Casted Out

Discrimination against the Dalits is still pervasive in our society, and this is seriously marring the potential of the Mid Day Meal Scheme

- Akhileshwari Reddy

HUNGER AND undernutrition have become endemic among children in India. At least 39 percent of the children are chronically undernourished, says the latest National Family Health Survey of 2015-16. The impact is severe among those who are impoverished and socially disadvantaged. Nutritional health of these children was precisely in the mind of policymakers when they launched the Mid Day Meal Scheme and enforced it under the National Food Security Act of 2013. The scheme envisages a system in which all children, regardless of caste, would sit together and eat the same food prepared by the same cook. It was hoped that such a system would engender feelings of brotherhood and break down caste barriers.

But it hasn’t. Lofty ideals and harsh realities often go hand in hand in this country, and this became evident during a recent telecast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Pariksha Par Charcha” speech at a government school in Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu district. During the speech, the school had made Dalit students sit away from their upper caste peers. Some students later wrote to the district commissioner alleging that such caste-based discriminations are routinely practised at the school, especially during midday meals. The principal and cook, both belonging to upper castes, are responsible for perpetuating this, they claimed.