01-14-2005, 01:01 PM
Agree with most of the stuff and support them - except private sector reservation. Hope they do not turn into another "run of the mill" group.
-----------------
"The Dalit has been relying too much on the government"
He looks like any other man on the street but Ashok Bharti, convenor of the National Conference of Dalit organisations (NACDOR) stands out from the crowd. A Dalit, his impassive face hides a long story of struggle.
Bharti's father was a tailor, his grandfather a grass-cutter in Delhi's Walled City. The family was forced to flee from their village near Aligarh because his grandfather defied local upper castes during the halcyon days of the freedom movement. They found shelter in a Muslim bustee called Rajaram near the Jama Masjid. "We were untouchables and there was no way we could live in a Hindu
locality," he explains. When that got demolished they shifted to East Delhi, an inhospitable marsh. His father learnt tailoring sitting outside a tailor's shop since he wasn't allowed inside. He passed on this skill to hundreds of unemployed Dalits. " My father earned name and fame but not money," says Bharti.
Bharti studied in government schools: earning and learning. When he was in Class 10 he joined the Progressive Students' Union, which put him in touch with celebrity leftists. He studied political science for a year at Hindu College, New Delhi, hoping to make it as a journalist. Disappointed with the politics of the Left and unable to get a break as a journalist, Bharti joined Delhi College of Engineering so that he could earn a respectable livelihood.
In 1986 he founded Mukti, a youth organisation that got the system of admission changed in Delhi University and published a report on the discrimination faced by Dalit youth in colleges. Soon after the agitation against the Mandal Commission report broke loose. "The Mandal Commission was not about Dalits yet we bore the brunt of the agitation," he says. Bharti was chased and stabbed.
As an engineer he could have got a job without recourse to reservation. Instead he chose to join PRIA, an NGO. But the agitation against the Mandal Commission haunted Bharti especially the media's partisan role. So in 1990 he founded the Centre for Alternative Dalit Media, to get the Dalit viewpoint across. The centre was in many ways a precursor to NACDOR.
In 1996 he chose to leave for Australia when he got a scholarship to study at Adelaide. He did his MBA in manufacturing management. Bharti is interested in robotics and artificial intelligence and continues to work for the union government.
"I got admission into Hindu College and Delhi College of Engineering thanks to reservation. Without it there was no way I could have got this far. Even with reservation it's been tough, really tough," he says. " But I can say I'm really proud to be a Dalit," he told Civil Society in an interview.
Why did you set up NACDOR?
When I was studying in Adelaide, I read all of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar's works. I got time to reflect. When I returned I spoke to many Dalit organisations. At that time the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was rising but people were getting disillusioned with Dalit politics. We realised someone would have
to change the paradigm of Dalit politics. Dalit organisations were extremely fragmented. So we decided to bring them together and that's how NACDOR, a network of 200 Dalit organisations was formed. These are people's groups, not NGOs.
How did you bring so many different groups together?
We sent out this message to all Dalit groups: society is a multi-dimensional, complex system. This was important. <b>In the Dalit mind, society is neatly divided into Dalits and non-Dalits</b>. We explained that society has many aspects-economical, social, anthropological, historical. There are the police, the governance system, political parties, the judiciary⦠its not just behenji and Paswanji.
We are very proud of the Dalit movement even before the Ambedkar phase. In those days Dalits were not just challenging the system but changing it and providing alternatives. Dr Ambedkar founded schools and colleges. He didn't just wait for the government to do things. Jyotiba Phule and Savitabai Phule were the first to start a school for Indians. Savitabai was the first educated trained
teacher of this country. This is what we remind Dalits.
<b>We also say that the Dalits are the wealth creators of the country though the benefits of their hard work are being cornered by others.</b> We have an alternative model to organise the economy of the Dalits and eliminate the dominance of middle- classes and intermediaries who prey upon poor people through new methods of managing their economy.
We have resolved to make each and every Dalit child literate in the next 20 years, which the government has not done in so many years. And we have a method which we will be implementing in the next two or three years in 5200 villages. We call this the Self-Help Movement of the Dalits.
You don't need the government?
The Dalit has been relying too much on the government. The non- NACDOR model has been to demand everything from the government. <b>We say there are lots of things we can do ourselves. Only then can we check the government and put pressure on our leadership and the national leadership.</b>
But you support reservations?
One hundred per cent. Even in the private sector. We are running a global debate on reservations in the private sector with One World South Asia. We include the multinationals as well. <b>We are asking for reservations across the board in all businesses whether they are small or big.</b> <i>{This, in a globalized economy will be a non starter - Equality and Equity are entirely two different concepts}</i>
Do you seek wider support from society?
Yes. <b>You know the Dalits spent one lakh crore rupees in this market in one year. They are not poor. </b>They have been portrayed as poor people. Individual families are poor but as a group they are the biggest economy of this country. And we calculate their income at below the poverty line. We have to unite this income.
Do you see yourself in politics?
I am a political person but I don't have a political party. We feel Indian politics needs an alternative. It needs a new leadership. The existing one is defunct, non serious and parochial. They represent the clique of the rich and mighty. They don't represent the masses.
So is NACDOR the birth of another political party?
No. NACDOR is primarily an organisation of the Dalits, not a political party.
What are the three demands you would make to the government?
One hundred percent literacy, all land to be distributed to Dalits and the poor and reservation in the private economy: whether it is the economy of the lala or Rahul Bajaj, the share of the poor has to be there.
