. Suddenly a man, possibly mentally disturbed, raised slogan 'Mayawati Zindabad' to attract her attention. The C.M. showing sensitivity and not caring about her security stopped her convoy and lent a patient ear to hear his grievances. She directed the Lucknow D.M. to provide him food and better medical facilities. On the directives of the Chief Minister, the Dy. C.M.O. Dr. R. Banswal and Dr. Sunil Pandey and A.D.M.(East) of the district administration Mr. Anil Pathak checked his health. During the inquiry, it was disclosed that he was hungry and sick for past few days. He was a resident of Gandhi Nagar, Shiv Ka Purva, Utaraula, district Balrampur. His name was Kandh Ram and his financial condition was poor. The officers first provided him food and the doctors referred him to Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University Lucknow for treatment. On the directives of the C.M. proper medical attention was provided to him. The people present on the spot were highly impressed by the sensitivity shown by the Chief Minister and appreciated her very much. Kandh Ram, who is being treated at the medical college, said that Behanji knew the problems of the people and removed them as well. It may be recalled that the C.M. was coming to Annexe at 11 a.m. to attend cabinet meeting.
C.M. directs officers to ensure flawless and transparent system to hold CPMT in future Lucknow : June 20, 2007
The U.P. Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati has said that it should be ensured that no discrepancy took place while declaring the CPMT results, because the future of the students was directly linked with it. She has emphasised the need to develop such a system where no human or technical error occurred. She has directed the officers of the Medical Education Department to publish correct answers of the CPMT question papers while announcing the result so that the candidates could crosscheck their answers from the carbon copy of the O.M.R. answer book available with them. She has said that if the candidates still had any objection/complaint then they could apply for scrutiny to the Chairman CPMT-2007 within 8-days. The Chief Minister said that a transparent and error-free system should be ensured while holding CPMT in future so that the possibility of error could be ruled out and the sanctity of the examination and results could be maintained. Considering the larger interest of the candidates, the C.M. has directed the concerning officers to announce correct results without any
delay and complete the inquiry at the earliest. The Chief Minister has taken the matter very seriously and expressed her sympathy with the affected families. She has directed the officers to ensure that it was not repeated in future. It is worth mentioning that the Chief Minister had taken the discrepancies in the CPMT results declared on June 14, 2007 by Purvanchal University, Jaunpur very seriously and revoked the results immediately. She ordered to set up a nine-member high-level committee to look into the entire episode. She directed the committee to conduct a thorough inquiry into the entire case. All specialists included in the committee were renowned persons.
C.M. gives a hike of Rs. 500 in monthly pension of the 1984 riot victims Lucknow : June 17, 2007
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati has increased the monthly pension of the 1984 riot-hit victims by Rs. 500. The riot victims would now be entitled to get Rs. 2500 per month. The widows and aged parents of those killed in the 1984 riots and those who suffered 70 per cent disability or the wives of those missing since then would be given by the State Government a monthly pension of Rs. 2500 lifelong. The Chief Minister has taken this decision in accordance with the recommendations of
the Nanawati Inquiry Committee under the rehabilitation package declared by
the Government of India.
