Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Progressive education

The fact that some Dalit victims of the Gohana atrocity were relatively prosperous accentuates the need to preserve caste-based reservation. As was amply demonstrated by the incident, economic prosperity does not grant immunity from caste discrimination.

More pressing, however, is the need to implement a progressive education system that challenges established beliefs, encourages critical thinking, and serves a purpose beyond that of imparting market-oriented technical skills and advancing individual mobility.

Rohit Chhiber,
Jaipur

Is reservation the panacea for discrimination, arguably 3000 years old? A permanent cure lies somewhere else, a fact that will be established by answering the question: has reservation uplifted the vast masses of Dalits and the OBCs? All talk of empowerment that terminates in reservation as a sole remedy only results in putting off the real remedy.

Sripriya Muralidharan,
Chennai

One wonders why Gohana-type incidents recur when social justice is the buzzword at all levels of governance. It is all the more surprising that such a shameful incident should have occurred in Haryana, one of the most developed States in terms of agriculture and industry.

But given that it is the State where Dalits were butchered for skinning dead cows two years ago, a young couple was punished by a village panchayat for marrying out of caste, and female foeticide is rampant leading to the most adverse sex ratio, Haryana is socially most backward.

Kishor Mankar,
Nagpur

The article "There's a much larger house on fire" (Sept. 7) served to remind us that in the sphere of human rights, India has a long way to go. Crimes against humanity seem to be happening every day in one or the other part of the country and despite 50 years of legislation abolishing untouchability, it remains deeply entrenched amidst us.

We should delve deeply within to find out what ails our society, each time there is violence against fellow human beings just because they were born Dalits.

Anupama Krishnamurthy,
Pondicherry

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Nature lays a superpower low
Where the outcome is important
Mumbai after the rain: piecemeal policies
Open source spills over into wider world
Loss of soil carbon "will speed global warming"
Bangla lessons for Hindi belt
Hurricane Katrina's political fallout
Is justice possible without looking for the truth?
Oil price hike
Progressive education
Indiscreet
Humbling U.S.
Recovery agents

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu