The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : ``Dalits' empowerment is the need of the hour''

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 08, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

``Dalits' empowerment is the need of the hour''

S. Dorairaj

Left parties hail Government decision on four panchayats

CHENNAI: Welcoming the State Government's decision not to de-reserve four Dalit panchayats, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India have stressed that political and economic empowerment of these panchayats should go hand in hand.

State CPI (M) secretary N. Varadarajan told The Hindu here that the election process could succeed in the panchayats of Pappapatti, Keeripatti and Nattarmangalam in Madurai district and Kottakachiyendal in Virudhunagar district only by combining administrative measures and efforts of political parties.

Abject poverty

One of the major hurdles to the Dalits becoming presidents of these panchayats was their appalling financial status. Abject poverty forced the Dalits in the Thevar heartland, most of them were landless agricultural workers, to depend on big landholders for employment and sustenance. The Dalits in these villages also felt that they could not survive by resisting the oppression and discriminative practices of big landowners, he pointed out.

He called for immediate steps to guarantee them employment, besides distributing wastelands or surplus lands so that they could lead an independent life.

Expressing similar views, CPI central executive committee member R. Nallakannu said the initiative should come from political parties instead of leaving the entire responsibility of empowerment to the officialdom. Political parties should extend a helping hand to the administration in ensuring that the election process was completed without hassles. Mr. Varadarajan appealed to all parties, which believed in democracy, to effectively intervene in the issue to see that Dalit presidents were elected to these panchayats and served their full term. The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had a big role to play by solidly backing the efforts for Dalit empowerment, as the whole issue had to be viewed against the backdrop of the continuing struggle for social justice, he said. Recalling that the Left parties had been taking a consistent stand on holding the elections successfully, he said parties following the path laid down by E.V. Ramasamy and C.N. Annadurai also should take a firm stand on the question of empowerment of the Dalits in the four panchayats.

On suggestions that the Government should not accept the resignation of the successful Dalit candidates in these panchayats, Mr.Varadarajan said the question would not arise at all if the Government took measures to enable them to stand on their own feet.

Mr. Nallakannu said that now that the Government had demonstrated its political will to retain the status of the panchayats, efforts should be made to convince the locals that reservation of the panchayats had not been done on the basis of the population of the castes.

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