Equality has to be an ideal otherwise how will we becomepractical or pragmatic about it? We do not compromise on our ideals but on pragmatic programmes.
http://civilsocietymagazine.com/ashok.htm
-----------------
"The Dalit has been relying too much on the government"
He looks like any other man on the street but Ashok Bharti, convenor of the National Conference of Dalit organisations (NACDOR) stands out from the crowd. A Dalit, his impassive face hides a long story of struggle.
Bharti's father was a tailor, his grandfather a grass-cutter in Delhi's Walled City. The family was forced to flee from their village near Aligarh because his grandfather defied local upper castes during the halcyon days of the freedom movement. They found shelter in a Muslim bustee called Rajaram near the Jama Masjid. "We were untouchables and there was no way we could live in a Hindu
locality," he explains. When that got demolished they shifted to East Delhi, an inhospitable marsh. His father learnt tailoring sitting outside a tailor's shop since he wasn't allowed inside. He passed on this skill to hundreds of unemployed Dalits. " My father earned name and fame but not money," says Bharti.
Bharti studied in government schools: earning and learning. When he was in Class 10 he joined the Progressive Students' Union, which put him in touch with celebrity leftists. He studied political science for a year at Hindu College, New Delhi, hoping to make it as a journalist. Disappointed with the politics of the Left and unable to get a break as a journalist, Bharti joined Delhi College of Engineering so that he could earn a respectable livelihood.
In 1986 he founded Mukti, a youth organisation that got the system of admission changed in Delhi University and published a report on the discrimination faced by Dalit youth in colleges. Soon after the agitation against the Mandal Commission report broke loose. "The Mandal Commission was not about Dalits yet we bore the brunt of the agitation," he says. Bharti was chased and stabbed.
As an engineer he could have got a job without recourse to reservation. Instead he chose to join PRIA, an NGO. But the agitation against the Mandal Commission haunted Bharti especially the media's partisan role. So in 1990 he founded the Centre for Alternative Dalit Media, to get the Dalit viewpoint across. The centre was in many ways a precursor to NACDOR.
In 1996 he chose to leave for Australia when he got a scholarship to study at Adelaide. He did his MBA in manufacturing management. Bharti is interested in robotics and artificial intelligence and continues to work for the union government.
"I got admission into Hindu College and Delhi College of Engineering thanks to reservation. Without it there was no way I could have got this far. Even with reservation it's been tough, really tough," he says. " But I can say I'm really proud to be a Dalit," he told Civil Society in an interview.
Why did you set up NACDOR?
When I was studying in Adelaide, I read all of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar's works. I got time to reflect. When I returned I spoke to many Dalit organisations. At that time the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was rising but people were getting disillusioned with Dalit politics. We realised someone would have
to change the paradigm of Dalit politics. Dalit organisations were extremely fragmented. So we decided to bring them together and that's how NACDOR, a network of 200 Dalit organisations was formed. These are people's groups, not NGOs.
How did you bring so many different groups together?
We sent out this message to all Dalit groups: society is a multi-dimensional, complex system. This was important. <b>In the Dalit mind, society is neatly divided into Dalits and non-Dalits</b>. We explained that society has many aspects-economical, social, anthropological, historical. There are the police, the governance system, political parties, the judiciary⦠its not just behenji and Paswanji.
We are very proud of the Dalit movement even before the Ambedkar phase. In those days Dalits were not just challenging the system but changing it and providing alternatives. Dr Ambedkar founded schools and colleges. He didn't just wait for the government to do things. Jyotiba Phule and Savitabai Phule were the first to start a school for Indians. Savitabai was the first educated trained
teacher of this country. This is what we remind Dalits.
<b>We also say that the Dalits are the wealth creators of the country though the benefits of their hard work are being cornered by others.</b> We have an alternative model to organise the economy of the Dalits and eliminate the dominance of middle- classes and intermediaries who prey upon poor people through new methods of managing their economy.
We have resolved to make each and every Dalit child literate in the next 20 years, which the government has not done in so many years. And we have a method which we will be implementing in the next two or three years in 5200 villages. We call this the Self-Help Movement of the Dalits.
You don't need the government?
The Dalit has been relying too much on the government. The non- NACDOR model has been to demand everything from the government. <b>We say there are lots of things we can do ourselves. Only then can we check the government and put pressure on our leadership and the national leadership.</b>
But you support reservations?
One hundred per cent. Even in the private sector. We are running a global debate on reservations in the private sector with One World South Asia. We include the multinationals as well. <b>We are asking for reservations across the board in all businesses whether they are small or big.</b> <i>{This, in a globalized economy will be a non starter - Equality and Equity are entirely two different concepts}</i>
Do you seek wider support from society?
Yes. <b>You know the Dalits spent one lakh crore rupees in this market in one year. They are not poor. </b>They have been portrayed as poor people. Individual families are poor but as a group they are the biggest economy of this country. And we calculate their income at below the poverty line. We have to unite this income.
Do you see yourself in politics?
I am a political person but I don't have a political party. We feel Indian politics needs an alternative. It needs a new leadership. The existing one is defunct, non serious and parochial. They represent the clique of the rich and mighty. They don't represent the masses.
So is NACDOR the birth of another political party?
No. NACDOR is primarily an organisation of the Dalits, not a political party.
What are the three demands you would make to the government?
One hundred percent literacy, all land to be distributed to Dalits and the poor and reservation in the private economy: whether it is the economy of the lala or Rahul Bajaj, the share of the poor has to be there.
Equality has to be an ideal otherwise how will we becomepractical or pragmatic about it? We do not compromise on our ideals but on pragmatic programmes.
http://civilsocietymagazine.com/ashok.htm