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Education for all, NA for Dalits
Published on Thu, May 10, 2007 at 22:53, Updated on Fri, May 11, 2007 at 08:59 in 
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Panipat: They aren't old enough to read about discrimination, but unfortunately they're old enough to face it. Rita, Indu and Neera live in Garhsarmai, a predominantly Dalit village near Haryana’s Panipat.
But they don't study there. Instead, they go to an expensive private school in Noorwala, five km away.
Their parents had to borrow money for their admissions, all because their local government school wouldn't take these six year olds in.
“We were asked to go. He said we do not take chamars (Dalits),” says their father Satbir Singh.
The three girls even took lessons from one of the teachers in their village and did extremely well in their lower grades.
But they were still denied admission. Villagers say upper caste teachers at the government school aren't interested in teaching Dalit children.
“They beat up the children, don't teach, play cards and take money,” says a villager Ram Kishan.
Parents of the girls have complained to the state education department and the police, but no action has been taken yet.
The school headmaster says there is no issue.
“We have 429 children and most of them are Dalit children. We do not refuse admissions,” says the school headmaster Jai Ram Sharma.
These children don't know that they are up against a deep-rooted mindset, a mindset their parents hope changes before their children grow up and play the same games.
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excellent
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A Very good initiative of CNN-IBN
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