Meet The First Indian To Get a No Caste, No Religion Certificate

Tamil Nadu woman, A Snegha Parthibaraja, is the first Indian to get a ‘no caste-no religion’ certificate

In India, caste and religion determine everything. Well, most things.

But on Feb 5, a Tamil Nadu woman, A Snegha Parthibaraja, became what revenue officials in the state call the first Indian to be issued a ‘no caste-no religion’ certificate.

According to a report filed by Serena Josephine M for The Hindu, Sneha’s parents too had always left the two columns of caste and religion blank in application forms. But it was their daughter, Sneha, who took the step to make this part of her identity ‘official’.

35-year-old Sneha, an advocate and resident of Tirupattur, a town in Vellore district in Tamil Nadu, received the certificate from Tirupattur tahsildar T.S. Sathiyamoorthy. She’d been trying for the certificate since the year 2010.