Upper Caste Students in Uttarakhand Govt School Boycott Mid-Day Meals Yet Again

Dalit cook Sunita Devi was sacked from the government school in December 2021.

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In the government school in Uttarakhand's Champawat district, seven to eight students have yet again refused to eat food cooked by Dalit cook Sunita Devi, who was sacked from the school following the row in December 2021 and later reinstated, the school principal said, as reported by The Indian Express.

Following the incident, Champawat District Magistrate (DM), Narender Singh Bhandari had held a meeting on Friday, 20 May, with the students' parents and asked them to let the students of the Swatantra Sangram Senani Late Shri Ram Chandra Government Inter College in Jaul village eat the mid-day meals.

“Today, the DM and a few police officials had a meeting with the students and their parents and tried to convince them to stop boycotting the meal. The officials themselves had a meal at the school. However, these 7-8 students still refused to eat, claiming they do not eat rice,” the principal said, as quoted by The Indian Express.

Singh further said that he has warned the parents of the students who are boycotting the meals that they could be expelled from the school.

Dalit Cook Sacked and Reappointed

About 43 students belonging to the upper-caste communities, studying in classes VI-VIII at the same school had refused to eat food cooked by Devi.

On 23 December 2021, Champawat education department officials sacked the Dalit cook citing procedural lapses in her appointment and had replaced her with a cook belonging to the upper caste.

In retaliation, 23 Dalit students of the school refused to eat the mid-day meal prepared by the woman from the upper caste.

After Devi was fired, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep Tamta had said that his party would launch an agitation to "restore the woman's Constitutional rights," and Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan had said if she was not reinstated, his outfit would gherao Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.

Devi was later reappointed on 1 January and started cooking mid-day meals in the school since March.

Devi had filed a police complaint with Uttarakhand police, after she was sacked, and a case under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was filed against 31 people for making caste slurs against her and also for criminal intimidation.

(With inputs from Indian Express.)