In its report to Parliament, the panel has rejected the Human Resource Development Ministry's (HRD) claim that not a single instance of untouchability was detected in the country during the inspections carried out by the Central government teams. DH file photo for representation.
A parliamentary panel asked the Centre to organise “regular surprise inspections” of the elementary schools to detect instances of untouchability and other caste biases in cooking and serving the midday meal in the areas dominated by scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) communities.
In its report to Parliament, the panel has rejected the Human Resource Development Ministry's (HRD) claim that not a single instance of untouchability was detected in the country during the inspections carried out by the Central government teams.
“The committee apprehend the likelihood of leaking of information of the visits in advance and are of the view that (inspection) teams or monitoring institutes should make regular surprise visit to the schools in SC/ST dominated districts of Odisha and other parts of the country to detect instances of untouchability in the mid-day meal scheme,” parliamentary committee on the welfare of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes noted.
It will also send out “a strong message” that such acts will not be tolerated, it added.
“Non-government organisations in such areas may be involved in the process of investigation,” the panel recommended.
Taking note of some reports about instances of untouchability in Odisha and some other States, the panel had asked the HRD Ministry in its previous report to depute special teams to probe into such reports.
“As directed by the committee, two teams from the school education department of the Ministry were sent to five coastal districts of Odisha in 2012 to investigate the cases of untouchability. The teams visited 76 schools in these districts but could not come across a single case of discrimination,” the HRD Ministry told the parliamentary committee.
Later in January 2015, the HRD Ministry said, special teams were again constituted and sent to visit Banka and Sitamarhi districts of Bihar as well as Banda, Badaun and Bahraich districts of Uttar Pradesh as to enquire into the reports of caste discrimination in the implementation of the mid-day meal scheme.
“The central team observed there was no caste-based discrimination in sample schools visited by them,” the Ministry told the panel.