02/05/12

caste satta

came across this news story
HYDERABAD, JAN. 20: Everonn, has launched its ‘Everonn World' at Kukatpally in Hyderabad. It will provide a one-stop solution for the educational and training needs of students and institutions. It is part of the company's national rollout and will promote the Edupreneur Programme. The company wants to identify entrepreneurs willing to contribute to the growth of Indian education in their chosen geographies. Everonn World intends to provide products and services catering to pre-school, vocational education, training, institutional tie-ups (schools and colleges), university and management education, admission counselling, coaching, certification and testing. The education centre at Kukatpally was inaugurated by Dr Jayaprakash Narayan, President, Lok Satta and local legislator.
dr.jayaprakash narayan launches the 'education centre' of a company that shall make money through selling products and services to 'edupreneurs' i.e., people who run private educational institutions. what does he think of private 'edupreneurs' in school education, i wonder. because he can't really guarantee 'equal opportunities for growth to all, irrespective of caste, religion, gender, and financial status' (check his party's website) and promote private school education at the same time. that infuses hierarchy into school education, building an education system that mimics the caste system in structure and spirit. no one can 'guarantee equal opportunities for growth to all' through such a system.

but dr.narayan goes a step ahead and says:
Lok Satta government will work tirelessly to abolish caste within one generation.
abolish caste in one generation? how? this is how:
* School, College and University educational records will not refer to the caste of the individual, except in the case of beneficiaries from schemes pertaining to SC, ST and BC. 
* Lok Satta Government will ensure that students from all castes live together in hostels. All government constructions will ensure that people belonging to different castes stay together.
what will he do with all the unwritten records in all the savarna homes? will he go sit in their living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, backyards etc and hold dharnas, every day, and tell them to 'say no to caste'?

dr. jayaprakash narayan is one of those wise brahminical nationalists who instinctively know that it is the lower castes who thought up the caste system, originally. obviously, they wanted separate hostels some two thousand years later.

he was a part of babudom until recently but doesn't seem to remember that separate hostels for scs, sts and bcs are a fairly recent idea. they were established, perhaps around the same time that he was appointed an ias officer, because students from those communities did not get enough attention, or protection, in hostels where 'students from all castes lived together'. the second backward classes commission, or the mandal commission, and the national commission for sc/sts were are also instituted around the same time. again, for the same reasons, broadly: regular institutions (which catered to 'all castes') were failing to deliver justice and attention to the bcs, scs and sts. this happened around 30-32 years ago. or some 30-32 years after independence.

but he does remember that the first caste census, held more than a century ago, was a 'scheme of using caste and religion to accentuate differences among people and thereby contain the fervour of nationalism'.

so, the british also thought it up.

these are the kind of revolutionary minds in savarna 'civil society' that went to work on the rte. there's no way sc, st or obc kids are going to find their way into private schools through the promised quota of 25% for the 'poor'. that quota is going to knock some sense into the caste-ridden indian education system and make all indian schools 'pure' educational institutions, run by pure 'edupreneurs'. that would definitely ensure that no one one from any caste would go to separate hostels. it's time jayaprakash narayan and his pals like aruna roy etc thought up a right to work programme for all the sc, st, bc children who can't find any functioning government schools in the not so distant future.

17 comments:

Sridhar said...

Kuffir, since when did you become opposed to capitalism? Aren't private schools already buying tons of equipment and services from private suppliers? Aren't programmers around the world sitting at home developing Ipad apps and games for school kids that promote learning or address learning and speech disabilities?

You could have made your point about JP's brahminical avatars without reference to the news story.

kuffir said...

sridhar,

you can follow the links to my older posts in this post, or click on the 'education' archives on the sidebar to get an idea of what i think of the role of the market and the state in primary or school education. or you could start with this post

Jai Gottimukkala said...

Kufr, these "one-stop solutions" are meant only for those "aspiring" groups who want to exit "dirty India and its rotten systems". Babu, JPN et al exhort students to study hard and come up. The refrain is "even a poor boy can go to US if he studies hard".

Even if all "meritorous" children go to US (or Mumbai for that matter), the problems at the village level will not go away. Wonder why these "intellectuals" can't understand this simple fact?

Kiran said...

