Tamils in Mumbai’s Dharavi appeal Tamil Nadu govt to protect their rights

CHENNAI: Tamils living in Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum in the heart of Mumbai, has appealed to the Tamil Nadu government to establish a free legal aid centre, Tamil Bhavan and cooperative banks to help them. They have also urged the state government to extend support to the children to continue their studies in Tamil medium till graduation.
According to the Mumbai Vizhithezhu Iyakkam, there are 25 lakh people from Tamil Nadu who settled in Dharavi and other parts of Maharashtra generations ago. Of them, nearly five lakh people still have their voting rights in their native places in Tamil Nadu.
“We requested the state government to facilitate the Tamils living in Dharavi to exercise their franchise through postal vote. In the absence of such provision, many are unable to exercise their voting rights,” said Srithar Thamizhan, chief coordinator of the organisation.
He submitted the memorandum to Tamil Nadu assembly speaker M Appavu on Sunday, seeking the intervention of the state government to protect their rights and create a resource centre to maintain the Tamils migrated to Maharashtra and other parts of the country to reach them during trying times. “We faced a lot of problems during lockdown following the outbreak of Covdi-19 pandemic. If the government had information on Tamils living outside the state, it would have helped us and the government to return to safety in such circumstances,” he said.
He also appealed to the TN government to insist on the Railways operating more trains to Tamil Nadu, particularly southern districts like Tirunelveli and Tuticorin as majority of them were hailing from that area.
“It is difficult to obtain a community certificate in Maharashtra. Even if we produce the certificate obtained in TN, it is not taken into consideration. So, many are losing their education and employment opportunities. The TN government should intervene by talking to the Maharashtra government to find a solution to it,” Thamizhan said.
Many of the children in Dharavi can only speak Tamil. They were unable to read and write their mother tongue. “The government should create infrastructure to help our children to learn to read and write Tamil,” he added.
In the memorandum, the organisation pointed out that Tamil was the medium of instruction till Class VII. Hence, many children were unable to continue their studies in their mother Tongue further and dropped out. “We request the government to create infrastructure in Dharavi to help the students to continue their studies in Tamil till graduation,” he noted.
Similarly, the association urged the TN government to establish a free legal aid centre and Tamil Bhavan to extend necessary help to the Tamils living in Maharashtra for generations.