Facebook user Parvitar Singh shared an account of an alleged case of discrimination against him, because of the fact that he wore a turban.

According to a Facebook post on July 20, Parvitar had applied for work at an organisation. The role required "a certain level of face to face interaction", he said.

Parvitar said that he received a phone call informing him of good news: he had "fit the bill" for the role he applied for.

However, he was then asked by the lady on the phone whether he wore "the cloth thingy" on his head, given that his name ended with "Singh".

He was also asked if it was removable, to which he replied in the negative, pointing out to the lady that it was called a turban.

Perhaps suspecting something amiss, he asked the person on the other end whether there was an issue with that, only to be told that the prospective employer might not be comfortable with the fact that he wore a turban.

In the course of the conversation that followed, he brought up the fact that he had been in the Air Force, and was then allegedly told that this was "a bit surprising".

He then sought to end the conversation by informing the lady that he would be making "an official report for the authorities to look into this matter", leading her to start "apologising profusely".

He then "simply cut the call".

Held off on lodging report, declined to name employer

In subsequent post on Facebook, however, Parvitar revealed that he had held off on lodging a report, and that he would not be naming the organisation.

He shared, however, that he had contacted the agency to ask for clarification, an official apology, and updates on "the next course of action they would take against their agent".

Parvitar said that he would "give the company a chance to contact me by today" instead of lodging an official report.

This, he said, was because he was coming from "a place of empathy", in light of the current economic situation in which "everyone is trying to protect their ricebowl".

He also said that he was "getting legal advice on how to best tackle this matter to prevent it from happening to anyone else ever again".

"Let us always unite to combat discrimination and racism of any sort. It doesn't have any place in our society, our amazing country", he said.

Parvitar also said, in another post, that he had faced "a lot of discrimination, racism, prejudice" and that it "has never been easy to be a minority in Singapore".

He said that he saw it as his duty to "educate, to create awareness and be the voice of those who face such unfortunate circumstances, regardless of race, language or religion", as an interfaith activist, a Sikh, and a citizen.

TAFEP aware of the post

In response to queries from Mothership, a spokesperson for the Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) said that they were aware of the post.

TAFEP said that it was getting in touch with Parvitar Singh, to understand more about the situation.

The spokesperson added that "TAFEP takes a serious view of racial discrimination at the workplace. Where workplace discrimination has been established, TAFEP works closely with MOM to take action against errant employers, including revoking work pass privileges".

You can see Parvitar's original post here:

Top image via Parvitar Singh on Facebook