Caste aside

School education is not just about reading, writing and 8217;rithmetic. It is also an important tool for socialisation. The conduct of such learning, therefore, needs to measure up to both constitutional guidelines and the parameters of civilised, non-hierarchical interaction. Given this, the Supreme Court8217;s ruling that schools in India cannot force children seeking admission to reveal their caste identities assumes significance.

The Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan himself, set this down while dismissing a PIL seeking a complete ban on 8216;caste disclosure8217; forms circulated by schools to students during admissions. As the caste debate gets more raucous, as political parties compete with each other to demand more quotas, it is our educational institutions that are, arguably, the worst affected. The current polarisation along caste lines which has come to mark India8217;s premier medical institute, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, is a case in point, with students on both sides of the caste divide becoming the ultimate victims. At the school level, the impact of overweening caste biases on young, impressionable minds can be even more deleterious. The Supreme Court recognised, of course, that there would be students who would need to disclose their caste identity in order to benefit from the existing quotas for disadvantaged communities, but even as it did this, it also saw the need to protect those who may find themselves discriminated against for not belonging to a particular caste.

We do hope cases and judgments like this will help foster a new debate, free from the acrimony and tunnel vision of earlier ones. The value of the right to define one8217;s own personal status 8212; shorn of external biases, free from social prejudices 8212; needs to be recognised and furthered. Only then will this country be able to uphold in letter and spirit Article 14 of the Constitution, which enjoins upon the state not to deny to any person equality before the law. And where better to uphold such a value than in our schools?