NDC meet : New direction for development of rural economy insisted
Lucknow : May 29, 2007
Top priority would be accorded to agriculture
diversification, processing and distribution during the 11th Five Year Plan to double the income of the farmers. Taking into account the importance of agriculture sector, the U.P. Government has resolved to set up the
agriculture growth rate at 5.7 per cent. For that the agriculture sector has been given special importance and a target of increasing the productivity as well as production of its related activities has been set. Besides, all
possible efforts would be made to ensure remunerative prices to the farmers of their produce. The completion of the pending irrigation projects of the State and availability of a refrigerated railway cargo at the Lucknow
Airport has also being demanded from the Government of India under the 11th Five Year Plan. To ensure a second green revolution, the farmers of U.P. should be given loan at 4 per cent maximum. The Agriculture Minister, Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan on behalf of the U.P. Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati demanded an assistance of Rs. 1900 crore for the requirements of the State, which included irrigation, animal husbandry, setting up of agriculture universities, rationalising food processing, making agriculture sector profitable, water harvesting, ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers of their produce, land reclamation, energising more and more tube-wells, recharging ground water, poultry, fisheries, fertilisers, restarting the fertiliser plants and strengthening the cooperative societies at the meeting of National Development Council held at New Delhi today. Listening the priorities of Uttar Pradesh for the 11th Five Year Plan, the Agriculture Minister said that as long as all the sections of the society do not get equal opportunities and the social progress also takes place along with the economic progress, our efforts would not bear fruits. He said that besides improving the social condition of the poor belonging to SC/ST, O.B.C., religious minorities and general categories it was also required to ensure that they got the benefits of development. The Centre should provide more resources and help to ensure participation of poor in the development and also to provide them facilities. Discussing the report prepared by the sub-committee of the N.D.C. regarding the issues pertaining to agriculture, the Agriculture Minister said that this meeting was called at an appropriate time to give new direction to rural economy. He pointed out that 72 per cent of the country's population still depended on agriculture and despite the high growth rate the condition of the farmers was pitiable. Out of these, 40 per cent farmers were leaving agriculture. The contribution of agriculture in the gross domestic product had fallen to 18 per cent from 56 per cent earlier, which was a matter of grave concern. He said that the U.P. Government had resolved to maintain the agriculture growth rate at 5.7 per cent. Mr. Laxmi Narayan suggested that the farmers should be provided loans at the rate of 4 per cent. He said that this would make agriculture profitable and the farmers could be freed from the clutches of the moneylenders. He demanded that 9 agriculture universities should be set up in the State considering various factors like climatic areas and crop cycles. He also suggested that the farmers should be provided hybrid seeds at cheaper rates. The pulses and oilseeds crops should be encouraged in
Bundelkhand region considering its climatic conditions, he said. The Agriculture Minister further suggested that the current system of pre-fixing of the minimum support price to ensure adequate prices to the farmers of
their produce should be amended. The share of the farmers in the premium of the crop insurance scheme should be decreased so that they got better benefits, he pointed out. He also demanded that food processing units should be set up at the local levels so that crops like fruits, potato, mango, amla etc. fetched remunerative prices. He demanded that a refrigerated railway cargo should be set up at the Lucknow Airport so that fast decaying products could be exported easy. He suggested that the Government of India should take steps for development of food processing industry. Demanding that all the irrigation projects of the State pending under the 11th Five Year Plan should be completed, Mr. Laxmi Narayan said that the Centre should provide assistance to increase the percentage of irrigation. Expressing his serious concern over the falling level of ground water owing to uncontrolled use, he said that the same should be recharged. He also suggested scientific use of irrigation resources. He said that there was a need to improve the indigenous species of livestock through artificial insemination and efficient Pashumitra should be encouraged to increase the milk production. He said that setting up of meat processing units should be encouraged to make U.P. self sufficient in poultry production. Besides, better infrastructure was also required for fish production and marketing. It was
the top priority of the State Government to ensure remunerative prices for fish producers and also to provide them quality fish seeds. The Agriculture Minister said that the prices of diesel should be decreased considering the poor economic condition of the small and marginal farmers. The Centre should also make proper arrangements for irrigation facilities. He stressed the need of ensuring timely availability of fertilisers and also to simplify the process of fertiliser supply. He also requested to solve the problems coming in the way of timely supply of fertilisers in the districts not having railway rake point. He demanded to solve the problem of floods in eastern U.P. and to accord top priority to projects related to water harvesting. He suggested that the factories of F.C.I. Gorakhpur and Duncan Fertilisers, Panki (Kanpur) lying closed for long time now should be restarted at the earliest. According to the recommendations of the Vaidyanathan Committee the Centre has to provide Rs. 1900 crore to U.P. The Agriculture Minister requested that this mount should be released without any further delay. He expressed his gratitude towards the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh along with other guests for presenting opportunity to express his views at the N.D.C. meeting.
