Latest news with #MahatmaJyotibaPhule
Hindustan Times
04-05-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
New app to ensure transparency, accountability in MJPJAY scheme: Abitkar
Maharashtra health minister Prakash Abitkar on Saturday said the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MJPJAY), Maharashtra's flagship health scheme, will soon undergo a major overhaul to bring in more transparency and accountability. Abitkar said a mobile application is being developed to closely monitor private hospitals empanelled under the scheme. 'The app available from next month will allow patients and their families to directly file complaints about malpractice by hospitals. The complaints will be received and monitored by the health department for immediate action,' he said. The state government in 2023 revamped the MJPJAY scheme making it universal and increasing the medical treatment cover from ₹1.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh per year per family. Currently, there are 1,359 private and 672 government facilities empanelled under Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) and MJPJAY schemes in the state. Abitkar said, 'We are determined to make the system more transparent. There will be major changes in the scheme, and even the packages will be revised, with a rate revision in some packages. Once the app is operational, hospitals will be held accountable, and patients can directly raise their grievances. If they exploit patients or violate the scheme's norms, action will be taken against them.' According to officials, in the past five years, the government received 1,007 complaints about irregularities in hospitals under MJPJAY. Most of the complaints are regarding illegally demanding money from patients, even though treatment under the MJPJAY scheme is free. Abitkar said that many times the complaints are not taken seriously or handled insensitively by the district coordinators of MJPJAY scheme. 'If the terms of the contract already state that no money should be asked of patients, how can hospitals do otherwise? It is unethical and illegal,' he said. The minister said the mobile app will provide real-time information on hospital bed availability. 'When government systems work efficiently, hospitals will also be forced to follow rules properly,' he said.
The Hindu
26-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
‘Why has India's feminist movement not spoken on Savitribai Phule as yet?': Kancha Ilaiah
Raising questions on the BJP's efforts to renegotiate with the ideologies of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Dalit rights activist Kancha Ilaiah said that the government's perceived tacit support to the recent Central Board of Film Certification's (CBFC) action against 'Phule' movie will hurt the OBCs, which the ruling party cannot afford. He also raised questions on India's feminist movement for not taking a public stance against the objections taken about the portrayal of Savitribai Phule. Also Read | 'Phule' and censorship: How Bollywood's elite resist caste-conscious cinema 'Here is a woman leader, a woman social reformer who had no parallel in India. I'm still waiting for the entire feminist response to Savitribai's portrayal. After the controversy over the film, I have not seen large feminist groups talk about it,' he said. He was speaking to The Hindu in an exclusive interview on the background of the recent release of 'Phule', the biopic on Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule. 'Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule did not just work for the education of the Dalit and Brahmin women, contributing to the social reform movement, but they changed the socio-political and economic ideas of India,' he said, adding that the couple was revolutionary in many ways, in their personal as well as social lives; and that Mahatma Phule's contribution was to start the discourse on labour, agriculture and farmers through his writings in 19th century India. WATCH | Why are Phule and Ambedkar's ideas still making people uncomfortable? 'Mahatma Phule started first Dalit school and dug a well where the Dalits were invited to draw water, which was a revolution at that time. Now, this is the man who actually started talking about the farmers and the labour and the agriculture. In India, there was a school called agriculturalism before the Vedic philosophy came in. It spoke of the relationship between the seed and land, seed and water, seed and crop and the human beings. This was a philosophical domain. And Buddha tried to negotiate with that philosophy. But later on, the different schools of thought that emerged, the Sankhya school, the Vedic and Vedantic schools, they completely removed the agrarian philosophical school from any engagement. He brought it back,' Mr Ilaiah said. Speaking about the social situation in the 19th century, he said, 'When Phule was born in the 19th century, there were no rights for the Shudras and Dalits, including the Patels in Gujarat, the Reddys, the Khammas in Telugu States, the Lingayats and Vokaligas in Karnataka. In fact, his own stature was higher in the society, but when he had gone for a friend's marriage, he was thrown out and was told that Shudras cannot participate in a Brahmin marriage or walk in the procession. He was also beaten up.' He added that despite a higher social status at that time, Mahatma Phule lived in Dalit settlement and started a school for the Dalits. Also Read | Shiv Sena UBT and BJP exchange barbs over 'Phule' movie controversy 'BJP wants to use OBCs for their votes' Mr. Ilaiah said that after coming to power, the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have been trying to renegotiate with the ideologies of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. 'I am in a way was surprised after the BJP came to power with Narendra Modi as an OBC Prime Minister, even the RSS, BJP started renegotiating with Phule and Ambedkar and Savitri Bai in certain ways. And because of that renegotiation, they started celebrating Ambedkar Jayanti, etc.' He also said that the ruling party cannot afford to upset the OBCs. 'They want to use OBCs only for votes. And when it comes to their history, they have problems with it. Phule absolutely, 100%, represents the Marathas, all Shudra , Reddys, Khammas,' he said. He also slammed the government for not having any OBC or Dalit representatives in CBFC, the film certification body.
