~ This is the transcript of an interview of Dr. Ratnesh Katulkar by Suresh Ahirwar ~ The recent Supreme Court decision regarding the classification of reservations for Scheduled Castes and Tribes, along with the emphasis on adding a creamy layer to it has sparked both support and opposition. This issue primarily concerns the castes among …
Dear Dalits, Beware of the ‘Toilet Woman of India’!
Dhamma Darshan Nigam This write-up is in response to the interview titled ‘Toilet woman of India: The woman Narendra Modi is scared of’ published on our prestigious platform, the Round Table India (RTI), on January 15, 2022. The woman interviewed was Pragya Akhilesh. I am not here to challenge the claims that she is the …
Toilet woman of India: The woman Narendra Modi is scared of
Aniket Kumar & Sabha Beaten, sexually assaulted and yet kept struggling: the story of Pragya Akhilesh, also called the ‘Toilet woman of India’ and ‘Omvedt of Bihar.’ On the streets of Araria and Begusarai, she scares not only the SBM officials with her record breaking data on toilets showcasing 1.3 lakh dry toilets in only …
Unfinished legacy of Dr Ambedkar and the Plight of the Oppressed in South Asia
Hemangi Kadlak [A Speech on the Occasion of 130th Birth Anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.] Jai Bhim, First of all, I would like to thank the Ambedkar Society for South Asia for inviting me as a speaker for this webinar to celebrate the 130th birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar. Today’s webinar topic is the ‘Unfinished …
Reverberation of COVID19 and ‘essential service’ workers
Daulat Siraswal (SAVARI and Round Table India are doing a series to put together the Bahujan perspective on the Coronavirus pandemic) Pradnya: Jai Bhim Daulat, How do you look at the pandemic and the ongoing lockdown? Daulat: Jai Bheem, Corona (covid19) is currently widespread in the world. We cannot deny the fact that in India, although …
Time to destroy the stereotypes about Dalit occupations
Anurag Minus Verma Recently many of us have seen/read news about a few Indians thanking sanitation workers (read Dalits) with flowers for combating the corona pandemic on the streets. Such rare gestures look pleasant but this doesn’t change the fact that these are mere gestures1. It is no surprise that in these emergency times, many …
Providing ‘free’ safety kits to sanitation workers is not a favour: An open letter to Arvind Kejriwal
Dear Arvind Kejriwal, In the workshop organized by Delhi Jal Board on 15/7/2019 at Talkatora Stadium1 you said that you feel “dejected to hear about the deaths of sanitation workers” and that “we are concerned about the lives of sanitation workers and will give free safety kits to those working in Delhi so that …
Does India lack the moral stamina to stop manual scavenging?
Dhamma Darshan Nigam Within eight days, eleven Indian citizens have died in sewers and septic tanks. Five died in a septic tank in Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh1 on 16th September. On 14th September a 28 years old man died while cleaning a Delhi Jal Board2 sewer pit. And five died on 9th September 2018 …
How Singaara Chennai killed Mr Palanichamy, a sanitation worker and an Arunthathiyar
Murali Shanmugavelan and Kadhiravan Chennai floods have spontaneously moved people from ‘all walks of life’ to help each other: users of social media; the otherwise not-so-socially-conscious-middle-class; Chennai celebrities; film actors; Indian army; and the questionable mainstream media joined hands to provide humanitarian assistance to victims of Chennai flood. People and Celebrities opened their …