An Assamese woman's online job application was rejected because of her name. Priyanka Chutia had applied for a position at government-run National Seed Corporation Limited (NSCL) and her application was turned down because of her surname - Chutia.
She belongs to Gogamukh in Assam and has a master's degree in Agricultural Economics and Farm Management.
Because of 'Chutia' as her surname, her registration was left incomplete. She was instead asked to use 'proper naming' words by the online job registration portal where she had applied for a job.
Priyanka vented out her ire on Facebook and said, "And the reason is nothing but my Surname and the portal keeps on saying to use proper naming word. 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 further added that it is time we did something to identify ourselves and get recognised nationally.
She said, "This is not the first time. Imagine yourself going for a presentation and the panel laughs at you at the very first introduction speech."
She urged people from her community to do something about their identity rather than fighting and arguing over petty issues on Facebook.
She was reported as saying that she does not intend to file any complaint against any organization and she only aimed at making people aware about her community.
She said that she received a mail which was system generated and it said that her registration was accepted but she was unable to move ahead with the job application due to other problems. She stated that, "I am unable to move ahead and apply for the job as other problems cropped up. I don't know how to fix it."
When NSCL was contacted for a statement, the authorities said that the technical help desk staff was aware of the technical flaw.
NSCL stated, "There was a technical flaw in the code filtration of the name of the candidates which was rectified in early stages."
Chutia is also spelt as Sutiya and it is an ethnic group from Assam.
