Online tutor says sorry as his remarks on indigenous tribes spark outrage

An online tutor’s remarks about indigenous tribes have sparked outrage. In recent weeks, this is the third such incident of an educator making insensitive comments about tribals during online classes.Identified as Lalit Yadav, the tutor is affiliated with the online teaching platform Unacademy and identifies himself as a UPSC educator, social worker and motivational speaker. Yadav is also president of an NGO – Lalit Yadav Ki Pathshala, according to a report by East Mojo.Controversy erupted on Wednesday after a video of one of Lalit Yadav’s online classes went viral on social media.READ: Punjab YouTuber booked for using ‘racial slur’ to address Arunachal MLAIn the video, he can be heard saying about indigenous tribes: “When you travel to a tribal area, they reside in their natural area, poor things. Today, they at least have some knowledge; in the 80s, where did they have the knowledge? Poor things lived with their communities in jungles.”Yadav goes on to say, “They would sing Jhingalala hoo and live their lives. They were not bothered about the lives of people outside their communities. They did not care about who was fair, dark, Indian or a Britisher.”Many Twitter users called Lalit Yadav out for portraying indigenous tribes in poor light.An advisor to the Northeast Students’ Organisation (NESO), Dr Samujjal Bhattacharjya, also took to Twitter to demand action against the online learning platform over Lalit Yadav’s insensitive remarks.

Reacting to the backlash, Lalit Yadav posted a video message on Facebook in which he apologised for his remarks.
Alleging that “just a small clip” from his class is being circulated to mislead people, Yadav said, “Whatever words had been used in that video were wrong and it was not done intentionally.”He also said that there is a need to change the education system and “sensitise people about such stereotypes right from the beginning”.