Thursday, July 15, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Dalit cooks replaced by upper caste cooks

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Dalits-replaced-by/articleshow/6168731.cms

Dalits replaced by
Faiz Rahman Siddiqui, TNN, Jul 14, 2010, 09.53pm IST

KANPUR: In order to pacify the growing resentment against Dalit cooks,
the government, reportedly, on Wednesday, asked such primary schools
where upper caste villagers are boycotting the mid-day meal scheme to
appoint upper caste cooks.

"We are identifying such schools where upper caste children have been
boycotting MDM scheme following appointment of a Dalit cook. To
counter the situation, now they (Dalits) would not be involved in
cooking the food and instead be assigned other tasks, like cleaning
and washing of the utensils, besides other odd jobs at the school,"
said a senior official, on condition of anonymity. "School authorities
have assured the upper caste villagers that there would be no
caste-contamination," he added.

Most of the students belonging to the upper castes were not ready to
eat food cooked by Dalits in majority of the primary schools in Rama
Bai Nagar district since the beginning of the new academic session in
2010. "Now that the schools have been asked to appoint upper caste
cooks, we hope the students would accept the mid-day meal,'' said a
senior official in the district.

The villagers have been told that the head cook, belonging to an upper
caste, would supervise the cooking. The head cook is more than willing
to go along. "I would do anything they ask me. After all, my own
children also study in the same school," an upper caste cook told TOI.

Nirmala Devi, headmistress of one such school in Jhinjhak block of the
district, said that upper caste children were not eating mid-day meals
but now with the appointment of upper caste cooks, the school has
started witnessing a good presence of upper caste students, who were
boycotting their classes earlier over the issue. "Their parents were
responsible for unnecessarily raking up the issue but now as an upper
caste cook has replaced the Dalit cook following a meeting of
village-level committee, comprising village pradhan, Aanganbadi
teachers as well as parents, we are expecting that the situation would
improve gradually," she said.

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