Unacademy-educator calls tribals stupid in lecture

Ground Report | New Delhi: Unacademy-educator calls tribals stupid; Online learning platform Unacademy has courted controversy for describing tribal people as "brainless" in its UPSC exam preparation videos. However, Unacademy said in a statement that it "expresses unconditional regret for the comments".

Unacademy-educator calls tribals stupid

In a video, the educator Siddharth Singh was heard saying that tribal people do not have brains. Teachers were explaining Jhum Sadhna to their students. “Tribal log jo hota hai humare, dimaag toh hota nahi unke paas koi, nahi unke paas koi, you know, kanooni koi kagaaz hote hai zameen zaydad ke (Tribal people are stupid. They also lack legal documents related to land and property)” teacher was heard explaining in Hindi.

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He made this remark during a session on slash and burn farming, which is known as 'Jhum' farming in Northeast India. As per Singh's profile on the Unacademy portal, he has been associated with the platform since June 24, 2020.

Social media reaction

A woman from Arunachal Pradesh, Heenu, who took note of the video and posted about the same on Twitter, said: "@unacademy and Siddhartha Arora (later to Siddharth Singh) for their unconditional apology for his unacceptable derogatory remarks. Identified as). on the tribals. Demanding a public apology at the earliest."

Calling out @unacademy and Siddharth Arora for an unconditional apology for him on his unacceptable derogatory remark on Tribals. Seeking for a public apology ASAP.
Video credit: decolonialindegniousmemes pic.twitter.com/fHeGKK9WdC

— Heenu🏩 (@Heenu_Ri) September 24, 2021

“So apparently tweets tagging unacademy are not visible on your feed. Instead of Reporting our tweets why can’t they just apologize. This kind of ignorant behavior from Unacademy is not intolerable. PS: I’m repeating he was siddharth Singh and not Arora.” Heenu added. 

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So apparently tweets tagging unacademy are not visible on your feed. Instead of Reporting our tweets why can't they just apologize. This kind of ignorant behavior from Unacademy is not intolerable.
PS: I'm repeating he was siddharth Singh and not Arora.

— Heenu🏩 (@Heenu_Ri) September 25, 2021

ON Twitter, Unacademy wrote that it has been brought to his notice that Singh made "discriminatory and hurtful remarks against the people of indigenous tribes".

Statement from Unacademy. pic.twitter.com/of3Ke5lyZh

— Unacademy (@unacademy) September 25, 2021

“Unacademy has removed the original video and penalized the teacher in compliance with our internal code of conduct guidelines. Unacademy expresses unconditional regret for the comments made by the teacher and the injury caused by the remarks,” the statement added.

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