Dalits treated worse than animals  

Hyderabad: Inmates of some of the Andhra Pradesh Government-run hostels for backward castes and scheduled castes lived semi-naked and had to share their food with stray pigs and dogs, State Minister for Backward Class Welfare J. Chittaranjan Das said here on Feb. 11. The Minister, who recently visited four such hostels in Khammam district, said that the children lived in sub-human conditions. The children had no plates or trays and food was served on the floors. He saw many children eating in plastic glasses or rejected polyethene sachets while keeping the pigs and dogs at bay. Similarly, most of the children he saw did not have a shirt and the half-pants they were wearing were oiften in tatters. At least 50 of the children he met had various skin ailments and other diseases. About two dozen children had ugly patches of scabies on the faces and bodies. The children told him that no doctor had visited them for months 9Hindustan Times Feb.12).