Kanwal Tanuj (left) dismissed the Bihar school principal for discriminating against the Dalit woman

Highlights Dalit widow banned from cooking mid-day meal for students

She told Bihar bureaucrat she was being harassed

He drove to her school, ate her lunch, sacked principal

The Dalit woman said she had been sacked by the school three years ago.

When a young Dalit widow went to meet a senior bureaucrat in Bihar, it took him exactly 24 hours to respond. He got into his car and drove 45 kilometres to the school which had sacked her.Upon arrival yesterday, District Magistrate Kanwal Tanuj ordered officials at the state-run school to allow Urmila Kuwar into the kitchen. Then, seated on the floor with senior members of the Education Department, he sampled her lunch.Urmila, 36, who lives in the Aurangabad district, 140 km from the state capital of Patna, says she was fired by the school principal three years ago after she lost her husband. She was allegedly told that as a Dalit widow, she would not be allowed to cook the free mid-day meal that all government schools are obliged to offer to students.Since then, she said, she has been trying to get her job back, but the principal refused unless she paid him a bribe of Rs 10,000, unaffordable given that she supports four young children alone.Distrcit Magistate Tanuj has dismissed the principal, who has been charged with discrimination under the strict Scheduled Castes/Schedule Tribes (SC/ST) Act.