Surendar Valasai

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Sadhumal Surendar Valasai (in Sindhi سريندر ولاسائي) is the first media journalist in English who belongs to Scheduled Castes. He comes from the desert of Tharparkar in Pakistan. He was born on March 01, 1968 in Kaloi, a small hamlet in the Diplo Tehsil region of Tharparkar. After finishing school, his father Heman Das Valasai (a mason by profession) sent him for education to Karachi, and worked day and night to meet his education expenditures. He has worked as a journalist in English Dalies like The Muslim, Daily News, Sindh Express, Financial Post, The Balochistan Express, Sindh Express and as a Editor in Sindh Tribune. Having experienced untouchability himself at his young age, Valasai formed the Scheduled Castes Federation of Pakistan (SCFP)[[1]] to raise the issue of human inequality, untouchability and caste discrimination. Under the SCFP platform, he wrote hundreds of petitions and letters to the President, Prime Minister and Chief Justice of Pakistan drawing their attention towards the plight of Scheduled Castes tribes and particularly the Meghwal, Kolhi, Bheel, Bagdis, and Oads. His main stress has been that since Pakistan doesn't subscribe to these social evils ideologically and spiritually, hence some concrete steps are needed to eradicate such social evils. However, no law has so far been passed in Pakistan to eliminate human inequality, untouchability and caste discrimination.