Revision summary
Parents pulling children from a Dalit-cooked midday meal is caste practice, not a hygiene footnote. Do not sack the cook or open a second kitchen; keep the meal running and eat it in public. Mobilise same-community peers, teachers and the department so attendance rules do not kill the scheme. Article 17 and the atrocities law back dignity; use them with facts. Every group — parents, elders, teachers, Panchayat, district — has a duty to keep the school open as one republic at lunch.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
A child’s plate has been turned into a caste test. If the school dies, the poorest child loses food and letters together. As Sarpanch I will not restore attendance by sacking a Dalit cook to please a prejudice.
Body
Stakeholders
- Children who still eat, children who are kept away, and the Dalit cook whose dignity is on the line.
- Higher-caste parents, Dalit families, teachers and the Headmaster.
- The midday meal scheme, which is a legal nutrition right, not a club lunch.
- You as Sarpanch, the Panchayat, revenue and education officers, and community elders.
Values
- Equality (Articles 14, 15, 17). Untouchability is abolished; a plate is not a temple from which a cook can be cast out.
- Right to food and education of every child.
- Courage with persuasion: a sarpanch who only lectures will lose the school; one who only surrenders will lose the Constitution.
(a) Feasible strategies
- Keep the cook. Removing her is the one strategy that looks easy and teaches caste that it still owns the kitchen.
- Keep the kitchen open every day. A closed meal is a victory for the boycott.
- Immediate: visit homes with a teacher, an ANM, and a respected person from the same caste groups that are boycotting, not as a beggar but as the head of the village: the meal is the State’s, the cook is qualified, the child who stays home loses food and school.
- Eat in public: Sarpanch, Headmaster and willing parents take the same meal, same line, photographed only if it helps and does not humiliate the cook as an exhibit.
- Separate the nutrition science from the prejudice: the menu is the same; caste does not live in the grain.
- If some parents still refuse, do not starve the children who come. Do not run a “two-kitchen” solution that re-creates untouchability in stainless steel.
- Involve the education department and the midday meal authority so that attendance rules are not used mechanically to kill the scheme while a caste boycott is on. Ask for a recorded exception and extra mobilisation days.
- If there is incitement to boycott a public scheme, treat it as a rights issue; the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 may apply where humiliation of a Dalit cook is caste-based. Use it with evidence, not as a first shout that empties the village.
- Children’s clubs, baal sabhas, and a mothers’ committee that includes Dalit mothers, with rotating tasting — dignity as routine, not as a one-day drama.
- If a rumour of hygiene is the mask, do a real, public hygiene audit and fix any true gap, without accepting caste as a proxy for cleanliness.
(b) Responsibilities of segments and agencies
- Higher-caste parents: send the child; prejudice is not a parental right over a public plate.
- Dalit families: they should not have to plead; the village owes the cook protection from insult.
- Elders and faith leaders: if they bless a boycott they own the school’s death; they must say that a shared meal is not pollution.
- Teachers: eat the meal, stop coded remarks, and teach Article 17 as a living rule.
- Panchayat and Sarpanch: budget, lighting, water in the kitchen, and a spine.
- School management committee: minutes that name the boycott as the cause of absence, so that a distant official does not blame the cook.
- District education and food departments: do not withdraw the scheme for a caste-created attendance dip without a field inquiry; support the sarpanch.
- Police and revenue: only if intimidation is organised; a heavy lathi on day one can freeze positions, but a documented threat cannot be ignored.
- Media and NGOs: amplify the child’s right, not a caste war as entertainment.
- The State: midday meal is an entitlement under national policy and Supreme Court directions in the PUCL right-to-food line; local caste custom is not a permitted exemption.
Options I reject
- Sack the cook or hide her behind a “helper” from a “accepted” caste.
- Run parallel plates.
