Bullied, mistreated, school students block road in protest
NEW DELHI: Around 150 students, and their parents, of Government Girls/Boys Senior Secondary School, Shahbad Dairy, on Friday blocked Bawana Road on Friday to protest against “constant threat and harassments” that the students were being subjected to.
The protesters, armed with posters that read “Open our school”, and shouting slogans like “Fulfill Our Demands”, sat on the Bawana Road and blocked traffic for one hour.
The protesters said last year, the government found the school building unsafe. Officials later divided the 8,000 students of this school and shifted them to another government school in Pul Prahlad Pur, 3 km away.
Ever since the shifting, protesters alleged that students, both boys and girls, who shifted from Shahbad Dairy were being con- stantly beaten up and verbally abused by the students at the Pul Prahlad Pur school.
The Shahbad Dairy school underwent repairs and was rebuilt in 2012. But, within three years, it was declared unsafe, after a student was injured due to electrocution and the building started developing cracks.
“We are tired of this. Everyday our children are being beaten. The students of Pul Prahlad Pur school even whip out countrymade pistols and threaten our kids. When we try to complain, the principal tells us that the fight happened outside the school premises and he can do nothing about it,” said mother of a Class 9 student who was beaten up and sustained injuries to his head.
Another Class 7 student, Sandeep Giri, said, “They do not let us study. For the mischief that they do, students of Shahbad Dairy are blamed.”
Ever since the Shahbad Dairy school shifted, the Pul Prahlad Pur school has been working in two shifts — mornings for girls and evenings for boys. “They (Pul Prahlad Pur school students) blame us and say that because of us they had to be shifted to the evening batch,” said Umesh, a Class 11 student.
The students also alleged that they had to walk all the way to their new school on the main highway as no buses stop.
“We are poor people and cannot afford private transport. After our kids started being attacked, the parents come to drop and pick them up, which means spending more money,” said Satwanti, whose two sons study in the school.
The protesters said that their woes might not end any time soon as renovation of the Shahbad Dairy School has not even started. They said that despite repeated attempts, neither the government nor the local MLA had done anything to help them, forcing them to protest.
Teachers of both the schools acknowledged that there was a problem. “The problem started due to the shifting. The school is overcrowded,” said a senior teacher of the Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Pul Prahlad Pur.
Meanwhile, Atishi Marlena, advisor to education minister Manish Sisodia, said that demolition of the school building will begin soon and acknowledges the delay.
“As per financial norms, there is a definite period of time before which a demolition of any building can take place. The permission for demolition has to be obtained from five to six departments. As the building is being demolished beforehand, a vigilance enquiry against the engineers also has to be initiated. This school was rebuilt just in 2012, hence the delay happened. Now clearance for the demolition has been obtained, so the process will start soon,” Marlena said.
About complaints of violence, she said that the government will ask parents to intervene. “We will soon bring the management committee members of both the schools together and ask them to find solutions to this violence,” she said. NEWDELHI: They were in love and lived together in an alien city for two years after running away from their homes. But now, the couple — two women aged 22 and 24 — is fighting family pressure that wants to separate them against their will.
The 24-year-old, originally a resident of Rajasthan’s Bharatpur, said her parents have accepted the couple but alleged that her partner’s family resorted to intimidation and falsehood to pry them apart.
“Weloveeachotherandwant to live together for the rest of our lives. But her father and brother have forced her to leave me. They shouted at me and told me to keep away,” the 24-year-old said, adding, “We are not allowed to meet. She is not allowed to even speak to me over phone.”
The 22-year-old, a resident of Delhi, and her partner eloped in November 2014, ran away to Jaipur, got jobs and settled down in a house together.
But following abduction complaints by both families, the police traced them on Wednesday. Since then, the older women alleges, her partner’s family has been trying to pull them apart.
Such cases aren’t uncommon in a country where same-sex
UTTER NEGLECT Govtrun Shahbad Dairy school building was declared unsafe last year