After row over Dalit cook, students eat together in U’khand govt school

DEHRADUN: All students in classes six to eight, across castes, ate their midday meal together on Monday at a government run school in Uttarakhand that has been roiled by allegations of caste discrimination after “upper caste” pupils boycotted meals made by a Dalit cook.

Prem Singh, the principal of the government school in Sukhidhang, said 42 upper caste and 19 Dalit students ate together on Monday. RC Purohit, Champawat’s chief education officer, said the students sat together as they would do earlier.

On Saturday, sub-divisional magistrate Himanshu Kafaltia held a meeting of villagers of Sukhidhang and persuaded them to end the row for the betterment of the village and students. He constituted a committee under Purohit to investigate the matter.

Sunita Devi was appointed as the bhojanmata (midday meal cook) on December 13, replacing Shakuntala Devi, an upper caste woman. On Devi’s first day, all students consumed the midday meal together.

But a day later, some 40 upper caste students in classes 6 to 8 -out of a total of 66 pupils in these classes -- stopped eating the meals and started bringing tiffin from home, said Prem Singh. On December 22, Devi was removed from her post after an inquiry found the school management allegedly violated appointment norms. She later filed a complaint with the police and local administration against the parents of the upper-caste students.

On December 13, Dalit students boycotted the midday meal in protest and brought lunch boxes from their homes.

Vimilesh Upreti, an uppercaste cook, cooked the midday meals on Monday and other woman teachers helped her in serving them, said the principal.

On Friday, Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami directed deputy Inspector general Nilesh Anand Bharne to investigate the matter and take appropriate action.