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Upper Caste Students Shun Mid-Day Meal Prepared At Dalit Cook's Home In Madhya Pradesh

Only 12 students have been eating the meal every day.
Adnan Abidi / Reuters

In a disturbing case of caste discrimination, students belonging to 'upper' castes in a village in Madhya Pradesh allegedly boycotted mid-day meal prepared at the house of a Dalit family.

According to ANI, the school in Tikamgarh had appointed a woman to cook and serve meal to the students.

But as the family belongs to a different caste, only 12 students came to the house to eat the meal. The others, allegedly boycotted the meal altogether, claiming that they didn't want to eat food prepared by a person of a 'lower' caste.

The woman's son, also a student at the school said:

Instead of criticising the children's and especially their parents' actions, the headmaster of the school said that it was best that the food be cooked inside the school premises. He claimed that the students were hesitant to eat there only because it was cooked at somebody else's home.

Meal should be cooked at school kitchen-shed,then everyone will consume it;Since it's cooked at someone's home, kids are hesitant-Headmaster pic.twitter.com/5iMGeB5dzU

— ANI (@ANI_news) January 29, 2017

Last year, over 30 madrasas in Ujjain had refused to accept the food prepared in Iskon Temple, claiming that it was an attempt to "defile their faith". They had reportedly demanded that meals be cooked in the madrasas themselves instead of being brought from outside.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.