TN minister eats temple food with woman who was earlier denied meal

Chennai: Days after a video of a woman from the indigenous Narikurava community complaining about being refused meals at a food offering event at a temple near Mamallapuram went viral on social media, the Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) P K Sekar Babu visited the temple on Friday and had lunch with the woman and other members of her community who reportedly faced discrimination.

The woman was allegedly denied food during an Annadhanam ceremony at the Sthalasayana Perumal temple on the outskirts of Chennai, supposedly because she was a Narikurava. Narikurava are traditional urban hunters that specialise in capturing rats and snakes.

The footage was first brought to their attention by the office of Chief Minister M K Stalin, according to a top HR & CE officer. ‘Soon, we inquired about the incident and ordered our local officers to trace the woman,’ the official said, adding, ‘On Friday, we invited the woman and the minister went there along with officials of the department to share a meal with them.’

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The administration was irritated because the alleged discrimination occurred at an Annadhanam, which is part of a scheme in several government-run temples that provides over one lakh meals every day. The scheme’s funding comes from temples’ general accounts, and the scheme is operated by roughly 800 temples in the state under HR&CE, each with between 10 and 5,000 beneficiaries.