Good morning, didi!” chorused boys and girls in unison, standing up to greet actor Nandita Das. Das was “didi” to the Std IX students at Shiv Srushti School in Kurla East on Monday morning. She was the speaker at a programme held by Teach for India. Das headlined a session called: Unconscious Bias: Colourism and prejudices impacting children and adolescents.

Das started with asking the classroom, “Tell me what discrimination means?” When there was silence, she elaborated, “Do you know of a word called differentiate? We often hear statements like: you are very tall, you are short, you are rich, they are poor...these are differences. When we treat a person based on solely these differences as better or not so good, that is discrimination.”