The tribal girls of North East India living and working all over India are increasingly facing racism as they are perceived to be Chinese by mainland Indians.
Two such incidents came into the limelight within 24 hours. In one incident a group of girls were sought to be locked in for 14-day quarantine by vigilantes while one girl was spat by a middle-aged man in New Delhi.
Thefirst incident was resolved following an intervention by the Ahmedabad citypolice commissioner Ashish Bhatia and senior IPS officers from Nagaland, postedin New Delhi and Ahmedabad, according to the victims.
In the second incident, a middle-aged man in white scooty spat on the face and body of a Manipuri girl in Uttam Nagar, New Delhi.
Thenine persons from Nagaland are employed in an IT consultancy firm in Ahmedabad.After a mobile video shot by two persons from Nagaland at an Ahmedabadquarantine facility alleging 'discrimination' began to make the rounds of thesocial media, on Saturday evening, the two, along with seven others werereleased from the quarantine facility later in the night
"Acaller had contacted a helpline and said that a few people from China have cometo Ahmedabad and they have Coronavirus. When a police team reached our office,we explained to them that we are from Nagaland and we have been working inAhmedabad for the past five years. The police then took us to a quarantinecentre and undertook our (preliminary) tests even though none of us weresick…None of us had any travel history. Yet, the quarantine facility staff saidthat we will have to stay there for 14 days. People are discriminating againsttheir own country's citizens and this was a result of bias," said the femalevictim.
Thenine persons then started posting video messages on social media, allegingracial bias on behalf of police authorities despite having no travel history orsymptoms.
Whencontacted, Bhatia said that the case was of a "false alarm" by a caller afterwhich confusion was sorted.
Onlate Saturday evening, senior IPS officer Wabang Jamir, Gujarat Cadre reachedthe quarantine centre at Sports Club in Navrangpura and spoke to the people.Later, Ahmedabad city police commissioner Ashish Bhatia also reached the spotand communicated with the professionals and the medical team. All 9 people werethen released from the quarantine centre around 10.30 pm.
