Caste bias halts Anganwadi services in Odisha village after Dalit woman’s appointment as cook
Bhubaneswar: An anganwadi centre in Nuagaon village of Rajnagar block in Odisha’s Kendrapara district has remained closed for nearly three months after villagers allegedly boycotted it following the appointment of a Dalit woman as helper-cum-cook.
According to a report published by The New Indian Express, 23-year-old Sarmista Sethi was appointed to the post on November 24, 2025. Soon after she joined, several families reportedly objected to food being prepared by a Dalit woman and stopped sending their children to the centre.
Sethi said resistance began immediately after her appointment. She claimed that some villagers openly told her not to cook for the children. When she refused to resign, parents stopped sending children to the anganwadi. She added that women in the village gradually stopped visiting the centre as well. Nuagaon has around 45 households, including seven Dalit families.
The boycott has affected nearly 60 children who are now deprived of supplementary nutrition and early childhood education services. Pregnant and lactating women have also stopped visiting the centre, missing out on health and nutrition support, said Ghadiamala sarpanch Sailendra Mishra. He said repeated appeals to villagers to resume participation have not yielded results.
Anganwadi worker Lizarani Pandav reported the matter to the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) of Rajnagar block. CDPO Dipali Mishra said efforts were made to resolve the issue through dialogue. Meetings were held with villagers, including by the tehsildar, but the centre has not resumed normal functioning.
On Tuesday, a group of Dalit leaders visited the village and demanded legal action against those blocking the anganwadi’s operations. Nagen Jena, district president of Dalit Samaj, referred to a 2004 interim order of the Supreme Court in the PUCL versus Government of India case, which prioritises Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates in appointments of cooks under government nutrition schemes.
Kendrapara district collector Raghuram R Iyer said he has sought a detailed report from the district social welfare officer. He added that appropriate action would be taken after examining the findings against those found to be illegally preventing children and women from accessing anganwadi services.
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Punjab: 16 private schools in Mohali receive bomb threat emails
Chandigarh (PTI): Sixteen private schools in Punjab's Mohali received bomb threat emails on Wednesday, triggering evacuation and prompting detailed anti-sabotage checks by police, an officer said.
No suspicious or explosive material was discovered at any of the locations after thorough inspections, the officer said.
School authorities sent messages to parents, declaring a holiday. Students on their way to school were sent back home, they said.
Manav Mangal School, Shivalik Public School, and Learning Paths School were among the schools which received the bomb threat emails.
The police said they swung into action after school authorities reported receiving the emails between 7.30 am and 8 am.
Security was mounted at the targeted schools, and intensive searches were carried out, they said.
"The police teams led by superintendents of police, deputy superintendents of police and other officials were rushed to the schools along with anti-sabotage teams and bomb disposal squads," Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Harmandeep Singh Hans told reporters.
Around 300 policemen were involved in the search operation, and all targeted schools were evacuated, he said.
The checking of all schools was completed within about two-and-a-half hours with the support of additional force and specialised teams from neighbouring districts of Fatehgarh Sahib, Rupnagar, and Chandigarh headquarters, Hans said.
"No explosive material was found at any of the locations," he added.
The search operations were supervised by SP City Dilpreet Singh, along with SPs Navneet Singh Mahal, Mohit Aggarwal, Sukhnaz Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Talwinder Singh Gill; DSP City-1 Prithvi Singh Chahal, DSP City-2 Harsimran Singh Bal and all station house officers.
Schools covered during the search included Amity School, Doon School, Learning Paths, Gurukul School, Vivek High School, Paragon School, YPS School, Lawrence School, and Gem Public School.
An FIR is being lodged, and the case has been referred to the Cyber Police Station, Phase-7, Mohali, to ascertain the origin of the threatening email and conduct an investigation, Hans said.
The latest scare comes close on the heels of similar threat incidents in Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, and schools in Haryana, all of which turned out to be hoaxes.
