Separate water pot for dalit teacher in Gujarat school

AHMEDABAD: In a shocking case of untouchability, a 46-year-old dalit teacher in Gujarat’s Surendranagar district was served a notice by the principal of the government school simply because he drank water from a pitcher “reserved” for three of his upper-caste colleagues.
Two weeks after the dalit teacher lodged an FIR against the discrimination, he was transferred to another government school on Wednesday.
In his FIR filed at the Chotila police station on August 14, Kanhaiyalal Baraiya, the dalit teacher working at Piyava Sarkari Prathmik Shala-2 in Surendranagar district, had accused the principal of caste discrimination, criminal intimidation and inciting hatred against him.
Baraiya alleged discrimination by the principal, Mansang Rathod, from the very day he assumed charge at the school two years ago. He said he chose to remain silent all this while in the interest of students.
“The school principal allotted two pitchers — one for me as I belong to the Valmiki community and one for the other three teachers, who hail from Koli Patel and Darbar communities,” Baraiya said in the FIR.
Teacher threatened for resisting diktat
Baraiya alleged that when Rathod came to know that he was drinking water from the other pitcher, he slapped a notice on him on July 3. “You are a teacher belonging to the Valmiki community. Do not drink water from the pitcher of ‘savarna' (upper caste) teachers,” the notice read.
When Baraiya resisted the inhuman treatment, he was not only threatened by Rathod but the parents of students too threw a fit by forcing a shutdown of the school for a day on August 21. They insisted they did not want an “untouchable” to teach their wards. Baraiya alleged that the parents protested after some staff members told them that he was from the Valmiki community.
Baraiya, who has been a government teacher since 2002, alleged in the FIR that he was subjected to increased discrimination ever since he objected to the principal’s direction to fraudulently mark attendance of his relative’s child some weeks ago. He alleged that Rathod started abusing him with casteist remarks in front of teachers and students.
Following the FIR, Baraiya has been provided security with an armed cop accompanying him to the classroom.
Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani said Baraiya’s case is a testimony to untouchability being practised in Gujarat despite it being a penal offence. “The state government has failed to initiate any drive to abolish untouchability or to take stern action as a deterrent,” Mevani said.