Parents refuse midday meal cooked by SC woman

Students bring home-made food to school in Kunigal

A row over the appointment of a cook from the Scheduled Caste has halted the midday meal scheme at the government lower primary school in Tippur village of the taluk for the last four years.

The government school in the village has 25 students and two teachers. Unlike other state-run schools with poor infrastructure, this school has a mini water supply unit, a separate room for cooking ‘Akshara Dasoha’ meals, adequate classrooms and a garden as well.

The school had 60 students when the midday meal was introduced and two women —Shanthamma and Rathnamma — of general category cooked food since 2006. But trouble began in 2008 when Bhagyamma, a Scheduled Castes woman, was appointed as a cook in accordance with the roster system.

Some villagers and gram panchayat members opposed appointment of Bhagyamma. However, she was continuedto work after dalit organisations came to her rescue.
Confronted with the possibility of facing an atrocity charge, the naysayers adopted a novel method to air their disapproval. They started to send  the children to school with food from home.

With the gradual decline in the number of students having midday meals at the school, the scheme finally ground to a halt in 2008.

The dispute seems to have cast its shadow on the formation of school development and monitoring committee too. The committee has not been constituted since 2008. Sources said that the panel has not been formed despite repeated directions from the Education department to do so.

Attempts by officials of ‘Akshara Dasoha’ scheme and Education department to convince the villagers on the issue have not yielded any result.

Narayan, a member of Dalita Jagruti Samiti said the villagers should set aside their reservations on Scheduled Castes and pave way for the implementation of the midday meal scheme.