A class 9 student of a private school in the Rohtak district of Haryana allegedly committed suicide on Thursday after she was apparently insulted by her principal for standing up against harassment.
The incident comes just a few days after a Tamil Nadu teenager ended her life after her teacher reprimanded her in front of her classmates for staining her uniform with menstrual blood.
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The deceased in Rohtak, identified as 15-year-old Kiran Rani, was found hanging at her Hari Singh colony residence.
Shamed for reporting harassment
Rani's mother, Meena Devi has told the police her daughter was being harassed by a schoolmate, who was forcing her to become his "friend." The deceased and the accused are both students of SB Model School.
"On October 5, the principal called us to school and instead of taking action against the accused boy called my daughter names. She put my daughter to shame in front of staff members and students which sent her into shock," Devi was quoted by the Times of India as saying.
Despite the victim's mother's intervention, the woman principal favoured the accused schoolmate as she the boy's family were her acquaintances, she said.
No treatment on time
Following the incident, Rani took the extreme step of killing herself. Her family rushed her to Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) after she was found hanging.
However, as the doctors were on strike since September 10 following action on them after a newborn went missing from the hospital, the girl did not receive any medical attention for nearly three hours.
The child was later shifted to a private hospital where she passed away.
This is not the first time a school student was forced to take the drastic step of ending his or her life after being shamed by school authorities.
A teenage boy named V Sanjay, studying in a college in Hyderabad, tried to commit suicide by jumping from the 5th floor of his residential building on September 12 after he was allegedly beaten up by his professors.
