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In yet another instance of a teacher assaulting a Dalit student in Uttar Pradesh, the headmaster of a school in Barabanki allegedly threw a hot meal on a Dalit girl student of class two! The incident took place in Icholi village of Tikaitnagar and according to Times of India, District Magistrate of Barabanki, Adarsh Singh, has now ordered a probe.
Santosh Pandey, a Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) is in charge of the probe where the girl whose arm was burnt is not only a Dalit, but also differently abled. The incident allegedly took place on August 29, and came to light on September 3 after her mother filed a complaint.
“We have taken statements of 800 students who were also being served meals during lunch time and its detailed report will be handed over to the DM,” Pandey told TOI.
In another incident, on September 2, a 11-year-old Dalit boy was beaten up by his headmaster after he touched his bike at a pre-secondary school in Balia. The incident took place during recess at the school located in Ranaupur of Nagra area of Balia. The boy, a student of class six, placed his hand on the bike and the headmaster then started thrashing him, dragging him to his office. But before allowing the boy to leave the headmaster applied some ointment on his injuries. When the boy reached his home in Kauwapar of Bhimapur area, he showed his injuries to his father. Enraged villagers protested and the headmaster was suspended the following day. Basic education officer Maniram Singh said that a probe was conducted by a team of block officers and a report was awaited.
SabrangIndia had also reported that in another shocking instance on August 31, a so-called “upper caste” teacher assaulted an eight-year-old Dalit girl at a government run primary school in Firozabad so severely that he broke her arm. But the matter did not end there. When the parents of the girl confronted the teacher, he allegedly hurled casteist slurs at them. Then there was resistance from the local police in filing a complaint. It was then that the family filed a complaint with the office of the sub-divisional magistrate on Tuesday September 6. It was only after SDM Adesh Kumar Sagar passed orders, that a First Information Report (FIR) was filed at the Pachokhara police station under IPC sections 323 (causing hurt), 325 (grievous hurt), 504 (insult to provoke breach of peace), and sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
But attacks on Dalit children are not limited to just Uttar Pradesh. Readers would recall that a 9-year-old Dalit boy from Rajasthan died after being thrashed mercilessly by his “upper caste” teacher, merely for touching a pot of water. In Madhya Pradesh a 13-year-old Dalit rape survivor was forcibly kept overnight at a police station and beaten up in an alleged bid to force her to change her statement.
Related:
Uttar Pradesh: Teacher allegedly breaks Dalit girl’s hand
9-year-old Dalit boy dies after teacher allegedly thrashes him; cops deny “caste angle”
Madhya Pradesh: 13-year-old Dalit rape survivor allegedly beaten by police