Notes

Racism in india / Are we racist? / racial intolerance

* at times takes violent turn like death of nido Tania, a boy from AP
* how we perceive northeast India:


*
* In a survey in 2012 by North-East India Image Managers, 52% participants had negative image of NE. They think NE is unsafe and riddled with insurgency, weired food habits, alien culture, people have mongoloid features
* 87 per cent of working professionals spoken to— couldn’t name the seven Northeast States



forms of racism

* historically we have been victim of racism of west esp Britain (white man's burden, superior race...)
* questioning citizenship of people, seeing them as outsider due to their looks
* racist comments on black africans, attacks against African students in India
* our perception of NE indians, see above
* 43.5% of Indians would not want a neighbour of a different race
* racial profiling of employment opportunities for eg. NE seen mostly in hospitality sector, NE girls seen mostly in sectors requiring women beauty like saloon, restaurants, shop assistance...



how to fight racism?

* first accepting its existence, we believe that we have been the victim of racism by the west but we need to accept that we do it too, and second to understand that concern is not only prejudice based but also oppression subjected to people.
* educating young, police about evils of racism, taking help of celebrities


* Bezbaruah committee report has enough points on this


BEZBARUAH COMMITTEE REPORT, 2014
It was on to look into concerns of NE people living in other parts of India, Sense of insecurity and vulnerability, wrong perception, discrimination in daily life, discrimination and harassment at work place, discrimination by law enforcing agencies
Needed?

*
*
* Need of clear and stringent laws making incidents like Nido Tania rare
* Strong and determined law enforcement agencies
* Adequate support system for victims
* Efficient delivery system of justice
* Awareness and educating people creating awareness and removing strong perception
* Info and broadcasting media to focus on NE
* Committee has given 3 level of measures short, medium and long term
* Short – relief corpus fund to compensate victims, special prosecutor, making such offence as non-bailable criminal offence
* Medium-computer database of people of NE, sports, culture connect
* Long –est. of NORTH EAST CENTRE in Delhi
* Interventions in Education: Universities and schools outside the North East make projects on North East a mandatory part of the course curricula
* Social media outreach and legal awareness campaigns / dedicated Facebook page should be created and nodal police officers should be in constant touch with members of the community on WhatsApp
* Emphasis on bonding power of sports, cultural bonding
* police training and sensitization on issues, their reluctance to file cases must go