Action against officer who hurt Hindu feelings: H Raja

The Tamil Nadu School Education department has asked its officers to identify and a crackdown on schools in the state where children were allegedly being made to wear coloured wristbands to identify their caste.

Former BJP MLA H Raja tweeted that "At schools, to tie Hindu religion based wrist bands or wear a tilak on the forehead, is not restricted. But the day-before-yesterday, the minister said that the circular was issued without consulting them. Therefore, action should be taken against the officer who has hurt Hindu sentiments."

Earlier, the Director of School Education in Tamil Nadu, S Kannappan, had directed officials to identify schools in their districts where such discrimination is practised, besides initiating severe action.

"...in some schools in TN, students were made to wear colour-coded wrist bands. These which come in shares of red, yellow, green and saffron indicate whether they belong to a "lower" or "upper" caste," a circular issued by Director of School Education S Kannappan said.

The officer said, rings and 'Tilak' on the forehead were also used as caste marker, adding such practices were supposedly being used for sports team selection, reassembling during class and lunch intervals.

"Allegedly, these practices are enforced by students themselves and supported by influential caste persons and teachers," the circular read.

Urging the senior officers to take appropriate steps to identify such schools, the circular said, "...issue suitable instructions to headmasters to prevent such practice immediately and also take severe action on persons responsible for the discrimination."

The director said the circular is based on a representation given by officer trainees of IAS 2018 batch.

Earlier in September 2018, wristbands were worn by the students in several government schools in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, to symbolise their caste identities.

Three FIRs - involving caste-based tiffs between students - had been registered in a local police station until then in 2018, an officer working in the district told PTI on condition of anonymity.

In view of caste-based tussles among the students, a 17 point code of conduct, prohibiting among other things, use of such colour bands and tattoos in schools had been issued by the district administration.

The rules, later adopted by the Education Department for all schools in the state, were issued during the tenure of Johny Tom Varghese as the sub-collector of Cuddalore.

With inputs from PTI