[ZESTCaste] Dalit cook: Students skip midday meal

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/bengaluru/dalit-cook-students-skip-midday-meal-653

Dalit cook: Students skip midday meal

December 31, 2011
DC
Shimoga

This could come as a rude shock to those who believed that caste
barriers were on the decline in modern India. Students of the
government lower primary school at Yelige near Tumari in Sagar taluk
have not been accepting the free mid-day meals for the past eight
years. Reason: the woman cook belongs to the Dalit community! Of the
16 students, only 7 have been taking the food provided at the school.
Yelige is a remote village in the backwater region of Sharavathi
valley.

Teachers expressed their helplessness saying that four of the students
belonged to the Schedule Castes while the remaining students were not
keen on having the mid-day meals despite the efforts made to convince
them. When asked about this, a class five student said, "The cooks are
from a lower caste, so we do not eat the food served by them." Another
student said, "Parents scold us, so we decided not to have the meals."

According to school sources, the cook Ms Padmavati was appointed as
chief cook at ther school under the Akshara Dasoha scheme in 2004. But
later, villagers of Yelige and some parents objected to the
appointment and appealed to the then health and family welfare
minister Kagodu Thimmappa to stall her appointment as students of both
upper and lower castes study at the school. Since then, most of the
students have stayed away from the mid-day meal scheme except for
seven who are having the food. According to a Dalit leader, Manjappa,
all students would have accepted the mid-day meal if their parents had
not put pressure on them not to accept the meals.

------------------------------------

----
INFORMATION OVERLOAD?
Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:-
On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:-
If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/

<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join
(Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
ZESTCaste-digest@yahoogroups.com
ZESTCaste-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ZESTCaste-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/