After a 17-year-old boy and his 14-year-old sister, who belong to a Scheduled Caste, were attacked with sickles on Wednesday night, allegedly by a gang of students from the same school as them, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin reached out to the siblings’ mother on Saturday and assured her of the government’s support.
The victims of the attack were both students of a government-aided school in Valliyoor in Tirunelveli district. The attack came after the boy approached his school headmaster to flag alleged instances of harassment and bullying by upper-caste students from his class.
The siblings’ parents are daily wage labourers. Stalin promised the family that the brother and sister would receive quality medical care and uninterrupted education. He also appointed retired Madras High Court judge K Chandru to a one-man committee to look into the deeper issues surrounding such incidents in order to prevent caste-based violence between students.
State Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu and Assembly Speaker M Appavu visited the injured children at Tirunelveli Government Medical College and promised strict action against the accused.
In a statement condemning the incident, Stalin said it revealed how the poison of casteism had penetrated deep into students’ minds. He termed the attack “intolerable”. The statement also said that casteist feelings among the youth were detrimental to the state’s welfare, and reiterated the government’s commitment to implementing people-oriented schemes for education, skill development, and employment in order to create a society without casteism.
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The Justice Chandru committee appointed by the government on Saturday will seek opinions from educationists, students, parents, social thinkers, and journalists, with the aim of recommending measures that the government can take to create an environment free from caste and racial distinctions.
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Minister for School Education, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, had announced on Friday that the government would bear the expenses for the victims’ education.
