Children in parts of India refuse free school lunches because they are prepared by 'untouchables'

Despite the country’s surging economy and growing clout at the global geopolitical high table, swathes of India continue to endorse the deeply-entrenched caste system.

This sad reality was highlighted yet again recently in a report by Lucknow University’s department of education. According to the report, 40 percent of the schools across sample districts in Uttar Pradesh -- India’s most populous state, with 199 million people -- teachers and students refuse to partake of government-sponsored free midday meals because they are cooked by dalits (once known as untouchables).

The report adds that upper primary school children take less midday meals than those in the lower grades because the ‘upper primary children…are more aware of the caste system and do not like to take midday meal prepared by SC (scheduled caste) cooks.’ More...

Don't miss:

1. In this south Indian village, dalits can't use footwear or ride bikes... 
2. How the low-caste Dalits are treated in Tamil Nadu...
3. When low-caste Dalits in India are raped and killed by upper-caste thugs 
4. How the low-caste Dalits are treated in India's Tamil Nadu...
5. Dalit in Tamil Nadu (India) forced to eat human excreta for daring to wear slippers! 
6. Caste massacre in India. (Graphic)