Hyderabad-based blood bank seeks high caste O+ donors, receives flak on Twitter
Tweet by Hyderabad based group asking for elite blood donors triggered a debate on caste discrimination.
Hyderabad: Twitterati seethes with anger over tweet from a Hyderabad-based group, who was looking for donors belonging to a specific dominant caste. It prompted a debate on caste-based discrimination, a social evil that refuses to vanish.
The Twitter handle of @bloodplusapp, belongs to a group of blood donors. On Thursday, they tweeted that a child was in need of blood belonging to "Kamma caste donors". Kamma is a powerful and upper caste in Andhra Pradesh and Telanagana.
A number was provided along with the tweet to contact the parents of the child admitted to Max Cure hospital in Hyderabad.
Most of the social media users denounced the demand. The group was quick to delete the tweet and even issued an apology tweet, saying that it received the tweet from an unknown person and put it up without verifying it.
@bloodplusapp it's a shame you propagate this message. Blood is blood for God's sake! #depressing #casteSystem
— Shafi F1 (@Shafianin) August 19, 2016
Our group is neutral to religious, caste, political divisions. I trusted requests that came in, and speed is key - safeguards from now on.
— Blood+ (@bloodplusapp) August 19, 2016
Tomorrow even if you put out a genuine tweet on blood donation,not many are going to take it seriously@bloodplusapp
— Ratnakar Sadasyula (@ScorpiusMaximus) August 19, 2016
Max Cure Hospital authorities confirmed that the same person had contacted the hospital for an emergency and never mentioned about 'Kamma' caste in particular.
The group manager of Blood Plus called this as an "accident".
There was a tweet sent out yesterday that mentioned caste, which was obviously wrong. This was human error and not deliberate. My apologies
— Blood+ (@bloodplusapp) August 19, 2016
The tweet comes at a time when the nation is grappled with caste prejudices and Dalits are being targeted in Gujarat and elsewhere.