New Delhi: A Tamil Nadu couple has secured a certificate for their three-year-old daughter that declares that she has no religion or caste – a decision spurred by local schools' insistence on specifying both.

Coimbatore businessman Naresh Karthik and his wife Gayathri applied to 22 primary schools for their daughter Vilma. In every one of them, her application was put "on hold" because the 'caste' and 'religion' categories were left blank, Naresh told The News Minute.

None of the schools were aware of the fact that the Tamil Nadu government had passed an order in 1973 and 2000 that allowed religion and caste categories to be left blank.

He said that even though the couple had decided where their daughter would enrol, they undertook this application exercise just to gauge the depth of the problem.

Tamil Nadu schools have history in perpetuating caste divisions. In 2019, the state's Director of School Education attempted to crack down on schools where children were made to wear wrist bands of various colours to identify their caste. However, the then education minister  K.A. Sengottaiyan made a controversial U-turn, quashing this circular.

Writing for The Wire, internationally-renowned scientist Lawrence Rajendran had essayed his own experiences with casteism in school and noted, "Such practices can insidiously develop into serious societal conflict."

In Coimbatore, Naresh had to put in minimal legwork in securing the certificate.

The news agency IANS has reported that Naresh approached Coimbatore District Collector, G.S. Sameeran, who directed him to the tehsildar of Coimbatore North. Naresh was asked to sign an affidavit stating that he was aware that such a certificate would mean that Vilma will not be eligible for any government reservation or relaxations based on either caste or religion.

Also read: What Are the Implications of Giving up a Caste Certificate?

He also had to submit Vilma's birth certificate and Aadhaar details, he told The News Minute.

A week after Naresh submitted the document, he got the 'no caste, no religion' certificate. The text of the certificate is simple: 'Baby GN Vilma does not belong to any caste or religion.'

Naresh, who is inspired by Bharathiyaar, Ambedkar and Periyar, and  Thiruvalluvar's Thirukural, told news organisations that he hoped that this step would inspire others to do the same.

Earlier in May, 2022, Times of India had reported that a Maharashtra lawyer, Preetisha Saha had applied to the district administration to delink her caste and religious identity and get a certificate declaring that she belongs to ‘no caste, no religion’.

On February 5, 2019, another lawyer, Sneha Parthibaraja from Vellore district of Tamil Nadu, became the first in the country to get a 'no caste, no religion' certificate from the authorities.

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