JOIN USThe Dalit and backward caste children of a primary school at Daulatpur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Auriya district, about 300 km from here, have boycott the meals prepared by a Brahmin cook.
“It has been going like that for the past several days,” teachers at the school said.
The school has in all 146 students of whom 62 belong to the Scheduled Castes, 77 are from backward castes and only seven are from upper castes, they said. “The politics in the village is responsible for this boycott...the parents of the Dalit and backward caste children have asked them not to eat meals prepared by the Brahmin woman,” the teachers said.
Earlier, at many places in the state, children belonging to the upper castes had refused to eat midday meals prepared by Dalit cooks.It also threatened to turn into a major law and order problem when the irate upper caste parents ransacked a school building and clashed with police in Kannauj district over the same issue.
Apparently giving in to the protests, the government recently withdrew an earlier order, which provided that only SCs, STs and OBCs could be appointed cooks in primary schools.