Will take back FIR on assurance that no one will harass me on caste lines, says Dalit cook after being reinstated in school
Pithoragarh: Dalit bhojanmata (cook) Sunita Devi, who was dismissed from a school in Champawat over “irregularities in her appointment”, and subsequently reinstated on Friday after a meeting between parents and the school management, said that she will take back the FIR lodged against six villagers for hurling casteist slurs at her, if she gets an assurance that she would not be harassed in the future on the basis of her caste.
Speaking to TOI, Devi said, “My family is a part of the village. We want to live peacefully. I have no ill feelings towards other villagers and I’m ready to take back my complaint, but only after an assurance that the matter will end now and I will not be targeted further.”
Six people were booked under IPC section 506 (criminal intimidation) and the SC/ST Act on the basis of the 33-year-old Dalit woman’s complaint. Narendra Joshi, one of those named in the FIR, said the cook’s removal had “nothing to do with caste and the entire episode has been misrepresented.” “It is true that in some houses in the village, there is still the taboo of not letting certain people enter the kitchen. But no one instigated the students to boycott the meal prepared by Sunita Devi,” he said, adding that the FIR was “completely baseless”.
Prem Singh, the school principal, said, “Officials from the local administration had recently visited the school to convince students to avail the mid-day meal and all of them had food together. We now hope there won’t be any issues once the school reopens.”
Meanwhile, Devendra Singh Pincha, SP, Champawat, said, “Even if both sides reach a compromise, only the high court can quash the FIR lodged under the SC/ST Act. The court may summon the complainant and ask her whether she had taken the decision under any duress. The process can take 2-3 months.”
The Dalit woman, whose two children are studying in classes 6 and 8, and husband works as a daily-wage worker, had joined the school as bhojanmata on December 13 but the very next day, several upper caste students refused to eat the meal cooked by her. Dalit students soon retaliated and skipped meals prepared by an upper caste cook.
Courtesy : TOI
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