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Upper caste, Dalit students eat together days after row over Dalit cook
Upper caste students refused to eat the midday meals a day after a Dalit woman was appointed the cook
Officials joined the upper caste and Dalit students as they had their midday meal together at a government school in Uttarakhand’s Champawat district on Monday. This comes days after a Dalit cook was removed after the upper caste students at the school refused to have the food she cooked for them.
Prem Singh, the school principal, said 42 upper caste and 19 Dalit students ate together. RC Purohit, chief Champawat’s chief education officer, said the students from both communities sat together as they would do earlier.
On Saturday, sub-divisional magistrate Himanshu Kafaltia held a meeting of villagers of Sukhidhang and persuaded them to end the row for the betterment of the village and students. He constituted a committee under Purohit to investigate the matter.
Upper caste students refused to eat the midday meals a day after 32-year-old Dalit woman Sunita Devi was appointed as the cook on December 13. On December 22, Devi was removed from her post after an inquiry found the school management did not “follow the norms” for the appointment.
Dalit students boycotted the midday meal on Friday in protests and brought lunch boxes from their homes.
Vimilesh Upreti, an upper-caste cook, cooked the midday meals on Monday and other woman teachers helped her in serving them.
Before Devi’s appointment, two upper caste cooks belonging to the upper castes cooked the meals. One of them, retired and Devi was appointed in her place. After Devi’s removal, Upreti remains the school’s lone cook.
On Friday, Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami directed deputy Inspector general Nilesh Anand Bharne to investigate the matter and take appropriate action.
