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Speaking about himself, Ajay said, “I was born into a family of ardent communists and was active in student movements in college.” Ajay is optimistic about large number of youth involvement in social media for Dalit rights. He shared, “One of my friends in college asked me to read Ambedker. Once I started reading, I tried to articulate how caste in Kerala manifested. That was my first intervention as an activist. And I started my research on caste in Kerala.”
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On being asked about ground reality of caste discrimination in Indian online and offline, Kumar replied, “Caste actually transformed from 19th century to 20th century. The basic discrimination and exclusion which is part of the caste system prevails in our day to day lives both in the online and offline world. I was reading a report last year on Facebook, which stated there are around 14,000 Facebook groups formed only to support anti – reservation logics. Or in another way they’re producing on a daily basis anti – reservation narrative where they’ll start to abuse Dalit’s. Adivasi’s have very little presence on social media platforms.” He further added, “I feel that the physical atrocities towards Dalit’s have been extended in the online platforms. I don’t want to suggest that anything has changed. One thing we have to be clear about that caste will not change. It has to be challenged at every point. These platforms Twitter, Telegram and Facebook have been used against the Dalit youth. I have seen very harsh hate campaigns. We only know about things after a crime or murder. But before that there is a social media hate campaign. If you look at every quote - unquote honour killing, there’s a social media hate campaign. So, I don’t think there is any big change in that.”
Speaking about caste discrimination scenario on internet Ajay opined, “Internet itself is not a homogenous world. Internet penetration rate in India is 49%. Which means for every 2 Indians only one has internet access. So, the digital divide is huge comprising, rural, urban, gender, upper castes and Dalits. We’re still not accessing this world and are excluded. So, the fundamental doctrine of caste is exclusion. A world which does not have universal access, we can’t enter, to begin with. So, we have very limited access to the whole world of the internet. The Internet is controlled and dominated by the dominant caste. If you can’t access the Internet, then it means you’re being discriminated. He further pointed out, “Discrimination operates in every sphere. The modern world is electronically discriminatory. We’ve been directly or indirectly facing abuses on a daily basis. Being an activist whenever I post some content about my work on social media, there always will be someone who’ll comment with some nasty words. Being active on social media for more than 10 years I’m quite used to it. But it’s preventing many others from coming and articulating.”
On being asked if dialogue will help, Ajay shared, “We need to have dialogue everywhere, be it online or offline. I don’t think that divide anymore exists. That divide is narrowed. The only positive aspect of the online platform I found was that there are many like me who are discussing and having dialogues with the civil society at large about the caste. Whenever we are talking about atrocities, it’s a dialogue. If we have caste we can’t qualify as a civil society.” He further added, “We need to discuss this course in our curriculum.”
When asked about inspiring young leaders in using Twitter for social change, Ajay concluded by saying, “We always encourage people to use online platforms. A large number of youth are now involving. Social media platforms are great enablers where people can come and speak up for themselves.”