Bhojanmata’s Struggle for Dignity

Various state governments, for the last several years, have introduced the mid-day meal scheme for school children to provide them with “nutritious” food and ensure their physical retention in the classroom. It was also intended that such a scheme would contribute to the food economy of the needy households. However, as the media reports and several ground-level studies show, such a scheme, though useful, has been a cause for maintaining caste hierarchy that is mediated through the social construction of children, who otherwise are considered to be ethically innocent of caste consciousness.

The recent mid-day meal controversy that occurred in a government school from a district in Uttarakhand has once again brought forth the problem of caste discrimination against a Dalit woman who, as the media reports suggest, was first appointed and immediately dismissed from the job of a bhojanmata or a mid-day meal cook. The job of a bhojanmata was reportedly then given to an upper-caste woman. However, after determined protests by the aggrieved Dalit woman, the promise to restore her job seems to have been given.