http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Dalit-cook-held-captive/articleshow/6168732.cms
Dalit cook held captive
Faiz Rahman Siddiqui, TNN, Jul 14, 2010, 09.53pm IST
Kanpur: A group of upper caste villagers held captive a cook and
school teachers after they came to know that the woman who was
preparing food for their children was a Dalit.
The incident took place in Mairakhpur village in Akbarpur police
station limits in Ramabai Nagar (Kanpur Dehat), when a group of upper
caste villagers stormed inside a primary school, ransacked and locked
the kitchen, where a Dalit woman, Chandrawati, was preparing food for
the students under mid-day meal scheme.
The Wednesday incident came close on the heels of the violence
reported from Kannauj district, where the villagers had created a
ruckus outside the primary school in Majgaon hamlet under Bahadurpur
gram sabha to register their protest against a Dalit cook, who was
preparing food for the 47-odd children of the school on Saturday last.
The Mairakhpur primary school has a total of 45 students. Out of
which, nearly 35-40 students, mostly belonging to upper castes,
refused to eat food here on Wednesday.
According to reports, the upper caste villagers not only misbehaved
with the Dalit cook but held her as well as the school teachers,
including the headmaster of the school, Anil Kumar, captive for
several hours in protest against the appointment of a Dalit cook to
prepare MDM.
The situation was, however, brought under control when a police team
from Akbarpur police station and officials of the district education
department reached the village and convinced the villagers.
"Angry villagers assembled in front of the primary school after they
came to know that a Dalit woman was preparing mid-day meal for their
children. Later, they went inside the school's kitchen where she was
preparing mid-day meal and locked it from outside. They also
misbehaved with school teachers before holding them captive, when they
tried to intervene,'' a Dalit villager, on condition of anonymity,
told TOI.
The police, however, said, no action has yet been initiated against
the persons who created the ruckus.
When contacted, basic shiksha adhikari, Ramabai Nagar district, Sanjai
Shukla, however, said, "We have visited Mairakhpur primary school and
those responsible for inciting the students have been identified. They
had apparently bolted the school kitchen from outside, where the Dalit
cook was preparing `kheer' for schoolchildren under mid-day meal
project. They further forced the children to boycott the meal. We
would inquire into the incident and those responsible for it would
face serious action,'' he said.
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