Posted on 08/25/2007 9:51:09 PM PDT by fishhound
Gaurishankar Rajak is a poor, "untouchable" washerman, who barely went to school.
But the sixty-something Dalit from Dumka in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand has published a newspaper every week without fail for the past 21 years, highlighting discrimination against the poor and local corruption.
Mr Rajak's four-page, handwritten Hindi-news Din Dalit is photocopied 100 times and sold to subscribers or pasted onto Dumka's main traffic lights, bus stands and roads.
Din Dalit is not just another small town news sheet - the newspaper is registered with India's Registrar of Newspapers, thanks to the efforts of India's first Dalit President, KR Narayanan, after Mr Rajak wrote to him.
Since its first edition in October 1986, Din Dalit has made a difference to the lives of local people, even helping a resident to secure social security from the authorities after his plight was reported in the paper.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
There is no excuse for caste systems.
If the current pace of technological advancement continues, mid-21st century will see any archaic social systems (founded during agricultural and feudal times) around the world dismantled and relegated to history books.
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