A cross-section of customers of a ration shop at Kulamangalam in Madurai was left furious on Thursday over a public notice asking them to volunteer information about their caste and religion. Activists and elected representatives have condemned the move.
Staff of the Kalaignar PDS outlet at Anaiyur had written on the wall asking customers to submit a photocopy of their ration cards along with personal information including caste/religion without assigning any official reason for eliciting these details.
Customers feared that this could spark divisions among them. “We have been residing in this locality without knowing our neighbour’s caste. We fear that sharing details of caste at the ration shop could evoke unhealthy reactions by some,” said P Selvarajathi. They also apprehend that the information could be misused for vote bank politics.
Madurai Collector L Subramanian, however, defended the exercise saying the data was being collected for arriving at an estimate of the beneficiaries for the free dhoti and saree scheme during Pongal. “There is nothing wrong in collecting the data,” he told Express.
A Village Administrative Officer in Anaiyur claimed that since it was difficult to collect personal information by going door-to-door, it was decided to collect the data at ration shops to enable easy distribution of various free goods.
Madurai South MLA R Annadurai called the development shocking. “The practice of publicly seeking someone’s caste must be banned,” he said. Agreeing, People’s Watch director Henri Tiphagne said this amounted to violation of privacy. “It is illegal for ration shops to seek such information on behalf of State departments sans formal orders. The judiciary must take suo motu cognisance of this,” he said.
Dalit rights activist A Kathir pointed out that there was no need to seek such information as already these data have been collected through the Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011. “The administration must realise that through such exercises a Dalit living in urban areas without revealing his caste identify for practical reasons would be exposed to discrimination.”