Complaint against Mera Yuva Bharat co-ordinator for collecting students’ caste details during blood donation drive in Ooty

The Government Arts College in Udhagamandalam has submitted a written complaint to the Nilgiris district police, alleging that the co-ordinator of the Nilgiris district’s Mera Yuva Bharat initiative collected blood donors’ caste details during a blood donation camp held at the college on Wednesday (September 30, 2026). 

The principal of the college, J. Ebenasar, stated in his complaint that during the inauguration of the blood donation camp, students had only been made to fill out the register given to them by the Government Medical College and Hospital in Udhagamandalam. However, it has been alleged that after the blood donation camp had commenced, the co-ordinator of the Mera Yuva Bharat initiative for the Nilgiris district, which is functioning under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Government of India, had collected student details, including their caste, in a separate form that was distributed at the camp. 

The complaint stated that this amounted to misleading the college and urged the district police to initiate action against the co-ordinator of the camp, identified as S. Ranjithkumar. Students who had volunteered to donate blood at the camp had objected to the collection of their caste details, with a few also recording videos of the form they had to fill, which had a separate column asking those donating blood to specify whether they were from the SC/ST/OBC or general category backgrounds.