Cuddalore: Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi said it was regrettable that caste discrimination and crimes against scheduled caste and oppressed people were “on the rise in the state”. At the Nandanar guru puja celebrations in a village near Kattumannarkoil in Cuddalore district on Wednesday, Ravi said he was “pained to learn about caste discrimination and crimes against scheduled caste people every day in the state”.
Ravi, who is also the chancellor of Annamalai University, interacted with the gold medallists of the university during the 85th annual convocation and presented degrees to successful students in the presence of higher education minister K Ponmudy, who is also the pro-chancellor of the university, in the presence of Chandrayaan-3 project director P Veeramuthuvel on Wednesday.
At the Nandanar guru puja celebrations, the governor cited instances like dumping human faeces in overhead water tank meant for scheduled caste community in Vengaivayal village in Pudukottai district; attack on a 17-year-old dalit boy and his 14-year-old sister by a group of students from other dominant caste in Tirunelveli district; preventing a dalit woman president, who was elected two years ago, to swear in and assume charge at a village in Tirupattur district; and students refusing to eat food served cooked by schedule caste cooks in a school in Tuticorin district.
Ravi said rape was the most heinous crime against women and regretted that all the accused in such cases “were neither arrested nor punished”. The conviction rate in the rape cases stood at just 7% and regretted that 93% of accused manage to escape from punishment. “People are talking about upholding social justice when a particular class of society continues to be discriminated against even after 75 years of Independence. We cannot live in dignity until we eliminate caste discrimination and crimes against the oppressed class of people,” he said.
He said a class of people is not permitted to enter temples in the state and added there is no such practice as per Sanatana Dharma.
Courtesy : Times of india
Note: This news piece was originally published in timesofindia and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Right.
