An advocate and resident of Tirupattur, Tamil Nadu, Sneha, and her parents neither believed in caste nor religion and always left the ‘caste’ and ‘religion’ columns blank in application forms. On February 5, Sneha received a certificate from Tirupattur tahsildar TS Sathiyamoorthy, that states that she belongs to ‘no caste, no religion’. “All my certificates have nil or are blank against the ‘caste’ and ‘religion’ columns. “I started to apply for a [no religion, no caste] certificate in 2010, but officials kept rejecting it for some reason. Sneha’s husband, K. Parthiba Raja, a Tamil professor, said they left the ‘caste’ and ‘religion’ columns blank in the school application forms for their three daughters.

Source: dna February 17, 2019 09:56 UTC