‘Upper caste’ students refuse midday meal cooked by Dalit

RUDRAPUR: Hindu upper caste students in Uttarakhand’s Champawat district have been for the past week refusing to eat their midday school meals cooked by a Dalit woman, the school’s principal said on Monday.

Sunita Devi, a woman belonging to a scheduled caste, was appointed recently as bhojanmata, or cook for midday meals, at a government secondary school in Jaul village of Sukhidhang area in Champawat district. She was tasked with preparing meals for students of classes 6 to 8.

“On the first day (of her joining work), students of upper caste had the midday meal cooked by her without any fuss, but from the next day, they started boycotting the meals,” said Prem Singh, principal of Government Inter College, Sukhidhang, said on Monday. “What made them stop eating the midday meals is beyond my understanding. Of the total 57 students, today only 16 students belonging to the scheduled caste had a meal here.”

She was appointed following all government norms, Singh said, adding, “We had received 11 applications for the post of bhojanmata. She was selected in an open meeting of the parent teacher association and school management committee held in the first week of this month.”

The inter college, as some secondary schools are called in

Uttarakhand, has 230 students on its rolls. Some 40 students belonging to upper castes out of 66 students of Class 6 to 8 have stopped eating the midday meal a day after Devi started work on December 13, Singh said. They have opted for bringing tiffin from home, he said.

Parents of the students who are boycotting the midday meal allege the management committee and Singh passed over a deserving upper caste candidate.

“We had selected one Pushpa

Bhatt, whose child is also enrolled in the college, in an open meeting on November 25. But the principal and the school management committee sidelined her and appointed a Dalit as bhojanmata,” said Narendra Joshi, president of the school’s parent teacher association.

The education department has set up an inquiry to look into the matter, said RC Purohit, chief education officer of Champawat. “I am personally looking into it,” Purohit said.