What is your caste?

What is your caste? This is one question that I keep facing as I started working in the mainland India. The Care-taker of the house where I stayed asked me twice, his neighbour asked me once, and when I told them that I have no caste and that there is no caste system in my society, they dismissed me, telling each other that I don’t understand their language.

But when I interact with class-V students of a Govt. school in one remote village, the last question I expected them to ask me was 'my caste'.  The students were in the age group of 9-12, and I was with them the entire morning observing their classes. It happened during the break when the student came rushing towards me and thus we started interacting. Obviously they were curious about me, not only was I a stranger, but I look totally different, and as such they have lots of questions to ask me.  

I told them, as I used to tell the caretaker of my place, and his neighbour, that there is no caste system in my society, and we can freely mingle and mix with each other. The subject died with that.  But it got stuck in my head, because that was the least expected question from a bunch of boys from a primary school.

I was often told that caste discrimination and segregation was not so rampant here in Chhattisgarh compared to other rural areas of India.  And from a casual observation, such glaring discrimination mostly visible in many rural areas is nowhere to be seen.

Still, the fact that a group of little boys from a primary school were so concerned or curious about my caste underline the fact that such class/caste distinction do exist, and that they as a little kid have become aware of it.

But what worries me about the caste system is the place it holds for each one of us.  There is no denying that any educated men/women would say that caste have very little role in their life, and they don’t practice discrimination based on caste.  I believed them, but I also know when it comes to marriage, they would stick to their caste.

At least to me, caste per se, is not a bad thing as I see it only as a group of people.  But when people are discriminated because of the accident of birth, it becomes a problem. And the last thing we want children to worry about while in school is about the caste of others.