Government schools in Rajasthan have been ordered by the state’s education department to remove the word Harijan from their names, a week before the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, who popularised the term.
“Many government secondary and higher secondary schools in the state run in Harijan Basti or Harijan Mohalla and have these words in their names. The word ‘Harijan’ needs to be removed because it is unconstitutional,”Nathmal Didel, secondary education director, Rajasthan
In a notice from the office of the secondary education director, the chief district education officers and district project coordinators of Samagra Shikha Abhiyaan have been asked to compile and submit a list of all such schools in their districts within three days, so that their names can be changed in the records.
The fact that many schools have the word Harijan in their names came to the department’s notice during preparations for Gandhi Jayanti.
“We realised that the word is derogatory according to notification by the Government of India. Hence we decided to get details of all the schools which have ‘Harijan’ suffixed in the name or address and initiate the procedure for removing the word,” an official told Hindustan Times.
Harijan translates to ‘children of god’. It was famously used by Mahatma Gandhi to refer to Dalits. In 2017, the Supreme Court declared the word as derogatory.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times)