The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Schoolchildren avoid food cooked by Dalit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Schoolchildren avoid food cooked by Dalit

By Our Staff Reporter

JUGANDLA (KARIMNAGAR DT.), APRIL 11. The evil practice of untouchability is still prevailing in a village 30 km from Karimnagar district headquarters in Thimmapur mandal.

This startling revelation was made during the visit of the Minister for Endowments, M. Satyanarayana Rao, to participate in the Praja Patham programme in the village on Monday. Even as the Minister was interacting with the womenfolk and other villagers about their problems at the Government primary school in the village, schoolchildren were having their mid-day meal in the premises.

Curious journalists went to the spot where the children were eating their mid-day meal and asked about the quality of food and how many children usually eat. The reply was only few children were eating and others were not eating due to indigestion problem. Further queried, a fourth class student said that a majority of them were not eating food as it was prepared by a `Mala' (Scheduled Castes) woman. Schoolteachers confirmed this and the prevalence of untouchability in the school.

Mediamen informed the Minister of this. He immediately came to the spot and inquired with the children and schoolteachers. The headmaster, Rajeshwar, said that out of 88 children, only 40 to 60 were eating food and others were not eating with the plea that the food was prepared by a `Mala' woman.

No problem earlier

The headmaster said that earlier a toddy tapper, Balaiah had prepared the food and at that time all the children were taking it and there was no complaint. When the mid-day meal preparation scheme was not feasible with Balaiah, he handed over the cooking work to a Dalit woman two months ago and since then the children had stopped eating food at the behest of their parents.

Sarpanch ignorant

Incidentally, the village sarpanch, Rajalingam, a Dalit, initially said that he did not know about the issue. Later, he said that there was still untouchability in the village.

Expressing concern over the continuation of age-old practice of untouchability, the Minister said that it was unfortunate that still the practice was prevailing in the villages. He was shocked over the children talking about discrimination of a particular caste.

Headmaster faulted

He found fault with the headmaster and teachers for not informing the sarpanch and other elected representatives about the issue. He said that the teachers should play a responsible role for a casteless society.

Mr. Satyanarayana Rao instructed the Karimnagar RDO, Prasad Rao, and the rural CI, P. Venugopal Rao, to visit the village on April 13 and organise an awareness programme and educate people about the need for casteless society.

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