11-year-old girl sent to boys’ loo for not wearing school uniform

HYDERABAD : An 11-year-old girl was sent to the boys’ washroom as a punishment for not wearing the school uniform by a teacher at a private school in Hyderabad.

The Telangana government ordered an inquiry into the incident on Monday after the Andhra Pradesh Child Rights Association lodged a complaint with the State Human Rights Commission and also the police.

Child rights association president P Achyuta Rao said he has sought action against the insensitive staff and the school management. He said confining a girl to the boys’ washroom was nothing short of sexual abuse of a child.

Rao said he received a complaint from the girl’s father, A Ramakrishna, on Sunday, saying his daughter, studying in Class 5 in Rao’s High School inside BHEL premises, Ramachandrapuram on the city outskirts, went to the school on Saturday without wearing uniform.

As she was entering her class, her physical education teacher Priyanka stopped her and asked her the reason for not wearing her uniform. The girl told the teacher that she had given the uniform for washing. Enraged at this, Priyanka dragged her to the boys’ washroom and made her stand there for some time. “Some students from Class 4 saw me in the washroom and laughed at me. I felt very bad and ashamed,” she said in the video clipping that her father sent to the child rights association along with his complaint. Though the girl was finally allowed into the class with a warning, she felt humiliated.

“After returning home, my daughter was crying all through the night and is now refusing to go the school. She wants me to shift her to another school,” Ramakrishna said in the complaint.

Telangana IT minister KT Rama Rao tweeted, “Ridiculous and absolutely inhuman. Will take it up with Hon’ble Deputy CM education (Kadiyam Srihari) for appropriate action on the school.”