'15 districts are prone to atrocities on dalits'

Karnataka holds sixth rank in the atrocity cases on Dalits. As many as 15 districts in the state are declared as atrocity prone districts, said University of Agricultural Sciences (Bangalore) former vice-chancellor Professor Bislaiah after inaugurating national-seminar on “Discrimination and Social Exclusion: Development Experience of Dalits in India.”

Dalits are still not allowed to enter temples in many villages. Even if they are allowed, they are asked to maintain a distance.

If one thinks that the 21st century has solutions for Dalits, then they are wrong.
Dalit students in primary schools are also subjected to atrocity. Around 73 per cent of Dalit students are not made class monitor. Around 68 per cent of Dalit students can not visit the houses of their classmates from upper strata of society.

Social exclusion is followed at the school level in form of segregation, he said and added that even though India is integrated by law it is segregated by practice and people.

The social exclusion which is discussed by people today was articulated by Dr B R Ambedkar on November 25, 1949. Ambedkar had a clear vision and he could foresee the problems in the future, he said.

“It is very sad to note that only 10.8 per cent students belonging to Scheduled Castes are enrolled for higher education,” said Mangalore University Vice Chancellor Professor T C Shivshankar Murthy.

He said that the Mangalore University Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSEIP) has been granted a three-year sponsored research programme by ICSSR titled 'Discrimination and Social Exclusion: A study on the Development experience of Dalits in Karnataka' to carry out five multiple inter-related research projects simultaneously.

The study aims at examining the question of development and exclusion of dalits in Karnataka. It proposes to assess areas of poverty, unemployment, access to resources, political participation and empowerment, primary education and inclusion, untouchability and discrimination.

Dalit movement and empowerment in selected fifty villages from five districts of Karnataka namely Gulbarga, Kolar, Mysore, Belgaum and Chitradurga.
Mangalore University CSEIP Director Professor Vishwanatha also spoke.