Jaipur: The Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights is yet to ascertain whether the death of the 9-year-old Dalit boy in Jalore district was a result of caste-based discrimination, its member said on Saturday.
The report of the findings will be submitted to the state government on Monday.
Indra Kumar Meghwal, a class 3 student of Saraswati Vidhay Mandir in Surana village, was beaten up by his teacher Chail Singh on July 20 allegedly for touching a drinking water pot and succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Ahmedabad on August 14.
Shiv Bhagwan Naga, an RSCPCR member, who visited Surana village in Jalore on August 17 said according to fellow students, Meghwal along with one another student was slapped by Singh for fighting over a drawing book as a result of which, Meghwal suffered injuries in his ear and eye.
“I visited the school and home of the deceased boy. 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 arrangements in the school, Meghwal’s cousin said the teacher thrashed the 9-year-old because he drank water from his water pot after lunch,” he told PTI.
The deceased’s cousin is a class 5 student in the same school.
Naga said, as per 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 taking place in the village in the past, he said.
The RSCPCR member said that the commission has directed the education department to ensure that in case the recognition of the school in question is terminated, its students should be shifted to another school so that their studies do not suffer.
“The matter is under investigation but it could not be established so far that the teacher thrashed him for touching the water pot,” SP Jalore Harsh Vardhan Agarwalla said.
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