Students allege ‘caste bias’, Raj govt school principal sacked

BARMER: Principal of a government school in Rajasthan’s Barmer was removed on Wednesday after a group of students alleged he did not allow them to sit for their mid-day meals with the upper caste children or drink water from the same tank.

About 24 students of the government upper primary school in Puniyon Ki Dhani, some 100km off Barmer, also told police their plates were kept separate from those of upper caste children.

“The principal (Raichandram Choudhary) has been removed and put on compulsory wait,” block education officer Laxman Solanki told HT on Wednesday.

Choudhary was not available for comments.

The incident again brings to fore how caste divide has not even spared the education system, which a parliamentary panel had termed as a “disgrace”.

The mid-day meal is the world’s biggest l unch programme aimed at promoting education and fighting malnutrition but there have been several instances of children being discriminated on the basis of caste.

Solanki said Choudhary told him it was a “conspiracy” against him as he had stopped members of the Meghwal community from cutting trees on school premises.

Meghwal is a scheduled caste in Rajasthan and most of the students who complained belong to the community.

Police have registered a complaint under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

“We recorded statement of the students, who came with their parents,” said Suresh Kumar Saharan, station house officer of Dhorimanna police station, where the case was filed.

The students also alleged that some Dalit children were beaten up when they touched the water tank. The principal, they alleged, used to tell upper caste students to pour water for them.