Zero down the Discriminative Mind!

 Zero Discrimination Day 2022 / 01 March / Article

Zero down the Discriminative Mind!

Fr Dr M. D. Thomas

Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi

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It’s the first day of March and it is ‘Zero Discrimination Day’, as per the United Nations. The day was first celebrated by the United Nations on 01 March 2014, after the launch of ‘Zero Discrimination Campaign’ on World AIDS Day in 2013 by UNAIDS.

 

The message by the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima, was very revealing, “The struggle to beat AIDS is inseparable from the struggle for women’s rights and from the struggle against all forms of discrimination”.

Zero Discrimination Day is intended to promote ‘equality before the law and in practice’, throughout all the member countries of the United Nations, along with several national, regional and international organizations. ‘Butterfly’ is the symbol of ‘Zero Discrimination Day’.

The day celebrates the ‘right of everyone to live a full and productive life, and live it with dignity’. It informs people about promoting inclusion, compassion and peace, and, above all, a movement for change. The day is geared towards creating a global movement of solidarity, in view of ending all forms of discrimination.

The world-wide happenings of the day promote diversity and recognize that ‘everyone counts’. The day deems with various activities to celebrate everyone’s right to ‘live a full life with dignity’, regardless of age, gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, skin colour, height, weight, profession, education and beliefs.

‘Discrimination’ is the ‘act of making unjustified distinctions between people’, based on groups, classes and other categories, which they belong to or are perceived to belong to. In other words, discrimination is the ‘unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability’, and the like.

Discrimination occurs when individuals or groups are unfairly treated, on the basis of their actual or perceived membership in certain groups or social categories. It involves restricting members of one group from opportunities or privileges that are available to members of another group.

 

Discriminatory traditions, policies, ideas, practices and laws exist in many countries and institutions, in all parts of the world, including territories where discrimination is generally looked down upon. In some places, attempts like quotas, have been used for benefiting those who are believed to be current or past victims of discrimination.

Some of the similar words for discrimination are ‘prejudice, bias, bigotry, intolerance, narrow-mindedness, unfairness, inequity, favouritism, one-sidedness and racism. These diabolic qualities are hostile to human as well as divine sensibilities, and obviously, they make a topsy-turvy of life.

In every continent, in every country, in every city, even in every place, throughout the world, out of 4 people, at least 1 is being discriminated against. The basis of discrimination is their race, religion, gender, disability, health status, age, sex, income, class, money and even many other statuses.

Further, a lot of countries have laws against discrimination. But the problem still persists in all layers of the society. Several countries and institutions use discrimination as a tool for governance, very brutally so. Proper knowledge about the political, economic, educational and social rights and policies is what is required for preventing this discrimination.

The social and economic status of people throughout the world must be developed. This requires knowledge about the concept of equality. Raising awareness, mobilizing action and promoting equality in this respect is the purpose of celebrating the day in question.

 

Further, as children of the same God, we all have equal rights, in spite of the fact that we have different thoughts, perceptions and a unique identity. If so, how on earth it is possible for the humans to accommodate so comfortably even the very idea of ‘discrimination’?

 

Jesus presented ‘God’ to the world as a ‘loving Father’, who does not ‘discriminate’ between even the good and the evil, but sends sunshine and rains to both, in an equal measure. Therefore, ‘be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect’ is the sublime ideal. Well, ‘zero discrimination’ is the symbol of divinely perfection in the human form. 

 

Therefore, the humans have to refrain from discriminating, by all means. In spite of all the odds in life, it is possible. It calls for growing up in values, in character and in capacity. Education has to help us acquire the required maturity, in outlook and attitude. To get enlightened is to get empowered, in view of fighting against all forms of deadly discrimination, along with the ensuing violation and brutality. 

 

The occasion of ‘Zero Discrimination Day 2022’ is an opportunity for the humans in India and world over, to resolve to stop all forms of discrimination, rise against petty interests and fight tooth and nail against the mega evil of discrimination.

 

What’s more, the humans have to treat the other with respect and dignity, lest they become victims of discrimination themselves. The discriminative mind has to be ‘zeroed down’, in view of leading our country and the world society towards days that are divinely charged and are humane.

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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.

He could be viewed, listened to and contacted at the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’ (p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p) and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’ (o); social media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’ (o), ‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’ (p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’ (p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).