Well written. The number of excuses and catch phrases (eduprenuers) thought up to cover the real desire to perpetuate caste system is mind boggling.

Lavanya said...

పిచ్చుక మీద బ్రహ్మాస్త్రం. JP always was and always will be irrelevant and insignificant. Everything and everyone is in the face of powers like YSR & son...
JP is not popular, YS Jagan is. Let's analyze/figure that out.

Anonymous said...

Jai,
Even if all meritorious students go abroad or to US , the problems at the village level will not go away simply because the "meritorious student"
once getting a whiff of financial success seldom shares his new found wealth with the downtrodden in his village.

I personally know several "BC/SC/ST" students, who relished the entitlements (read reservations, free books, fees, subsidised hostel facilities, the list is endless), and their generations continue to do so without an iota of guilt, hence they continue to perpetuate a caste bias toward their fellow community members.

Anonymous said...

Lavanya,
"JP remains irrelevant and insignificant".

Very true and that reflects how pathetic and shoddy our democratic system is.
Factionists, separatists, drug lords, liquor barons seem to be more popular and in vogue than a person form a lower middle class family who made it to the upper echelons of the society, through sheer hardwork, grit and determination.

Anonymous said...

Kiran,
if you think opening a private educational institute is a cover for perpetuating caste system, then I can only pity you and your quality of education you have received.

May I know what you do for a living? now don't tell me you work for a "Private company" or a :MNC". I can't imagine that you make a living from the very institutes that you abhor and accuse of having a hidden agenda :-)

Kiran said...

Anonymous @10.22 Private people set up educational institutes to make money and the people who work for these private people do their "jobs". They may show some caste prejudice in their day to day dealings but that is not the primary motive. It is the government and society who are seeking to perpatuate caste system by coming up with policies which create 1) business oppurtunities for largely OC "edupreneurs" 2) Create private instutions which are priced out of reach of large sections of BC,SC,ST. Why cant govt take up education seriously like in world over ? Why cant society demand good public schools like the world over ?

Kiran said...

Also what does an MNC or private insitution have in common with schools ? are you confusing work with education ? Or you THAT confused ? I think there is a lot of caste system at play in your mind

Jai Gottimukkala said...

@Anonymous:

"once getting a whiff of financial success seldom shares his new found wealth with the downtrodden in his village."

Sharing new found wealth, even if it happens, is a "trickle down" approach that will never work. The "downtrodden" as you call them are not looking for handouts.

My point here is that a policy built around a small group of people "moving up the chain" is irrelevant to the development of country as a whole.

Your comment about "entitlements" etc. is unrelated to my point.

Jai Gottimukkala said...

"a person form a lower middle class family who made it to the upper echelons of the society, through sheer hardwork, grit and determination."

What is his politics? This is more relevant than hardwork etc.

Anonymous said...

Kiran,
Since you mentioned that the private educational institutes are largely run by OC's and are largely attended my OC's, my assumption was that these OC 'sare responsibly for creating these private companies and wanted to know if you work for these institutes. Work and education are ofcourse very interrelated.

I agree that the govt must create better public school systems so that all "poor" not just the "sc/st/bc" poor can attend these schools without accruing financial hardships.

That is the collective failure of the government (which is run by sc's/st's/bc's and the much maligned oc's) and has very little to do with caste bias.

I really wonder why Mayawati's and Kodas did not set a example by creating policies that benefit the bc/sc/st's while they were in power, perhaps their OC advisers prohibited them from doing so?

Anonymous said...

Jai,
JP's politics are well known.
Though his caste abolition formula is a bit too optimistic and Utopian, he sincerely works for better governance, which has been the bane of the Indian democratic system.
He also has constituted "Sarvajana Satta" which works for the upliftment of the poor among bc/sc/st's. Unlike traditional parties that tend to give an impression they are working for these sections by promising chief minister posts or some cabinet posts and worst promise reservations in each and every field, sarvajan satta works differently, you can read LSP website for more info.

Anonymous said...

Kufr bhai,
what data do you offer to substantiate your comments that "Bc/SC separate hostels came up recently because regular institutes did not deliver justice and attention to these sections?"
Is it from your own experience or just plain old emotional baggage?
please provide data regarding the conditions of bc/sc's before and after they had separate hostels.

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