Tamil Nadu woman becomes first Indian to get ‘no caste, no religion’ certificate

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. 

And now, Sneha, 35, officially doesn't belong to any caste. 

Her long-drawn battle to get herself officially certified as belonging to ‘no caste, no religion’ came to an end on February 5.

On February 5, Sneha received a certificate from Tirupattur tahsildar TS Sathiyamoorthy, that states that she belongs to ‘no caste, no religion’. 

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According to her, this step is towards social change. 

Meanwhile, revenue officials said that this could be the first time that such a certificate was issued in the country.

“All my certificates have nil or are blank against the ‘caste’ and ‘religion’ columns. This includes my birth certificate and school certificates. They mention me as an Indian. But I started to realise that every application form I filled mandated enclosure of community certificate. So, I had to obtain a self-affidavit. It was only then that it occurred to me that I needed an identity that was sans caste and religion,” she said as quoted by The Hindu.

“When people who believe in caste and religion have certificates, why not issue certificates to people like us?” she asked. 

Sneha's quest for a caste-less and religion-less identity began in 2010.

“I started to apply for a [no religion, no caste] certificate in 2010, but officials kept rejecting it for some reason. Some said there was no precedent in the country. It was in 2017 that I began to stand by ground and explained [my stand] to officials. I justified my stand, saying they should look into my request as I had availed no government schemes or reservation,” the daily quoted her as saying. 

Sub-Collector of Tirupattur, B Priyanka Pankajam gave the green signal to Sneha's request. 

“She wanted to be certified as [belonging to] no caste and no religion. We had to check if her assertions were true. We verified all her school and college documents and found the two columns blank. So, though we found no precedent, we decided to go ahead and certify her as it will not affect anybody or take away another person’s opportunity,” she said.

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. 

“In fact, their names are a combination of two religions- Aadhirai Nasreen, Aadhila Irene, and Aarifa Jessy,” he said.