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It is a shameful decision to provide separate uniforms for students of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe origin in Kerala. A similar attempt was made in Maharashtra when the Shiv Sena was in power. Civil society activists stood against the measure and forced the government to take back its decision. Therefore it is very important for civil society to force the authorities in Kerala to take back the discriminating policy. Below given is the report appeared in The Times of India: Kerala school has a uniform for SC/STs
Wayanad: A Kerala government school has stirred up a controversy by asking 85 primary school students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) to wear uniforms of a different colour.
The Moolankavu Government School at Sultan Battery in Wayanad district introduced two different uniforms for its students in June 2007. While the SC/ST students wear blue checked shirts, the other children wear maroon checked uniforms. The issue is yet to be addressed though one term of the academic year is over.
Reacting to the controversy, school headmistress Sosamma Mathew says there is no discrimination at all. "Every year the Noolpuzha village council supplies free uniform sets to the SC/ST children and it was done by them this academic year too. But the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) that met just before the school reopened decided to change the blue colour of the uniform and opted for the new maroon coloured clothing. By that time the village council had already supplied the blue colour uniform to the SC/ST students," Sosamma says.
Local reports say there are no members of the SC/ST community on the school's PTA committee. Wayanad district in Kerala has the state's highest concentration of people of the ST community — 37.36 per cent. "This has come to my notice only now and we will take immediate steps and action against this anomaly," state education minister MA Baby says. (Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Uniform_for_SCSTs_in_Kerala_school/articleshow/2454257.cms)
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