Members of Kattu Naicken community staging a protest in front of Madurai Collectorate on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: ASHOK R
People belonging to the Kattu Naicken community from Sathyamurthy Nagar near Paravai thronged the Collectorate here on Thursday demanding ST certificate for children from their community.
They had staged a protest in November 2024, demanding community certificate, but as they were assured by the district administration that they would look into the possibility of providing them the community certificate they had dropped their protest, said B. Dillibabu of Tamil Nadu Malai Vaazh Makkal Sangam.
As no steps have been taken to provide certificates to the children of the community, the people have decided to go on an indefinite protest, he added.
“As per a Supreme Court order, if parents possess ST community certificate, their children should also be given the same without any scrutiny,” Mr. Dillibabu observed.
But the officials who were responsible for granting them the certificates, stopped providing them claiming they were not members of the community, he said.
Another member of the community K. Pandiyan, a resident and a CPI(M) cadre said, deviating from the indigenous culture was normal for all tribal communities.
“After technological advancement and educational development, the current generation of children tend to become modern and move away from their culture,” he added.
In this situation, doubting their origin and their culture was absurd, he noted.
Another long pending issue was the failure to digitize the community certificates of the children from Kattu Naicken community and this should also be addressed, he demanded.
Many youngsters applying for higher education required online community certificate, but owing to the complicated process, Kattu Naicken community certificates were not being uploaded, Mr. Pandiyan added.
Also, to avail government assistance for education, applying for government jobs, all require online community certificate, but without that, none of the benefits could be availed, he said.
Protesters said, “till we are assured of community certificates for our children, we are not going to leave the place.”
Published – January 30, 2025 09:04 pm IST