A state government in southern India has issued a set of new guidelines to curb discriminatory practices based on caste and ethnicity in schools, drawing applause from several quarters, including the Church. The Tamil Nadu state school education department, in a circular last week, said teachers found promoting caste or communal sentiments among students would face a probe and disciplinary action. The guidelines have been recommended by the single-member committee of retired judge K. Chandru of the state’s Madras High Court, amid rising concerns over the rise in caste-related violence in educational institutions.
The panel was appointed after a brutal attack on a teenage boy and his sister by their schoolmates from the dominant caste in August 2023, at Nanguneri village in the state’s Tirunelveli district. “Students of Dalit [formerly untouchable] or lower castes are often discriminated against or face even physical harm in educational institutions,” said Father Z. Devasagaya Raj, former secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India’s office for Dalits and backward classes. Dalits are considered the lowest in the caste hierarchy within India’s Hindu society, and many Dalits have converted to Christianity and Islam over the decades. Some 60 percent of India’s 25 million Christians are said to be of Dalit and indigenous tribal origin. According to the last national census held in 2011, some 201 million of India’s 1.2 billion people belong to these socially deprived groups.
