An online government-run portal simply rejected a woman for a job due to her surname. Yes, you read it right. Hailing from Assam, the woman has all the talent required to fit into the role. However, she was denied a job on a portal due to her surname.
The woman identified as Priyanka Chutia had been attempting to apply for a job with National Seed Corporation Limited (NSCL) through online application portal. Even after repeated attempts, Chutia was not able so as the software kept rejecting her surname.
Chutia, a resident of Gogamukh town, holds a Masters degree in Agricultural Economics and Farm Management. She added that her application kept getting denied as the software asked her to use a proper name and not use any slang in place of the surname. The student took to her official Facebook to narrate her ordeal.
“The reason (for rejection of application) is nothing but my surname and the portal keeps on saying to use ‘proper naming’ words. I feel really sad and frustrated at times explaining people that I am not using slang but it’s a community where I belong,” she wrote.
The frustrated woman personally wrote to NSCL explaining her issue and it was only after that the concerned organization took this matter very seriously and finally, her application was accepted.
The woman echoed that she wanted to share the incident on Facebook in order to raise awareness about the issue. Forthe unversed, Chutia is a community of people in Assam, which is one of the oldest indigenous communities of the state. It is pronounced “Sutiya”.
The fact that it was not accepted by the online application portal of a national agency shows the lack of awareness regarding the North-East of India among the rest of the nation.
Replying to a query by local news portal The News Mill, NSCL added that there was a glitch due to a flaw in coding and were trying to get the problem fixed.
However, this is not the first time experience that the Chutia community raised an issue with digital platforms on not recognising their name properly and deleting accounts of people the surname “Chutia”, thinking it’s the Hindi word by the same name.