A school is a place where children are supposed to get educated so that they grow up to become citizens who can think beyond the boundaries of caste, religion and region.
But what if this discrimination still prevails in the society?
In a shocking incident from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh, the utensils used by the children from the Dalit community for their mid-day meals were kept apart on the premises, and washed by the children themselves.
Sixty of the 80 children at Daudapur Government Primary School in Mainpuri district of UP belong to Scheduled Castes. But it was only when a complaint was made recently that officials found about it.
As a result of this, the school principal was suspended and two cooks terminated.
Chief Development Officer Vinod Kumar said the action was taken after village pradhan Manju Devi's husband Saheb Singh filed a complaint on Saturday. The CDO, along with Basic Shiksha Adhikari Kamal Singh and project director KK Singh, inspected the school and its kitchen, and found the allegations true, the officer said.
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He says: “I asked the cooks where the other thaalis were, and they said the ones in the kitchen belonged to Backward and General Category students, while 50-60 thaalis were kept separately. I was also told that students belonging to Scheduled Castes were forced to wash their own dishes and keep them, as no one belonging to other castes was willing to touch them.”
“The BJP makes big claims of Dalit upliftment. They give token posts to some leaders from the community, but this is the reality of UP… decades after Dr B R Ambedkar faced such issues in his school days,” said Singh.