Tag Archives: Bangalore

Bangalore:

A meeting of representatives of Dalit workers employed in the Central public sector units here was held on May 17, to consider the special problems facing them.

Representatives of HAL, BEL, ITI, HMT, BEML attended the meeting. D.M. Thimmarayappa, Convenor presided.

A. Naryanaswamy, former vice president of the BEL SC & ST Welfare Association, said out of the 70,000 employees in the Central Government industries in the city, 9,000 were Dalits and most of them were working as sweepers and scavengers.

Govindraj, general secretary of the BEL SC & ST Welfare Association, said neither the management nor the union bothered about Dalits. This complaint was voiced by representatives of all SC & ST Welfare Associations of different public sector units.

Sridhar suggested that the only way out is to form a trade union of SC & STs under the DAC and this proposal was accepted in principle. They felt that the unions controlled by the upper caste leadership are not sympathetic to the plight of Dalits. Hence the need for a Dalit trade union.

V. T Rajshekar Shetty, journalist and writer, said the Gujarat Dalit Panthers were thinking of forming a trade union of of their own in Ahmedabad as the Dalit workers were facing problems from both unions and the management. Dalits in bigger cities were also thinking on this line. This was a healthy development, he said.

It was decided to call for a bigger meeting of Dalit representatives to consult them on this suggestion.

The Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) having its headquarters in Singapore and whose jurisdiction extends from Pakistan to New Zealand, is having its seventh Assembly in Bangalore from May 18 to 28. CCA is a regional ecumenical fellowship of Protestant Christian churches. There are 86 member churches belonging to about 20 countries. The CCA Assembly meets once in four years and it is the supreme policy-making body.

The theme of the Bangalore Assembly is “Living in Christ with People”.

The Dalits of India are proud that the CCA has chosen India for its 7th session and Dalits of Karnataka are prouder still that it is their capital city that is playing host to this historic session. India has a Christian population of about 2.5 percent and constitute one of the persecuted minorities of this country.

But it is a fact of history that no body has done so much for the Dalit awakening and emancipation as the Christians. Untouchables and Tribals in particular must be grateful that they have been the biggest beneficiary of the Christian work.

While welcoming the delegates, we wish to assure the Church leaders that the Dalits of India shall ever remain grateful for then help. However, the Dalits have still a long way to go for liberation and, therefore, we call upon the CCA leaders to continue to work for the Dalit liberation.