Orissa villagers stop midday meal cooked by Dalits

stop work. “They reasoned that the Dalits have no

right to cook at a school that accommodates upper-caste children,” said Kendrapara Collector Sisir Kanta Panda,who has ordered an administrative probe into the incident.

The village has a population of 700 people of which about one-third are Dalits.

The two Dalit women were locked up inside the kitchen for an hour before the school headmaster rescued them. Headmaster

Rabindra Nayak said he was being forced by the

upper-caste villagers to disengage the two women. “But I pleaded my helplessness as it was the decision of the higher authorities,” he said.

Incidentally,the state Women and Child Welfare Department,through a notification,had ordered that preferably women

from Dalit and tribal community should be enrolled as mid-day meal cooks in primary schools.

The Kendrapara Collector said he was disgusted with the incident. “This should not happen. Do we go to a hotel and check the cook’s caste before eating there?” he asked.

The Maa Ambika,a women’s self-help group running the mid-day meal scheme in the school,has expressed unwillingness to continue providing the meal. The group has alleged that they are being ill-treated because of their Dalit status.

Though the School Education Department initially did not allow Dalit women to cook mid-day meals on the grounds that upper-caste children might skip the meals,it gave in after the National Human Rights Commission last year asked the administration to stop the practice.

In February last year,Dalit students at a government-run primary school in the same area were allegedly prevented from performing puja and having prasad during Saraswati puja at a village in the district. The headmaster was later put under suspension.

In December 2006,four Dalits had entered a 300-year-old Jagannath temple at Keredagada village of Kendrapara,defying opposition to their entry by upper castes for over a year. The Orissa High Court came to the rescue of the Dalits,ruling on December 5 that they could enter any Hindu temple.