The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Prevalence of untouchability at school in Karimnagar district

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 15, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Prevalence of untouchability at school in Karimnagar district

Staff Reporter

Cases registered against 13 villagers of Jugundla

KARIMNAGAR: : The Thimmapur police have registered a case against 13 villagers of Jugundla village of Thimmapur mandal under the Protection of Civil Rights Act on the charge of encouraging untouchability among schoolchildren and instructing them not to eat food served by a Dalit woman at the mid-day meal scheme in the Government school.

On Monday, during the first day of Praja Patham in Jugundla village, mediamen noticed schoolchildren refusing to eat the food prepared and served by the Scheduled Caste woman.The Minister for Endowments, M. Satyanarayana Rao, who was present in the village, expressed concern over the prevalence of the casteism and untouchability. He instructed revenue and police authorities to conduct awareness meetings and organise a community lunch to remove untouchability.

Community lunch

Accordingly, the RDO, Prasad Rao, the MRO, Prabhakar, the Rural CI, P Venugopal Rao, the SI, Sambaiah, the MPP, Rajender Reddy, the sarpanch, Rajalingam, and local politicians including the district Youth Congress president, Y. Sunil Rao, and others participated in the community lunch in the village on Wednesday. Parents of a majority of students participated in the awareness programme but they refused to eat the food prepared by the Dalit woman.

Even as the police closed the school gates, to ensure that all the parents ate the food, many of them climbed the walls and the gate and escaped. The officials' efforts to convince them proved futile.

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