Video of a child dancing is not of the Dalit student allegedly assaulted by teacher in Rajasthan

A video of a child dancing to a Rajasthani folk song is being circulated on social media with the claim it is of Inder Meghwal, a minor Dalit student who had allegedly succumbed to injuries inflicted upon him by his teacher for drinking water from a pot allegedly reserved for teachers from higher castes in Jalore, Rajasthan. It is also being claimed that the viral clip was recorded days before his death.

Twitter account Dalit Times tweeted the clip and wrote, “An old video of Indra Meghwal, a 9-year-old boy from Jalore, Rajasthan, dancing in the classroom is going viral.” (Archived link)

राजस्थान के जालौन के 9 वर्षीय बच्चे इंद्र मेघवाल का कक्षा में झूमते नाचते का पुराना वीडियो वायरल हो रहा है। pic.twitter.com/GuXTWbRxCL

— Dalit Times | दलित टाइम्स (@DalitTime) August 14, 2022

Users @NeerajM95532018, @AsianDigest, @NagmaniEr, and @HimanshuKadela were among many who tweeted the clip.

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The viral clip has also been shared multiple times on Facebook.

Fact-Check

Several comments under the viral tweets suggested that the video was unrelated and that it did not feature Inder Meghwal. Some comments also suggested that the video in question was filmed in a government school in Taratara and not Jalore.

आप पतलकर हो , तो पहले वीडियो की छानबीन करो, ऐसे ही क्या वीडियो डालते हो , ये वीडियो तारातरा सरकारी स्कूल बाड़मेर का है

— GANESH SARAN BARMER (@ganeshsaran25) August 14, 2022

Upon a keyword search on Facebook, we found a post clarifying that the child seen in the video is a student of GUPS Gomrakh Dham, Taratara Math. The post also contained a screenshot of the video that was uploaded by a user named Tr Chela Ram Raika on July 30. The original upload had a caption in Hindi that read, “At the cultural program arranged on the occasion of No Bag Day on Saturday, Harish, a student of class two, confidently presented his dance recital.

The original uploader also re-shared the video in the context of the viral claims and clarified that the video was filmed at his school GUPS Gomrakh Dham. He requested users to not link this video with the Jalore incident.

We further looked up GUPS Gomrakh Dham on Facebook and found the video on their Facebook page as well. The video was uploaded on July 30. The original video is 2 minutes and 44 seconds long.

We called up the number provided on GUPS Gomrakh Dham’s Facebook page and spoke with a teacher who confirmed that the video was filmed at their school. “The child seen in the video is named Harish Bhil and he is in the second standard. He was performing at the cultural program that was hosted on the occasion of No Bag Day,” said the teacher.

Hence an unrelated video of a child dancing to a Rajasthani folk song is viral with the claim that the child seen in the video is Inder Meghwal. In reality, the viral video is of one Harish recorded in a school in Rajasthan’s Gomrakh Dham.