The incidents reported by parents included “anti-Hindu slurs” directed at students.
London:
A new report by an independent think tank based in London has exposed the extent of discrimination and bullying faced by Hindu students in UK schools.
The report from the London-based Henry Jackson Society, commissioned by Charlotte Littlewood, a PhD candidate in Arab and Islamic Studies with the University of Exeter, surveyed 988 Hindu parents and found that 51 per cent of them reported that their children had faced discrimination at school.
Despite the high prevalence of discrimination reported by parents, the study found that fewer than 1 per cent of schools with Indian pupils reported any hate incidents. Additionally, only 19 per cent of Hindu parents surveyed believed that schools were able to identify anti-Hindu hate.
The incidents reported by parents included “anti-Hindu slurs” directed at students, with some children experiencing such bullying for years. Littlewood spent five months on the report, during which she encountered one case in which a student in East London had to change schools three times due to such bullying.
“We know this happened in an East London school which has many South Asian pupils. That is disturbing in a country like ours,” said Ms Littlewood. “We are asking for a change in the policy on bullying that schools in the UK have, through this report. They have to have an annual report of incidents and how they were tackled.”
The report also detailed incidents involving students up to the age of 22 in colleges across the UK. In March, Karan Kataria, an Indian student studying for a master’s degree in law at the London School of Economics, alleged that he had faced discrimination during his campaign for the post of General Secretary in the school.
“After being elected as an academic rep within his law school, I felt confident to stand for the post of General Secretary. During the campaign, there was a campaign against me for being Hindu,” Mr Kataria said. “We were trying to change a narrative that was being told with tinted glasses on. Their opinions are opinions. Ours is not?”
The Independent Schools Council, an umbrella body in the UK for various schools, was unable to comment on the report’s revelations. However, teachers spoke out about incidents of hate, not just against Hindu pupils but also against students of various religions. They called for better tools and training to help identify and tackle such incidents.
The report, which claims to be the first of its kind in the UK, will be presented to the Education Secretary along with its recommendations.
