Kerala - Kottayam   

DSM meet to focus on Dalits, Adivasis

Staff Reporter

KOTTAYAM: Dalit-Adivasi communities are facing an unprecedented crisis in the education sector, according to A.K. Vasu, State president, and O.P. Ravindran, general secretary of the Dalit Students Movement (DSM).

Speaking to mediapersons here on Friday, the DSM leaders said the Dalit-Adivasi communities were being marginalised from the education section on account of a peculiar situation prevailing in the sector in the State. The education Bill of 1957 has created a situation in which the private sector, which controls 80 per cent of the sector, is exempted of PSC (Public Service Commission) selection in their institutions. Private educational institutions have also been exempted from reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. These issues have not been taken up so far and the DSM is committed to bringing the Dalit-Adivasi segments back to the main stream.

According to them, the annual conference of the DSM will discuss major issues concerning the community. These include effective implementation of reservation, challenges and opportunities offered by globalisation, and networking among the Dalit-Adivasi-Dalit Christian and Bahujan segments. The conference will also focus on special challenges faced by women, Dalit Christians and Adivasi segments among the backward sections of society.

Those scheduled to address the three-day conference and symposia being organised as part of it include the former Supreme Court judge K.T. Thomas, Gopalguru, Susie Tharu, Kutty Revathy, Suresh Mane and P. Ravikumar. The conference will be inaugurated by Malayalam poet and DSM activist M.B. Manoj on Saturday.

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DSM meet to focus on Dalits, Adivasis

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