The Hindu
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Censoring change: How Bollywood's elite resist caste-conscious cinema
Hindi cinema, dominated by profit-driven masala films, often glorifies social elites while sidelining Dalit-Bahujan identities and their concerns. Mainstream Bollywood, criticised for promoting patriarchal and casteist stereotypes, rarely embraces cinema as a tool to challenge social injustices. Additionally, it tends to uphold the cultural and political agendas of traditional social elites while avoiding engaging with Dalit-Bahujan narratives and their social experiences. Popular cinema hesitates to embrace cinema as a platform for artistic and creative exploration that would unearth orthodox social practices and sensitise the audience about it. In recent years, mainstream Hindi cinema has seen rare but significant attempts to challenge Bollywood's stereotypical narratives through films like Article 15, which exposes caste atrocities through a police officer's awakening, and Dhadak, which subtly weaves caste into a tragic romance, signal a shift toward socially aware storytelling. Other films like Shamshera and Veda, which address issues of caste oppression and present robust Dalit protagonists to fight such social ills, are crucial additions. This emerging genre has carved out a peripheral yet vital space for films that expose societal injustices and advocate for reform, offering a vision of a more equitable society. Such efforts should be celebrated and supported, but the industry's conventional ruling elites have largely distanced themselves from this shift. Instead, these films are often criticised as threats to the dominance of social elites, accused of disrupting social harmony by foregrounding Dalit-Bahujan symbols and narratives. The recent controversy surrounding Phule, marked by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) censorship of caste-related content, exemplifies a deliberate effort to suppress stories that dare to challenge the social and political dominance of the governing elite, highlighting the ongoing resistance to transformative cinema. The arrival of Dalit-Bahujan cinema This new site of cinema making is an innovative improvisation as it brings stories of vulnerable social groups and provides them a dignified mantle. This genre has introduced the iconic figures of Babasaheb Ambedkar and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule to the silver screen as their ideas and values too are influencing the narrative practices of Cinema and are getting much more resonance on the silver screen today. The regional cinema (especially Tamil and Marathi) has offered impressive artistic cinema (like Sairat, Jayanti, Kabali, Asuran etc.,) that not only entertains the audience with its creative narratives but also educates them about the issues of social dignity and the need to fight against oppressive Brahmanical orthodoxy. These new narratives depict Dalit-Bahujan characters not as passive victims or background figures, but as empowered protagonists with agency, dignity, and purpose. They challenge the conventional grammar of Indian cinema and open up space for a more democratised cultural discourse. In doing so, this parallel stream is not just reshaping representation but redefining what mainstream Indian cinema can aspire to be. This is a nascent but promising genre, capable of democratising the Indian film industry. The Brahmanical opposition Jyotiba Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar were the fierce critics of Hindu caste system and the exploitative domination of priestly castes over the majority oppressed groups. They imagined modern India as a liberated territory not only from the aegis of the imperialist domination but also from our own Brahmanical and patriarchal servitude. However, in the nationalist historiography and popular culture, these iconic figures were often relegated as the heroes of certain caste groups while the other leaders were elevated as the prime representatives of the national interest. The popular Hindi cinema too ignored the heroes, historic events and issues pertaining to the Dalit-Bahujan masses and mostly endorsed narratives that promote the social and political interests of the conventional social elites. In the case of recent controversy around Phule, the CBFC has created technical hurdles for its release. The film, initially set for release on April 11, was delayed to April 25, due to objections from Brahmin community in Maharashtra and subsequent CBFC directives to remove or alter caste-related content. The board directed the filmmakers to remove caste-specific terms like 'Mahar', 'Mang', 'Peshwai', and 'Manu's system of caste', as well as visuals like a man with a broom tied to his waist (a historical reference to Dalit oppression). Phule appears to be advocating anti-caste politics, showcasing the Dalit-Bahujan characters as lead protagonists and offering a strong critique of Brahmanical social order. It appears that the state is ready to stop even the nascent process that could have democratised the cinema industries substantively in favour of the Dalit-Bahujan masses. Such removals by the CBFC would dilute the historical realities of Phule's fight against caste discrimination. These edits are mostly to sanitise history to appease Brahmin groups while undermining the film's objective to confront the caste injustice. On the other hand, cinema that propagate communal anxieties (Kerala Story), manipulates historic facts (Kashmir Files) and target the Muslim minorities as brutal foreign aggressors (Chaava) and anti-nationals is endorsed and promoted by the current regime at the centre. It shall be pointed out that films like Punjab 95, Tees, and Dhadak 2, which address social issues, also faced similar censorship, suggesting a pattern of suppressing narratives that challenge the Brahmanical value system. The struggle for representation A brief examination of Hindi cinema reveals that most characters on-screen embody the identities of social elites, with narratives predominantly reflecting their cultural interests. While Muslim and Jatt Sikh identities add some diversity, the focus remains heavily on the perspectives of the social elites. In this landscape, films like Phule and Dhadak 2, which confront caste issues, centre Dalit-Bahujan characters, and challenge the cultural dominance of Brahmanical elites, deserve recognition. Yet, institutions like the CBFC, influenced by governing elites, appear intent on suppressing such narratives, as evidenced by the censorship hurdles faced by Phule. These challenges underscore the fact that the fight for social equity and freedom of expression in Indian cinema remains unfinished.
