“Unfortunately in Tamil Nadu, in our state, this social discrimination is still a national problem. Every day I read in the newspaper, get the report, and hear the story of our scheduled caste brothers and sisters not being allowed access to temples,” he said. This is strange and I am surprised and shocked. “Nowhere in India, nor anywhere in Bharat, do our youth wear caste bands (on their wrists).”
“Here in our state, our youth wear the caste band – how shameful, how shameful that a state that talks so much about social justice, that makes so many policies about social justice but exploits people in the name of caste in promoting social discrimination.”
He cited incidents like the one in Venjaivayal, where “human waste” was mixed in an overhead water tank to serve food to local SC citizens, and another incident in Tuticorin where locals refused to allow their children to have food prepared by a cook from the local SC community in a school.
Such discrimination is an “everyday affair” in Tamil Nadu, Ravi added.
He added, “It is shameful, and must be addressed through social awareness and social reform, not through vote bank politics.”
