The Madras high court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu government to initiate action and remove prefixes and suffixes such as “tribal” from the names of the government schools in the state.
The court passed the order while hearing a suo moto case on the socio-economic status of the people, particularly members of the scheduled tribe, living around Kalvarayan hills where a hooch tragedy in June resulted in the death of 68 people.
It was brought to the court’s notice that public schools are functioning in that locality in the name of “Government Tribal Residential School”.
The court said: “The usage of the term “Tribal” along with the name of the Government School is unwarranted. Such usage of word “Tribal” in School’s name, undoubtedly would result in stigmatising the children studying in Schools. They will get the feeling that they are studying in a “Tribal School” and not in a School on par with the other children in nearby localities.”
The case was being heard by a bench of justices SM Subramaniam and C Kumarappan who stated that it was “painful” that even in the 21st century the government would allow such terms when in schools which are functioning out of public money.
The bench said: “Stigmatisation of children at no circumstances be approved by the Courts and by the Government. Wherever such names are used indicating a particular community / caste are to be removed and the Schools must be named as “Government School” and children residing in that locality must be granted admission in the School to pursue their education.”
A state like Tamil Nadu which is a forerunner in social justice, cannot allow such stigmatic words to be added as either “prefixes” or “suffixes”, the court said. “In this regard, the first respondent Chief Secretary to Government of Tamil Nadu have to initiate appropriate action,” it said.
Meanwhile, the court expressed unhappiness over the status report filed by the state government on the situation in Kalvarayan hills. The Kallakurichi hooch tragedy in June claimed 68 lives after locals in the region consumed illicit liquor laced with methanol.The CB-CID is currently investigating the incident.
The court is hearing the case for the government to take immediate measures to ensure that the people in and around the Kalvarayan Hills have basic amenities, welfare schemes for social upliftment along with special care in education and economic interests.
The status report filed by the department of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare, “in our opinion is insufficient and is not the ground reality as projected by the learned Amicus Curiae,” the court said.
“The money spent on the locality of Kalvarayan Hills and the details furnished in the status report itself raises a doubt, whether the money spent has been utilised properly for the benefit and upliftment of the people in that locality,” it said.
The matter has been posted to August 2 by which time advocate general P S Raman has been asked to appraise authorities to conduct thorough inspections and find out the ground reality in Kalvarayan Hills.
