The girl jumped off a building near her home in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state on Monday, officials said, leaving a note saying her teacher had tortured her. When other students told the girl she had blood on her clothes, she asked for help. But the female teacher made the girl show the stain in class, local media reported her mother as
saying.
saying.
“The teacher did not even take into account that there were boys in the class,” The News Minute quoted her as saying. “She asked my daughter to lift (the) top of her salwar (kameez) up and then gave her (a) duster cloth to use as a pad.”
In India, menstruating women and girls are often considered unclean and impure and are subjected to discrimination during their periods when, for example, they may not be allowed to go to the temple, or prepare and touch certain food. The parents heard about the incident from their daughter’s classmates and have demanded action against the teacher.
Investigations into the allegations are ongoing and school teachers and students are being questioned, police said. In a suicide note to her parents, the girl said her teacher was picking on her but she did not mention the incident with her period, officials said. Activists say the suicide highlights the need to make it easier for adolescent girls to attend school. They are often forced to stay at home during their periods due to stigma and lack of toilets or pads.
“The school did not have sanitary pad dispensing machines,” Dev Anand, the district child protection officer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “They did not even give the girl a regular pad. These are
questions that the management needs to answer.”
questions that the management needs to answer.”
One Indian company is offering ‘menstrual leave’ to female staff to combat the social taboos around menstruation which contribute to health problems and low self-esteem for millions of women and girls.
The seventh-grade student from Joseph Matriculation School at Sinthil Nagar in Palayamkottai was on her periods when the unpleasant incident happened. Her mother Ramsavamal Banu, while speaking to TNM, said her daughter attained puberty just two months ago, thus she was not entirely prepared for menstrual cycles.
Describing the situation at school on that fateful day, Fazana’s mother said it was her friends who first saw the blood stains on her uniform, following which they asked the class teacher Ilakiya for help. The grief-stricken and raging mother then goes on to describe how the teacher had mocked her without even considering the presence of boys in the class.
"The teacher did not even take into account that there were boys in the class. She asked my daughter to lift the top of her salwar up and then gave her duster cloth to use as a pad," Banu told The NewsMinute.
The little girl’s ordeal, however, was not over as she was given an alleged disciplinary lecture for staining her uniform. Her relatives alleged that she was taken to the Principal’s cabin, where she was mocked and scolded for not knowing how to handle herself during menstrual cycles.
When Fazana came back from school after the shrieking mortification, her mother could hear her voice choking when the little girl wanted to take a bath. A boy from the school had narrated the whole story to Fazana’s mother.
In fact, Rasavamal said her daughter seemed to be fine throughout Sunday but in the darkness of the night, she sneaked out to the neighbouring building’s second floor and jumped off.
When her screams echoed, her parents, accompanied by other neighbours rushed out to find the girl in a pool of blood. She was taken to a hospital but succumbed to her injuries on the way.
The TNM also translated the melancholic suicide note, where the girl said the her “miss” or teacher tortured her. “She’s torturing me, so I have committed suicide,” she wrote in the letter.
The torture, however, is not limited to the menstrual stain issue; Fazana’s family said the ‘torture’ has been going on for a long time.
Fazana’s father, an autorickshaw driver, had received many complained about his daughter failing to cope with homework. Her father told that she used to come and tell them that she was getting beaten in school.
The regional police, despite the suicide note, has not taken cognisance of the matter. They have blatantly denied the family’s allegations.
The Revenue District officer visited the school and spoke to teachers and students, but found no such incidents that indicate torture against Fazana. Her mother, on hearing the police’s version of the story, said the police were basing their investigation on lies.
The District Collector Sandeep Nanduri has confirmed that an investigation has been ordered in the case. "Right now we are hearing different versions. Only after the completion of the probe we would have clarity," he said.
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Education