Caste Discrimination against India's “Untouchables” - Human Rights ...

c. Segregation in schools
Segregation in schools undermines Dalit children’s right to education free from
discrimination as guaranteed by Article 5(d)(v) of ICERD. Dalit children are routinely forced
to sit in the back of the classroom, and are segregated from non-Dalit children during
lunchtime. 445 Even Dalit teachers may be segregated from non-Dalit teachers in accessing
food and water during lunchtime 446 (see Section VIII(E)(5)(a)). Segregation encourages high
drop-out rates among Dalits 447 and perpetuates “untouchability” practices by teaching non-
Dalit children that “untouchability” is both an acceptable and necessary practice. This
segregation is particularly evident in the Mid-Day Meal Scheme.
The Mid-Day Meal Scheme was initiated following a Supreme Court order as a means of
addressing hunger and malnutrition among schoolchildren. 448 However, according to a
study conducted by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, the states of Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar—where a third of India’s Dalits live—have refused to implement the program. 449
Programs have also been closed because of upper-caste community opposition; 450 uppercastes
have also opposed the hiring of Dalit cooks for the program. 451 Where the program is
445
Human Rights Watch, Broken People, p. 26; “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for Dalits in India: Case Study on Primary Education
in Gujarat,” Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, p. 17.
446
“Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for Dalits in India: Case Study on Primary Education in Gujarat,” Woodrow Wilson School of
Public and International Affairs, p. 17.
447
NCDHR response to the Special Rapporteur’s Questionnaire, p. 10 (citing Report, National Commission for Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes, pp. 151-183, Government of India, New Delhi, 1999-2000 & 2000-2001, “the drop-out rate in Scheduled Castes during
1990-91 was as high as 49.35 percent at primary stage and 67.77 percent at middle stage and 77.65 percent at secondary stage”).
448
As a result of public interest litigation on the right to food, the Supreme Court of India directed State Governments and Union
Territories to implement a scheme providing every child in every government and government-assisted primary school with a prepared
mid-day meal. See Right to Food Campaign, Mid-Day Meals, http://www.righttofoodindia.org/mdm/mdm_scorders.html (accessed
February 7, 2007).
449
NCDHR response to the Special Rapporteur’s Questionnaire, p. 10; See also Joel Lee & Sukhadeo Thorat, Dalits and Right to Food:
Discrimination and Exclusion in Food Related Government Programs, unpublished document on file with World Prout Assembly,
September 2005, http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2005/09/dalits_and_the.html (accessed February 7, 2007).
450
Additionally, in a village in Tamil Nadu, the program was closed down because upper-caste community members opposed the scheme
because it would benefit Dalit and tribal children. Lee, et al., Dalits and Right to Food.
451
A working paper by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies explains the repeated acts of discrimination Dalit cooks in the mid-day meals
program face:
First, when local administrators are putting the MMS [mid-day meal scheme] into place, dominant caste community members
intervene to block the hiring of Dalit cooks, favoring dominant caste cooks instead. Where a Dalit cook has been hired,
dominant caste parents then begin sending their children to school with lunches packed at home, or require their children to
come home for lunch, in any case forbidding their children to eat food prepared by the Dalit cook. In the third stage, dominant
caste parents or community members pressure the local administration to dismiss the Dalit cook, on any pretext, and hire a
dominant caste cook instead. Where this is ineffective, or sometimes without the intervening step, the dominant caste
parents campaign to shut down the MMS in the village school altogether. Finally, some dominant caste parents react to the
hiring and keeping of a Dalit cook by withdrawing their children from the school, and sometimes admitting them in a different
school where the cook is not Dalit.
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