‘People from no corner of India should feel uncomfortable or unwanted anywhere in country’

New Delhi, March 26 (PTI): People from no corner of India should feel uncomfortable or unwanted anywhere in the country and they should be able to intermingle comfortably, Union Minister of State Rajkumar Ranjan Singh said on Saturday, underlining that stereotyping must be avoided.

Singh, Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Education, was speaking at a programme on ‘Racial Diversity Sensitisation’ organised by the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the Bureau of Police Research and Development.

“Anyone from any corner of India should not feel uncomfortable or unwanted in any place in India. People should be able to intermingle comfortably with the feeling that we all are Indians. Everybody should be accepted by others with respect, dignity and understanding,” he said.

Singh said there is a frequent stereotyped bias that everyone carries due to a few life experiences or maybe word of mouth.

“Stereotyping needs to be avoided,” he added.

NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma said India is beautiful because of its diversity but it does not mean one needs to change themselves for another.

“You can stay in your own religion and still get married. But somewhere in society, inequality crept in, and even the media only sees negative things and would show fights between Hindus and Muslims and not when they are living happily together.

“Police also play an important role here. Sensitisation of police is very important in the matter of racial diversity. Investigating officers especially need to be sensitised, and it is mostly seen that it is because of their behaviour that women are facing issues,” Sharma added.

Underlining the importance of sensitisation, Singh said the police as well as the public need to be sensitised about the diversity India has.

“Every stakeholder must initiate and contribute in their own capacity to bridge the gap of this cultural divide,” he added.