‘Sacked’ widow cook back in school’s kitchen

Patna: A young widow who was barred by local villagers from cooking midday meals in a government school in Bihar, because of a belief that eating food cooked by her brought bad luck, has been reinstated.

Sunita Kuwar, 36, got her job back after the local Gopalganj district magistrate, Rahul Kumar, visited the middle school on Friday and convinced villagers to allow her work as a cook. Subsequently, he asked her to cook the midday meal in the school and ate the meal along with the 734 children who are enrolled in the school in Kalyanpur village.

“People said a widow cooking the midday meal is [a bad] omen for their children … sometimes you do symbolic things to overcome people’s beliefs. [I] Asked the same widow cook to serve me the meal,” Kumar tweeted after eating the meal in the presence of villagers, children and subordinate officials.

The school caters to school students from grades one to eight. While Kuwar was reinstated to her post on Monday, she suffered a setback. On Wednesday, angry villagers had not only forced the children out of school but also shut it down to protest her employment. After attempting to reason with them, the widow approached the local district magistrate and registered a formal complaint. It was then that the authorities stepped in and convinced the villagers to allow her to continue as a cook.

Kumar also warned of severe punitive action against villagers if they tried to harass her in the future. The widow has been employed as a cook in the school for the past two years. After her sacking, school authorities had appointed another woman, Babita Devi, as chef.