ACTION TAKEN AGAINST FOUR SENIOR OFFICERS RESPONSIBLE LUCKNOW: MAY 13,
2007
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati has said that the memorials set up in the memory of constitution makers; saints and other great persons should not be neglected. She said that the saints and great personalities belonging to any community should not be disregarded. The BSP Government does not hold any malice against any of the leading lights of our country, she said. The Chief Minister, immediately after taking oath, visited Ambedkar Udyan/Memorial and Ambedkar Maidan and ordered suspension of the then Principal Secretary PWD Mr. S.K. Agarwal, Housing Secretary and V.C. LDA Mr. V.B. Singh, Chief Engineer LDA Mr. D.R. Yadav. All of them have been placed under suspension with immediate effect. These officers have been suspended by the Chief Minister, when on her visit to both the places, she found that the memorials built in the memory of the makers of the constitution were constantly neglected and as a result their condition had deteriorated. The government had made all provisions for the maintenance of these memorials, but the officers did not perform their duties well, she pointed out. Action will also be initiated against Mr. R.S. Yadav, retired M.D. Rajkiya Nirman Nigam. The case of Mr. Yadav would be investigated whether he deserves the facilities being provided to him or not, she said. Earlier, the Chief Minister paid floral tributes to Lord Buddha and the maker of the constitution Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar after arriving at the Ambedkar Memorial. She expressed her dissatisfaction over the poor maintenance of the memorial. It was the same story when she arrived at Ambedkar Maidan. The National General Secretary of the BSP and MP Mr. Satish Chandra Mishra, Commissioner Lucknow Division Mr. R.K. Mittal, Secretary Mr. Navneet Sehgal and other senior officers were present on the occasion.
It was a different scene altogether at the gates of Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan this morning when the U.P. Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati arrived here. Suddenly a man, possibly mentally disturbed, raised slogan 'Mayawati Zindabad' to attract her attention. The C.M. showing sensitivity and not caring about her security stopped her convoy and lent a patient ear to hear his grievances. She directed the Lucknow D.M. to provide him food and better medical facilities. On the directives of the Chief Minister, the Dy. C.M.O. Dr. R. Banswal and Dr. Sunil Pandey and A.D.M.(East) of the district administration Mr. Anil Pathak checked his health. During the inquiry, it was disclosed that he was hungry and sick for past few days. He was a resident of Gandhi Nagar, Shiv Ka Purva, Utaraula, district Balrampur. His name was Kandh Ram and his financial condition was poor. The officers first provided him food and the doctors referred him to Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University Lucknow for treatment. On the directives of the C.M. proper medical attention was provided to him. The people present on the spot were highly impressed by the sensitivity shown by the Chief Minister and appreciated her very much. Kandh Ram, who is being treated at the medical college, said that Behanji knew the problems of the people and removed them as well. It may be recalled that the C.M. was coming to Annexe at 11 a.m. to attend cabinet meeting.
C.M. directs officers to ensure flawless and transparent system to hold CPMT in future Lucknow : June 20, 2007
The U.P. Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati has said that it should be ensured that no discrepancy took place while declaring the CPMT results, because the future of the students was directly linked with it. She has emphasised the need to develop such a system where no human or technical error occurred. She has directed the officers of the Medical Education Department to publish correct answers of the CPMT question papers while announcing the result so that the candidates could crosscheck their answers from the carbon copy of the O.M.R. answer book available with them. She has said that if the candidates still had any objection/complaint then they could apply for scrutiny to the Chairman CPMT-2007 within 8-days. The Chief Minister said that a transparent and error-free system should be ensured while holding CPMT in future so that the possibility of error could be ruled out and the sanctity of the examination and results could be maintained. Considering the larger interest of the candidates, the C.M. has directed the concerning officers to announce correct results without any
delay and complete the inquiry at the earliest. The Chief Minister has taken the matter very seriously and expressed her sympathy with the affected families. She has directed the officers to ensure that it was not repeated in future. It is worth mentioning that the Chief Minister had taken the discrepancies in the CPMT results declared on June 14, 2007 by Purvanchal University, Jaunpur very seriously and revoked the results immediately. She ordered to set up a nine-member high-level committee to look into the entire episode. She directed the committee to conduct a thorough inquiry into the entire case. All specialists included in the committee were renowned persons.
