Caste Hindus of Adayur village near Tiruvannamalai opposed the admission of two dalit boys in the local Panchayat Union Middle School on Monday and prevented their children from attending school in protest.
The caste Hindu students returned to school in the afternoon after a peace meeting convened by Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) V. Bupathi, officials said.
Till now, the dalits used to send their children to the Adi Dravidar Welfare Middle School in the village. For the first time, Muthuraj and Sathish, sons of Kumar, a dalit migrant worker, were enrolled in the PUMS in class I and VI on June 6.
Taking objection to this, the caste Hindu parents assembled at the school on Monday and urged headmaster Mohammed Usman to expel the dalit boys. He refused.
RDO V. Bupathi, Tahsildar Ravichandran and Police Inspector Pooncholai rushed to the spot and held a meeting with the representatives of both communities. Mr. Bupathi told the meeting that parents alone could decide where their children should study and not others.
“When someone comes to a government school for admission, we cannot turn down the request based on caste. Our law does not allow this kind of discrimination in school admission. We need not run two middle schools in the village for less than 400 students. We may consider merging the two schools if things go on like this,” he warned.
When some caste Hindu women argued that their girls were teased by dalit boys, Mr. Bupathi said it was irrelevant to the issue at hand and assured them that action would be taken if there was a specific complaint.
M. Srinivasan, a DMDK functionary representing the caste Hindus said, “No dalit has ever been admitted to PUMS and they usually go to their welfare school. This is in practice for 50 years and why should they come here now?”
Mr. Bupathi retorted: “Our nation was enslaved for 300 years. Why then did we seek Independence?”
Panchayat president R. Ramamurthi, a caste Hindu, argued against the exclusion of the dalit boys.
He pointed out that in all other villages in the region, dalit and caste Hindu children studied together in schools.
“Even children of this village go to school along with dalits from class IX,” he said and urged the parents to send their children to school. Soon, the parents relented.
Published - June 12, 2012 04:07 am IST
