Discrimination

It is not often that you see a man and a woman employee working together as a team in an Auroville forest or garden. But Elumalai and his wife, Surya, are different.

On June 12th, Auroville bade farewell to Mohan Verghese Chunkath who had been serving as Secretary of the Auroville Foundation since June 2016.

Recently, discrimination has been a hot topic in Auroville. It was brought to the forefront by two Tamil members of the Working Committee who felt they had been ‘discriminated’ against by not being allowed to meet the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on his recent visit.

Feelings of discrimination surfaced after two Tamil members of the Working Committee were not given proximity passes for the Prime Minister’s visit on February 24th.

In order to address the issues and feelings related to discrimination in Auroville, the Auroville Council decided to form a subgroup. Together with members from the community, it plans a year-long focus on this theme through events, courses and multicultural happenings “that celebrate our unity in diversity and enable us to hear and understand each other on a deeper level.”

Every day, thousands of health seekers of different faiths, the mentally ill and the spirit-possessed, travel from villages and cities to faith healing shrines dotted throughout Tamil Nadu that are reputed for their curative powers.