brand logo

Our community has been neglected by every govt. for 30 years: Thondaman

04 Aug 2021

Responding to views expressed by many over the assumption that many domestic workers hail from the Tamil communities in the hill country of the island, State Minister of Estate Housing & Community Infrastructure Jeevan Thondaman stated that such views are false. He also requested the people to stop targeting and marginalising these communities as according to him, they have been neglected by every government for the past 30 years. “We are 30 years behind and we are trying to come up. We have youth who have won international competitions. We have doctors, lawyers and judges from our community. All we are asking is for the respect that is due to us,” he stated. The State Minister also explained that poverty has no creed, caste, religion or race and that the people should come to terms with this. “Anybody who is faced with poverty will go for hazardous jobs. It is our duty to protect these people,” he said. Responding to the recent death of the domestic aide who was employed at the residence of Rishad Bathiudeen, the State Minister raised the question of why it takes a death for light to be shed on topics such as sexual abuse and harassment. “Why is it that when an issue regarding sexual harassment comes up we have learnt to forget and forgive? Why is it that we have conditioned society to teach girls not to speak up and to teach boys not to understand the meaning of no?” he asked. He also highlighted that in order to fix this issue, it needs to be tackled from education to bureaucracy. “Only then can we fix this issue,” he said.


More News..