- Wait silently for the school to close and blame “social realities”.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD BOY[Caste boycott of meal] --> KEEP[Keep cook and kitchen] KEEP --> EAT[Public shared meal] KEEP --> HOME[Home visits with peers] TWO[Two kitchens] --> U17[Recreates untouchability] SACK[Sack Dalit cook] --> LESSON[Caste wins the school]
Conclusion
The conflict ends when the Dalit cook stays, the kitchen stays, and parents who boycott are pressed by peers, teachers and the scheme’s officers. Every segment has a duty; none has a right to close a school to keep a plate “pure”.
Quick related
Students also ask
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If half the children vanish, will the scheme not die anyway?
That is the boycott’s aim. Record the cause, keep feeding those who come, and pull the department in so that a caste strike is not coded as “low demand”.
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Is a public photo of eating with the cook tokenism?
One photo is token. A daily shared line, a kept job, and parents who return is the test. The photo is only a start.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2026 · Q8 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. Ravi is a senior police officer with vast experience in riot control and cyber-policing. Since one year, he has been the Superintendent of Police (SP) of a district with a history of frequent rioting. Last year, Ravi had sought installation of an AI enabled software for predictive policing. This system has been operational for approximately six months. This new system employs advanced algorithms for capturing the biometric data of persons in a crowd and swiftly relating it to a data library. This has enabled the police to identify the persons involved in various crimes. The system has identified an immigrant and low-income neighbourhood as a centre for gang violence and drug trafficking. Aided by this AI analysis, the local police has focused its patrolling, preventive detentions and establishing checkpoints. Consequently, public order and law enforcement has visibly improved. Last week, some community leaders, civil rights lawyers and human rights activists visited Ravi's office. They submitted a memorandum that the new system is faulty as it is based on incorrect historical data caused by social biases and discriminatory policing. The memorandum also alleges that the increased surveillance has created a climate of tension amongst residents. This feeling is aggravated by the fact that the residents are not aware of the data noted against their names. (a) What are the ethical issues including biases involved in the use of AI in data-driven policing? (b) Place yourself in Ravi's role and discuss the alternatives available. Justify the action that optimises compliance with ethics. -
2020 · Q11 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. Parmal is a small but underdeveloped district. It has rocky terrain that is not suitable for agriculture, though some subsistence agriculture is being done on small plots of land. The area receives adequate rainfall and has an irrigation canal flowing through it. Amria, its administrative centre, is a medium sized town. It houses a large district hospital, an Industrial Training Institute and some privately owned skill training centres. It has all the facilities of a district headquarters. A trunk railway line passes approximately 50 kilometres from Amria. Its poor connectivity is a major reason for the absence of any major industry therein. The state government offers a 10 years tax holiday as an incentive to new industry. In 2010 Anil, an industrialist, decided to take benefits to set up Amria Plastic Works (APW) in Noora village, about 20 km from Amria. While the factory was being built, Anil hired the required key labour and got them trained at the skill training centres at Amria. This act of his made the key personnel very loyal to APW. APW started production in 2011 with the labour drawn fully from Noora village. The villagers were very happy to get employment near their homes and were motivated by the key personnel to meet the production targets with high quality. APW started making large profits, a sizeable portion of which was used to improve the quality of life in Noora. By 2016, Noora could boast of a greener village and a renovated village temple. Anil liaised with the local MLA to increase the frequency of the bus services to Amria. The government also opened a primary health care centre and primary school at Noora in buildings constructed by APW. APW used its CSR funds to set up women's self-help groups, subsidize primary education to the village children and procure an ambulance for use by its employees and the needy. In 2019, there was a minor fire in APW. It was quickly extinguished as fire safety protocols were in place in the factory. Investigations revealed that the factory had been using electricity in excess of its authorized capacity. This was soon rectified. The next year, due to a nationwide lockdown, the requirement of production fell for four months. Anil decided that all employees would be paid regularly. He employed them to plant trees and improve the village habitat. APW had developed a reputation of high-quality production and a motivated workforce. Critically analyse the story of APW and state the ethical issues involved. Do you consider APW as a role model for development of backward areas? Give reasons.
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