In schools in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, students are wearing their caste on their wrist. A report in The Indian Express states that higher caste children wear yellow-red wrist bands while lower caste students wear red and green bands.

Since Tamil Nadu is known for its violent caste clashes these bands help children navigate society easily. The wrist bands reportedly alert children as to who their friends are and who are not. The rules are not written down but unspoken and commonly followed by various castes.

The report adds that Thevars wear red and yellow, the Nadars wear blue and yellow and the Yadavs wear saffron. These communities are socially and politically powerful and fall under the Most Backward Classes (MBC) category.

The Dalit students of Pallar wear wrist bands in green and red while the Arundhathiyars, also Dalits, wear green, black and white.

Since the wrist bands can also make students targets on the basis of caste, the education department is said to have issued a ban on these bands verbally. The Chief Educational Officer of Tirunelveli R Swaminathan has told the daily that they had issued a warning against wearing such bands.

Some students have told the daily that the colour of the pottu or bindi on their forehead also denotes caste. Apparently, yellow with a dash of vermilion means you are a Thevar.