Is She Only Victim of Caste Discrimination?

Even with decades of development since Independence, the evils of the caste system continue to plague our society.  

Medha Vinayak Khole and Nirmala Yadav(Cook)

“People are not wrong in observing Caste. In my view, what is wrong is their religion, which has inculcated this notion of Caste. If this is correct, then obviously the enemy, you must grapple with is not the people who observe Caste, but the Shastras which teach them this religion of Caste” - B. R. Ambedkar

Medha Vinayak Khole, a senior government scientist or Deputy director general for weather forecasting at the India Meteorological Department (Highly Qualified) has complained to the police that her cook ‘lied about her caste’, alleged in her police complaint that the cook, Nirmala Yadav, abused her when she was questioned about her caste.

Khole said in her complaint that she needed a Brahmin to cook food at her house during religious and other occasions. Yadav, who approached Khole in 2016 for the job, had then introduced herself as Nirmala Kulkarni. Khale had even gone to her house to cross check her claim in 2016. Thereafter, Yadav started going to Khole’s house on such occasions to prepare food.

A local priest told Khole on Thursday (September 7) that the woman cooking in her house wasn’t a Brahmin. Khole upon knowing about the cook’s “lie”, her “religious sentiments” were hurt. After this, Khole went to the cook’s house to seek an explanation and found out her real name.

Let me put another one of many incidents which one of my friend faced in short, In Solapur, Maharashtra when he was searching for rented house he was being asked his caste and after knowing his caste rent owner denied to give him house on rent. At the very least, both activists and government committees have argued, an Equal Opportunities Commission should be set up to deal with grievances like the denial of accommodation or buying rights to minorities in housing societies, as well as employment-related discrimination. While the UPA government had announced before the 2014 elections that this commission would be set up, no progress has been made so far and the NDA government seems to have abandoned the decision.

This is just an example which gets highlighted as Khole is highly educated, fortunately she thought of lodging complaint against her cook  J and we all got to know something like this still happening in our society. I have real life examples which many of my known faced.  High educated people still infected with such mindset then think/imagine people who are illiterate, who are living in villages(70% Indians live in rural areas: Census) with what kind of mindset they must be living. Plague of caste system was deeply rooted in our DNA’s, just making laws in constitution will not make any difference, and we need to awaken ourselves and others. Start with Me and My family.

“Lack of education leads to lack of wisdom, / Which leads to lack of morals, / Which leads to lack of progress, / Which leads to lack of money, / Which leads to the oppression of the lower classes, / See what state of the society one lack of education can cause!” – Mahatma Phule