A school is a place for education and learning, parents send their kids away with the hope that they will be safe and pursue education. But a recent incident in one of the government schools in Uttar Pradesh on 11th July has again raised questions about the safety and fair treatment of their children in schools. According to a report of the Quint two female teachers allegedly asked two school girls to take off their uniforms and lend them to two other kids for a class photo. Father of one girl claimed that all this happened because they belong to a Dalit community. He said that “My daughter no longer attends school as she’s terrified that the same may happen again.”
According to the sources, the both teachers have been placed on leave and a case against them has also been filed for allegedly forcing Dalit girls to take off their school uniforms.
What exactly happened on July 11?
According to the reports, when the nine-year-old daughter’s father arrived home from work on the evening of July 11, he noticed the two girls sitting in a corner. He inquired about the situation. “They seemed frightened, and when I asked what had happened, they started crying. For a class photograph, they claimed they were asked to disrobe and hand over their uniform to two upper-caste kids who had not worn one. They described to me how they were beaten up and made to take off their clothes despite their refusal. According to the father of the child, the teacher even threatened to expel them from school if they spoke out about what had happened.
The father said that the two additional children were also class IV students and his daughter and niece were left out of the group shot since they were not in it.
An FIR was filed against the two teachers
On July 18, an FIR was filed against the two teachers under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act) and the IPC sections pertaining to intentional insult, intentional harm, and assault with the intent to dishonour, among other sections.
The girl’s father also brought up the problem with Shoshit Kranti Dal, an anti-caste group, and Ravikant, the group’s president, brought it up with Basic Shiksha Adhikari, Hapur.
“The teachers intentionally discriminated against the two girls because they are members of a Scheduled Caste. When the father came to me, I raised the issue with the department of education and asked that the teachers be suspended,” Ravikant was quoted as saying in the news source.
One of the teachers, nevertheless, refuted the claims of discrimination
However, on the other hand, the one of teachers denied the allegations by claiming that she was not aware of the situation that certain students have asked for the girls to take off their uniforms for the class picture.
“The children had been told to wear their entire school uniform to class. Some students who didn’t show up in uniform on July 11 when the photographs of the students were requesting their fellow students to donate their uniforms for the shot. In fact, until the parents of the two girls showed up at school on July 12 and began questioning us, did I even know that anything like this had occurred,” the teacher said to the Indian Express, claiming that “she did not beat or forced the girls as the parents had claimed.”
The FIR was filed after National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) Chairman Vijay Sampla requested an action-taken report from the police.
Incidents like this break parents’ faith in school
While as a Nation we are trying our best to provide as well as get access to education, situations like this have dragged in discrimination, and ill-treatment and have broken the faith of parents as well as children. With proper education comes a proper environment and somehow in this case we saw the failure of both as the students were humiliated and discriminated against because of their caste. Caste, creed, gender, or color should never be considered a point of discrimination.
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