BJP govt should focus more on bringing on holistic policies: Activist

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru:

Following criticism from Dalit rights activists, the Karnataka state government has officially withdrawn the decision of introducing Vedic maths from classes five to eight for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe children in government schools in gram panchayats in the state.

The government planned to use Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) funds from the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department (RDPR) to conduct these Vedic maths classes. Several Dalit activists and student unions objected to this decision by the government.

Dalits rights activist, Lakshmi Narayana, called out the government for being discriminatory. “The students have been doing fine by reading normal mathematics text. I don’t understand the need to teach them Vedic maths. This is obviously to do with upper caste ideas being forced on children of Dalits and Adivasis.

The government should focus more on bringing on holistic policies for everyone and not on such things which create a difference among students,” she said. Another Dalit rights activist, Mavali Shankar, also criticised the state government for this move, saying, “The funds allocated to the SC and STs should be utilised for their upliftment rather than teaching them religious texts.

Now everyone is learning maths scientifically, why would a need arise for lower caste children to learn Vedic maths? This doesn’t make sense, and it feels more like a political agenda.” Following the backlash, the additional secretary in the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department withdrew the decision, stating that the inclusion of Vedic maths in the school syllabus was taken without consulting the Department of School Education and Literacy, and therefore, the decision was withdrawn.

The Karnataka government has also said that the schools will be teaching Bhagwat Geeta in classes. Ajay Kamath, Karnataka state secretary of All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO), said, “This government is always focused on creating communal tension. At first they said not to wear Hijab in education institutes because its related to a religion. But somehow teaching Geeta is not related to any religion.”