No admission for children

MADURAI: In what reminds one of 20th century apartheid set up, children of Dalit families in Kurayur near Kalligudi in Madurai district have been barred from admissions to the Government Middle School in the village by the dominant Hindu Caste.The Dalit children have been forced to study at a missionary-run government-aided school on the border of the village, which has poor facilities.Located five km from the Kalligudi police station in the Thirumangalam taluk, Kurayur has witnessed caste clashes over the decades.While most caste Hindu students study in the government school at the heart of the village, the Dalits have been forced to admit their children at the missionary-run primary school “on their side of the village.”   According to members of the Scheduled Caste community, the set up has existed ever since the caste clashes of 1996, when a 15-year-old boy from their community was murdered. Villager elders convened an informal meeting of the panchayat and came up with the present ‘apartheid’ arrangement.When Express inspected the school records at the village, which is a reserved panchayat for SC women, on Thursday, it emerged that all 260 students were caste Hindus. School officials, who have been working there since early 1990s, said they do not recall even a single Dalit student ever studying in the school.“After the clashes of 1996, the village elders decided that Dalits should send their children to the other school in their own interest,” a school official said.