C.M. gives a hike of Rs. 500 in monthly pension of the 1984 riot victims Lucknow : June 17, 2007
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati has increased the monthly pension of the 1984 riot-hit victims by Rs. 500. The riot victims would now be entitled to get Rs. 2500 per month. The widows and aged parents of those killed in the 1984 riots and those who suffered 70 per cent disability or the wives of those missing since then would be given by the State Government a monthly pension of Rs. 2500 lifelong. The Chief Minister has taken this decision in accordance with the recommendations of
the Nanawati Inquiry Committee under the rehabilitation package declared by
the Government of India.
NDC meet : New direction for development of rural economy insisted
Lucknow : May 29, 2007
Top priority would be accorded to agriculture
diversification, processing and distribution during the 11th Five Year Plan to double the income of the farmers. Taking into account the importance of agriculture sector, the U.P. Government has resolved to set up the
agriculture growth rate at 5.7 per cent. For that the agriculture sector has been given special importance and a target of increasing the productivity as well as production of its related activities has been set. Besides, all
possible efforts would be made to ensure remunerative prices to the farmers of their produce. The completion of the pending irrigation projects of the State and availability of a refrigerated railway cargo at the Lucknow
Airport has also being demanded from the Government of India under the 11th Five Year Plan. To ensure a second green revolution, the farmers of U.P. should be given loan at 4 per cent maximum. The Agriculture Minister, Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan on behalf of the U.P. Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati demanded an assistance of Rs. 1900 crore for the requirements of the State, which included irrigation, animal husbandry, setting up of agriculture universities, rationalising food processing, making agriculture sector profitable, water harvesting, ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers of their produce, land reclamation, energising more and more tube-wells, recharging ground water, poultry, fisheries, fertilisers, restarting the fertiliser plants and strengthening the cooperative societies at the meeting of National Development Council held at New Delhi today. Listening the priorities of Uttar Pradesh for the 11th Five Year Plan, the Agriculture Minister said that as long as all the sections of the society do not get equal opportunities and the social progress also takes place along with the economic progress, our efforts would not bear fruits. He said that besides improving the social condition of the poor belonging to SC/ST, O.B.C., religious minorities and general categories it was also required to ensure that they got the benefits of development. The Centre should provide more resources and help to ensure participation of poor in the development and also to provide them facilities. Discussing the report prepared by the sub-committee of the N.D.C. regarding the issues pertaining to agriculture, the Agriculture Minister said that this meeting was called at an appropriate time to give new direction to rural economy. He pointed out that 72 per cent of the country's population still depended on agriculture and despite the high growth rate the condition of the farmers was pitiable. Out of these, 40 per cent farmers were leaving agriculture. The contribution of agriculture in the gross domestic product had fallen to 18 per cent from 56 per cent earlier, which was a matter of grave concern. He said that the U.P. Government had resolved to maintain the agriculture growth rate at 5.7 per cent. Mr. Laxmi Narayan suggested that the farmers should be provided loans at the rate of 4 per cent. He said that this would make agriculture profitable and the farmers could be freed from the clutches of the moneylenders. He demanded that 9 agriculture universities should be set up in the State considering various factors like climatic areas and crop cycles. He also suggested that the farmers should be provided hybrid seeds at cheaper rates. The pulses and oilseeds crops should be encouraged in
Bundelkhand region considering its climatic conditions, he said. The Agriculture Minister further suggested that the current system of pre-fixing of the minimum support price to ensure adequate prices to the farmers of
