(Asian Independent)- The murder of a child belonging the scheduled caste community in Saraswati Vidya Mandir school, Sayala, in district Jalore is a crude reminder about caste system and untouchability persisting in our educational institutions even after 75th year of independence. This is utterly disgraceful and outrageous. All the hoopla and drama over our ‘greatness’ and ‘great’ ‘culture’ is exposed when we see such brutalities in our society and then its justification.
I have mentioned many time that #castediscrimination and #untouchability exists in India and they are rampant. This is the only commonality between north and South, East and West and that is the violence and contempt against Dalits.
The Rajasthan government must act and send a strong message against the culprit. It is not merely the issue of filing case against the culprit, Mr Ashok Gehlot must order a survey of all the schools, private, government, Vidya Mandirs etc to find out the number of SC-ST students studying there and the treatment meted out to them. Saraswati Vidya Mandirs are normally RSS affiliated school but media has cunningly hidden this fact under the guise of a ‘private’ school. I am not sure whether this Rajasthan school is an RSS affiliate or not but what is important is to take the school administration to task. After all, Chail Singh can not do it without the knowledge of school administration.
A few days back, we had a case from Uttar Pradesh when a junior teacher in a Uttar Pradesh school was abusing the woman principle who happened to be a scheduled caste which only showed how caste mind exists among us all. As we approach our 75th independence Day, we will find that many Dalit Sarpanches are not allowed to hoist flag in various Panchayats in Tamilnadu. That a Dalit in power position is not accepted in all models of India is purely racists and casteist. Whether secular model or Hindutva or Dravidian or left, India will have to show its commitment to eliminate caste discrimination and untouchability as without absolute uprooting of these brutal and violent practices, we can not claim to have a civilised society. Hiding the facts from public or purely ignoring the issue will not help. Our national will need to reflect on creating an egalitarian social order where the mind remain without fear and every body gets an opportunity to grow and participate in our national life. It is not a big deal and the #manuwadis need to just think a bit, embrace #constitution in real sense and become #Manavwadis.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
August 14th, 2022
