Citizens rush to primary schools in Pune to obtain ancestors’ leaving certificates

Primary schools in many villages across Maharashtra are more than 100 years’ old, and every day, five to six people are visiting these schools to get the school leaving certificates of their forefathers

Since it is now mandatory to submit the school leaving certificate of one’s father, grandfather, great-grandfather or any other ancestor with caste mentioned on it to procure an Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificate, citizens are thronging primary schools across the state to obtain these certificates.

If anyone from a family has ‘Kunbi’ mentioned as their caste in any government document, all members of that particular family are eligible for getting an OBC certificate as the ‘Kunbi’ caste was previously included in the OBC category. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

Primary schools in many villages across Maharashtra are more than 100 years’ old, and every day, five to six people are visiting these schools to get the school leaving certificates of their forefathers.

Primary teacher Rajni Kapadnis from Nashik district said, “We are getting daily applications for leaving certificates of old students. We have records of more than 100 years. Two of our records are in the Modi languages whereas the others are in the Devnagari script. Daily, we are issuing four to five certificates for the last few days.”

Another teacher Rajendra Kodre from Pune district said, “Our school is getting applications for leaving certificates. We need to check the old records daily. As some records are in the Modi languages, it is very difficult to understand…”

Uttam Khairnar said, “We went to the tehsildar’s office to get a ‘Kunbi’ caste certificate. At that time, we came to know that my grandfather’s school leaving certificate was required. Hence, we rushed to our native place and got our grandfather’s certificate who left school in 1904.”

Vinay Kamble, a primary teacher from Ahmednagar district, said, “We are getting applications, but there is less registration of ‘Kunbi’ certificates in our area.”

If anyone from a family has ‘Kunbi’ mentioned as their caste in any government document, all members of that particular family are eligible for getting an OBC certificate as the ‘Kunbi’ caste was previously included in the OBC category. Now, the Maratha community leaders are claiming that there is no difference between the Kunbis and Marathas as traditionally, they were related with those carrying on farming called the Kunbis and those having more land called the Marathas.