Ladakh Buddhist Association, Youth wing organised the 130th birth anniversary celebration of Bharat Ratna, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, at Chowkang Vihara on April 14 in Leh.
 
Chief Guest of the occasion, Nominated Councillor, Phuntsog Nurboo said, “Casteism is one of the issues that people of the particular community still face. People share with me their suffering who face discrimination and it is very sad. We should not relate the work of musicians and other artists with caste. It should be considered as an art. Buddhism does not teach caste, but discrimination is practiced in our society and many are suffering. We need to work collectively and root out such evil practices because everyone deserves equal respect”.
 
President, LBA, Thupstan Chhewang said that if India is considered as a nation with a strong democracy then it is because of our Constitution, which was drafted under the chairmanship of Dr. Ambedkar.
 
Talking about caste issues in Ladakh he said, “It is clear that there is no caste system in our religion, but in our society, it exists. Therefore, we have to discuss how it is introduced in our society and understand the reason behind it to eliminate it from our society.”
 
He assured to deliberate on the issue with Gonpa Association and the experts from Ladakh to uproot the system from the society.
 
Talking about the Post UT status, Thupstan Chhewang slammed UT Administration for being ineffective because of which people are in confusion and facing a lot of problems. He sighted the example of unemployment and safeguard issues.
 
Ven Shedup Chamba, President Ladakh Gonpa Association said, “Babasaheb Ambedkar was not only the architect of our Constitution but a great statesman around the world. His work for the upliftment of the downtrodden is exemplary. Being Dalit he faced a lot of problems at every step of his life and later he embraced Buddhism saying that there is no casteism in it. We have several good things in our society but at the same time few bad practices are also there such as drinking alcohol and casteism which needs to end.”
 
Thinles Angmo, President, LBA Women wing said, “it is clear from the struggle of Ambedkar that uprooting casteism is not a piece of cake. Like him, we have to focus on various levels including education to end such practice. The person who designed our constitution and accepted our religion is a pride for us. He said that he wants to follow the religion where liberty, equality, and fraternity exist and he saw these qualities in Buddhism. Therefore we cannot tribute him in a real sense unless we uproot casteism from our society.
 
Rigzin Dorjay, President LBA youth wing also spoke on the occasion.
 
Essay writing competitions among students, cultural programs, and prize distribution were also held.