Ahmedabad budget for Dalits should be in proportion to its population in the city: Dalit rights leader

Taking strong exception to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) “failing” to allocate budgetary funds for the Dalits in proportion to its population in the city, senior activist Kantilal Parmar, in a representation to Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani has demanded that the scheduled caste (SC) sub-plan should be implemented in Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad’s Dalit population is approximately 14%, as against less than 7% of the state as a whole.
Parma, in a letter to Rupani, said, there should be a monitoring committee which must ensure that the SC sub-plan is properly implemented. As the same, Parmar insisted, the city’s MLAs and MPs should ensure spending their funds for popular schemes for the Dalits in their areas in accordance with the Dalit proportion of the population of their constituencies. While MPs get an annual fund of Rs 5 crore, MLAs get a fund of Rs 1.5 crore for implementing popular schemes.
Even as demanding housing facilities to Dalit localities, especially where the community’s population is more than 3,000, Parmar said in the letter, the collapse of the building in Odhav because of poor housing construction under the Indira Awas Yojana has led the authorities to vacate those who had been living in there. “While the person who died as a result should be given a compensation of Rs 1 crore, others should be swiftly rehabilitated”, he insisted, demanding those responsible for poor construction should be booked under IPC 304.

The making of a self-made woman: How eighty sheep changed everything for Kalawati Ninama

By Vikas Meshram* About forty-two kilometres from Rajasthan's Banswara district, in the tribal heartland of Ghatol block, lies the small village of Ubapana. This is where Kalawati Ninama, her husband Dhulji, and their four children make their home. Their days unfold much like those of their neighbours—bustling mornings, long hours of farm labour through the afternoon, and evenings spent tending livestock. For this family, farming and livestock were once simply a means of putting food on the table. Today, they have become the sturdy foundation of something far greater: genuine self-sufficiency.

India has spent billions on skilling. Where are the jobs?

By Vikas Gupta India loves the photograph of a certificate ceremony. A minister on a stage. A banner bearing the word “skill.” Young people holding folders that promise a future. It is a reassuring image because it tells us the problem has a manageable answer: train the young, make them job-ready, and work will follow.

BAPS, the Eiffel Tower and the curious silence on secularism

By Rajiv Shah I was a little surprised to see how some of those whom I respect for taking a firm stand on patriarchal issues reacted to the manner in which they responded to the recent incident in Paris, in which women employees of the Eiffel Tower were asked to remain "invisible" on September 5 when 100 BAPS sadhus visited one of the world's top tourist destinations.

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