Fringe group protests after Tamil Nadu school asks students to remove religious wrist bands

Representational Image (Pixabay)

A government school located in Tamil Nadu’s Erode district saw protests erupt outside its premises on September 9 after students were told to take off religious threads.

About 50 members of Hindu Munnani, a regional fringe group, had gathered outside the Gowndampaddi Government Boys School, where the PT teacher had made his pupil take off all religious threads, including rakhis.

The move enraged the Hindu Munnani members, who considered the move hurtful towards religious sentiments. So, they sought immediate action against the teacher, who gave the instructions.

According to a report by The Hindu, the fringe group’s district leader Murugasen said, “Action needs to be taken against this teacher. There is no rule that one shouldn’t follow their religion. This has hurt the religious sentiments of those students, who had to remove the holy threads. We will continue to protest until necessary action is taken against the teacher.”

The police reached the spot later and dispersed the protesters who were creating a ruckus outside the school. They, however, upheld School Education and Sports Minister KA Sengottaiyan’s clarification that students can wear religious wristbands.

The headmaster, however, defended the PT teacher’s action saying he had asked the students to remove the threads and bands so that they do not disturb them while playing. He stated that the teacher had asked them to remove these only during the sports period and allowed the students to wear them later.

Notably, the Director of School Education had issued a circular on July 31 clearly stating that students shall not wear colour-coded wrist bands (depicting their caste) to school as it leads to discrimination.

This was issued after they had learnt that several schools in the state are making students wear colour-coded wristbands to depict their caste identity.