THE first convention of the DSMM, UP was held in Lucknow on June 30. It was inaugurated by Santosh Balmiki, senior journalist, Hindustan Times, who spoke about his own experiences growing up in a family of manual scavengers and the grave injustice that his community is still suffering despite much legislation and many, broken, promises. He said that even today dalit children face humiliation and discrimination in schools and this prevents them from acquiring the education that they need desperately. He called upon the convention and the Manch to organise struggles for equality and dignity and said that he and others like him would be happy to support and participate in such struggles. The convention was also addressed by Subhashini Ali, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and SP Kashyap, CPI(M) state secretariat member. Subhashini Ali said that the highest number of atrocities against dalit men and women were committed in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Not a day passed without the reporting of a heinous crime having been committed. Many of these crimes were connected with the assertion of any kind of self respect by dalits including educated young men and women. She stressed that these atrocities must be opposed by all sections of society and the Manch should try to take a lead in these interventions. It must try to unite as many people who are poor and exploited so that the divisions of caste and community are weakened and their common struggle can advance. Kashyap said that the Manch must struggle to break the stranglehold of caste-based parties who treat their supporters as vote banks but do not address their real and basic problems. It is only when this is done that the battle for bringing about real social and economic change can be fought. He also said that there is a section of dalits too who are interested in keeping others of their community from joining common struggles. They will have to be exposed but this can only be done by intervening strongly on dalit issues and making them part of united struggles. BL Bharti (convenor) placed the resolution on the conditions of dalits in the state which included a graphic description of the kind of violence that dalits in the state face. He said that in 2014, 214 cases of murder; 412 cases of rapes and 6573 cases of grievous hurt – these were the crimes against dalits that were registered. The real number of these crimes is, of course, much greater since most dalits are too poor and too vulnerable to even be in a position to register cases in the police stations of the state. It is also a fact that both the BSP and the SP led governments have passed government orders to weaken the working of the SC/ST Act in the state. The resolution was unanimously passed after several speakers from the districts spoke of their own experiences. VK Rawat placed a resolution on future tasks. These included the organising of district conventions in the next six months; signature campaign on the demand for a special session of parliament to discuss the problems of dalits in this year which is the 125th birth centenary year of Dr BR Ambedkar. A 17 member state committee with VK Rawat as convenor was elected. Bhrahm Swaroop who presided over the convention thanked all those who attended and helped to make it a success after a short speech in which he emphasised the fact that the land question and struggles for land were crucial to the struggle for equality.