their produce should be amended. The share of the farmers in the premium of the crop insurance scheme should be decreased so that they got better benefits, he pointed out. He also demanded that food processing units should be set up at the local levels so that crops like fruits, potato, mango, amla etc. fetched remunerative prices. He demanded that a refrigerated railway cargo should be set up at the Lucknow Airport so that fast decaying products could be exported easy. He suggested that the Government of India should take steps for development of food processing industry. Demanding that all the irrigation projects of the State pending under the 11th Five Year Plan should be completed, Mr. Laxmi Narayan said that the Centre should provide assistance to increase the percentage of irrigation. Expressing his serious concern over the falling level of ground water owing to uncontrolled use, he said that the same should be recharged. He also suggested scientific use of irrigation resources. He said that there was a need to improve the indigenous species of livestock through artificial insemination and efficient Pashumitra should be encouraged to increase the milk production. He said that setting up of meat processing units should be encouraged to make U.P. self sufficient in poultry production. Besides, better infrastructure was also required for fish production and marketing. It was
the top priority of the State Government to ensure remunerative prices for fish producers and also to provide them quality fish seeds. The Agriculture Minister said that the prices of diesel should be decreased considering the poor economic condition of the small and marginal farmers. The Centre should also make proper arrangements for irrigation facilities. He stressed the need of ensuring timely availability of fertilisers and also to simplify the process of fertiliser supply. He also requested to solve the problems coming in the way of timely supply of fertilisers in the districts not having railway rake point. He demanded to solve the problem of floods in eastern U.P. and to accord top priority to projects related to water harvesting. He suggested that the factories of F.C.I. Gorakhpur and Duncan Fertilisers, Panki (Kanpur) lying closed for long time now should be restarted at the earliest. According to the recommendations of the Vaidyanathan Committee the Centre has to provide Rs. 1900 crore to U.P. The Agriculture Minister requested that this mount should be released without any further delay. He expressed his gratitude towards the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh along with other guests for presenting opportunity to express his views at the N.D.C. meeting.
ACTION TAKEN AGAINST FOUR SENIOR OFFICERS RESPONSIBLE LUCKNOW: MAY 13,
2007
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati has said that the memorials set up in the memory of constitution makers; saints and other great persons should not be neglected. She said that the saints and great personalities belonging to any community should not be disregarded. The BSP Government does not hold any malice against any of the leading lights of our country, she said. The Chief Minister, immediately after taking oath, visited Ambedkar Udyan/Memorial and Ambedkar Maidan and ordered suspension of the then Principal Secretary PWD Mr. S.K. Agarwal, Housing Secretary and V.C. LDA Mr. V.B. Singh, Chief Engineer LDA Mr. D.R. Yadav. All of them have been placed under suspension with immediate effect. These officers have been suspended by the Chief Minister, when on her visit to both the places, she found that the memorials built in the memory of the makers of the constitution were constantly neglected and as a result their condition had deteriorated. The government had made all provisions for the maintenance of these memorials, but the officers did not perform their duties well, she pointed out. Action will also be initiated against Mr. R.S. Yadav, retired M.D. Rajkiya Nirman Nigam. The case of Mr. Yadav would be investigated whether he deserves the facilities being provided to him or not, she said. Earlier, the Chief Minister paid floral tributes to Lord Buddha and the maker of the constitution Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar after arriving at the Ambedkar Memorial. She expressed her dissatisfaction over the poor maintenance of the memorial. It was the same story when she arrived at Ambedkar Maidan. The National General Secretary of the BSP and MP Mr. Satish Chandra Mishra, Commissioner Lucknow Division Mr. R.K. Mittal, Secretary Mr. Navneet Sehgal and other senior officers were present on the occasion.
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