Caste-based Exclusion and Psychological Distress in a Public School Context: A Case Study of Scheduled Caste Woman Cook in Tamil Nadu

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21296346

Selvaraj Nallathambi (Department of Psychology, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu)

This qualitative case study utilizes secondary data from newspaper reports and public media sources to analyze an incident on December 16, 2025, in Karur district, Tamil Nadu. The paper examines how caste-based discrimination inflicts psychological distress on a temporary Scheduled Caste (SC) woman cook employed under the state’s school breakfast scheme. When caste-Hindu students and parents boycotted her meals, the school administration institutionalized these discriminatory attitudes rather than challenging them. By synthesizing stigma theory, social identity theory, and structural violence perspectives, this study illustrates how deeply embedded caste discrimination remains within the state education system. The incident reveals a damaging intersection of localized interpersonal bias and systemic institutional complicity. Consequently, the victim experienced severe public humiliation, acute anxiety, profound mental distress, and occupational precarity. Furthermore, this case highlights how public schools-ideally designed as egalitarian spaces for social inclusioncan instead actively reproduce historical hierarchies and social exclusion. Based on the core themes of systemic justice, institutional ethics, and human dignity, the article argues for an urgent mandate to enforce protective legislation, establish institutional accountability, implement anti-bias sensitization programs, and provide dedicated psychosocial support for victims. Ultimately, this case serves as a critical indicator of the covert structural discrimination persisting within modern public welfare sectors.