Muslim kids refuse mid-day meal in school

Object to eating food cooked by a Dalit woman

PATNA: Dozens of Muslim students of a government-run Urdu school in a village in Bihar have refused to take mid-day meals cooked by a Dalit woman.

“We will not touch the food. There is no question of taking food cooked by a woman belonging to the scheduled caste,” said Nurjahan Bano, an eight-year-old student of Amri Urdu middle school in Rohtas district, about 150 km from here.

Md Aslam Ansari, a teacher in the school, admitted that Muslim students were not eating mid-day meals for nearly a month. “It is an unfortunate thing,” he said.

“All the Muslim students of the school refused to eat food cooked by a Dalit woman,” villager Naushad Alam added. Some parents of the school students are responsible for the decision, Alam said. “Last month, only a few students refused to eat food cooked by a Dalit woman but later most of the students followed them,” he said.