Yet to establish caste angle: Rajasthan child rights panel member on Dalit boy's death

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The Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights is yet to ascertain whether the death of the nine-year-old Dalit boy in Jalore district was a result of caste-based discrimination, its member said on Saturday. The report of its findings will be submitted to the state government on Monday.

It has been widely reported that Indra Kumar Meghwal, a Class III student of Saraswati Vidhya Mandir in Surana village, was allegedly beaten up by his teacher Chail Singh on July 20 for touching a drinking water pot and he succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Gujarat's Ahmedabad on August 14.

Shiv Bhagwan Naga, an RSCPCR member, who visited Surana village in Jalore on August 17, said according to fellow students, teacher Singh had slapped Meghwal and another student for "fighting over a drawing book", as a result of which he suffered injuries in his ear and eye.

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"I visited the boy's school and home. I spoke to many of the students, teachers and local people apart from the family. While most of the students ruled out any caste-based discrimination and separate drinking water arrangement in the school, Meghwal's cousin said the teacher thrashed him because he drank water from the pot after lunch," he told PTI.

Meghwal's cousin is a Class V student in the same school. Naga said according to other students and teachers, there was no water pot in the school and everyone on the premises drank water from a tank. Villagers have also denied any incident of caste-based discrimination there, he said.

Naga said the commission has directed the education department to ensure that in case the school's recognition gets withdrawn, its students should be shifted to another school so that their studies do not suffer. Jalore Superintendent of Police Harsh Vardhan Agarwalla also said the allegation that the teacher had beaten up the boy for touching the water pot could not be established so far.

"The matter is under investigation but it could not be established so far that the teacher thrashed him for touching the pot," he said. Meanwhile, MP from Rajasthan's Nagaur constituency Hanuman Beniwal sat on a dharna along with his supporters at the Jalore district collectorate demanding a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Meghwal's family.

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