Dalit cooks stir controversy in Uttar Pradesh as prejudices remain firm

Instead of earning accolades, the Mayawati government’s move to employ Dalit women to cook mid-day meals in primary schools has turned out to be a major embarrassment.

The state government has had to withdraw the controversial order after stiff resistance from upper castes and even backward castes. The official who issued the government order (GO) has been divested of his charge.

There have been incidents of violence and police lathicharge at several schools in central Uttar Pradesh (UP) where officials tried to coerce non-Dalit students to accept the food prepared by Dalit cooks. At some places, non-Dalit families have stopped sending their children to school as a mark of protest.

Apart from casting a shadow on UP chief minister Mayawati’s plans to ensure social equality for Dalits, the unseemly trail of events has also exposed the wide caste fissures in civil society.

“The more things change, the more they seem to remain the same,” comments noted historian and writer Yogesh Praveen.

“The political awareness and identity the Dalits have gained due to the efforts of leaders like Kanshi Ram and Mayawati are obviously not translating into ground realities,” he says.

On April 24 this year, UP’s basic education department issued an
order saying Dalits would be given priority in employment as cooks for preparing mid-day meals in schools. Candidates from other castes were to be considered only where a Dalit cook was not available. UP has over 1.50 lakh primary schools which are covered under the mid-day meal scheme, and close to 1.90 lakh cooks have been appointed so far.

As per the rules, a school of up to 25 students gets one cook, schools with 26 to 100 are entitled to two, for 200 students there could be three, and above that, four cooks. Each cook gets a salary of Rs1,000 per month.

The clause which started all the trouble stated that one of the cooks, in any case, would have to be a Dalit.

“I don’t see why this should be a problem at all since our Constitution prohibits untouchability,” Vivek Kumar, an expert on Dalit studies and associate professor (sociology) at JNU, says. “This is a paradox which exposes the social inequalities despite political equality,” he says.

“Socially, wherever there is a choice, primordial identities of class, caste, religion and language tend to overpower other factors,” he explains.

Prof Roop Rekha Verma, ex-vice chancellor, Lucknow University, analyses the situation in the same vein. “It’s no surprise that along with upper castes, even parents of OBC students are opposing Dalit cooks. Clearly, political identity does not ensure social acceptability,” she says.

Social scientists would perhaps be compelled to ask why the very people who gave a thumping majority to install a Dalit woman as chief minister in 2007 refuse food made by a Dalit woman even when it’s free.

No official comment was available on this “sensitive” issue.