TN headmistress held for making students from SC community clean toilet

Chennai: Geetha Rani, Headmistress of Palakkarai Panchayat Union Primary School, was arrested on Saturday allegedly making six Scheduled Caste students clean the school toilets in Erode district of Tamil Nadu.

The issue had come to light recently when some of the students' parents noticed blisters on their wards' hands and enquired about it.

One of the children, who was admitted to hospital for dengue treatment, had told his mother that a few students were being made to regularly clean the school toilets with bleaching powder. The school has one toilet for students and another for the teachers.

According to the FIR, the child developed the disease after cleaning the toilet as mosquitos reportedly bit him during the task he was forced to do.

Thereafter, the boy's mother approached the police which registered a case against Geetha Rani and launched a search to trace her.

Meanwhile, the district education authorities also conducted an inquiry into the issue and found it to be true. The headmistress was put on suspension on November 30.

Previously, when the incident came into light the headmistress absconded. She was charged with SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities act along with provisions in the Juvenile Justice act.

A similar incident in which students belonging to SC communities were allegedly beaten up and forced to clean the toilets is reported previously from Tirupur.

-IANS Inputs