A school is a placewhere children are supposed to get educated so that they grow up to becomecitizens who can think beyond the boundaries of caste, religion andregion.
But what if thisdiscrimination still prevails in the society?
In a shockingincident from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh, the utensils used by the childrenfrom the Dalit community for their mid-day meals were kept apart on thepremises, and washed by the children themselves.
Sixty of the 80children at Daudapur Government Primary School in Mainpuri district of UPbelong to Scheduled Castes. But it was only when a complaint was maderecently that officials found about it.
As a result of this, theschool principal was suspended and two cooks terminated.
Chief DevelopmentOfficer Vinod Kumar said the action was taken after village pradhan ManjuDevi's husband Saheb Singh filed a complaint on Saturday. The CDO, alongwith Basic Shiksha Adhikari Kamal Singh and project director KK Singh, inspectedthe school and its kitchen, and found the allegations true, the officer said.
He says: “I asked thecooks where the other thaalis were, and they said the ones in the kitchenbelonged to Backward and General Category students, while 50-60 thaalis werekept separately. I was also told that students belonging to Scheduled Casteswere forced to wash their own dishes and keep them, as no one belonging toother castes was willing to touch them.”
“The BJP makes bigclaims of Dalit upliftment. They give token posts to some leaders from thecommunity, but this is the reality of UP… decades after Dr B R Ambedkar facedsuch issues in his school days,” said Singh.