Bundelkhand Dalit dropouts distribute self-made diyas to 'fight' illiteracy on Diwali

Orai Dalit children

In a unique celebration of Diwali this year, school dropout children from Dalit and other backward class communities of the rural areas of Orai taluka of Jalaun district in Uttar Pradesh went around to schools, colleges, government offices and police departments, offering to staff and officials diyas (earthen lamps) they had made with their own hands.

The message of the celebration, which was organized by the Bundelkhand Dalit Adhikar Manch (BDAM) and other social organisations, was to remove the darkness of illiteracy in the rural areas. Currently studying in Jai Bhim Education Centres, operating in individual households, they handed over the colourful earthen lamps, among others, to district police chief Dr Satish Kumar and district development officer Pushpendra Singh.
"Our message was to spead the motto of love and brotherhood. We sang all through the well-known song 'Deep se deep jalate chalo, prem ki Ganga bahate chalo’ while handing over these lamps", said the teachers who accompanied them, Priti Bauddh and Kalpana Singh. The teachers were were accompanied with social worker Rihan Mansoori.
Talking to media, BDAM social worker Kuldip Kumar Bauddh, said, "Our education centres, which right now work in individual households, admit school dropouts belonging to all the communities. Our effort is to ensure that these children become part of the mainstream education.”
The children studying in Jai Bhim Education Centres are re-admitted in schools, and the teachers in these schools do extra coaching with them in order to ensure that they do not lose interest in education. In all, 1,100 children study in these centres, which operate in 25 villages.
Activists associated with BDAM said, the effort is to replicate and set up a Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK)-type centre, which runs near Ahmedabad in Sanand taluka, training backward class children into different trades and empowering them to fight injustice and caste discrimination, especially untouchability.
DSK director Martin Macwan, a well-known Dalit rights activist, told Counterview that he was recently in Urai to set up such a vocation centre. "We have lots of children, mostly teenagers, coming at DSK from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and other states for training. Many of them girls, they are taught into sewing skills, carpentry, mobile repair, photo and videography, etc."
He added, "We ensure that they become bold enough to speak up against untouchability and earn a livelihood. As we found that there is a huge response from other states, we decided to help local organizations in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and other states to open DSK-type centres in those states so that children do not have to come to Gujarat for this."

Comments

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Morari Bapu echoes misleading figures to support the BJP's anti-conversion agenda

A senior Gujarat activist phoned me today to inform me that the well-known storyteller on Lord Ram, Morari Bapu, has made an "unsubstantiated" and "preposterous" statement in Songadh town, located in the tribal-dominated Tapi district. He claimed that while the Gujarat government wants the Bhagavad Gita to be taught in schools, the "problem is" that 75% of government teachers "are Christians who do not let this happen" and are “involved in religious conversions.”

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

Justifying social divisions? 'Dogs too have caste system like we humans, it's natural'

I have never had any pets, nor am I very comfortable with them. Frankly, I don't know how to play with a pet dog. I just sit quietly whenever I visit someone and see their pet dog trying to lick my feet. While I am told not to worry, I still choose to be a little careful, avoiding touching the pet.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Socialist utopia challenging feudal and Brahminical systems: Kanwal Bharti on Sant Raidas’ vision of Begumpura

In a controversial claim, well-known Dalit writer and columnist Kanwal Bharti has asserted that a clever Brahminical move appears to be behind the Guru Granth Sahib changing the name of the 15th-16th century mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement, Sant Raidas, to Sant Ravidas.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Search This Blog