Did you think postcards were out of vouge? Well, they have found their way to a students' protest at the University of Hyderabad. Students of the All India OBC Students' Association (AIOBCSA) have planned to send one lakh postcards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to urge him to conduct a caste census. They are also taking their protest online and have planned to send out 10 lakh tweets with the hashtag #ConductCasteCensus.
Why this unique way of protest you ask? Kiran Kumar, the President of AIOBCSA, has the answer. "We wanted to use both offline and online kind of representation. Using postcards is cost effective for students to send their concerns to the Prime Minister and an effective way to convey the message. Twitter or any other social media are the platform where Bahujans can express their demands and views on issues which the mainstream media is neglecting," said Kiran.
The students protested at the main gate of the university on November 5 demanding that a caste census is an immediate need. "Caste is not a myth, caste is a reality. We need social, educational, economic data on various sections of the society then only the governments can make these effective policy decisions. Judiciary is stressing on data whenever cases related caste are argued as the government is totally depended on the 1931 caste census," said Kiran. "It is the union government's responsibilty to conduct universal caste census in 2021 to give answers to many questions related to social justice, inclusiveness and equality are raised," he added.
