Caste labelling on bicycles distributed to students at Tamil Nadu government school draws flak

Students were spotted with bicycles with caste categories written in chalk during an event organised at a government school in Thogarapalli village; activists call it ‘clear segregation’

The event saw students flanked by a steady line of bicycles with caste categories of BC/MBC/SC written in chalk for everyone to see. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The district school education department has come under flak over the labelling of bicycles with caste categories at an event conducted recently to distribute bicycles to government school students here in Krishnagiri.

The bicycle distribution event held at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Thogarapalli in Mathur near Pochampalli last week was cast in poor light after bicycles were marked with caste categories ahead of their distribution to students.  

The event saw students flanked by a steady line of bicycles with caste categories of BC/MBC/SC written in chalk for everyone to see. The cycles labelled ‘SC’, relatively few in number, were parked at the tail-end of the line.  The cycles were distributed to the students by the DMK MLA for Bargur D. Mathiazhagan.

Akin to ‘two-tumbler’ system

“This is clear segregation, similar to the two-tumbler system, where you have an SC tumbler, BC tumbler,” says Kathir, Director of Evidence, a Madurai-based Dalit rights organization.

“When bicycles for students are labelled like this, they are automatically referred to as “SC cycle, BC cycle, MBC cycle”. Won’t that language only reproduce more discrimination and engender untouchability? That is what we call an intermediate caste psyche that believes this is the only way to keep an account of the number of cycles distributed,” says Mr. Kathir, when The Hindu spoke to him for a reading of the incident. 

When contacted, Chief Educational Officer K.P. Maheshwari said, the cycles were issued by various departments (BC welfare department, Adidravidar welfare department) implying that the caste markers were merely an account of their inventory. However, the justification by the education department is seen as ‘non-application of mind’, given that caste solidarities are widely seen as pronounced in schools.

Only last week, at a zonal review meeting headed by the Minister for School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, Dharmapuri’s Member of Parliament Dr. S. Senthilkumar flagged concerns over heightened caste pride and identification among students in the schools of the Western region.

It was widely acknowledged that strong caste pride in young children was hindering commingling among students in the schools of this region defeating the goal of social justice and equality, with the minister insisting that schools focused eliminating divisions.