For S. Sundaravanitha, a cook at the Panchayat Union Middle School in Mookanur village in Kadayampatti Union in Tamil Nadus Salem district, life began to turn sour after she landed the job. Many members of the Vanniyar community who send their children to the school find it revolting to let their children eat food cooked by a Dalit. A distraught Sundaravanitha said: I feel like dying.
Her first appointment under the State governments MGR Nutritious Meal Scheme was at the meal centre attached to the Union Elementary School in the neighbouring Rasipurathan Kattuvalasu hamlet. She loves cooking and children enjoyed their meal, said a teacher on the first meal she cooked on August 23 for some 50 children. But trouble began the next day, with Vanniyars asking their wards to boycott the meals cooked by Sundaravanitha. For three days no child turned up for lunch though almost all of them attended classes. The issue was brought to the notice of officials in Kadayampatti Union who, after discussions with their superiors at the Salem Collectorate, transferred her on deputation to the school in her native village of Mookanur.
We had no option but to transfer Sundaravanitha from the Rasipurathan village centre since it is an issue that needs careful handling, said Kadayampatti Union Block Development Officer Chandran Rajadurai.
Her nightmare continued at Mookanur. A noon meal organiser said that on a particular day, of the 190 children from Classes 1 to 8 who usually ate at the school centre, only 41, the majority of them Dalits, had turned up for lunch. The number has fallen further, said the organiser, who has started taking a head count at prayer time every morning of students who would eat the noon meal.
Sundaravanitha has decided to fight it out. On the basis of her complaint, the Theevattipatti police have arrested four persons under the S.C./S.T. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
R. IlangovanCOMMents
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