Madurai-based activists send boxful of goodies to children who were denied snacks in Tenkasi

MADURAI

Snacks were denied to them last week, but now it was a deluge of all kinds of goodies for a bunch of children in Panjankulam in Tenkasi district. Days after a shopkeeper refused to sell snacks to children on the grounds that they were from the Scheduled Castes, a group of activists in Madurai came together on Monday and sent a boxful of snacks to the children.

Recently, social media was abuzz with a video clip of a shopkeeper (of an intermediate caste) telling a group of schoolchildren that based on a decision taken by the village elders, the shops in the area would not sell snacks or other items to them, even if they were ready to pay for it. The shopkeeper is also heard telling the children that they should inform their parents about the same.

Some child rights activists were shocked to learn of the episode and decided they had to do something. Activist K. Hakkim welcomed the swift action taken by the authorities in arresting the shopkeeper and sealing the shop, but he and a group of acquaintances came up with another gesture.

Mr. Hakkim, Madurai-based activists T. Nageswaran and M.P. Sankarapandian, and a group of volunteers, put together a boxful of snacks that included savouries like chips and murukku, and sweets like laddoos . Mr. Hakkim said that he had got in touch with the parents of the children and informed them of the bounty heading their way through India Post.