Cook removed for throwing chappatis touched by ‘dalit’ student

Udaipur : An eight class student’s courage to raise voice against discrimination forced the school authorities to terminate services of a woman who was engaged to cook midday meal there. The cook Kamla Vaishnav, a brahmin, had allegedly thrown piles of chappatis because the student who belongs to a lower caste, touched them.The incident came to be known after the girl’s statement went viral on social media.

The girl who hails from Meghwal community said that a teacher asked her to bring chappatis from the kitchen and when she touched them, the lady cook was infuriated.” She rebuked me very harshly and said that because i had touched the rotis, she couldnt take them home and they were waste now. She fed the rotis to dogs” the girl claimed.She narrated the incident to the teacher who didnt pay heed. The girl went home and told her mother. She even refused to go to school as she was badly hurt. The girl’s mother went to the school and complained to the Principal.Resentment grew among the locals as the video went viral, prompting the school administration to convene a meeting of the school management committee which decided to remove the cook, a contractual employee.”The cook tendered her apology for discriminating against the girl,but the locals were not pacified and wanted action against her.

Therefore, a decision was taken to remove her,” Sushil Arya, the principal of Government Girls Higher Primary School-Utarda, said. The woman also belongs to the same village but no case of discrimination on the basis of caste has happened so far, therefore, the villagers were annoyed over the incident,” the school principal said. The District Education Officer was unavailable for a comment on the incident.