Yesterday on the eve of 123rd birth anniversary
of Baba Saheb B.R. Ambedkar Shri Narendra Mody blamed Congress for being
indifferent to the plight of dalits and other backward classes. He is promising
heavenly comforts and benefits to all sections of society.Has the quality of
life of all sections of society in Gujarat really improved under his rule as Chief
Minister? Let us see the condition of the most important section of society
for the future of the state and the country---the children.
Dalit Hak Rakshak
Manch, an NGO in a Memorandum submitted
to the Governor of the state wrote that Gujarat
enjoys the dubious distinction of having one of the largest numbers of child
labourers in the country.( There are at least 400,000 child labourers in
Gujarat mostly Dalits and Adivasis making the state ninth among India’s 28
states in terms of child labour.) They work in miserable, often bonded-labour
like, conditions, being paid a pittance, and the state government, apparently,
is completely apathetic to their plight. Despite child labour being declared
illegal, it noted that the state had exhibited little enthusiasm to tackle the
problem. Less than 4500 child labourers were ‘freed’ from child labour during
the period 2001-2010, it pointed out. Rajesh Solanki, the Secretary of the Manch drew the Governor’s attention to the absence of a State Commission
for the Protection of Child Rights’ (SCPCR) in Gujarat.
AS a result there have been large scale violation of children’s rights’,
particularly of marginalized communities, across the state., The state
Government of Gujarat continued to ignore the Commission for the Protection of
Child Rights Act 2005 and have not taken step to constitute the State
Commission for Protection of Child Rights. It pointed out that the claim of the
Gujarat government that in place of a separate SCPCR it had arranged for
child-rights-related issues to be handled by the Gujarat State Women’s
Commission was in fact, in violation of the Commission for the Protection of
Child Rights Act. In fact it was leading to the subversion of children’s rights on a
large scale. The memorandum demanded that the Gujarat Government set up a
separate Child Rights’ Protection Commission as was required by law. More than
100,000 children, the memorandum indicated, including minor girls, ‘are being
exploited and sex-ploited’ in hybrid cotton seed farms across seven districts
in Gujarat. In this case, too, most of these
child labourers would be from the marginalized and historically oppressed Dalit
and Adivasi communities. The memorandum noted with dismay the refusal of the
Collector of the Banaskantha district to acknowledge the presence of such child
labour in his district when confronted with evidence to the contrary by
activist groups. The memorandum noted that the Dalit Hak Rakshak Manch has
requested the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights to use its
quasi-judicial powers and summon government officers in Gujarat
to inquire as to why they continue to allow such an obnoxious form of
exploitation.
While Adivasis and Dalits together
comprise more than a fifth of Gujarat’s
population, they remain at the bottom of the state’s steeply hierarchical social
pyramid. This clearly illustrates the caste-class interests that the politics
and ideology of Hindutva and Modi’s ‘developmental model’ are geared to
promoting. Much of Gujarat’s reported economic
‘success’ owes to the exploitation of cheap Dalit and Adivasi labour. Every
year, the memorandum added, thousands of workers (who are mainly impoverished
Dalits and Adivasis), along with their children, are lured to Gujarat from
neighbouring states—to work in farms and factories under extremely harsh and exploitative
conditions. Yet, it noted, the Gujarat state
had failed to arrange for an inter-state coordination committee to address the
serious problems of such migrant workers and their children.
The memorandum stressed that the
separate Child Rights’ Commission was also needed for the proper implementation of the Right to
Education Act 2005. It noted that vast numbers of children across the state
(probably mainly Dalits and Adivasis) are denied access to primary education
facilities, in part due to what it called the ‘callousness of the government’. Gujarat, the memorandum pointed out, lagged behind 21
other states in the immunization coverage of infants, and this clearly exposed
what it called ‘the tall claims’ of the Gujarat Government about its
achievements in the health sector. It criticised the Gujarat Government for
giving the task of the implementation of the Right to Education Act to the State
Women’s Commission, which, it stressed was ‘nothing but a mockery of the Right
to Education Act. All this, the memorandum stressed, were additional reasons
why it was imperative for Gujarat to establish
a separate state Child Rights’ Commission.
(source-- Yoginder Sikand , Dalit Rights Group Slams Modi
Government’s Stand on Child Rights 19 August, 2011 http://www.countercurrents.org/sikand190811.htm)
Dalit Hak Rakshak Manch in a memorandum to the Governor of Gujarat,on February 5, 2012
complained about poor implementation of The Scheduled castes and Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocity) Act, 1989. Manch’s sister organization Council for
Social Justice has investigated judgments pronounced under the said Act by
various courts in the districts of Banaskantha, Vadodara, Surat, Mehsana,
Patan, Bharuch, Surendranagar, Ahmedabad, Sabarkantha, Rajkot, Jamnagar,
Amreli, Anand, Veraval, Navsari, Godhra, Valsad and Junagadh an found that in
several cases due to sheer negligence of the police administration and
government advocates, the offenders, were acquitted. In many cases accused had committed grievous offences like murder,
rape etc. punishable for life Imprisonment in the offence under section 302. In
several judgments, the courts passed severe strictures against police for its
negligence. Representation to the Government of Gujarat with number of such
judgments during the past ten years bore no results.
There is a consistent rise in the incidences of atrocities
on people of scheduled castes particularly in villages during last three years.
We take Her Excellency’s kind permission to mention some specific incidences.
1. Labhu Rajapara,
42, a Dalit in Golasan village in Surendranagar district of Gujarat, had no
idea that his son's love affair with an upper caste girl could wreak havoc on
his entire family. Six people allegedly burnt his house in December 2010 and
the family still has no place to live in.
2. On April 13 this
year, Rajesh Parmar, 18, a Dalit boy originally from Bhavnagar, was reportedly abducted and found
dead the next day on the railway tracks at Lathidad railway station. Barwala
police (Ahmedabad district) sub-inspector is said to have spoken to the abductor,
but nothing was done to save Rajesh. A case of accidental death was lodged
later.
3. In January
2011, several Dalit families were stopped from entering a temple in Rampar
village in Surendranagar district. The next day, local shopkeepers refused to
sell anything to them. The families are still facing social boycott from upper
caste people.
4. In mid 2010,
when a temple was being inaugurated in Vanthal village in Viramgam, some Dalit
people tried to participate in the yagna. But they were beaten up and their
entire community was thrown out of the village.
5. In March 2010, in
Bavalchudi village in Banaskantha district, a family from Valmiki community was
building a house. However, it irked the upper caste community and as a result,
38 Dalit families are now out of the village.
6.In 2009, a Dalit advocate wanted to sing in garba during
Navratri in Bhadresinh village in Surendranagar district. And when he tried to
enter the temple, he was beaten up.
7. On 14 April 2011, Scheduled Castes students were
mercilessly beaten and fractured and then made accused by police. Though, we
have submitted a representation with DGP Mr. Chitranjansingh on May 2 2011,
till this date no action has been taken against the guilty police. (Annexure –
10)
8. A scheduled
caste youth was murdered by goons recently in Rathel village of Sanand Taluka.
(Source--http://dalitrightsgujarat.blogspot.in/2012/02/dalit-hak-rakshak-manch-dhrm.html)
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