With children from intermediate caste bringing food from home to avoid eating the noon meal cooked by a Dalit woman, District Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) S. Nandagopal has called for creating a caste-less social fabric in the minds of the students in the Government High School at Thirumalaigoundanpalayam near Sevoor in Avanashi taluk .
The district administration should take effective steps to root out caste discrimination from the minds of the students. Though the law has been set in motion against the perpetrators of the discrimination against the cook, an effort to change the mindset should be made. He also urged the administration and the Education Department to construct a room for cooking noon meal and also compound wall for the school, which is situated near a burial ground.
“Do not precipitate the issue, as our immediate concern is to improve the attendance of the students. We ensured that over 70 students out of the 75 turned up for the school and the institution is running peacefully,'' said Chief Educational Officer Shanthi.
The school has a total strength of 75 students from Classes VI to X. Out of the total number of 65 students up to Class VIII who registered for the free noon meal, only 32 took the meal for the past three days. The rest brought food from home, said a noon meal scheme official.
Tirupur Sub Collector Swarankumar told The Hindu there were multiple reasons for the absence of the students after the Dalit cook issue surfaced — a local temple festival was on, a few students were frightened by the presence of police force, and the parents of few students were arrested over this issue.
“When I visited [the school] two times after the incident, I did not find any discrimination among the students. They were friendly with each other. The administration is closely watching the situation. We also wrote to the government for the construction of a concrete kitchen room and the appointment of a permanent cook, as there is no sanctioned post of cook for this school'' Mr. Swarankumar said.
