-The Hindustan Times   Nine years after the path-breaking documentary War and Peace, Anand Patwardhan, one of India's controversial filmmakers, is back with a documentary on dalit music and activism - Jai Bhim Comrade. Last week, his film was awarded the Ram Bahadur Trophy for the Best Film at the Film Southasia 2011 festival held at Kathmandu. Fourteen years in the making, the three-hour-and-20 minute-long film explores the history of dalit activism...

-The Times of India   The president of Keeripatti panchayat, P Baluchamy, who alleged that he was being prevented from contesting the upcoming civic poll, plans to begin his campaign under police protection on Friday. Baluchamy, who claims to have carried out works to the tune of Rs three crore in this economically-backward village, says it is unfair that people (read non-dalits) are trying to stop him from becoming president again despite...

-IBN   dalits were attacked by upper caste people at Mutthur village in Periyapatna taluk on Wednesday night. It is said that on Wednesday, a group of dalit youths and Shivanna, an upper caste person entered into a heatred exchange. Following by this, the upper caste people attacked dalits.   Accepting the complaint filed by one M J Deepak, Periyapatna police have arrested 7 persons on charges of comitting atrocity on dalits. As a...

Any new system for the socio-economic progress of dalits and other vulnerable sections must not lose sight of Special Component Plan goals. THE Planning Commission's “Approach to the 12th Five Year Plan” deals with the Scheduled Castes (S.C.s) briefly in a portion of Chapter 11 titled “Social and Regional Equity”. It, however, significantly mentions the need to devise a new system that can overcome the difficulties experienced with regard to the...

The Planning Commission's Approach Paper to the Twelfth Plan sticks with the neoliberal agenda despite claims of inclusive growth. INCLUSIVE was one word that came up time and again in the early announcements of the Planning Commission on the Twelfth Five-Year Plan. “Faster, Sustainable and More Inclusive Growth” was the slogan coined for the Plan and there was the promise of widespread consultations as never before as part of the processes...