Tamil Nadu govt school, college hostels to be called ‘social justice hostels’. Here's why

MK Stalin said there would not be discrimination of any kind, including based on one's gender or caste, under the DMK government in Tamil Nadu.

Published on: Jul 7, 2025, 15:44:17 IST

By HT News Desk

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Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Monday announced that the state government-run school and college hostels would be called ‘social justice hostels’.

“There won't be any sort of discrimination,” CM Stalin said. (HT_PRINT)

“School and college hostels for students being operated by various departments across Tamil Nadu will henceforth be called ‘social justice hostels'," Stalin said.

He reiterated that there would not be discrimination of any kind, including based on one's gender or caste, under the DMK government in Tamil Nadu. “There won't be any sort of discrimination,” the CM said.

On the renaming of the hostels, Stalin said that the DMK was based on the principle of social justice and inclusion, adding that his government's programmes were all oriented towards these ideals.

He further said that he had, for the same reason, announced in the state assembly the decision to remove the term ‘colony’ from official records. Stalin said that the term had become a symbol of “dominance” and “untouchability”. He had said that the government would take steps to “remove this word from government documents and public domain”.

DMK govt-constituted panel's suggestions on preventing caste conflicts in schools

The Tamil Nadu government had constituted a commission, headed by retired Justice K Chandru, to provide recommendations on ways to prevent caste conflicts in schools.

One of the suggestions made by the panel was removing caste prefixes and suffixes in school names, which was accepted by the state government.

Stalin said that in line with this, a government order was issued on June 25 highlighting measures to prevent caste and communal conflict among school students, and to develop a sense of harmony.

Apart from this, the CM also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to amend SC/ST community names ending with ‘N’ and ‘A’ to replace ‘R’.

Tamil Nadu has 2,739 state-run government hostels, with 1,79,568 students, which are being run by the state's tribal welfare department, and the backward classes and minority welfare department.

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