A disturbing picture from Bangladesh showing a man eating leftover food from an open gutter is viral on social media as Uttar Pradesh.
The image, where a man can be seen eating from a pile of waste food, builds a narrative around how India is suffering from extreme poverty, casteism and labour exploitation.
One of the viral tweet reads, "Periyar was forced to feed on leftovers from streets, he was denied of meal coz he was a Shudra in Kashi, uttar pradesh (1940) A shudra labour feeding on leftovers from a religious ceremony in uttar pradesh (2019) 75 yrs of independence!!". Kashi is officially called Varanasi and is a significant Hindu pilgrimage site.
The same image has been viral on Facebook with a similar narrative. One such Facebook post has been archived here .
Fact Check
BOOM was able to ascertain that the photo is not from Uttar Pradesh. A logo of Bangladesh Police can be seen on the vehicle parked beside the pavement.
Police (পুলিশ) is written in Bangla on the body of the vehicle. BOOM also compared the logo of the Bangladesh police with the logo on the vehicle, and found both to be the same.
BOOM also found a video clip where the man can be seen segregating the food to later eat it.
The image is present on the internet from as early as 2018 . It has been used in 2019 in a blogpost as well.