Kochi: Out of three lakh students who enrolled in the first standard this year, just 236 did not mention their religion. Eleven students chose the secular column.
A total of 3.16 lakh students joined the state syllabus this year. The data was given by the statistics department to an RTI query made by activist Dhanraj Subhash Chandran. "Since there is a debate on the social media over caste-based reservation system and discrimination over caste, I decided to file an RTI. I had tried to get the data in the last few years, but I received it this year,” he said.
CPM leader and Palakkad MP M.B. Rajesh opined that mentioning religion is one's personal choice. "The Constitution gives the power to a person to choose or not to choose religion," he said.
He had marked as ‘Not applicable’ the columns that asked for religion and caste of the children. The decision was his personal choice.
