HENB | NYC | April 10,  2015:: A team of the American Hindu Council and allied advocacy groups called on Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday to add Hindu holidays into the public school vacation calendar. Hundreds of demonstrators rallied on Broadway near City Hall Park, in Manhattan with festoons and placards demanding Hindu rights for Holidays in Diwali, Janmastami and Dussera.

United Hindu groups participated in the rally with full zest to draw the attention of the City Mayor to stop the discrimination upon Hindus by disallowing their main Holidays, while it has been approved for both Christians and Muslim communities.

A good number of Hindu school students and their parents assembled to participate in the protest rally.

The decision of the Mayor is pending and HENB is also unable to have the direct interaction from the organisers about their future plan of action.

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The Hindu Student Association International reports, “HSAI joined with more than two dozen other organizations and nearly 200 Hindus to demonstrate outside City Hall for the inclusion of Hindu holidays in NYC public schools.  There are nearly 1 Million Hindus in the NYC area, but unlike Christians, Jews and now Muslims (who recently received the Eid holiday), Hindus have no time off for Diwali, Holi or other major festivals. With the population of Hindus rapidly growing in America, and with so many new converts to the eternal religion, the time has come for us to assert our identity and join the grownups table in the global political-religious scene. Big thanks to Sitangshu Guha and the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) for organizing the event.  Pictures and press release are below.”

For more pictures and press release of the event please click here,

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Courtesy: HSAI and Demotix.