The Hindu Business Line : Convention to focus on dalit upliftment

THE Guruvayanakere-based Nagarika Seva Trust, in association with dalit organisations, farmers' forum, women's organisations and environmentalist groups, is planning to organise a dalit convention in Belthangady on August 4.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, the organisers of the convention said that the day-long deliberations would focus on marginalisation and continued deprivation of all socially, economically and educationally backward groups which find themselves at the receiving end of the inequities engendered and nurtured by globalisation.

As an indication of the state of dalits in the rural hinterland, a survey is being conducted which is to cover all the 5,200 dalit families (31,200 people) in Belthangady taluk. Of the 3,000 families covered so far, over 50 per cent have been found to be illiterate. Over 10 per cent of school-going boys and 13 per cent of the girls drop-out of school before reaching class VII.

Moreover, most of the dalits in the taluk are agricultural labourers with little or no land of their own. The plummeting price of agricultural commodities has made it difficult to get work and with even the beedi industry in dire straits, the dalits are now deprived of their main sources of livelihood.

About 60 per cent of the dalits covered by the survey depend on wells for water. More than 50 per cent of the dalit houses in the taluk are in a state of disrepair.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Duty on thermal paper imports from China

Definitive duty on acrylic yarn from Nepal

`Joint bilateral group must to spur industrial growth'

`Attitude change key to luring more investment'

Recruitment in Excise Dept

Indo-Afghan business forum to be set up

Govt healthcare still the first option

Cosmetic laser clinic at Hyderabad

Malaysian team meets TN CM

Govt plans benchmarks for power regulatory panels

`Labour costs eroding India's edge in textile sector: Study